Not exactly another cruise...

On Tuesday, we had reservations to take the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

The ferry was to leave at 12:30pm Nova Scotia (Atlantic) time, and the information online indicated that we needed to be checked in 2 hours beforehand or risk losing our reservation.

We got to the port area at about 10am to check in. We separated the Jee-rage from Gracie as we had made separate reservations for the two vehicles on the ferry (it was more expensive to pay for the combination length of Gracie + Jee-rage than to pay for Gracie and for the Jeep separately).

I was driving the Jee-rage. We don't have reliable phone service in Canada (my phone is working but Carl's hasn't been -- something we are getting corrected) -- so we wore our bike helmets to communicate while we were driving separately.

When I got through the checkin station, they directed me to go to line 8...

... when I drove to line 8, there were no other cars in that line, and I was directed to go directly onboard! When I got to the top of the ramp, they weren't quite ready for me to go on, but I only waited a minute or two before being boarded.

Meanwhile, Carl had been directed to a different line (with other RVs) and was taking pictures from his view waiting to board.

The Jee-rage was the first vehicle boarded on deck 5 (other than some trailers that were being transferred without trucks and had been put on board earlier). The fellow who got me parked said that I would be the first vehicle off the ferry in Newfoundland!

Meanwhile, Carl and Gracie were still waiting.

Unfortunately, our bike helmets would not work at all once I was on the ship... I had thought that I could walk off and go to the motorhome and be with Carl when he boarded, but once I was on, the boat staff would not let me get off.

I went to the very top deck and as far to the back as I could and kept on trying to reach Carl via the bike helmet -- finally he could barely hear me and I told him that I would meet him on the deck where Gracie would be parked when he boarded. Gracie and Carl and Miss Kitty are waaaaayyyy over there in that parking lot...

I went to an inside seating area that allowed me to see out to the parking area and watched until I saw that Gracie was on her way onto the boat...

Then I went down to deck 3 and saw Carl get directed into the parking spot for Gracie.

Gracie parked...

Patti waiting for Carl to come so we could go explore the ship.

We went up to the Sun Deck (deck 10 -- where I had gone to be able to talk with Carl on the bike helmet). This was a view toward the vehicle deck where the Jee-rage was parked -- the Jee-rage is all the way in the front beyond all those tractor trailers. (This is actually the back of the ship when we're moving.)

This was another of Marine Atlantic's ferries there at the port -- it appeared to be undergoing some renovations.

We found a bench on the Sun Deck -- we were anticipating that it might be quite cold, but it was really warm before we started across the channel.

The ship started moving at about 11:50am. We don't know whether the scheduled time of leaving (12:30pm) was Newfoundland time (half hour ahead of Atlantic time), or whether once all the reserved vehicles and passengers are aboard, they go ahead and leave... it seemed to us that they left a bit early, but that was fine with us!

Carl on the Sun Deck with North Sydney behind him.

As we were heading out, another ferry was coming in (the one coming *from* Channel Port aux Basques -- where we were heading).

After getting underway and eating the sandwiches that we packed on the outside deck, we decided to head inside and see what facilities the ship had...

Dining area for the cafeteria...

Cafeteria serving area

The name of the ship was MV Highlanders

There was also a coffee and snack counter.

We spent most of the trip across in "airplane reclining" seats -- they were quite comfortable, and had different videos being shown in different sections (the one that was in front of the section we were in happened to be showing a tennis match that lasted a very long time!). It got quite cold outside as we were crossing the channel so we were glad to have seating inside. The ship has cabins that can be reserved (we will have a cabin on the overnight ferry that we will take when we return from Newfoundland) as well as reserved reclining seats (I guess is a good idea if you're on a crossing that has a very full ship), but we were fine with just finding a seat when we needed it.

About 6.5 hours later, we were told to return to our vehicles to prepare to disembark.

I worked my way through the tractor trailers on deck 5 to the very front spot to get to the Jee-rage.

Meanwhile Carl worked his way to where Gracie was on deck 3.

I was the first car off. It was a little odd being the first off as I had to really pay attention to where I was going and couldn't just follow someone else! Carl and I had decided we would be best to try to meet up at a visitor center parking lot, just a couple of miles from the ferry port. I got there first and watched down the road until I saw Gracie coming...

View of the town of Port aux Basques and the road along which Gracie would be coming.

About 10 minutes after I had gotten to the visitor center, Carl and Gracie (and Miss Kitty) arrived. They would have come even sooner but the driver of the rig parked in front of Gracie was late returning to his vehicle so that delayed their line leaving until 3 other lines had exited and the driver finally arrived. 

We got hooked back up and drove about a half hour to the campground that we had reserved for the night. About 10-12 other vehicles that had come off the ferry were ahead of us checking in, but we eventually got checked in and settled into our spot for the night. We have about 3.5 weeks on Newfoundland and are looking forward to all that we're going to see and do!

Traveling through Nova Scotia

After leaving Truro on Sunday, we continued east...

... along Trans Canada Highway 104...

... to a Harvest Host in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, for the night...

...beautiful views from the farm (it had been a chicken farm, now is a brewery - they weren't open on Sunday, but allowed us to stay anyway).

The Starlink got a great signal.

It got up into the high 80s on Sunday afternoon, and then a cold front passed through a little after 6pm and dropped the temperatures 15+ degrees in just minutes.

On Monday, we stopped for fuel -- we were only a little below 1/2 tank, but we like to be sure that we've got sufficient, particularly if we're boondocking and using diesel for heat, hot water, and the generator.

Note that diesel is cheaper than gasoline at Canadian fuel stations. CAN$1.40 per liter is US$3.90 per gallon. That isn't as good as we've been getting with our fleet card in the northeastern US, but it is better than the US pump price at most places we've seen recently.

