A Day Of Cruising

Saturday, Sept. 28

We left Gaspe at around 1pm Friday, and we won't dock again until Quebec City sometime Sunday morning--about 44 hours straight. Because of our storm-slowed progress, we are having to skip our planned stop today in the Saguenay Fjord. A disappointment for sure, but the captain is hoping we'll make the confluence of the Saguenay and St. Lawrence Rivers with enough time to watch out for any wildlife that might be hanging out at the mouth of the fjord.

The captain was offering visits to the bridge today. We were able to get one of the tours. Luck was with us, in that there was a big gap between our scheduled time and the next group. So, instead of the expected 20-minute visit, we got to stay there and ask questions for over 30 minutes. We got to meet Rachel, the second mate, who is our navigator. We were allowing a large freighter to pass us, and we got to hear about the communication between Rachel and the freighter to negotiate that passing. We learned some of the "rules of the road" on such maneuvers. It was a fun and informative thing to do, and we're glad we had the opportunity.





We had seen this guy far behind us at one point, but now he was passing us.




The St. Lawrence is a huge river. We could see land on both sides, but just as dim outlines on the horizon. Even after sailing for over 24 hours, the river was still 28 miles wide. Closer to the Saguenay, it is more like 18 miles.

When we got nearer the Saguenay area, there was an announcement that whales could be seen some distance ahead, on the port side. We bundled up and headed for the bow. There were whale spouts to the port side, ahead of us, and to starboard. Frequently, there would be two to four spouts at a time in one area, then suddenly we were having to watch another area. Jerry was watching with the binoculars, but it was very cold and the wind was very strong. He didn't stay long. He was nursing a bit of a cold, and this bow time probably wasn't going to further his cause. Most other people only stayed 5-10 minutes. But, if this was to be our hoped for wildlife experience, I wasn't leaving 'til I had to. Pictures were hard to get, but it was just wonderful to know we were surrounded by whales. There were only a few of us outside, but we were a (cold) happy lot. We stayed until the sun set and the sightings diminished. My hands were little blocks of ice. My it was brisk out there. Hard to imagine tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's.








We'll all be glad to set our feet on land tomorrow. Since it will be our last night on board, we will be mixing sightseeing and packing up duties. Never the fun part of a trip. However, our reward at the end of journey is getting to visit the wonderful Quebec City and Montreal.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Makeup Day

Friday, Sept. 27

We got a real makeup day. And an exquisite one at that.

After a calm, peaceful night, docked near the town of Gaspe, we awoke to the most beautiful, crystal-clear fall day imaginable.





We left just after 7:30am to drive over an hour to the town of Perce. The whole drive was noted as a scenic drive on our map. And it was certainly that. Beautiful views of the bays and salt marshes and headlands of the Gaspe Peninsula. We boarded an excursion boat and went out to the dramatic Perce Rock, one of the largest natural arches in the world.







Though it was a bumpy ride, we were so inured to the fickle waves that it simply registered as a very fun ride. (I, however, got too cocky and tried to walk to the rear deck to get a better view and darn near landed flat out on some people. Inured is one thing, but capable of conquering is another.)

Then we circled Ile Bonaventure, which "houses" one of the largest colonies of Northern Gannets in the world. Very impressive. Lots of seals and cormorants too. The gannets are handsome birds and are pretty in flight. We really enjoyed seeing them.

I had not chosen to bring my larger camera, so the rolling movement of the boat made getting clear shots a bit more challenging. Pocket-size cameras have their place, but my choice might not have been the right one. The down side of the SLR, of course, is that I would have needed to change lenses at least several times, as we moved from beautiful wide-angle views of the rocks or shore to wanting to zoom in on the wildlife. My little camera zooms quite handily, and in fact much more than my SLR, but it's very hard to hold it steady. On a bouncy boat, I definitely found it to be tricky. So I ended up in one of those situations where you take a lot of shots and hope some of them work; and the rest of the time you try to soak up the magnificence of what you're seeing. There's always a balance.

















It was an amazing thing to see and such a beautiful day on which to experience it. We felt incredibly blessed. We had a pure and blissful day of sightseeing in a strikingly beautiful spot. It's hard to imagine that anything else on this trip could top our Gaspe experience. (Heaven knows our group had earned this lovely offset to the previous days of storms and seasickness!)

We drove back to the ship, which quickly departed. The captain wanted us to be able to see views of the Gaspe Peninsula and Cap Gaspe, as well as our entry to the mighty St. Lawrence River during daylight. Many of us congregated on the aft deck and watched the sights. We were treated to fall color (unusually early due to an unexpected cold snap a couple weeks ago), sailboats, deep blue seas, and quite a few whales. Lots of spouts and backs visible. The sun was warm and the breezes mild, which made it quite glorious.










Cap Gaspe, in a national park area, which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail (who knew?).




