Newfoundland Sea Kayak Trip 2012
Phil Allen, Lorrie Allen, John Martinsen, Kate Hartland
I turn 60 this year. There are many places I haven't seen yet and want to get to, and high on the list is much of the coastline of Newfoundland. So as a birthday gift to myself, I invited 3 good friends - Phil, Lorrie, and John - to join me for a kayak camping trip to Newfoundland. We talked about possible venues and settled on a circumnavigation of New World Island on the north central coast.
The advantages of this choice:
- manageable distance for a week of paddling
- lots of islands
- might see whales and icebergs here if we go in early summer
- some landmass protection from southwesterlies
- several bailout options along the route
- areas of isolation interspersed with areas of population
We had a trip report from the Newfoundland and Labrador Kayak Club which offered some information and images from the area. It turned out that we couldn't get there in the early summer - no icebergs and perhaps no whales. We settled on the end of August.
Here is an overview of the route we would be taking. A possible addition would be the inclusion of Twillingate Island, depending on weather and time. We liked that New World Island narrowed to about a mile wide at Virgin Arm - this meant we'd be able to bail at the halfway point if necessary and hike back to the cars. We decided we'd do the trip in a clockwise direction, with the hopes that the summer southwesterlies would be in our favor on the more exposed legs of the trip, although we'd have to paddle into them on the return.
As usual, they keep all the good stuff far away - Newfoundland is a 3-day journey from our homes, by car and ferry. John and I planned to drive up together. Phil was going to drive up a few days ahead of time, and then pick up Lorrie at the Deer Lake airport the day before we were to launch. As always, I found that books on tape made the long hours of driving quite bearable.
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