Captain's Log - Sunday, 6 September 2009

Sunday, 6 September 2009, with color and context added

Sailing east or west, especially in high latitudes, causes one to changetime zones frequently. It can be difficult even to tell what time zone oneis in. Whether daylight savings is observed adds to the confusion. Therefore Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) is often used aboard ships. Our position reports to Greenland Command were at 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800 UTC for instance.

My note for 0900 UTC says, "Sun born right out of the sea to the east. Almost no clouds. Moon 20° above the horizon to the west, still virtually full. GORGEOUS MORN." And at 1000, "Land Ho!" We could see the mountains of Labrador in the far distance. By 1140 the wind had backed south such that we were on a close reach, but as the seas were not high, it was not unpleasant. At 1230 I reported our entrance into Canadian waters to the Canadian Coast Guard. At 1400 I reported our position, course, speed and destination to the Straight of Belle Isle Traffic Control center via the VHF radio. Canada takes significant precautions to minimize the chance of shipping accidents in narrow waterways. Ships in these waterways have to monitor specific VHF channels and have to report in at designated spots.

By 1600 we were south of the island of Belle Isle and into the straight that bears its name and separates Newfoundland island from Labrador. Time was pressing on us now. The trip across the Labrador sea had taken a day longer than it should have. And we were more than a month behind the schedule I had hoped for last May. Moreover, I was trying to get David and Delphine to an appointment with the US Consul in Halifax. Though both had been to the US, neither had visas. As citizens of Sweden and France, they could enter without a visa under the "Visa Waiver Program," but only if they were on a common carrier, like an airplane. Ridiculously, to enter aboard *Maryam*, they had to have a visa. The penalties were potentially high. I had been told that if I brought them in without a visa, *Maryam* could be seized. To get a visa, one had to pay lots of money, fill out lots of papers with idiotic questions like "List everywhere you have been in the past 15 years," and have a face-to-face interview at an American Consul.

Getting an appointment is often quite a challenge. To get an appointment for Trond in Norway before we left, Senator Sessions' office had to request it. Fortunately, our crew now included retired Foreign Service Officer Al Erlandsen. With his assistance, David & Delphine had gotten an appointment, and I did not want for them to miss it. Taking the Viking Route from Norway to North America, I had wanted to stop in L'Anse aux Meadows, just east of the northern tip on Newfoundland. TheVikings made a settlement there 1000 years ago. (See:http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/natcul/saga.aspx) It is their western-most settlement yet discovered, the first European settlement in North America, and it would have been a fitting spot for us to spend a day or so. Alas, those days were no longer available, so we pressed on into the Straight of Belle Isle, motoring now as the wind was on the nose.

The current was also against us and it was rough, slow going. But we had successfully crossed the Labrador Sea without a significant incident. At 600 miles, we had just finished the longest leg of our trip.