8/17/26: Two roads diverged

Today was one of the early mornings. We needed to get to Nain by the end of the day, which was 100 miles away. We started at twilight in slight fog that just capped the far mountains. Our plan was to take an inland route weaving through the small coastal islands until we reached Nain. The morning was very calm with not a breath of wind or really any other noise other than the engine humming away at cruising speed. For the first few hours, it was just Nathan and me chatting away amicably in the blue light, until Dede joined us, having gone back to bed after helping us get going, and then Helene, showing off the full extent of the bugs' work (see photos). The sky slowly brightened, but the sun never came out from behind the homogeneous grey sky. We had been watching a boat in front of us making the same trip as us along the same route for a few hours when they suddenly turned inward. Interested in where they were going, we took a look at the chart and saw there was an alternate route to Nain that went along what was essentially a river that popped out just north of Nain. We were on a bit of a time crunch to make it to Nain before nightfall, so we were unsure about diverting course, but we decided that it was worth the adventure, and we'd just have to hope it wouldn't add too much time. Very shortly after starting down our new path, we started seeing large splashes in the distance. We slowed down and headed towards them just in time to see the creatures coming up to breathe and rolling about. One of the creatures rolled over, revealing large white cheeks. When I set out on this trip, I had wanted to see three creatures: polar bears, orcas, and narwhals. Now we confidently only had narwhals to go. It was two orcas that we thought were playing until we saw their white spots turning red and big gashes appearing in their sides, at which point we realized they were fighting. We watched them pop up and splash around the bay for about 15 minutes before we decided to leave them to settle their differences. The rest of the inland route was stunning with large rock faces and rolling mountains, but a bit less eventful than the start. We arrived in Nain around 8:30 pm after a very short attempt at sailing in the wind that arose just before sunset.