Iced in for weeks, the Qajaq finally makes it across Strait of Belle Isle

If you calledLabrador Marine on Sunday morning, you likely spoke with a very happy person.

At 7 a.m., theQajaq W set sailfor its first round-trip crossing in nearly a month. The ferry has been blocked in by pack ice in the Strait of Belle Isle, stranding passengers in both its ports in Blanc Sablon, Que., and St. Barbe, N.L.

The last time the ferry was able to make a round-trip across the straight was March 5.

"We're kind of relieved, quite happy to finally get some crossings in," said David Leyden, Labrador Marine's manager.

"I've not seen a winter like this. It's been a terrible year. High southwest winds pretty much for the last two months that's causing the ice pressure and making it impossible to run a good slice of the time."

The QajaqW managed to leave St. Barbe on March 24 and make it across, but it got stuck in the ice overnight on the way back.

"You just deal with it, you just gotta go with it," Leyden said about waking up each morning for the the past few weeks to news that the ice still had not let up.

"Finally, we're starting to see some improvement in the ice conditions, it's starting to loosen up a fair bit," said Leyden.

"Hopefully the winds that were causing most of the problems are going to start to give us a bit of a break. We are getting a break today and we should get one tomorrow. So hopefully that will continue and we'll be able to get back to more consistent runs."

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