Hurricane Larry Threatened New World Island, Newfoundland

We laid there in the darkest of dark, awake and waited.

Then it started to rain, lightly at first, but we knew it was time. It was just before 1 am and it appeared Hurricane Larry had arrived. He had been moving north at about 50 kph for days. Originally, his forecast track was for him to go nicely southeast of the Avalon Peninsula, but his predicted path had drifted westerly with every update. Yesterday, it appeared as though St. Johns was the target but at last update around dusk, it had drifted even more westerly. With some certainty, landfall was in sight for the Avalon Isthmus and winds were still in the 130 kph range. By dark, we were hunkered down in Penny, our little camping trailer, on New World Island, just northwest of the direct hit.

We arrived here a few days ago, knowing Larry was coming up the east coast. The weather had been September good for touring New World Island and the popular Twillingate. We thought it might be a little too touristy for us, but we didn’t find that to be the case.

Our other destination for this adventure was Fogo Island. It was going to be an hour ferry ride to and from with Larry steadily approaching. The ferry is a “line-up and board” model with stories of long waits, in some cases until the next ferry 3 hours away. There was lots of uncertainty with Larry looking for landfall, but we were on adventure and it seemed adventurous. We were on the 7:30 am ferry with only periodic light showers.

Fogo Island didn’t disappoint, though some artist galleries were closed already for the season. The Island, like the Granite Coast, is largely barren land with it’s own beauty. The few folks we talked to were friendly, but we passed many in tiny outports without their acknowledgement. I expect they see too many tourists everyday to bother.

We arrived back at camp nicely before dark and in time to do final hurricane planning and preparations.

We noted the 75 foot wide strip of dense bush between us and the cove that brought the North Atlantic within earshot. We hoped they would stand strong and buffer the winds. For the most part, the trees were not large enough to threaten Penny, but we had an evacuation plan to leave Penny behind, if necessary.

We eventually fell asleep to the sound of heavy rain pounding Penny but without significant wind. By dawn, the rain had let up and the winds had picked up to 50 kph with gusts to 80. As it turned out, Larry threatened but didn’t disrupt our trip to New World Island, Twillingate and Fogo Island..

The New World Island area is another beautiful part of Newfoundland and it was a pleasure to visit.