Unfortunately our time at Quirpon Island had come to an end. The plan was for Ed English was to shuttle us in the company's van to his office in Clearbrook. Rhona and I took one last amble around lighthouse area and gazed out at one of the icebergs floating out to sea and put our luggage on the cart to be taken on the mule to the dock. As is our practice, Rhona and I checked to make sure we had our wallets, passports, phone and medications...things elderly people can't do without and consequently often seem to forget. We loaded into the Zodiac and perched/sat along the gunwale (if a Zodiac had a gunwale). On the shuttle to the mainland Ed told a story about one of his guests who was laying on the gunwale on her back when a Killer Whale breached on it's side beside the Zodiac. She looked up into the sky and saw the flipper of the huge whale looming above her head. Ed didn't mention if they were going to or from the Island at the time. As soon as we go to the Quirpon dock I started to partially dismantle the tandem and consolidate our gear to pack into the van but could not find my wallet. After multiple fruitless searches through all of our gear I realized I had lost the wallet with 90% of our money, two of our three credit cards and ATM card into the North Sear on the boat ride from Quirpon Island. My travel pants pockets have a buttoned flap to secure contents but it was so difficult to extract the wallet from even the unbuttoned pocket I never bothered to button it. Well, bouncing along on the waves rubbing against the gunwales was sufficient for the wallet (with 90% of our money) to escape into the ocean. At least I didn't have to worry about anybody finding the lost wallet unless a cod fisherman pulled in a fish with an appetite for black leather so I didn't have to worry about immediately putting a hold on the credit cards. Fortunately my passport was in a different pocket. However, I was now dependent on Rhona's good graces to get from our remote location back to civilization. It was right about this time I was thankful that I had not denigrated Rhona when she lost her wallet invalidating all of our credit cards the previous summer in Alaska (once again at a great distance from our home).

We retraced much of our northward route, but now in the van with Ed English. We enjoyed his commentary about the places we passed on our way north. He had a personal connection to one famous Newfoundland story. In 1919 a coastal steamer "Ethie" ran aground during severe weather. The seas were too severe to get a line to safety on the shore so a hero dog swam from the shore to ship and then back with a line which was used to save the passengers including a baby. In actuality a dog would never have been capable of dragging a line through the breakers. The people were saved through the actions of the crew on the ship and rescuers on shore according to the captain who happened to be Ed English's grandfather. The captain subsequently received a medal for his actions. A New York City reporter became so enamored by this "Fake News" story he traveled to Newfoundland to meet this hero dog. When he asked the captain to point out the dog, not suffering fools lightly pointed out the first dog to come ambling down the street. The reporter eventually bought the dog and took him on a celebratory tour in America.

The shuttle to Steady Brook with Ed took more than five hours but Ed's commentary made it tolerable. Ed's office was in the bottom floor of the Marble Inn Resort where our tandem cases were waiting as promised.

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We were unsuccessful attempting to get money using Rhona's ATM card so we continued to rely on the approximately $30 Canadian she kept in her wallet.