Harrington Harbour

Aug 29, 2019

This morning we woke up and immediately went for breakfast. We were arriving right after breakfast into Harrington Harbour, and we left the ship as soon as it docked.  

This colorful little community of 250 folks is a active fishing town and is located on a small island just off the coast.  It is mainly English and Innu.  All of the houses are connected with a wide boardwalk and at present the main harbor is undergoing a major construction.  Two large barges are anchored in the harbor with large excavators are digging out the sea floor.  The rocks are removed and brought ashore, sorted and stockpiled, to be used later to form the base for a new quay. 

As we walked along the boardwalk, we admired the colorful houses, and the efforts made by the residents to build small gardens with flowers and vegetables.  They have a short growing season and good fertile soil is hard to find.  We spoke to a woman who was walking on the boardwalk with us.  She told us that she has been born and raised in Harrington Harbour.  She told us that she and her husband have two sons, one who is married and living in Edmonton.  The other son is working in Montreal.  When she found out we lived in Nanaimo, she laughed loudly and explained that her daughter in law was from Nanaimo!  She also has two grandchildren.  

We continued walking and saw the church that had been used in the movie and the historic bell that was originally in the steeple of the Anglican Church that had burned down in the early 1980’s.  The bell is now placed in a special place just to the side of the boardwalk.  Further up the hill, were the welding and repair shop, the Harbourside bar, and the elementary school.  Debbie and I marveled at how quaint and vibrant and active the community is.  The main mode of transportation is ATV’s, which roar back and forth on the boardwalk.  We met another man who was stacking wooden planks behind his house. He told us that because there is no wood or forest near Harrington Harbour, the wood is harvested by snowmobile inland in the winter and brought back to be used for firewood.  He had developed a small mill and cut dimensional wood for construction projects for the community.  He also revealed that one of his sons had returned to permanently work for the Village of Harrington Harbour.  

We left the village after an enjoyable walk, feeling that we had just seen an idyllic way of life that had a strong sense of community. After seeing the movie last night it made our visit even that more special.

The next stop was Tete-a-la-Baleine.  (pop 129) (Head of the whale).  This town survives on the fishing industry.  The harbor for this community is about a 25-minute drive to the village.  We opted to walk on the shores near the harbor.  The terrain has now turned into tundra like terrain with small melt ponds, large exposed areas of granite and low growing foliage. We walked around the remains of two abandoned fish boats left to deteriorate on the banks above the high tide line.  They each had their own story to tell.  We then clambered up to the highest point above the harbor and admired the scenery and the many small islets and channels all around the entrance to the harbor. Again we remarked how special this type of lifestyle must be, living in a harsh environment and dependent on each other in isolation. 

In the lounge we met Jack and Christine, from Ottawa. They had boarded the Belle Degagnes in Havre-Saint-Pierre.  During our conversation, Jack and I realized that we knew a mutual friend that I had trained with in 1969! 

Our afternoon port of call was La Tabatiere, however, we arrived right at the time of our designated dinnertime.   We watched as the ship left the docks and the small harbor disappear in the distance.

The evening ended with a Karaoke session in the lounge, most of the songs were in French but we enjoyed the efforts made by the many people that joined.  It was a fun time.   

Jack and I slipped outside on the viewing deck and watched as the skipper steered the ship through a series of very narrow channels to the Port of Saint Augustin.  The shores of the islands appeared to be less than 50 feet from the ship.  It was then time for bed as we were reaching the end of our journey and disembarking in Blanc Sablon tomorrow morning.