What a day! It truly doesn't get any better than this. This was exactly what we hoped the trip would be.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Challenging Day

Thursday, Sept. 26

We had a very rough evening Wednesday. Then we had a very rough night. And that was followed by a very rough Thursday. The ship started listing badly in late afternoon Wednesday--the explanation was starboard winds and shifting liquids in the hold. Pretty soon the swells were significant enough I forgot to worry about the listing. By dinner time, crew was stationed all over the place to offer help to get us wherever we were going. It kept getting rougher and rougher, and the ship was riding the swells and hitting the surface pretty hard (and much too frequently). At the end of the evening, those of us who had to enter our cabins from an exterior passageway (that would include us) were accompanied to our rooms.

It was hard to go to sleep, and we woke up repeatedly during the night. In the morning, rather than going straight to breakfast on the lowest level, most folks congregated in the lounge, on the second level, to share their stories. Our cruise director made an announcement to let us know that the high winds and high swells had effectively cut our travel speed in half. We were told that we were now expected to dock at 11pm, eliminating our scenic drive on the Gaspe and our bird watching excursion around Ile Bonaventure. The plan now is to dock for the night near the town of Gaspe and see what we might be able to do early Friday to recapture some of this lost day. This will be our first and only night with the boat at rest--something that is sounding mighty good to a lot of people. There were, however, a lot of groans over the notion that we had yet another 12 hours of the big swells and rocking and rolling to endure. A number of people chose to simply go back to bed, hoping to sleep through it.

And it was indeed impressive, should one be in the mood to admire nature's power. The seas were breaking over our (second level) bow, completely washing over the windows of the lounge. The effect was even more "exciting" in the lower level dining room. We were looking up at the swells, and at times our windows were covered in water.

Jerry has had no problems with any of this. Apparently, he's a born sailor. Between my SeaBands and my Dramamine, I'm not suffering seasickness. My nerves, however, are another story. There's really nothing one can do about it, but who wants to spend multiple days of their trip doing little but hanging on and wishing for some signs of improvement? We couldn't even see the shore, so there wasn't anything much to compensate for the unpleasantness.

My attitude is holding pretty steady; Jerry's too. We're disappointed for sure, but there really aren't many options. I have tried to simply get into the rhythm of the swells. But you can't get outside, and moving around is tricky and not taken lightly. These conditions have definitely dampened everyone's spirits. We lost an entire day of our trip. The whole thing is unpleasant at best. We still may be able to do our Gaspe excursion, but we've been told we will have to forgo our trip up the Saguenay Fjord, which is/was to be our big wildlife foray.

To offer compensation, the cruise line has told us there will be an open bar for the rest of the cruise. I suspect there will be a number of people taking full advantage of that.

By 6pm, the swells finally reduced. It was still rocky, and we all looked like drunken sailors (though that may be for more than one reason now!), but comparatively it was way, way better.

Land ahoy! We've reached the Gaspe. The seas have calmed; the sun has come out.












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Prince Edward Island (or PEI)

Wednesday, Sept 26

Because two large cruise ships were in port in Charlottetown, our cruise had opted to dock in Summerside. Being a small ship, we had no priority and would have to be at anchor if we went to the planned Charlottetown. So Summerside it was. It looked anything but summery. It was very cool and raining.

We were greeted by a bagpiper, underscoring the strong link to Scotland here. We were told 45% of the populace is of Scottish descent--and it shows.







We drove a half hour or so to the Anne of Green Gables site. With all the cruise ships providing lots of tourists, business was booming. The rain was coming down pretty briskly when we arrived, and we were a soggy group. Having recently watched the 1934 movie, it was fun to see the house. All the rooms are set up and furnished as described in the books.








We next stopped at one of the coastal segments of the Prince Edward Island National Park, which all in all has 26 miles of protected coastline. The rocks and soil and sand on this island are a rusty red. Quite striking. Very pretty coastline.





Then we visited North Rustico, a tiny fishing habitation, to see a representative fishing town.








Then we went to the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company for--you won't believe it--another lobster meal. We're becoming naturals at dismembering and consuming these hapless lobsters. (My apologies to our vegetarian friends.) At our previous two lobster bakes, we were served mussels. How ironic that, on this island famed for its PEI mussels, we were not served any. But the lobster may have been the best we've had.

Back to the ship we went and headed out on our 200 nautical mile journey to Gaspe. The fact that this tour is one of the few to stop on the Gaspe is one of the principal reasons we wanted to come on this trip.

Saying goodbye to PEI.




We were initially assured our sailing weather wasn't expected to worsen, but we soon ran into very rough seas. We sailed around 3:30pm and weren't expected to reach our destination on the other side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence until 2pm Thursday. We were to gain back an hour during the night as we moved from the Atlantic time zone back into the Eastern time zone, which means this passage was to be 24 hours long. We all were hoping the seas would calm before that time was fully elapsed. I kept thinking of the saying, "What we survive makes us stronger." While that may be, it doesn't make the surviving part much fun.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cape Breton Island

Another very rocky night. In fact I'm not even sure how the boat can rock in circles and figure eights, but I swear it did both. We didn't dock until noon today, which means we had been rocking and rolling for about 22 hours straight. You kind of get into the pattern of the boat movements, but there was a point at which I was wondering why we hadn't been issued seat belts (or whatever the equivalent might be for beds).

