20020616

June 16, 2002

Day 38

Start: Peyton’s Woods RV Park, Twillingate, NF
End: 
Miles: 0

The high today was 44f and the low was 38 last night or early this morning. It was cloudy and foggy, but with no rain. It was better than yesterday, but not by much. However, we had some good come of it.

We ate and loafed for a bit. Then Dolores had a guilt attack about making it to church on Sunday, so we went 30 miles south to the nearest Catholic church. When we finally found it, in Boyd’s Cove, it looked deserted. There wasn’t a sign on it. It looked as though no one had been there in some time. We decided we’d put forth enough effort, and returned to the little house. 

A bit later, about 12:30, we went to see whether the tour boat would operate today and if so, what would it do. The weather was still somewhat foggy and the 10:00am trip had been cancelled, so we had our doubts that it would go.

We found several people on the dock, going from one side to the other at the end. We went to check this out, and found they were watching a beluga whale. It was white and about 10 – 12 feet long. It seemed entranced by diesel engines. He was under a smaller boat that was running a diesel. That engine was shut down, and the engine on the tour boat started. Sure enough, the whale moved under the tour boat. I shot several pictures of the whale, including a few broaches, before we got underway. 

There were six guests, the captain and a crewman on Daybreak 93.  It’s 55 feet long, wooden hulled, and has two Volvo diesels. The other two couples were related and from Ontario. One couple decided to go up onto the viewing deck to look around; then they stayed there. They stuck it out up there the entire trip with the crewman watching them and answering questions. The other couple and Dolores & I crowded into the pilothouse of the 44-ton boat at the captain’s invitation. We talked with him, and asked all sorts of questions. When a photo opportunity came along, that couple’s wife, and I, would hop out the starboard door and shoot. The sea state was only three, but there were mixed swells due to the headlands and because the wind was from the east but the current was setting to the southeast. We took a bunch of 45 degree rolls and there was some pitching as the captain maneuvered the boat around 360 degrees to look at an iceberg.

We started by leaving Twillingate Bay heading north. Just outside the headlands was an iceberg about 50’ high, possibly more. It had an odd shape, in that it had a shelf extending out from it on one side for a distance at least equal to its height. We went all around it, the captain trying to align it with the lighthouse some 300 feet up on a point. But the fog was at about the same height at that time as the lighthouse, so we could never get a clear shot.

A larger iceberg appeared about four miles northwest, so we ran over to it. It was about the same height, and the flat top looked a lot like the first one, with multiple lines of darker blue marking. I think they could have been one at one time, but split into two since. Another, smaller, tour boat came along and also looked at this one. We were glad we were on Daybreak 93, because the other boat was really rolling. Dolores got a little queasy about this time and retreated to the cabin to watch out a window. Again, we went around the 
iceberg to shoot it from all angles.

All through the trip, we saw birds that we’d seen at Bird Rock several days ago. There were gannets, murre, and we clearly saw puffins with their bright colors. We usually saw them first on the water ahead of us. Then, when we approached too closely, they’d take off. In the case of the murres, they’d sometimes use their diving skills and just go underwater.

When the fog let up at one point, we spotted an even bigger berg seven miles farther to the north, but that was too far to go on this tour. Instead, we went close inshore to look at Sleepy Cove. There was once a copper mine here that was deserted shortly afterward when the price of copper dropped. Some of the machinery is still there. Then we went through a “tickle”, as the locals call narrow straits between islands, 
and came out at the first iceberg. Some of its shelf had broken off and broken up into much smaller blocks, so it looked a bit different. We took more pictures of it, then went in to the pier. There were quite a few people there who said they’d been watching the whale until we arrived. 

We thanked the captain for the trip and came back to the little house. Despite the semi-heated pilothouse and cabin, both of us had taken a real chill. It took an hour or so to work that off. Finally, we warmed ourselves better by fixing lasagna for dinner and eating.

Then we debated for some time just what we’d do with the rest of our time “on the rock”. We made some preliminary plans, but we can still change them.

World Cup soccer is still on, so we watched a game. Now, we’ll finish our chores and settle in for the evening.