With a little luck we will dock tonight in St Anthony which, for Joe, is the promised land. It's now 10 days or so since we had any semblance of a decent internet connection and both Joe and I have started to twitch.
It's true to say that my twitching has been somewhat dampened by the foolhardy demise of my IPhone which now lies in two fathoms somewhere under the far waters of Black Tickle.
With connectivity in sight all the geeks were on deck this morning at 0430 to prize the anchor out of the seabed. It had been well dug in by gusts to 35 knots the previous afternoon. The wind had gone from SW to NW overnight which wasn't forecast but it was good for us as our plan for the day was to make 89 miles of southings.
The anchor came up cleanly and we dodged our way out through some illegal salmon nets, pushed against the wind for half an hour and the entered the open sea where the wind died away. The swells kicked up the previous afternoon rolled us south and we quickly closed on Battle Harbour and threaded the islands and skerries to it's east. What a shame we weren't able to stop and enjoy this unique heritage museum clinging onto the edge of the New World.
The Straits of Belle Isle are renowned for fog and we were not to be disappointed. Initially just the shores were dissolved in mist and the just the tops of the icebergs were visible but, as we lined up to cross the shipping separation zone more mist rolled in.
On went the radar and the active radar reflector and, of course, our automated identification system (AIS) broadcast our course and position every 2 minutes to all nearby craft. So we are as secure as we can be with a vigilant watch and nice calm conditions. Our own AIS display, however, doesn't show any other shipping around although we glimpsed a super-yacht at anchor as we passed the SE tip of Labrador.
Supplies are running low now that we are 10 days out of Nuuk and we are down to our last 100 litres of water so we are all looking forward to St Anthony tonight and we are promised restaurants, water, fresh food and Wi-fi in abundance!