Today, we got up—Joel let me sleep in while he took a shower, packed up our stuff and made our way to Trinity. We debated about coffee—do we get some, large or small, what if we have to pee??? We stopped at a gas station and got small coffees and got to the town. It’s a real historical town. Not sure as to exactly what all but the buildings all remain as they were, we saw people with period costume, etc. We were looking for Prince of Whales Adventures. Since we were early, we tootled around town a bit, saw the boat, went to the washroom at the public historical looking building washrooms and then went to the guy’s house. A neighbourhood dog was there to meet us. Friendly, like just about everyone else we have met so far.
We got to the house and Chris—the Prince of Whales—was there to meet us, and his wife (who is a teacher in Alberta so she goes back there at the end of August and I guess he’ll go out at the end of tourist season). There were already 3 people there—a couple from France and their son who was about 12 I would guess. Not big English speakers. The father could get across what he wanted. We were all to put on big huge floater suits. I guess if you fall over, it takes slightly longer to freeze to death. They gave us toques and gloves. It was like it was going to be -30 out there. I was a little nervous. I was also VERY relieved because they had a suit to fit me—and there was lots of room left over. Chris was waiting for 5 more people so since Joel and I knew where the boat was, we were to waddle down to the dock. I felt like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. And the suit was definitely warm. We were waiting on the dock and I was looking in the water and there were starfish (or etoile de mer according to Laurent) and sea urchins (and it turns out when I looked at the picture on the computer, there was a crab right beside him) and an Arctic Red jellyfish. That was a pretty cool start to the day right there.
Finally everyone got there—a family of 5 from Alberta. So, we loaded up into the boat—a Zodiac about 20 feet long with twin 90 hp outboards on it. We were about 2 feet off the water. We went out into Trinity Bay and started to look for whales. It took a few minutes and I spotted the first one—it was a Minky Whale. I didn’t even know Minky was a whale. But, it is. They are fast and change direction quickly so they are hard to get pictures of. They also have kind of a dolphin like pointy-er fin than other whales. I also learned that you can tell which type of whale it is from the spray they blow. Some blow straight up and it looks like a palm tree. Others spray in a V-shape and I think it’s the sperm whale that blow like mist and off to the side.
We saw a couple of Minky Whales there and then moved on to other places to look. We zoomed past some amazing cliffs. Saw some bald eagles there and tons more puffins. Remember I said puffins were hilarious? Well, they are even funnier on water. I was laughing out loud at the poor things. They have these wings that propel them over the water like egg-beaters or really fast moving kayak paddles. They bounce off the waves until the eventually get airborne. Sometimes they don’t get airborne and they bounce off one wave to land smack right into the next. Sometimes they just give up and dive. Apparently they can go 600 ft. below the surface. When they do get airborne, most birds tuck their feet up under themselves so that they look graceful and elegant. Not so much the puffins. Their orange feet stick out the back like a dual exhaust system as they wobble across the sky like drunk bats. If you have seen a bat fly, you will know what I mean.
When we got to the new place to look, Chris explained that we were over a trench in the ocean that basically ran across Trinity Bay and it could get over 1100 feet deep. At one point we were at 1130 ft deep. This is where the big whales like to come and feed. They eat capelin and herring and giant squid (which live at the bottom of this trench). We saw a sperm whale at the surface. He was blowing and blowing and you could see his fin and his back. Apparently they can dive for about 2 hours so when they come to the top, they really need to catch their breath
. Then you could tell he was getting ready to dive again. We saw his back arch and his tail come up, flip, go straight and he was gone, back on the search for more food.
Along with the sperm whale, there were a whole pile of dolphins. They are nosy little creatures. I would say they are the Pixi of the underwater world. Those of you who have met Pixi will surely understand. The dolphins had to come over and see what we were doing. And they raced along beside us. They were white nosed dolphins and as they passed under and in front of the boat, you could see this teal thing moving and then they would jump out of the water alongside or in front of the boat. Very cool. They work together to get the fish all in one place and then go in for the feast. And, following along with the sperm whales mean that there are going to be leftovers around.
We saw another sperm whale off in the distance as he went under for another long dive. Apparently the whales up here are the male whales. The female whales and the calves stay somewhere down near the Azores as the females don’t like the colder water.