We landed in Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island and drove to Baddeck, about an hour away. We had a brief introduction to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, then were able to explore on our own. Most of us chose to walk back to the town of Baddeck for some free time before meeting at the buses in late afternoon for our drive back to the ship.

Port Hawksbury




Alexander Graham Bell Museum




Lake Bras d'Or, Baddeck




The original post office, Baddeck




The ship was to depart shortly after our return, and many of us gathered on the starboard side to watch the gangway be hoisted back onto the ship. Just before the gangway was to be dismantled, we saw a "cab" come hurriedly down the dock to drop off an elderly couple. It turned out we had left two people behind in Baddeck. Luckily for them, they had found transport (Baddeck is not a metropolis and there weren't exactly rows of cars for hire) and made it back to Port Hawksbury before we sailed. Whew! I can only imagine their distress--and ultimate relief.

Quite a group stayed on the bow as we sailed. We had a bit of a treat in store. As we left Port Hawksbury and headed toward Prince Edward Island, we had to go through a small lock. A bridge had to swing open (much to the delight of the local traffic, I'm sure), we had to enter the lock (plus two small boats), let it fill, then proceed. It was very brisk in the early evening on the bow, but it was fun to watch. We're one of the bigger boats to go through this lock, so a number of people came out to watch. We were close enough to the side of the lock, we could converse with some of the onshore crew.














We're looking forward to a calmer night and day tomorrow, before we head into open waters again. It was a very overcast day today, but the weather held--cool but dry. We'll see what tomorrow brings.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Halifax

If it's Monday, it must be Halifax. That's the way this is beginning to feel. We're spending a fair amount of time getting to our stopping places. We're traveling all night, plus some of our day times. We don't really get to spend all that much time in the towns we visit. And what time we're there is largely spent in walking tours or bus tours. If we're lucky, we get an hour or so on our own. We appreciate that time, but it's not long enough to get beneath the surface. We've already decided we have to return to Nova Scotia on our own. If so, we'll see the Annapolis Valley and the Lighthouse Trail; we'll fully explore the South Shore. And, for sure, we'll see the well-known Peggy's Cove. Tomorrow we'll be on Cape Breton Island, and we won't be able to see the highly touted Cabot Trail. Who knows what else we'll come up with before our trip ends.

That having been said, today was our day to get a taste of Halifax. A much bigger town than what we've so far seen. It's a city of 350,000, for one thing. It has multiple shipyards. It also has the second largest natural harbor in the world--second only to Sydney, Australia. There were three other cruise ships in town today--and they were big things. Once again, we bumped into the Holland America's Veendam (last seen in Bar Harbor), plus Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Gem and the Emerald Princess. Made for a rather bustling waterfront and town.














Our first stop of the morning was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery to visit the graves of the Titanic victims. We had a very good local guide with us.

Next we went to the Citadel, where we spent an hour. Here we had a guided tour, led by a young regimental guard. We got to walk the upper wall and see the barracks and a rifle demonstration. Our time there culminated with the hourly changing of the guard.











Our bus and guide took us through the city to point out some special sites and buildings, dropping us off at the Public Gardens. We strolled through the garden, then made our way back to the waterfront. Our ship was sailing at 2pm, which left us little time to dawdle.











We had to have a harbor pilot on board both entering and departing Halifax. We were aware of it in the morning, but got to watch the departure process as we left this afternoon. Quite interesting.





Once out of the harbor, we started riding the swells and swooping our way east. We don't dock until noon tomorrow, so it may be a rather long night.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lunenburg

Pretty Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It sits on the South Shore, or the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.








We had a very rocky night, and the rolling and dipping of our ship continued until we neared Lunenburg at noon. By then, it had become clear that I am not impervious to the ills of seasickness. My SeaBands, which have always served me well, were no match for these seas. The bartender offered me a ginger ale plus some bitters. Sitting where I could stare at the horizon (which I would swear was dipping and swaying too), sipping my concoction, and finally taking some Dramamine got me back to a more functional state (though prone to nodding off if allowed to sit).

In early afternoon, we went on a walking tour of hilly Lunenburg, where we saw some of the old houses and public buildings from its heydey.

This first picture shows the street known as the "UNESCO fresco."










This was followed by a guided tour of the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic back on the waterfront. It provided a good background on the cod fishing background of this area.





We wandered through the main shopping area, but it was pretty quiet on a Sunday. Because our ship was not sailing until 9pm, we checked out the restaurant options and made an early reservation at one of them.

Lunenburg is a particularly attractive town, and we're glad we got to see it.








The captain warned us that we would be experiencing some noticeable turbulence during the night and to take precautions. Thanks to my earlier Dramamine dose, I mercifully slept through a lot of it. Not too sure I'm meant to be a seafaring type.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad