We left early to find flat water and lighter head winds during Labrador's astonishing heat wave. The strategy worked and we were soon working our way south passing close by some icebergs, glittering in the morning sun. After a 2 hour coastal passage we ducked west to pass north of Hawke Island.
Weaving around well charted rocks we passed a northerly cardinal buoy and entered the fabled Squasho's Run. This is a narrow pass, almost completely straight, that leads for four miles down a channel of wooded crags and cliffs.
By now the wind was building a little bringing heat from the south. We threaded a narrow tickle around Stoney Island, passed a red buoy to starboard, as you do in the Americas, and then entered the anchorage of Port Norman in Lady's Arm where we anchored under the hot mid day sun.
A speed boat came alongside to deliver their greetings and sped off with Michael and Joe aboard to check their salmon nets and inspect the tiny township. They returned with salmon and arctic char which they duly devoured for lunch.
The sign on the Government Dock says, 'Port Norman population 60'. The paint on the sign was peeling betraying it's age and it was soon contradicted by the locals who told us, in their sing song dialect, that the population has now dwindled to 15.
However Lady's Arm is no Black Tickle. It's inhabitants seem prosperous and content. They run a hydroelectric plant and have a saw mill as well as a bit of crab and scallop fishing. The houses were well cared for and even the skeletons of abandoned skidoos and outboards nestled more comfortably into the landscape. Miniature wild iris, trees and birdsong were everywhere. All was heavily scented with pine and it felt like a little bit of summer paradise despite it being ice free for only a few weeks. A few yards inshore was a picture perfect wooded lake.
As the wind built and shifted a little we moved across the bay to a better anchorage where the sunshine tempted some to swim off the back of the boat. Bold given that icebergs still abound off this coast.