We also saw fin whales too. I think we may only have seen 1 or 2 and from a distance.
We had a snack while we were out there. Cookies and hot chocolate, coffee, tea, juice, water. I had nothing except cookies. A little worried about the having to pee thing.
We moved on to look at more, heading home this time. We saw another couple of Minky whales, a seal, puffins, a couple of eagles flying overhead. Nothing like 3 hours flying acros
s the water on a really fast boat. Loved it all. The best 80 bucks I have spent in a looooong time. When we got back to the dock, we saw more Alaska Red Jellyfish just off the dock. Got some really good pictures of those.
It was time to move on again. We made pb & j sandwiches in the parking lot beside the water, walked up and down the beach looking for interesting things. I got some mussel shells and urchin shells and saw some poor crabs who had had holes pecked in them and got eaten somewhere along the way.
Time to head to St. John’s. Back on Hwy #1—the Trans Canada Highway. I can now say I have taken the Trans Canada Highway from Ontario east as far as it can go.
We got a little lost on our way to Memorial University where we are staying. The map was really wonky. FINALLY we made it here. We have a room on the 4th floor. Nothing fancy. Two beds. Community bathroom. I think I am too old for this. There were kids in a room down the hall played a really really really bad rendition of Journey. Fortunately they stopped. I don’t have internet access here so I will get this posted when I can.
We went to the main part of St. John’s tonight. George St. seems to be the hub of all the action. It was a little dodgy. Peeler bars and pool halls at one end, lots of pubs and bars along the entire street—it’s closed to all vehicles. We walked from one end to the other. Saw lots of what would in Toronto be called squeegee kids. Begging for money. Playing really bad punk music on their electric guitar. These people should not be allowed to have dogs. They don’t treat them very well.
Decided to have dinner at an Irish pub. It was good. We hadn’t eaten a real meal all day so I was really hungry. We walked around a little more down there, down by the harbour. If you were a ship looking for protection from the sea, this would be the harbour for you. Small, but well protected. Narrow entrance, easy to defend, I would imagine.
We saw some jelly-bean houses that we will have to go back and take pictures of tomorrow. All in all, not overly impressed with St. John’s itself. We were supposed to be here for a couple of days but I don’t think that’s going to happen. So far, tomorrow we are going to go to Signal Hill, Cape Spear (yay) and head down the coast to Witless Bay. I guess we’ll see where we end up.
As you were!!!
TTYS
We got to the house and Chris—the Prince of Whales—was there to meet us, and his wife (who is a teacher in Alberta so she goes back there at the end of August and I guess he’ll go out at the end of tourist season). There were already 3 people there—a couple from France and their son who was about 12 I would guess. Not big English speakers. The father could get across what he wanted. We were all to put on big huge floater suits. I guess if you fall over, it takes slightly longer to freeze to death. They gave us toques and gloves. It was like it was going to be -30 out there. I was a little nervous. I was also VERY relieved because they had a suit to fit me—and there was lots of room left over. Chris was waiting for 5 more people so since Joel and I knew where the boat was, we were to waddle down to the dock. I felt like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. And the suit was definitely warm. We were waiting on the dock and I was looking in the water and there were starfish (or etoile de mer according to Laurent) and sea urchins (and it turns out when I looked at the picture on the computer, there was a crab right beside him) and an Arctic Red jellyfish. That was a pretty cool start to the day right there.
Finally everyone got there—a family of 5 from Alberta. So, we loaded up into the boat—a Zodiac about 20 feet long with twin 90 hp outboards on it. We were about 2 feet off the water. We went out into Trinity Bay and started to look for whales. It took a few minutes and I spotted the first one—it was a Minky Whale. I didn’t even know Minky was a whale. But, it is. They are fast and change direction quickly so they are hard to get pictures of. They also have kind of a dolphin like pointy-er fin than other whales. I also learned that you can tell which type of whale it is from the spray they blow. Some blow straight up and it looks like a palm tree. Others spray in a V-shape and I think it’s the sperm whale that blow like mist and off to the side.
