Departing Newfoundland

On the return trip south through Corner Brook, we stopped to book our ferry crossing – just in case.  Good thing too, as the next day was totally booked up already.  So we marked ourselves down for the following day and decided to visit the Stephenville and Lourdes area with the extra time.  We spent the night out on the very narrow peninsula at Winterhouse, and Hailey checked out the interpretive panels and railings.

Though the tropical storm/hurricane was not due to arrive for a few days, the permanent signs warned of high winds and a programmable sign warned of the imminent threat.

 

It was pretty dang breezy, but we managed to keep it mostly between the ditches, and upright as we headed for the ferry terminal.  All the sailings from the previous day had been cancelled, and I thought ours might be bumped back, but they assured me that I would get on the boat regardless.  I heard talk of some semi-trailer loads of fish that had waited two days to get aboard, and were still waiting …  Other cars and passengers had spent most of the day aboard an earlier ship waiting to take off.  Because it can take several hours to load all the vehicles, they wanted them all aboard and ready to sail – as soon as conditions calmed down enough to be safe.

I wanted to sail in daylight this time, unlike the previous night crossing.  The day turned out pretty nice, though it was still blowing pretty good out on the open Atlantic.

This time, I was able to locate the open air viewing locations on Deck 10, which provides the best views in the open air.

Some of the trucks that didn’t make it on this trip .

Eventually, all the lucky trucks were jockeyed into position aboard, and we pulled out from the berth, leaving Port aux Basques behind.

From the upper deck, it was on the same level as the helicopter pad, and the bridge, on the far side of it.  The ships ‘black box’ was sitting out by the heli pad.

As we approached the mooring at North Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, we were almost in line to pull into position when the ship suddenly veered off and did a complete 360* turn before finally docking.  The crew on the bridge acknowledged my hand signals as I tried to help by pointing out the direction to the dock in case they were lost or confused!  (Turns out there was a shift change on the shore crew and they had to wait till the new gang was in position!)

Downstairs, on deck 3, there was a whole group of motorcycles tied down in front of us.

Back on land, it was getting dark, so a quick check on Google Earth from the nearest Tim Horton’s found us a quiet, secluded spot on the beach – with a distant view of any ships coming or going from the port.  In the morning, this weird rock formation caught my attention.  Still not sure what it is?