The whale and puffin watching boat were on in Newfoundland last year was burned badly by vandals this morning.
The owners don’t think the boat will be salvageable.
News Coverage:
http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=343291&sc=79 [includes photo of damage]
http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&id=7032&latest=1
O’Briens Boat Tours:
http://www.obriensboattours.com/
I know, I was quiet lately. So many things going on!
-still have 2 great days full of photos from Newfoundland to post for you, including our visit to the Newfoundland Insectarium (www.nfinsectarium.com)
-I went to Charlottetown for a week for a library tech conference. Highlight of the conference was going to visit Uncle Joe and Aunt Patricia at their PEI place for a night
-went home to Ontario for 6 or so turkey meals and helped move Mom to her new condo townhouse
-made it through a few screenings for a new job but failed miserably on the written knowledge test, but that is okay, I don’t think the job would have been within driving distance
-the chimney sweep finally came yesterday
-finally have heat!
-Jeff is melting now that it’s 20C in here and not 15
-it’s snowing today and it is really really windy
-something suspicious is occurring with the septic system – I heard some gurgles this morning when Jeff flushed the toilet and there is water seeping into the basement a bit around a … well .. I don’t know what it is .. it’s like a drain on the floor but it is plugged and it has a square type of tightener on the top – septic clear out? no idea. Clog somewhere? It doesn’t smell like sewage, the ground is waterlogged outside again
-Becky was here visiting for a week. We’ve been friends for 30 years now! wow!
-Becky and I drank and partied like we were 20 in Halifax last Friday night. Not sure I need to do that again, well for at least another 5 years
-Becky heard an owl outside. We downloaded owl sounds until we matched it to a great horned owl and the other day Jeff saw it at sunset!
Thanks to Cecilia for mentioning Bay Bulls and their boat cruises. We choose O’Brien’s Whale and Bird Tours. They saw humpback whales the day before we arrived, so we were hopeful, but regardless, I wanted to see a puffin!
Here is the boat we went on:
A JellyFish!!
After leaving the dock, the wind and the waves really had the boat rocking so don’t expect a straight horizon line in any photo!
We quickly learned that puffins are really hard to photograph! The boat was rocking and the puffins flap their little wings and are quick little buggers! All the puffins flying by the boat had a little fish or two in their beaks. Here are a few of our “best” puffin shots:
Another tour boat visiting the bird’s islands with us:
Our boat cruise tour guide, Loyola.
Boat cruise was only to be enjoyed with Jeff’s raincoat and my new O’Brien’s toque!
Loyola singing us a Newfoundland song.
I pleaded, but Jeff refused to get his picture taken with the mermaid. I think it had something to do with all the people standing in the parking lot that would have watched 
Cape Spear is the most eastern point in North America, aside from Greenland, which I didn’t know what part of North America, but hey, I didn’t proclaim to know everything.
A big cruise ship went by as we were arriving at Cape Spear.
Gun Battery:
After we got back in the truck at Cape Spear we noticed big splashes in the ocean. Something huge was smashing it’s fin – maybe a humpback or a fin whale. Then we saw some blow holes and then we watched something huge leap out of the water! A big whale! All too far away for good photos, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
After we got the diagnosis for Jeff’s truck, we had to stick around St. John’s until the parts came in the next morning. That was okay, because there was plenty we wanted to see!
Here are some of our many photos from Signal Hill:
Cabot Tower:
Before we went, I read a bunch of tourist reports on the web warning against the trail at Signal Hill and that it was scary and dangerous. That is it down below:
No, there was no way I was taking that trail, even it it hadn’t have been so windy. Yes, I did turn chicken at some point over the last 10 years or so.
Jeff knew of a photo where the photographer is looking over a lighthouse and he knew it was somewhere in Newfoundland, but he didn’t know where. Well we found it! At Signal Hill!
It was so crazily windy, but it wasn’t foggy, so we could see over to Cape Spear (where we went next)
It was THAT windy!
Marconi calling her father:
St. John’s:
Again, I wish you could tell how windy it was. Maybe this tour bus will give you some indication. From the looks of it, I’m pretty sure it was just recovered after blowing over the edge.
We spent 2 nights in Gros Morne in the northern Shallow Bay campground, and 2 nights in Butterpot Provincial Park near St. John’s. Here are some camping photos:
This site in Gros Morne was probably the nicest I’ve ever had. The sites were separated from the road around the campground by trees so it was really private. Of course camping in a national park is the most expensive camping you’ll likely experience too – there is a day park use rate, per person, per day, on top of the site cost!
We wanted to sample Newfoundland cuisine!
Tasty! (brewed by Molson)
We’re really happy with our new tent. 6 man Funhouse by MEC. It’s square inside and you can stand up in the middle. Room for our big air mattress and Monty’s kennel. 2 doors. Big windows. Mesh top. Decent fly. Screened in vestibule to hide from bugs (if there were any), and a window on the top of the back through the fly. It has the modern poles that are connected inside with the cord and goes up easy. It even came with a metal hammer/puller with the pegs!
