Our otherwise uneventful sail to
Cartwright turned interesting when our chartplotter suddenly lost our position.
Krystina restarted the plotter but it still couldn’t find our position even
though the GPS status showed it was receiving data from the satellites. In the
meantime we got out our computer with our backup charts and GPS dongle, which
operated flawlessly while we switched the chartplotter off and gave it a rest.
When we turned it back on 30 minutes later it automatically picked up our GPS
position, all we can figure is that it is a software issue and will be sending
the plotter back to Furuno yet again. At least it didn’t happen during a
critical point in navigation.
It was dark by the time we arrived in
Cartwright so we decided to anchor instead of negotiating the dock. By morning
the temperature had dropped to 2.5C and we waited in the warmth of Snow Dragon until
the late afternoon for the rain and 30 knots of wind to subside before moving
over to the dock. As we were attempting to find a way to tie on to the high
quay, we met a local named Blair who suggested we would have more protection if
we rafted up to one of the fish boats around the corner. The wind was blowing
us off as we attempted to raft to Elizabeth Ann and it took several attempts
before we were able to get close enough to grab onto something. The fishing
vessel was short of cleats and we tied to whatever looked reasonably attached
to Elizabeth Ann.
Blair assured us that Elizabeth Ann would not be leaving port in the morning and the skipper had learned his lesson and
now made sure his vessel was well secured to the dock. It turned out that a
sailboat had been rafted to Elizabeth Ann during a storm with hurricane force
winds. Unfortunately Elizabeth Ann had only be secured to one point on the dock
which was not strong enough to hold her during the storm and both vessels found
themselves aground across the harbour, the sailboat was destroyed. Though it
was an alarming story we could see that Blair was right, Elizabeth Ann was now
tied to several large bollards, with very heavy line.
Once settled we asked Blair if there
was a welder in town as we needed some minor welding done on our stove. He told
us we would be able to find a welder at the fish plant in the morning and then
kindly gave us a ride into town. After taking advantage of the Wi-Fi at the
pub, checking emails, looking at an extended weather forecast and paying credit
card bills online, we returned to Snow Dragon to have a closer look at the
damaged stove.
Since we knew a welder would be
available we removed the stove to assess the damage. Removing the towel and
hard piece of plastic we had used to wedge it in place was easy enough. The
side with the damaged gimbal was complete free however, when we went to lift up
the side that was still attached , it wouldn’t budge. We ended up levering it
up with a piece of wood to free it and could clearly see that one gimbal had
worn through. We decided it was best not to try to weld directly onto the stove
as repairing the light weight stainless gimbal would not solve the problem from
happening again. Instead Frances designed a repair that would bolt on and drew
a picture complete with measurements of what she needed welded. She then
located bolts and washers that would be welded into the new parts amongst our
supplies on board so we would not have to impose on the welder’s supplies.
Fish Plant
In the morning we walked to the fish plant
and asked if they had a welder, it turned out they had several. Lots of people
came to look at Frances’ drawing, thinking that she must be an engineer. After
much discussion we were taken into a workshop to figure out the best way to go
about the project before moving into the processing plan were the electric
welder was located. They devised a method of holding the small pieces with a
bent welding rod and made us 3 beautiful new gimbals. We only needed 2 but when
the first one came out slightly crooked they insisted on finding more bolts and
washers and making a third. When we tried to pay they absolutely refused
payment and said if we did not take our money, it would blow away. It was
incredibly kind of them to do the work especially since the fish plant was not
even open.
Since the welders wouldn’t accept
payment we decided the only way we could put money into the community was to
buy groceries and have lunch at the pub. The grocery store in Cartwright turned
out to be the best we would encounter in Labrador and we were delighted to find
fresh fruit and vegetables including bananas, asparagus and mushrooms. Krystina
even managed to find frozen strawberries amongst the Cool Whip, which were an
excellent addition to our morning breakfast smoothies.
Having
lunch in town turned out to be a delicious choice, Frances’ chicken Ceasar
salad, Krystina’s chicken wrap and our shared order of onion rings well
exceeded our expectations. After lunch, Frances headed back to Snow Dragon to
begin making the backing plates for the stove out of a chunk of aluminum we had
onboard. When Krystina eventually started walking back to the harbour, she was
offered a ride by one of Blair’s friends, a very kind offer since it was about
to rain. Elizabeth Ann was being blown off the dock and luckily Frances was
grinding in the cockpit so it was easy to get her attention. Frances made the
leap onto the dock and it took both of us to pull the boat close enough to
safely get onboard without risking falling into the water with the computer.
Between weather, services available
and extremely nice people, Cartwright turned out to be one of our longest stop
in Labrador. After spending 3 nights, we finally left the dock with our
beautifully gimbaled stove to remind us of our friends in Cartwright. On
exiting the harbour, we could see snow on the mountains behind the town; winter
was nipping at our heels as we continued south.
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