Newfoundland Kayakoholic: 2012: Post 23f - Merasheen Island

See Post 23e for Day 5...

It was beautiful and calm when we crawled out of the tents into the morning…

Looking toward Best's Harbour

Ern made a special trip over to us in his smaller boat to give us the day’s weather forecast; it would remain calm all day. Our intention had been to possibly spend a second night at The Neck, or to paddle to Great Brule and spend the night there. But the forecast was calling for wind for the next two days… too much wind for a comfortable crossing back to Arnold’s Cove, and possibly not being able to cross at all. So we made the decision that we would cut our trip a day short and paddle back to Arnold’s Cove today.

So this was to be the last day of our trip. We set to work breaking camp and packing up the kayaks. We decided we would pull our kayaks across The Neck and paddle out of Best’s Harbour, making our way up between the Ragged Islands and Merasheen Island.

Almost ready to go

Ern was in his boat so we paddled over to say good-bye. Neville decided to give Ern his stool for his granddaughter when she came to visit…. apparently she did not consider herself and ‘old crow’ and would not sit in Ern’s chair when she visited…

Neville and Ern

The guys saying their good-by's to Ern

We paddled out of Best’s Harbour and turned northward, paddling inside Riley Island and then past Dog Harbour Island and George Best Island. Then we came upon the mussel farm…

At first I was intrigued by all the floats of varying colours, to which lines are attached that the mussels cling to. There were hundreds of them stretched over a couple kilometers. But as I paddled through fields of these floats I began to feel that these were taking away from the natural beauty of the seascape...

Some would call this 'progress'

Finally the ‘progress’ of the mussel farm was behind us and the beauty of the land and sea returned to view. Great Brule was not too far ahead and when we got there we got out of our kayaks for our last lunch stop. Six days earlier we had stopped on the beach on the other side to check it out for a suitable camp location for when we got back to this point. But it would only serve as our lunch spot now.

Neville at Great Brule

Back in our kayaks, we paddled the additional three kilometres to the top of Merasheen Island. I took a picture of each of the guys as they passed the spot where we were earlier in the week…

Tony

Hazen

Clyde

Neville

From there it was mostly paddling business. We crossed back over to Long Island Point and got on a little beach there for a last rest stop. Then we pointed our bows to Arnold’s Cove and began the ten kilometre paddle to where we had started.

The water was calm and it was sunny. I would have preferred a little wave action to occupy the mind, but instead I thought about the last few days and the things we had seen and done…