July 26, 2023 Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Early this morning Zuiderdam was travelling, in rain, through the Bay of Islands toward the Humber Arm and continuing up to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, near the top of the fjord. She arrived at Corner Brook mooring before 8 a.m. The dock was damp from the early morning rain. There were still grey clouds hovering. The temperature was 19° C with a light breeze.

Clocks had been moved forward just 30 minutes overnight to agree with Newfoundland time.

The ship is moored at the container cargo pier. There was a line of several colourful mini sheds where people were selling souvenirs and a man started playing his guitar and singing at 8 a.m. as the first passengers left the ship. Volunteers were answering questions and distributing maps of Corner Brook as well as directing people to the excursion busses.

We met Ellen and David again for breakfast. We have made meeting for breakfast a permanent arrangement until they leave the ship in Rotterdam. For the rest of the morning, we wandered in Corner Brook. We passed the Thai restaurant where we ate supper when we were last here in 2018. We passed City Hall, where we bumped into Brad and Cee Kaye exploring the city. On City Hall grounds there was a small group of vendors selling handicrafts sheltered by tents. We found the Tim Hortons café which had been painted light grey, five years ago it was a pastel yellow. Nearby was a stop for the cute sightseeing “train” and a colourful Corner Brook sign. We decided to find the trail entrance for Three Bear Mountain Trail, right near a retirement residence.

Near the start of the trail’s gentle slope was a staircase of 23 steps, an upward slope, another staircase of 31 steps then an ascending crushed rock path continuing up the slope of Hospital Hill. There were lovely views of the town, 65 meters below. We could just see Zuiderdam at her berth. From another viewpoint, we could see the Inn where we stayed on the last visit and a panoramic view of Corner Brook. Descending we turned onto the Major Bertram Butler Trail, which was steeper than the main trail and needed to be carefully negotiated. Back on West street, we retraced our steps to the Tim Hortons for a cold coffee before the one kilometre walk back to the ship. The pocket GPS read 4.49 km as we boarded the ship in a very light drizzle.

The afternoon tour to Cox’s Cove was called Food, Fish, Fancy Footwork. The rain started just before the 12:30 p.m. scheduled departure for the 70 minute scenic drive to Cox’s Cove. The price of gasoline was $1.76 per litre. The guides were a local married couple, Tony and Joan. They were both very knowledgeable and were able to answer questions with great detail. The 500^th anniversary of John Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland’s was celebrated in 1997. However, the Norse people of Scandinavia, in the late 900s, had established settlements after Lief Erickson landed in the area after being blown off course going to Greenland. Their settlements were abandoned after a few years. The Norse were not pillaging Vikings, but the settlers found the area too isolated.

The geology of Newfoundland was explained. The bedrock visible on Newfoundland is compiled of three different eras. Geologically this area is known as the “Galapagos of plate tectonics” Northern Newfoundland was formed from the upheaval of the earth’s mantle formed from the Laurentia plate, central Newfoundland rock is part of the ancient plate once part of South America. There is a third geological rock type in southern Newfoundland. There was an example of the mantle across the Humber Arm bay near Cox’s Cove.

We passed the colourful fishermen’s dories before arriving at the Golden Rainbow 50+ Club for a buffet of samples of Newfoundland delicacies. Across the street was St. Nicolas Anglican Church and a war memorial. Laid out in the hall were local jams made from partridge berries, raspberries and plums, a Newfoundland mustard & pickles condiment, pickled beets, homemade cookies and biscuits from a popular Newfoundland biscuit maker, samples of homemade raspberry cake and Jam-jams, molasses cupcakes, and spheres of dough called Tortons. The meat samples were preserved moose meat (delicious), roasted moose meat (delicious), bear meat sausage (delicious) and flavourful fish cakes. Local ale and lager beer were sold for $5 and glasses of blueberry wine or blueberry and partridge berry wine were $5. Tea, instant coffee or water were complimentary. Tony entertained the group of 32 with Newfoundland ballads and Joan and some local friends danced a few dances. In all we spent about two hours enjoying the hospitality. As the bus left to return to Corner Brook the rain began again, ceasing as we entered the port parking lot about one minute before “All Aboard” time. The rain had almost stopped. Ours was the last tour to return to the ship.

Zuiderdam was underway within 20 minutes of our arrival. We arrived at our dining table just before Brad and Cee Kaye arrived. We all ordered the baked salmon as our entrée.

After dinner, we skipped the dancers and singers production show “Gravity” since we saw it in April on the Japanese cruise. We did go to the classical piano and cello duet show “Beethoven Masterworks part 2”. Then back to the stateroom to read.

The clocks will be moved ahead another 30 minutes overnight to agree with Greenland’s time zone.

Total steps 11,924.

The latitude line running through “Atlantic Ocean” is the 50^th parallel. Overnight Zuiderdam will cruise further northwest into the Strait of Belle Isle, which separates Newfoundland from Labrador on the mainland of North America. Then over the next day and a half we will sail almost straight north to the west coast of Greenland.