Home Town, Bonavista

I live in Bonavista, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. No doubt the greatest place on the planet. It is found on the far eastern coast of Canada, on the northeast tip of the island of Newfoundland. We are almost jutting out into the middle of the north Atlantic, with the open ocean on 3 sides, leaving us some shelter from the south. Bonavista was discovered by John (Giovanni) Cabot (Cabotto) on June 24, 1497, 5 years after America was discivered by Christopher Columbus.

Instead of finding a trade route to Asia via a northern route, he happened upon the greatest fishery on the planet. He was able to throw a weighted basket over the side of his ship, The Matthew, & bring it back full of cod fish. This was the staple of Europe at this time & was running out. Then BOOM, a mass of codfish unheard of. Once a fishery was up & running, other European Nations jumped on board. There were British, French, Portugese & Spaniards vieing for the best grounds & the best harbours & bays. Oh, before I forget, Canadians, like the British add a "u" to certain words like "harbour & flavour. I don't know why but.

Up to that point, England had a weak navy. It was no threat to the other nations in the region at all. It was the Newfoundland fishery that netted England its finances to back a powerful navy. With the well trained fishermen, they grew formidable even to the Spanish Armada.

Now this is off the topof my head so I'm going to pause here so I can get some facts & figures together. This island, including Bonavista, where it all started, has a rich heritage that I am very proud to have born into. I can add that Newfoundland is the closest point in the western hemisphere to Europe. We have our own time zone, shared with a small island off Brazil's easternmosr tip. Newfoundland Standard Time is 1/2 of an hour ahead of Atlantic Standard Time, in which the mainland portion of the province, Labrador, also lays.

I wanted to share my thoughts & the history of Newfoundland for some time now so I decided to start off right now. I'll restart this as soon as I get some of the good stuff. There is a lot to post about. See you in the funny pages gang.