vicarious travelling: New Brunswick Trip

We spent so much time today on coffee, breakfast and just enjoying the view from the deck that we only had time for a short walk.

In that brief evening with Rob he showed us around the house and also pointed out where the nearest access was to the trail into town.

He said that it was a 5km walk into town. We had time for a 15 min walk to Bar Rd which is the access point to

Minister's Island, that you can only go to at low tide. We will go another day.

We talked a bit too long there, with a couple visiting from out West, so had to really hoof it to get back in time to make a quick bite to eat and

get down to the wharf for our Whale watching excursion.

It's a catamaran, the two hulls make it extra stable.

Safety and covid protocols explained (we all wore masks the whole time as when clustered at the rail for viewing we didn't keep our 6ft apart.)

Then Rick and I took seats on the upper deck and stayed there for the rest of the trip.

We saw the Deer Island ferry (plan to take that another day),

various

lighthouses and Harbour Porpoises (groups of 3 or 4, surfacing showing fins and diving again. Internet research revealed that they don't usually form large groups or engage in aerial displays).

The boat slowed down near a small island for us to see Grey Seals and Harbour Seals.

There was 2 biologists on board, each taking a deck, and they talked about the creatures we were seeing, the history and geology. they also answered any questions we had.

We proceeded out of Passamaquoddy Bay into the Bay of Fundy. The tide was going out and it was amazing to watch the swirling waters and feel them pushing and pulling the boat as they poured out between the islands.

Passamaquoddy Bay, which pulses to a tidal rhythm that may raise water levels 28 feet or more twice a day, surrounds the peninsula of Saint Andrews. From low water to high water takes about 6.2 hours and in that time up to 2¼ billion tons of water will swill into the Bay through the passages. From the St Andrews website.

My favourite so far - Head Harbour or East Quoddy Lighthouse

Recognized by a fifty-one-foot-tall wooden octagonal tower with a large red cross painted on the eastern side, Head Harbor Lighthouse was the first lighthouse constructed in New Brunswick outside of the Saint John Harbour. The structure provides a distinctive daymark for those navigating the St. Andrew's portion of the Bay of Fundy. Over the years it has utilized various steam whistles, signal guns, and lamps to help aid navigation on this densely fogged section of coastline.

Head Harbour Lighthouse was manned by Coast Guard personnel until 1986. In 1988, the original 1829 tower, the oldest surviving lighthouse in New Brunswick, received classified status from the Federal Heritage Building Review Office. from downeastacadia.com

Beyond the lighthouse, with Maine on one side, we headed into an area of swirling water and schools of fish disturbing the surface.

It didn't take long and we had our first sighting


of "Slice", so named, according to Dani (our biologist) because she has a sliced off dorsal fin. Some of the Bay of Fundy whales have identifying characteristics like this.

We spent about an hour, drifting, occasionally motoring slowly to change position, as Slice fed in the rich water around us.

In this photo, as she swam away from us, you can see her "fluke print", a round area of flat water from her tail movement.

In this one, by Rick, you can see her blowhole. We were close enough that we could sometimes smell her breath (a rather unpleasant fishy smell)

Slice is a Minke Whale and they take the fish (and anything else in the water) into their mouths, then, using their tongue they push the water out, trapping the fish against the baleen (shown her by Dani). They then swallow the fish. Their throat is only the size of a grapefruit so they will spit out fish that are too big.

The captain had been on the radio periodically and over the loudspeaker he let us know we were moving off to check out where a pair of Minke had been seen together. These had their dorsal fins.

With two of them surfacing, sometimes together and sometimes at different times, I spent more of my time just watching them and less trying to get a picture.

But they were pretty hard to resist.

The zodiac whale watching tour was close by.

Finally, our captain said it was time to return.

We snapped off a few parting shots.

Driving back in, our captain said there was a bald eagle in this tree. I don't know how he saw it as I just pointed my camera in the right general direction and didn't see it until I got the photo onto my computer.