Yesterday was one of those days that make it all worth while, mainly clear with little wind and getting up to -3. Perfection.

Then it is all spoilt by listening to or watching the news.

The non human induced bad news is highlighted by the volcano eruption in Iceland that will slow the Trans Atlantic air traffic over our sky’s for a bit.

Then there are the earthquakes that are constantly causing devastation, especially in the Pacific arc from South America to Indonesia. Most are not causing loss of life and building damage, they are more in the 5 range rather that the + 7, but there are lots of them. There is also lots of activity in the Pacific plate off Australia.

So with all that going on we are off to some safer rocky ground just south of here for the weekend.

Two dogs and a crazy New Yorker will be left behind so any ne'er-do-well should reconsider any nefarious thoughts.

I new I should not have listened to the radio this morning, my head is still reeling after listening the Cindy Wall [CW] interview the minister for transport Tom Hedderson [TH].

One topic in the marine transport file was the ‘pilot project’ this spring of running the mv S R Bond from Corner Brook to Blanc Sablon. This was a supplement to the usual Blanc Sablon to St. Barb run.

CW asked TH why on the Corner Brook Blanc Sablon run the fares were half the price charged on the Bond when doing the Cartwright to Goose Bay run as both runs take 12 hours.

TH did the usual verbal diarrhea in trying to justify the difference, his thesis mainly relied on ministerial prerogative and that it was only a pilot project and considering it’s success they are going to do it again next year.

All fine and dandy but if one of the reasons you are doing the pilot project is to access traffic flows then having an artificially low tariff would not give you much of a true gauge one would think.

Then CW asked about the future of the north coast ferry service. More of the verbal stuff flowed freely from TH. The highlight being that TH has been in conversations with some Woodward Group people in Lewisport and the WG people are hearing that trailers may go the Straits route this year more than getting on the boat at Lewisport.

If true this could bring higher freight rates for the North Coast as proven the last time trailers were forced to go into Cartwright. Only this time they could go on all the way into Goose Bay.

All sorts of scenarios come into play on trying to keep rates reasonable, one being subsidizing private trucking companies.

My feeling is from listening to the end users [north coast people] they would prefer the boats leave from an Island port.

Oh me head, needs a