Bonavista Bay - On to the Flat Islands

Thursday we left Burnside and camped at The Beaches.  Friday morning began sunny with some clouds as we packed our kayaks to begin our paddle to the Flat Islands.  We left The Beaches to cross Bloody Reach to enter Cottel Reach.

There was a little wind blowing that with the long fetch made things a little choppy.  The wind though was mostly at our backs so it made paddling easy.

There were little wind waves to catch small surf rides.

Dean and Hazen enjoying the push along the shore.

Cottle Reach is a channel of 10 kms running between Cottle Island and Lakeman and Pitt Sound Islands.  We reached the north end to paddle into the community of "Burnside", er, Hazen means St. Brendan's (because Hazen couldn't stop from misnaming the community lol).

As we entered St. Brendan's a cold front swept through and things got a little uncomfortable as we cooked lunch on the beach.  Luckily it was only momentary and the sky ...

... brightened up again over Main Street.  St. Brendan's, like many outport communities, is in decline and what were going concerns in better times are now boarded up.

I wondered if John Croke could still be reached at the phone number?

Passing across the northeast side of Cottle Island we turned southwest inside Hunch Island and past Dock Cove before turning southeast passing several small unnamed islands to make a 4.5 km open crossing to Berry Head in the Flat Islands.

Whereas it looked like cold wet weather when we had lunch at St. Brendan's, it was warm and pleasant when we set up out tents on Flat Island; Flat Island being one of a group known collectively as the Flat Islands.

Looking out over what would be our new home for two days.

I walked around in the area of our campsite to see what was left of the resettled community.  Rotting boards testified to where structures were left to fend for themselves.  Then it was time to begin the festivities.  It was time for happy hour.

We collected some wood to have our usual fire as the evening turned into night.  Again we had a totally clear night with a sky awash with stars and the Milky Way wheeling overhead.  A wonderful end to our second ay exploring the islands of Bonavista Bay.

Here's the track of our second day for a total of 31.5 kms.