A Little Sun Sunday

July 19, 2015 – Day 34

Thank goodness the wind rested on Sunday, and a little sun came out to greet us, but it was still in the 50’s.  We found a small church in town overlooking the harbor.  St. Joseph’s was approved to be built in 1815 but was not completed until 1842.  Five from our group were among the 25 or so who attended mass.  It was supposed to be a “cemetery mass”, which I guess was to be held outside in the adjacent cemetery; but since it was so chilly, they had mass inside, then went out afterwards to bless the cemetery.  We noticed an old grave marker for 18-year-old William Fleming one of 173 who died at the icefields in the Newfoundland disaster April 2, 1914.      Since there is no tv reception, we checked around the town to see where we might be able to watch the NASCAR race.  We saw a satellite at the Bonavista Hotel, and checked with them, but they only have a few basic channels.  We stopped at the only pub in town, and they too have limited channels, so we will just listen on the XM radio.

While in town, we visited the Ryan Premises, a historic site that commemorates five centuries of commercial fishing. It is five buildings which were actually used in the fishery, including the retail store and the proprietor’s house. Fishing is what brought people to this area. A fish flake—a wooden platform used to dry the codfish after it was salted stood outside.  we saw several of these platforms throughout the town.

Since the weather was clearer today, we took a walk across the rocks to the end of the point to see if we could get a better view of the iceberg.  It was a long way out there, but we came across some interesting things along the way.  A lobster trap had washed up along the shore and it had a big blue lobster in it.  The blue lobster is somewhat rare, as we learned in one of our visits to a fishery museum.   Then, we came across a claw…probably from an otter—not sure where the rest of the animal was—kinda eerie.

The iceberg was still sitting there and looked about the same as yesterday, with calmer seas around it, so I guess the wind didn’t move it much, and there wasn’t enough sun to do any melting.

We are heading back to the Bonavista Hotel tonight to use their wifi to get the blog posted.  I’ll be glad when we are connected again—hopefully at our next stop tomorrow.  My uncle has been sending me the daily newspaper, but since there is no wifi, I haven’t been able to read it!  Sure do miss knowing what’s going on.