Day 04 - 08/06/22 - Corner Brook, Newfoundland

 I love when we have a scheduled arrival of 10am.  That means we can sleep in and enjoy the sale in while eating breakfast.  Such was this morning.  We sailed in on a long fjord like channel and docked at the Corner Point Cruise terminal.  The mooring lines were secured, the gangplank was extended, and soon we received word that we were cleared to disembark the ship.

 

Free shuttles (school buses) were provided for the short 1/2 mile drive to the center of town.  There the locals had set up a welcome area in the town square in front of city hall.  We obtained 'directions' from a local that didn't build my confidence in finding the Captain Cook monument.  But off we went walking.

 

Nearby was a large wooden church with a welcome Nieuw Statendam crew & passengers sign in it.  We paid a short visit with very friendly folks and continued walking to find Broadway Street.  We found it and took a right turn which took us out towards the water and I knew that wasn't right. So we backtracked and took another side street that looked promising. A few blocks up the hill we asked a local if this was the correct way to the monument.  He said it would work, but it was easier to go back down to Broadway, take a right and another right at the light. That second right was the same intersection the tourist lady told us to take a right.  What she should have said was to cross Broadway and continue straight ahead until Atlantic and then turn right.

 

We started up the hill when a red Toyota pulled over and asked if we were going up to the monument.  We said yes, and Maxine beaconed us to get in the car which we did.  She drove us to the top of the mountain saving us lots of time. She wouldn't take any payment, but I gave her a sticker.  Some other people accepted her ride back down. At that intersection the straight ahead street changed name.

 

The viewpoint was spectacular and I learned how he was able to draw such nice maps.  There a device called a plane table that allowed him to take compass sightings and plot them on a piece of paper. While there we also met Kristin and her husband.  She's teaching a knitting class on board. Then we walked down the mountain and back to city hall.  There we met Pete & Judy, writers of a cruising blog, The Inside Cabin, and we took a group picture. I've followed that blog for many years.

 

We then took a mini trolley ride for $2 each before stopping in at KFC for a late lunch including a cold soda.  It was then a short 10 minute walk back to the ship where we did last minute shopping at the craft market.  The ship left promptly at 5pm and we enjoyed a liesurely dinner in the Tamarind (our favorite specialty HAL restaurant) while sailing out into the open seas.  We wrapped up the evening watching the exquisite BBC Earth film (7 continents - One World) in the main stage before retiring for the night.  For the first time in a while, I logged over 15,000 steps.

 

Labrador is scheduled for tomorrow, but the Captain warned us that the weather is changing and we might not make the port stop.  Would we?  Stay tuned. 

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