Butterpot Provincial Park was the cheapest – $15 per night, no tax. Only every site was gravel, most required you to park your vehicle at the road to walk down to the site, there was no close water source to the site, but we had a really great view! We chose site #1. This campground had no power either. The comfort station in the first loop we were camping in was nice and new and completely run off generator power.
Well I wasn’t able to charge up my laptop’s battery often enough to keep a daily diary, so instead I’ll post photos from each place we visited. With 600 photos I’m guessing you won’t see all of them, or even close to all of them, and I expect this will take me a week to do, at least! Here are a few of the beautiful Gros Morne National Park photos:
Tripod comes in handy! Thanks Dad!
The fjord:
-everyone is a “Buddy” or a “bud” or “love”
-there are no insects around to bite you when you camp in September!
-4 sleeping bags are better than 1 and allow you to pretend you are sleeping in the arctic and are covered with “hides”.
-a toque is the best way to keep your head warm when you are sleeping
-a toque also comes in handy during a September boat cruise
-the sun sets early in September so prepare yourself for 10+ hours of sleep (in bed by 8!)
-St. John’s has an amazing amount of new home construction and new industrial construction. There are even new streets and stop lights and subdivisions and industrial areas being built all over.
-St. John’s also has an incredible amount of communication towers on every hill
-I’ve never seen anything like the landscape on the stretch of land from Terra Nova National Park to the Avalon Penninsula. More Space Network shows should be filmed here. It’s all big boulders that must have been left by glaciers all over place. Trees can’t grow very tall and they are all on an angle from the wind.
-Avalon Ford is the best dealership’s service department I’ve ever visited. It’s clean, large, well laid out, even with computers and internet connections, tv, sofas, and the staff and they are really on the ball. They service 80+ vehicles a day. You drive up into the bays and they take it from there. They all have walkie-talkies and no one stands in a line long waiting. They seemed to have 2 guys at the service desk just to handle the customers and call the customers with updates.
-if you truck is making a really annoying loud squeaky rattly roaring noise, wait 2,000 km to see if it will go away, and if not then get it checked out by the professionals.
-not all campgrounds have water, and if they do, it might not be drinkable – bring your own water.
-I thought Nova Scotia was windy. That was nothing compared to Newfoundland.
-speaking of which, make sure you stake down your tent and use the guy-wires too. We did, and that is why we are alive to tell the tale.
-the best way to travel to and from Newfoundland is the ferry, and the night passage wastes less of your travel time, but please oh please don’t cheap out and book a bunk or cabin to sleep.
-when it is dark and you are huddled around a softwood campfire in a remote area of Gros Morne, listening to the snap crackle of the sap, and you are drinking some Black Horse beer, and suddenly your dog barks and leaps towards the darkness dragging the picnic table behind him… don’t assume the worse. There is a chance it is just a cute kitty cat hiding in the trees looking for table scraps.
-there aren’t many road kill – we see more dead animals on the road just driving from our house to town than we saw all week
-there aren’t many moose around – final count was:
Moose: 0
Caribou: 0
Dead Beaver: 1
Dead Moose: 1
Dead Caribou: 1 (something with antlers anyway that stunk bad and was being eaten by crows)
Dead Fox: 1
Whales: many
Puffins: many
Seals: 2
Gannets: 30,000
Housecat: 1
-when you are in a small Newfoundland town, don’t expect to find good quality vegetables and fresh meat. Frozen ground beef will do nicely, and dried onion flakes are delicious in spaghetti.
-you save a lot of money on ice for the cooler when you camp in September
-when ocean salt spray coats all your vehicles windows, not even washer fluid will help much
-speaking of that salt water, don’t let your dog drink too much of it, or he’ll puke up big frothy piles of salt water.
-Newfoundland has 2 closed pulp and paper mills. Perhaps one of them should reopen and produce some soft 2-ply. Every tourist spot, campground, and restaurant uses horrible 1 ply tissue paper on the massive roll. I’m a frequent pee-er and I notice these things!
-speaking of a frequent peer – there are no road-side picnic stops in Newfoundland, unless you are in Gros Morne National Park or Terra Nova National Park. When you finally find a place to pull over, you probably weren’t the first to spot it. Please exercise caution when you run off the road or you could run through human poo and you might not want to do this when you are wearing sandals.
-most of Newfoundland seems to burn wood for heat, and already have their fires burning. In many areas, balsam fir is the only tree growing. Many people get them as full trees with the branches removed and then stand them up on end in a teepee formation to dry.
-if you wave to the park warden, he may give you a free bundle of wood so he doesn’t have to bother to drive it back to the shed to lock up.
-speaking of waving, the Newfoundlanders aren’t big wavers. In Nova Scotia everyone in pick-up trucks wave to each other when they pass. In Newfoundland, not so much. Jeff got a wave from 2 vehicles in a row once and never again.
-there are either far fewer churches in Newfoundland, or they are much less prominent compared to Nova Scotia. Here they stand out as the biggest tallest thing in every community. I didn’t notice very many in Newfoundland.
Saturday September 5th, 2009.
6:00 NS time
The sun is rising as we are coming into Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland! I see light!
Jeff! Look! Whales!
The cold morning air is making Jeff’s tired eyes water!
The air is really freshly chilled here!