On our way toward Sydney, Nova Scotia, we stopped at Seal Island Lookoff over Great Bras d'Or. This is looking off toward the north and east, where it goes out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking back a little to the south east you may be able to barely see Seal Island bridge that we would be crossing in a few more miles.

Gracie at the Lookoff.

Driving toward Seal Island Bridge - the one we had seen from above.

We stopped for the night at the Walmart in Sydney River - Gracie is down at the corner of the lot with the Jee-rage disconnected and parked nearby.

We visited a few of the stores in the shopping mall, including the Walmart. Is this toilet paper for cats? Or kitteny-soft toilet paper?

We got gyro salads from the Pita Pit for supper.

While it was in the high 80s/low 90s on Sunday afternoon, Monday was quite a bit chillier with highs in the 40s and 13-18MPH winds with gusts for our whole drive. It wasn't a particularly pleasant day for driving! But we have a reservation to take the ferry to Newfoundland from the North Sydney Ferry Terminal on Tuesday noonish, so we wanted to make sure that we were close enough to be able to easily get there for checkin, at least 2 hours early.

So far, Starlink has been giving us great service (as long as there are no obstructions) and we're hopeful that will continue in Newfoundland!

Tidal Bore and continuing east

On Saturday afternoon, we stopped at the Fundy Discovery Site near Truro, Nova Scotia, with the hope to see the tidal bore and spend the night in the parking area.

We found a chart on the wall with the Tidal Bore times for this location...

One would be on Saturday night at 7:23pm and on Sunday morning at 7:41am (I had looked them up online previously so knew we would have the possibility of seeing two of them).

 

So, you might be wondering what a tidal bore is... It is the wave that precedes the high tide -- I think it would be appropriately named a "tidal wave" (a tsunami is often called a tidal wave but is not actually tidal at all, to my understanding).

Some information about the tides in the Bay of Fundy.

"At mid tide, the flow of water into or out of Minas Basin through narrow Minas Passage near Parrsboro is the same as the estimated combined flow of all the rivers on earth, a million tons of water per second."

The Fundy Discovery Site is near the end of Minas Basin.

We went into the small information center to ask about where we should go to see the tidal bore, and the young lady there said that we could watch right from the bank outside. But she did also mention that it wasn't the best time of the month to view the tidal bore (it is best at new or full moon), and said something like, "If you have something else you were considering doing, you might want to just do that instead."

We headed back to Gracie where Miss Kitty was sitting in the window right by the sign that indicates that we have a cat on board.

We did some tasks in Gracie until the time of the tidal bore -- we had read that we should arrive 15 minutes early, so we arrived about 20 minutes early. It was very windy so the surface of the river was very wavy... the lady in the information center said that the direction of the water in the river would change -- well, with the wind blowing up the river, it pretty much already appeared to be flowing upriver, even hours before the time of the tidal bore.

We unfortunately, saw nothing.

We don't know whether it happened before we got there -- the tide was definitely coming in because we saw objects in the river disappearing under the water -- or whether the bore was so minimal at this time of the month that we couldn't see it. There were other people there along the bank who had been there before we arrived, and they didn't say, "Oh, you just missed it!" or anything like that... oh well!

In case you'd like to see a video that another person took at the place where we were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCcq8AfL_nA

We're going to be back in this area in early July, and the full moon is on 7/3 -- so we may make another attempt then!

Our plan was to spend the night at the Discovery Site and possibly try to see the tidal bore again on Sunday morning. We had noticed that there was a LOT of cars coming and going around the Discovery Site, more than it seemed would be warranted by even a great tidal bore (much less a "boring" one!). It seemed that a lot of folks would come in their cars to meet each other at this parking area, and sit in their cars talking (?) to each other. As the evening progressed, the number of cars coming and going did not diminish, and we just felt uncomfortable... so we decided to move (after dark, after we were all settled -- not something we would choose to do lightly, but both of us felt uncomfortable).

We had the Starlink up, so I could check the internet and found that there was a Walmart just a couple of miles away; I called them, and they said that we could stay there for the night... we packed everything up, and drove the short distance to the Walmart...

Here's a picture of Gracie in the Walmart parking lot on Sunday morning.

We may have been fine at the Fundy Discovery Site, but we just weren't sure, and it was better for us to go elsewhere. Note: I had called the Fundy Discovery Site on Friday and gotten an okay for spending the night there (the fellow I spoke with said something like, "it is allowed but not encouraged.").

So, the Tidal Bore was boring, and the location was sketchy (at night), but we're glad we tried to see it!

Continuing east

On Saturday, we left Saint John, New Brunswick, to continue our journey, heading a little north and east.

We brought one of our outside tables inside to use for snacks while driving...

... unfortunately, the table does not refill the snacks!!!

Carl gave as his opinion that if we were going 110, we should get to our destination very fast! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), that's in KPH (kilometers per hour), and equates to about 68 MPH, and we generally keep Gracie somewhere between 62-64 MPH anyway. When you're driving something shaped like a brick down the road, the air resistance increases and fuel mileage decreases as you drive at faster rates of speed. Carl believes that Gracie's "sweet spot" is between 62-64 MPH.

As we came in to Nova Scotia, we stopped at the visitor center to pick up some brochures and get some information.

We found out that this area is "the land of Wild Blueberries"!

Miss Kitty was not overly impressed with Nova Scotia or wild blueberries, but she *did* like the sunshine hitting the front dash of Gracie as we continued along!

We're making our way through Nova Scotia toward Sydney, to catch the ferry to Newfoundland on Tuesday.