Named Baie Rouge by the French in the 17th century, possibly for the red granite prevalent in the area, Red Bay is the ideal natural harbour, sheltered from the ocean by Saddle Island.
The town’s history goes back centuries beginning with the First Nations People and then with the Basques, French, British and European settlers.
A Basque galleon, believed to be the San Juan, was discovered in the harbour and is the best preserved 16th century shipwreck north of the Caribbean. Red Bay also now boasts UNESCO status and a National Historic Site to tell the history of Basque Whaling.
Our visit here was cut a bit short in that a squall came in and dampened our time here, yes, some true Labrador weather. We waited and had a no wait tender ride over to Red Bay at about 10:30am. We knew of delays as there is only one tender dock so we had a leisurely breakfast before heading off the ship. Seeing that weather was coming in we headed straight over to to the water ferry to Saddle Island. On this island one can see remnants of the rendering ovens where whale blubber was boiled into oil for export to Europe. We did have a nice stroll to about the half way point of this nice loop walk before the squall came in with a vengeance. Out came the rain gear and away went the camera as a park ranger informed us that if your cold now just wait until you get to this point, we thanked her for the info and realized what she really meant some ten minutes later. Okay time to get back to the water taxi back to Red Bay. Jan then headed into the gift shop as I visited another museum site about a ten minute cold and rainy walk up the hill. Here, housed in a climate controlled room was a whaling boat that is believed to be from the mentioned San Juan. This boat would have been used to harpoon the whales and bring them back to the whaling ship or to Saddle Island. They found this boat under the San Juan and took 12 years to reconstruct it back to its original glory - this boat was not a replica but an original hence the special climate controlled room that it is now housed in. Pretty special indeed.
Back down the hill to get Jan and head back to the waiting tender, fortunately no wait. Yes, the tender ride was rough and docking by the ship took several minutes but all good. We were back in time for a nice hot lunch before retreating to our stateroom for a nice hot shower. Another fantastic dinner and show tonight. We are now in new water for us as we head over to Greenland, another relaxing sea day tomorrow, clocks moving ahead 30 minutes tonight.
A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”.
Nice descriptions of your day and visit. Very far away from the west coast and your Home town but still with the Mounties
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