Whales and Pirates

Pirates
Originally uploaded by rosailither.

We saw several more whales coming back down the Bay of Fundy, some just broke the surface in the distance and some breached noisily, coming down with a huge splash of water. There are several species here – finbacks, minkes, humpbacks and the endangered right whale.
We had two last stops in Canada, in the neighbouring islands of Grand Manan and Campobello. Both rely heavily on the fishing industry, the harbour in Grand Manan had been neatly dynamited out to provide deep water for the large fishing fleet.
The water around the islands is a good feeding area for whales and several boats offer whale-watching trips. As we left Grand Manan Island, we passed close by a couple of whales, lifting their tails out as they dived, this makes them easier to identify and we think they were humpbacks.
Five minutes later, thick fog came pouring round the tip of the island and we were soon engulfed in fog, visibility reduced to 200 feet, but bizarrely, the wind sprang up at the same time so we were able to sail through the whiteness. The fog had completely disappeared by the time we arrived at Campobello Island, 10 miles away.
We moored on the busy fishing pier and were greeted by a group of obviously disappointed tourists who announced that “there’s nothing here, no grocery store, no tourist shops, no café.” Nevertheless, Dave got talking to a semi-retired fisherman and within five minutes, he had whisked us off for a private tour of the island in his car, gift shops and all!
By the time he brought us back, the tide had dropped by ten feet and we motored round the island and back into US waters. We once again visited Eastport, the easternmost town in the States. We had originally planned to stop just long enough to check back in with Customs but ‘Ros Ailither’ was due for a repaint and a combination of good weather and the hospitality of Bob at The Chowder House made us decide to stay and make use of his facilities.
Two days later, the boat was freshly painted blue but then it was time for Eastport’s first annual Pirates Weekend, which sounded too tempting to miss. We were talked into joining a pirate’s race along with the two sailing charter boats from Eastport, and one from across the border in Canada – a truly international race!
Bob supplied pirate flags to string from the crosstrees and John from the store decked us out with pirate costumes. We picked up a motley crew, armed ourselves with old bread rolls and prepared for battle. In true pirate style, we fired the engine to assist the sails and bore down on the other vessels. We managed to catch the two local boats and bombard them with soggy bread, but the Canadian boat got away from us so we fired the rest of our missiles on the unsuspecting audience on the quay. Suffice to say a great time was had by all!

The Reversing Falls

The Reversing Falls
Originally uploaded by rosailither.

We spent a couple of days in St Andrews, a tourist spot with Scottish ancestry if the tartan in the shops is to be believed.

From there to Bliss Harbour for a night surrounded by nothing but fish farms. Dave got chatting to one of the fishermen, who told us there were 33,000 salmon in just this one bay. They keep them in pens for 18 months as they mature, during which time each pen gets through a ton of fish food per day! On closer inspection by dinghy, we could see the fish jumping in each pen, and noticed that the fish all seemed to swim in an anti-clockwise direction.

A full day’s steaming took us to the city of St John, halfway up the Bay of Fundy. This is home to some of the biggest tides in the world, up to 50 feet, so you have to time your passage carefully for favourable currents. We spent a couple of days looking around St John itself, one of the oldest cities in Canada. Streets of lovely brick houses in the uptown area date from the late 1800s when a huge fire destroyed about two thirds of the old (wooden) buildings.

The Reversing Falls occurs where the St John river (450 miles long) empties into the Bay of Fundy through a narrow rocky gorge. The outgoing stream passes over an underwater ledge and clashes with the incoming tide, causing a boiling series of rapids and whirlpools. There are two 20-minute periods of ‘slack tide’ a day when the river and sea levels are equal, allowing boats to safely navigate the Falls.

After negotiating the Reversing Falls without incident , we headed up the St John river. This is navigable for nearly 60 miles and passes by lush green fields, maple and other hardwood trees and nesting platforms for ospreys. This being Labor Day Weekend (officially ‘the last weekend of summer’), lots of boats were out and about making the most of the good weather.

We joined up with a flotilla from the Martinon Yacht Club who convinced us to moor overnight with them in a tiny creek off the main river. The entrance was barely wider than our boat and obviously not as deep as we got stuck on our first attempt. An additional blast of power pushed us through the soft mud into the deeper water inside. Some of the other yachts also needed a push with a dinghy to get through the entrance. The effort was worth it for a charming anchorage and a sociable evening, not to mention the tasty lobster rolls.

The next day we headed upstream again to Gagetown and met up with a flotilla of three boats from another yacht club further up the river. We all had a look around each others boats and in the evening we were treated to tea, cake and a slideshow of the Bahamas, where one of the boats regularly cruises. The morning brought grey skies and rain so we all went ashore for a hearty Canadian breakfast, then before weighing anchor Dave was given a parting gift of an electric tennis racket/mosquito killer - now his favourite toy!

A combination of the rain and the fact that the trees were beginning to turn colour made us decide that this would be the furthest point of our trip north. We motored back down the river and passed through the Reversing Falls again in the evening. This time wasn’t quite so uneventful, despite traversing at the recommended slack time. We faced 6 knots of incoming tide which funnelled through the bridge causing powerful whirlpools and eddies. This is the only time we have used full power on the trip so far, and Dave was still hard-pushed to keep control of the boat, which was pushed perilously close to the rocks on either side of the narrow gorge. We were both mighty relieved to come out safely on the other side.