A year in rural New Found Land: Easter Break Day 5 and a bit: St Barbe, Seals, Iceberge, Labrador, Blanc Sablon

This post documents our attempt to visit Labrador. It was a long eventful day, full of things that didn't go according to the plan.

So we were told, that with the unpredictable weather and water conditions to always call in advance to the ferry terminal to verify our ferry departure time. We had reserved for the 1 pm ferry crossing to allow ourselves time to enjoy our breakfast at the B & B in Port-au-Choix and the time to make our way leisurely up to St Barbe, an estimate time of 1h20 drive which leaves us more than sufficient time to be at the docks an hour prior to boarding. That morning, when we called after properly waking up around 8:45 am, we had discovered the 1 pm crossing had been canceled, and that the remaining crossing was at 10:30 am! With that, we scrambled to pack our bags, and wolfed down a what-would-have-been lovely hearty breakfast in 45 mins time and made it out the door. That left us one hour to cover 1h20 route. Thank goodness we never got a ticket, or experienced any accident. We arrived in tight time at 10:26 am, with just 4 minutes before the supposed departure. Marie-France runs into the terminal and yells "Are we too late for the ferry!?" and moments later, Andrée-Anne runs in screaming, "As-tu l'argent?!". We had a communal envelop of money for our expenses, and in her haste, Marie-France had left the car without the money. Anyway, the lady at the empty terminal must have though we were crazy.

Empty terminal with a small scaled shrimp net

It turns out the ferry was not to leave until 11:30 am. We had broken traffic regulations, put our lives at risk and didn't digest our breakfast properly, all for nothing. In retrospect, if we had in fact arrived with 4 mins to departure, we would not have been allowed to board anyway, since the ferries all start loading about an hour or 30 mins prior departure. We drove down to the docks and took our place in the line. Came 11:30 am, no sight of any boats at the docks... Alright, so maybe they were running late. We entertained ourselves. Around noon we finally see the icebreaker come in. By this time, we had really needed to use the toilettes which were back up at the terminal. We would have had to walk up there since our car was packed in with the other rows of cars in queue. We ended up holding in our urges, because we were worried that there would not have been enough time to make the trip to and from the docks to the terminal before they called to load our car. Plus the entire dock area was covered in slush, and really, it would have been a challenge to keep our footwear dry.

The ice breaker drives in front of the ferry to clear a way. These vessels don't usually carry passenger, because the impact from the ice and rocking motion from the decreased stability of the design of the boat makes for a very unpleasant passage on the boat.

By 1 pm, the icebreaker had done a good enough job, that the ferry was able to dock and ready to load us. The ferry did not leave until 1:30 pm, so really, we left around the same time as our initial reservation. We were some angry, for the many reasons I have recounted by now. Well, we weren't the only ones who went through this "ordeal" (I'm being a bit dramatic here). When we talked with other people, we found out there were passengers who had called the previous night and were told the ferry would depart at 8:30 am in order to avoid the snow storm which had been forecast for that afternoon. When they had arrived at the terminal 7:30 am to load for the 8:30 am departure, they were told, the ferry had been delayed, and would be leaving an hour later. So by the time we had called to verify our departure time at 8:45 am, the ferry had been delayed yet again until 10:30 am.

Alright, so how bad is a delay of 5 hours? Weather and natural phenomena do not go by anyone's schedule, but their own. Well, when we chatted up some truckers, it turned out they had been scheduled to leave two days ago! And for the last two days, they were told the crossing was delayed, and delayed, and finally canceled for the day. Those truckers, all delivering goods to Labrador and Blanc Sablon, QC had been stranded in St Barbe for two days. They all ended up grabbing a beer with each other to pass the time.

See the path our ferry had just cut through in the ice? Yes, that is ice returning to its rightful place after having been disturbed and displacedd by our ferry. I now understand why there are occasions when it is impossible to voyage across iced in and frozen waters.

Another unexpected event in our already very off scheduled day was the extended crossing duration. Normally a crossing to Blanc Sablon, QC from St Barbe, NL would take 1h45, that day, the crossing took us 6h instead. It certainly allowed for us plenty of time to make friends with the other passengers.

Note, normally the crossing to Labrador is a lot more punctual and on schedule. The day we took the ferry (April 2, 2013) was an exception, because it was the first crossing of the season between those two ports.

One positive and pleasant aspect of the crossing was having plentyof occasions to observe the seals out in the ocean, slipping, and sliding on the "troublesome" ice. (I was quite entertained by them, and took photos where ever I had the chance.)

Most of the seals I was able to pick out from the ice were the older ones with their black coats. I did see a few half white baby seals growing out of their infamous white coats. Then again, the babies only wear their white fur coats for approximately 12-15 days before turning grey and finally black as they mature.

Marie-France, Candide, Andrée-Anne
Making the best of the very long journey

The ferry terminal is situated at the border of Labrador and Quebec, but is in fact located in Quebec at Blanc Sablon. Blanc Sablon is also one and a half time zone behind. About 3 km right would take you to Labrador, and voilà, back in the Newfoundland Atlantic time zone. The time zone part was slightly confusing, because that night we had stayed in Quebec, but the departure time for the ferry was still in Newfoundland time, despite departing from Quebec territory. One needs to be good at math and organized to be able to catch the ferry.

The girls happy to be back in Quebec, their homeland,
where they can receive service in their own language.
(We all know Canada is in practice not bilingual as we claim.)

Even though we were in Labrador, we did not get to explore much of it, because the night we had arrived, the snow storm that was threatening our afternoon crossing had indeed arrived. We had so much wind and snow, the roads were completely white-out and we could not see anything but fly snow one meter in front of the car hood. The little exploring we did was in car the next morning when we took advantage of the "gained" hour and a half time difference.

Driving into either L'Anse-au-Clair or Forteau
Such vast land with such few inhabitants

Path climbing out of Forteau

More seals; my favourite photography subject, of course. Toss in a chunck of ice, or possibly an iceberg? I'm not sure if that chunck is sufficiently immense to be considered an iceberg. How many seals can you spot?