Straight of Belle Isle

Helllooooo There. We're picking our way up the Newfoundland coast right now. We stopped in Port Saunders Yesterday morning and spent the whole day doing boat work and other prep work. We filled up all our diesel tanks including the 500L reserve bladder that we have sitting on stern. We filled up our water tanks, and did a final grocery shopping. We also got some fresh cod and halibut from a very friendly fisherman who came and chatted with us for the better part of the day! It's 8:30 Tuesday morning right now and we're just about to cast off from the docks and start our way up to Belle Isle Straight. Unfortunately, our plan of kick'n the tires and light'n the fires and making straight for Greenland has been a bit postponed because of what looks to be some very bad weather coming down and turning into a 40-50kt gale off of the coast of Greenland. We are going to sail 60-70 miles today, find a place to anchor up for the night right near the straight and then come sunrise (which is around 3:30 am!!!) we're going to go through the straight so that we can avoid the 7 supposed icebergs that are cruising around in there. Once we're through we are going to go to Battle Harbor which is just north of the straight on the Labrador coast and anchor up for tomorrow night. That leaves us with a Canadian departure date of 7/26 and should put us behind this nasty weather system while hopefully holding onto some southerlyish breeze to make for a relatively easy passage to Greenland. On another note I made enchiladas for the boat a few nights ago and they were a monstrous success. So much so that Alex and Laura cleaned the tiny little grocery store in Port Saunders out of tortillas and taco sauce so that I could make them a few more times. That being said, they also cleaned the store out of pretty much everything else including apples, eggs, potatoes, cookies, granola bars and quite a few other things. Anyway, here's to hoping for no ice in the straight and a safe passage to Greenland! Cheers, Andrew