Monday – September 4, 2017
We left Nanortalik, Greenland Saturday afternoon and cruised for two nights and all day yesterday across the Labrador Sea, aka “Iceberg Alley.” I have a cold so I fell asleep early and slept well despite the ship heaving on the ocean swells. We’ve traveled 8047 nautical miles since leaving Boston on August 2nd.
I was awake early this morning before I heard the crew lowering the tenders at six ‘o’clock. I looked out to see Canada, and I felt we were almost home! The Rotterdam dropped anchor near the protected harbor of St. Anthony on the tip of the peninsula at the eastern end of Newfoundland island. It looked a lot like many of the rocky shores we’ve been seeing during the past several weeks, but there were trees above the rocks! There were no forests in Iceland or Greenland.
The weather was clear, about 50 degrees with a cool breeze blowing. The Vikings were said to have come this far south and settle nearby at a location now called l’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. There were excursions from the ship to see the 11th century Viking mounds and other excavations.
We rode the tender ashore and the first thing I noticed was that we were back to “red right returning” buoys. When we entered other harbors in Europe, the ship kept the green buoys to the right. It was an interesting tender ride past commercial fishing boats which lined one side of the long U-shaped harbor. It was Labor Day in the U.S. and today we learned that Canadians celebrate it on the first Monday of September also. Therefore, nothing was open except the hospital across the road and the Grenfell Museum and Interpretive Center at the tender dock. They probably opened the center for the cruise ship.
The M. S. Rotterdam was anchored in the larger harbor pictured below.
St. Anthony is an unusual town because it goes around the jagged edge of the lengthy harbor, without a town center. Houses and commercial buildings lined the waterside all the way around. The harbor of St. Anthony was used by French and Basque fishermen as seasonal fishing stations in the early 16th century. Three centuries later, Dr. Wilfred Grenfell was the first doctor to come to this remote region in 1892. He established hospitals, cooperatives, and schools all across rural Newfoundland and Labrador. We walked around the buildings of the Interpretive Center and, of course, the gift shop.
We returned early to have lunch aboard the ship and relaxed. I walked around the ship to take photos while most of the passengers were on shore to have a record of the interior of the ship.
Lido Cafe for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and leisurely suppers:
Aft Deck – aka The Retreat:
Indoor pool with retractable roof for warm days:
The Atrium – center of the ship:
Jeff in the Library blogging:
Captain van der Wal announced we have 267 nautical miles to go to reach St. John’s, Newfoundland our next port of call! He said the weather would be raining in the morning and partly cloudy in the afternoon. We’ve been so lucky with weather on this adventure, it would be okay to have a rainy day. Just less photos!