Gimme shelter

Here comes Stan

The forecast called for winds from the east gusting to 40 kms. There are not a lot of paddling destinations to pick from then but the east shore of Conception Bay is a good choice when looking for protection. We settled on a paddle of 10 kms from Bauline north towards Cape St. Francis with the hope of being able to paddle into Cripple Cove for lunch and then return.

Its not a terribly attractive paddle as the entire coast forms a line of massive cliffs. Not attractive but sheltered, so it fit the bill for the day.

Fog hung like a veil over the tops of the cliffs

To our right, on the other side of the peninsula is the north Atlantic where the wind was blowing the fog easterly over the land. It would not have been a good day over there to be for sure.

The fog made it a gray day but our spirits weren't dampened. 10 kms on we came upon Cripple Cove Rocks at the end of the line of cliffs. We looked anxiously at the agitated water ahead and decided the conditions weren't right to paddle around so we turned to paddle back.

Waterfalls

We've had a fair amount of rain recently and the ponds at the top of the hills were overflowing as waterfalls at a few places along the shore. To be honest, they were the only interesting break in a monotonous line of cliffs.

Bauline is down there somewhere

When the coast ahead looks like one wall of cliffs its hard to see exactly where the community of Bauline is. Its hard to believe that people found a place along here to actually build a community.

Just inside the tip of the darker cliffs in the distance is where Bauline is located. We took out and were asked where we had been by fishermen busy getting crab pots ready to catch crab. One joked that had he known he would have asked us to take a few pots out for him.

20 kms, 3.5 hours in the boats, a good day's paddle.