DAY SIXTEEN

I woke up with a tough decision to make before I started my day. The weather was perfect. I hadn't explored the town of St. Andrews and USA Today had voted it "the best destination in Canada" so there must be some cool stuff to see. Check out time wasn't until noon so I hopped on my bike and rode into town to give it a quick once over to help with my decision to stay another night or not.
It's a very cute little place and one thing I had never done was take a whale-watching cruise so I signed up for their 12:45 pm departure and rode like hell back to camp to book the extra night.
It turned out that the site they had me in the first night was booked months ago by an RV group from the US so if I wanted to stay another night I would have to move to another site.
I was a little short on time at this point but managed to detach my electric, sewer and water connections among other things and set up my rig at the new location.
Now I still had some time to pack some warm clothes, camera and snacks and ride back into town for the cruise.
This wasn't your fishing boat or your high-speed zodiac. It was a "tall ship" with sails called The Jolly Breeze. The ship was built in New Zealand back in 1989 and has sailed the great oceans of the world, covering more than 25,000 miles.

Here's a video I took as the ship docked from the morning sail.

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Here is our captain looking very cool.

We had been told to bring warm clothing. I slipped into my jeans before leaving camp and took a hoody and my motorcycle rain jacket. I was very glad I did because at one stage I could actually see my breath. There was a strong steady wind and a lot of fog that hadn't cleared yet so the crew was handing out blankets. Here I am all bundled up for the last hour of our 3 1/2 hour voyage. They did raise the jib (bow sail) but I was disappointed that they only did that for effect. The motor was doing all the work for the entire trip. They explained to me that it was done this way for two reasons: one, that they could make better time and two, they were concerned that some passengers would be freaked out if the ship started leaning over from the wind on the sails.

It became apparent that they had a particular spot where the whales, at this time of year, come to feed. The "spot" was where the current is such that the krill (a small shrimp-like crustacean) are swirled up from the bottom making it easier for the whales to feed. They eat for 23 hours a day and consume a ton (2000 lbs.) of krill per day.
We finally spotted whales surfacing for air and I was able to snap a photograph.

There were also bald eagles flying overhead and lighthouse fog horns blowing and some other interesting sea birds.

As we head back into port, here's a couple more of Jolly Breeze.

It was a very pleasant experience even if we hadn't spotted any whales. There were lots of kids and parents so the crew were doing face painting for the kids and later they had these live sea creatures (lobster, starfish, sea anemone) for them to touch and learn about. About mid-afternoon the crew served generous bowls of homemade split pea soup. Their brochure has the recipe on the back. It was the best split pea I ever had. Two bowls for me.
I had left my bike half hidden behind their shop and was glad to see it was still there when I returned.
When I rode into camp it looked like "millionaire's row" with rows of these enormous luxury motorhomes. This apparently is why I had to move this morning to accommodate this large group who all wanted to be together.
Tomorrow I leave Canada as I will cross into Maine heading toward Bar Harbor.