It's sad but unavoidable that we won't be going to Battle Harbour. We had been tipped off by OCC contacts that renovation work was due to begin on the wharf there this summer. Hoping that work would have been delayed we placed s satellite phone call this morning to the harbour master to see if we would be able to visit. Anchoring, by all accounts, is not an option.
The news was not so good for as as the renovation project is in full swing and there is no room for us so, sadly, we are going to have to give this UNESCO site a miss.
So tomorrow, if we get a weather window we will hop across the Straits of Belle Isle with the hope of being in St Anthony before dark on Thursday. There's still plenty of icebergs there hence the need to try to arrive in daylight.
In the meantime SHIMSHAL is dancing around her anchor in a lovely cove on the north shore of Occasional Harbour. A few deciduous trees have now crept into the pine forests that line the anchorage. The sky has gone overcast and the fresh breeze, gusting to 25 knots, has done for most of the bugs that abound in the summer heat.
With 90 miles to go to St Anthony tomorrow we will need to be up and off at first light in order to get there in daylight.