We saw a couple of Minky Whales there and then moved on to other places to look. We zoomed past some amazing cliffs. Saw some bald eagles there and tons more puffins. Remember I said puffins were hilarious? Well, they are even funnier on water. I was laughing out loud at the poor things. They have these wings that propel them over the water like egg-beaters or really fast moving kayak paddles. They bounce off the waves until the eventually get airborne. Sometimes they don’t get airborne and they bounce off one wave to land smack right into the next. Sometimes they just give up and dive. Apparently they can go 600 ft. below the surface. When they do get airborne, most birds tuck their feet up under themselves so that they look graceful and elegant. Not so much the puffins. Their orange feet stick out the back like a dual exhaust system as they wobble across the sky like drunk bats. If you have seen a bat fly, you will know what I mean.
When we got to the new place to look, Chris explained that we were over a trench in the ocean that basically ran across Trinity Bay and it could get over 1100 feet deep. At one point we were at 1130 ft deep. This is where the big whales like to come and feed. They eat capelin and herring and giant squid (which live at the bottom of this trench). We saw a sperm whale at the surface. He was blowing and blowing and you could see his fin and his back. Apparently they can dive for about 2 hours so when they come to the top, they really need to catch their breath
. Then you could tell he was getting ready to dive again. We saw his back arch and his tail come up, flip, go straight and he was gone, back on the search for more food.Along with the sperm whale, there were a whole pile of dolphins. They are nosy little creatures. I would say they are the Pixi of the underwater world. Those of you who have met Pixi will surely understand. The dolphins had to come over and see what we were doing. And they raced along beside us. They were white nosed dolphins and as they passed under and in front of the boat, you could see this teal thing moving and then they would jump out of the water alongside or in front of the boat. Very cool. They work together to get the fish all in one place and then go in for the feast. And, following along with the sperm whales mean that there are going to be leftovers around.
We saw another sperm whale off in the distance as he went under for another long dive. Apparently the whales up here are the male whales. The female whales and the calves stay somewhere down near the Azores as the females don’t like the colder water.
We also saw fin whales too. I think we may only have seen 1 or 2 and from a distance.
We had a snack while we were out there. Cookies and hot chocolate, coffee, tea, juice, water. I had nothing except cookies. A little worried about the having to pee thing.
We moved on to look at more, heading home this time. We saw another couple of Minky whales, a seal, puffins, a couple of eagles flying overhead. Nothing like 3 hours flying acros
s the water on a really fast boat. Loved it all. The best 80 bucks I have spent in a looooong time. When we got back to the dock, we saw more Alaska Red Jellyfish just off the dock. Got some really good pictures of those.It was time to move on again. We made pb & j sandwiches in the parking lot beside the water, walked up and down the beach looking for interesting things. I got some mussel shells and urchin shells and saw some poor crabs who had had holes pecked in them and got eaten somewhere along the way.
Time to head to St. John’s. Back on Hwy #1—the Trans Canada Highway. I can now say I have taken the Trans Canada Highway from Ontario east as far as it can go.
We got a little lost on our way to Memorial University where we are staying. The map was really wonky. FINALLY we made it here. We have a room on the 4th floor. Nothing fancy. Two beds. Community bathroom. I think I am too old for this. There were kids in a room down the hall played a really really really bad rendition of Journey. Fortunately they stopped. I don’t have internet access here so I will get this posted when I can.
We went to the main part of St. John’s tonight. George St. seems to be the hub of all the action. It was a little dodgy. Peeler bars and pool halls at one end, lots of pubs and bars along the entire street—it’s closed to all vehicles. We walked from one end to the other. Saw lots of what would in Toronto be called squeegee kids. Begging for money. Playing really bad punk music on their electric guitar. These people should not be allowed to have dogs. They don’t treat them very well.
Decided to have dinner at an Irish pub. It was good. We hadn’t eaten a real meal all day so I was really hungry. We walked around a little more down there, down by the harbour. If you were a ship looking for protection from the sea, this would be the harbour for you. Small, but well protected. Narrow entrance, easy to defend, I would imagine.
We saw some jelly-bean houses that we will have to go back and take pictures of tomorrow. All in all, not overly impressed with St. John’s itself. We were supposed to be here for a couple of days but I don’t think that’s going to happen. So far, tomorrow we are going to go to Signal Hill, Cape Spear (yay) and head down the coast to Witless Bay. I guess we’ll see where we end up.
As you were!!!
TTYS
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