I have the warmest thoughts of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador and her friendly, helpful and wonderfully interesting people. When I first sailed into Goose Bay last year feeling forlorn and a bit defeated not to have made it farther north, then to be greeted in the bay by the blackest clouds of the whole journey, I had no idea I would grow to hold this little community at the end of the road as my Canadian Hometown.
My separation anxiety from leaving the CAP’N LEM for nearly a year made my imagination run wild. “Will the motor still be there? Will she be full of water from rain, the hard dodger blow to who knows where? Or worst yet will she be full of flyes because I didn’t get all the food off. Where will I work on her? How will I move her? Should I have…?” Hardly a night passed during the long winter that I did not dream of my little ship so far away and the voyage still ahead.
But I did choose the right place to winter her, to be sure! Not one thing out of place, she was just as I had left her. Oh, the tarp had flogged itself to death in hurricane force winds, and a little mold here and there but no mater. She’s a boat, water is her element.
Now Goose Bay, Lake Melville, Rigolet and the Narrows have faded from sight off the stern, but not from my heart.
I’m afraid if I started to thank people by name that “kept an eye” on her, I would surely miss someone. So, let me just say THANK YOU to all Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
You’re my kind of people!
Side story: Where I stored and worked on the CAP’N LEM was next to the headquarters for the forest fire fighting Tanker Plane 283and her crew. I enjoyed the short chats we had most everyday as they made their way back and forth to the plane and I did projects to boat. The day Ken and I raised the mast while at anchor was a flying day for that beautiful plane. It was as if they had staged a fly-by just for the CAP’N LEM. We stopped working every time to watch her skim the bay and take on her load of water.
Coming in for the Big Gulp!
Ken is here with me assisting in navigation and planning. He won’t make the Arctic trip but Labrador was too good to be missed so I talked him into coming along to at least Nain. We first met sailing on the Brig Lady Washington. Tonight we anchor at Brig Harbor Island, Labrador. Fitting for two old “brig-men” and THE CAPTAIN LEMUEL R BRIGMAN III.
Ken aloft unfouling the jib halyard
