Our first stop was at the Crow Head lighthouse. It is high on a rocky cliff with an excellent view out to sea. We were hoping for some seabirds, but all we found were gulls, mostly good old Herring Gulls. After watching for awhile and admiring the view of the high rocky coast and nearby islands, we headed back to town, stopping on the way at Crow’s Nest Cafe for coffee and a scone. It was another nice spot with a view. The coffee was pretty good as well.
Our next stop was the Isles Wooden Boat Builders Shop and Museum. It was a big old two story wooden building with high ceilings, probably a meeting hall of some kind in the past. The first floor had an exhibit with models of locally built boats and bios of some of the local wooden boat builders. It also had an exhibit on cod fishing. We had a short presentation on the use of cod traps in the local fishery. They were an inshore fishing method using a net box about 160 feet on a side. It took three or four men in an open boat to haul the net and scoop out the cod, often in the hundreds...and they would haul each net two or three times a day. It must have been very effective as they were banned in the 90s after the collapse of the Cod fishery, although I doubt that the hand-hauled inshore fishery was a primary contributor to the overfishing.
Upstairs was a boat building shop. I asked about an upstairs shop, but it turns out that the building is against a hill and there is ground level exit out the back. They build small boats in the shop and were finishing up a carvel planked 15’ punt. The hull was complete and they were in the process of painting the interior while we were there. It was built from Black Spruce planking using natural Tamarack knees as the frames and a Tamarak transom. It had very nice lines and looked like it it was very solid...and heavy.
When it is completed, it will be raffled off to support the museum. The raffle is in November and tickets are only $5.00 Canadian with free delivery to the winner...anywhere on Newfoundland. We bought a ticket anyway.
By the time we finished with the boat builders, it was time for lunch. We asked the boat builder for a recommended restaurant. Both he and another local resident who was visiting the museum suggested Sansome’s Lobster Pool and Restaurant. It was about 10 km. away, but they had the best fresh seafood around. Off we went.
Sansome’s is ways off the main road down a narrow lane. It winds down their own wharf and the restaurant. We took an inside window table. There were outside tables on the dock, but it was pretty windy out there. The food was quite good. I had an excellent seafood chowder, as well as calamari and fries. Ellen had the salt cod fishcakes fried in scruntions, pork fat bits. The chowder was based on a creamy fish stock with cod and also had lobster, crab, shrimp and mussels and not a speck of potatoes or other fillers. Ellen did not partake in the chowder due to the crustaceans. As we were leaving, I mentioned that to the waitress and found out that they add the shellfish to the chowder just before serving and Ellen could have had fish and mussels alone.
Ellen’s fish cakes were good, if a little bland, but our shared caliamari was tasty and done just right.
A highlight of the restaurant, aside from the great view of the surrounding bay, was the Fish-cam. They has mounted a small underwater video camera to one of the dock pilings with a feed to a wall-mounted monitor. Much of the time, all that could be seen was the blue water oscillating, but at least a few times a minute a fish would swim into view, sometimes coming right up to the camera. Too bad it isn’t online. Maybe I should have gotten out the Tenkara rod.
After lunch it was back to the town of Twillingate to do a bit of shopping. They have two markets in town, along with many shops and eateries. It is a pretty busy town, a seemingly solid tourist destination. Unfortunately, neither of the markets were very good, but we were able to replenish some fruits and vegetables, which we had run out of. We also stopped by the Auk Island Winery, but they made only various berry-based wines, nothing of interest.
After shopping, it was back to the campground where we have a new waterside site. It has a great view and a cooling breeze, which was a benefit today. The afternoon temperature was in the mid-80s.
We will be off to Cape Freels tomorrow for a bit of morning seawatching, then continue on to Terra Nova National Park for the night. After that....Puffins!
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