Let’s get out of here!! Monty has to pee!
4:56pm NFLD time. We’re so exhausted, but wisely decided against an afternoon nap because we both knew we’d never wake up until the wee hours, or tomorrow! We’re in Gros Morne National Park. Gros Morne is an incredible beauty. We have a nice campsite and our tent is up and Monty is in front of the truck puking his guts out after eating salt water. We just walked on the beach (it is close enough that we can hear the waves from our site!) and Monty loves to chase and bite waves. I guess too much of that salt water went down his throat.
6:32pm NFLD time. I think it’s bed time now. We didn’t want to start a fire because we knew we weren’t going to be able to stay up. We havedn’t touched the “Black Horse” local beer we bought. I feel like I’m still on the ferry and things are rocking but I know it is just because I am tired.
Today started out foggy as we drove north of Port Aux Basque. But by the time we got to Gros Morne, the sun came out, and the sun was warm! I don’t think the temperature went too far into the double digits all day though! Now the sun is setting and everything is getting very damp. This campground has signs everywhere to boil the water even before bathing! Jeff just made himself some coffee his camping coffee press. He boiled the water for 10 minutes and still couldn’t drink the coffee. I have a hot chocolate sitting here cooling down. I wonder if chocolate kills the stink of bad water.
I think we should have rinsed Monty off from the salt water. His fur feels … odd. He’s very thirst now that he puked up all that salt water.
Tomorrow we are exploring Gros Morne and staying at the same site so we don’t have to dismantle the tent. Site #25 – Shallow Bay Campground. Good site. Cecilia – our hats are off to you – you really climbed Gros Morne mountain? I don’t even want to think about attempting that!! Alright, Jeff is back from the comfort station. Time for bed. Yes, we know it is only 6:37pm here, but it feels like midnight and the earth is rolling back and forth …. zzzz…
It’s 11.47pm. We’re sitting in the lounge aboard the MV Atlantic Vision. We’re tired. Our eyes are dry. But we are finally moving away from the dock. We arrived in North Sydney shortly after 8pm. I went inside the building to change into my sweatpants for the voyage. After I changed, I was browsing a pamphlet rack when I noticed the rows of vehicles moving!! Much to our surprise, the ferry started boarding around 8:30pm! Jeff had been giving Monty a short walk and had to dive back into cab of the truck, Monty in tow, to move along the line. I had no idea that a ferry that isn’t scheduled to depart until 11:25pm would load so early.
So far I’ve learned one thing. We shouldn’t have been so frugal and we should have booked a cabin. There is a front lounge here on floor 7 with a man playing covers on his guitar – very karaoke like. There are people with red eye wandering around with their pillows and knapsacks. I found another area that is marked on the boat map as “air chairs” up on floor 8. It is a like a small plane in that room, with rows of airplane seats and no windows. An old lady in a nightgown was already stretched out on the floor on the far side with a pillow and sheet.
I just went into the snack booth for a bottle of water and a small bag of chips. The lady said I was a “dead-ringer” for a lady who worked here and the last time I walked by them they thought I was being so rude for not saying ‘hi’ to them. They said straight-on they knew it wasn’t her, but my side profile was identical. I asked if that gave me any perks on board but I guess her lack of an answer meant ‘no’.
I packed gravol so I wonder how long until I need one. I don’t remember being sea-sick before, but there are puke bags over there on the garbage cans about 30 feet from my seat so maybe that is a sign of what is to come?
There are some signs around here in the lounge that indicate there is no sleeping allowed in the snack area. I’m not sure if that is this entire area, or just on the far side. I can see 4 people stretched out right around me right now. The cushions don’t come off the chairs – I guess they don’t want us getting too comfy.
There is a wireless network here, but the connection seems to be just local, so no internet to occupy my time. I will save this brief update and post it next time we have a signal.
4:01am. It’s beautiful outside. Full moon. The ocean is very calm. Smells like the sea. Fresh air, but not too cold. I’ve slept for the most of the last 4 hours. I was so miserable and tired by midnight. I took a gravol because I knew I wouldn’t have a choice but to sleep. I stretched out on the hard upholstered bench and slept for an hour with my sunglasses on – there are halogen pot lights above our heads that are unbearably bright, and seemingly undimmable. People walked by the entire time. But that distraction and the annoying repetition of the arcade games calling out for attention was just not enough to keep me awake. After I woke up, I offered Jeff the bench. I head bobbed in the small, hip hugging, armchair for 10 or 15 minutes, and then I gave it up and slumped to the floor, putting my jacket under my head, sleeping against the bench and under the round bar-type of tables. After another hour or so when the agony of the hard floor on my (oh my, someone just farted very loudly in their sleep) joints was too much to take, I flipped over to my other side and slept away another hour. Now I’m up and feeling much better. I just went to the snack shop for a morning muffin and another bottle of water.
People are sleeping all throughout this lounge, some slumped in chairs, others stretched out on benches, some others on the floor. The sound of snoring is coming at me from every direction. It’s very warm and borderline stale in here. Jeff is awake too – he didn’t get too much sleep. As awake as I am now, I suspect I’ll take another go of the floor shortly.
