Day 66 – Brier Island, Nova Scotia - Whale Watching Tour

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

We woke up to dry weather but very windy. I don’t think it even rained during the night; it was just very windy.

Today is the day we hoped to take our whale-watching tour. That is, if the boats are going out today because the ocean is pretty rough and the wind is still blowing very strongly. (I think Leo stood outside all night and was making a lot of wind so he would not have to go on a small boat). We drove down the Digby Neck to our first ferry. Here the ocean was really rough and the water was flowing really, really fast between the two shores as the tides move in and out at different rates in the Bay of Fundy and the narrow bay of Digby Neck. As a result currents of up to 9 knots flow through this channel when the tide change is at its most active. The water was flowing so fast that the ferry went almost completely sideways through some of it to get to the other side.

Once we got to the other side we had to drive to a second ferry which connected Long and Brier islands and which was nicely waiting for us to go across. I guess the ferries are synchronized with each other so people do not have to wait too long for each crossing.

When we got to Brier Island we went to look for a Tour company which would take us out to see the whales. We had decided that going on a zodiac boat would be out of the question with the waves being up to 2 meters high and white-capped. The first one we stopped at was not going as they needed at least 10 people to fill a trip and we were the only ones. The lady did send us on to the next company, Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises (http://www.brierislandwhalewatch.com/sitings.htm). Here we were in luck, as they had 36 people wanting to go and the boat could hold 50 so we bought our tickets and went across to the general store to buy Gravol to prevent motion sickness, as we were advised to do by the ticket sales lady since the bay was so rough today. Leo already started to look a little green around the gills when he heard this cheery news. We had actually bought motion sickness pills for the ferry crossings to Newfoundland but not needed them. We got these out now only to read that you had to begin using them 12 hours before your trip, while we only had an hour to go before ours. So Gravol it became. We got out all the warm clothes we had with us and started to put them on. WE WERE READY TO SEE THE WHALES and we hoped the whales were ready to see us!

I have to say the experience lived up to our expectations and beyond. The boat ride out was exciting in itself, going over the 2-meter plus waves was like being in a roller coaster. We even had some of the ‘screaming’ happening by a group of people on board. Up and down we went till the first whales were seen and we slowed down to get a better look at them. It was a mother humpback whale and her calf. What a spectacular sight it was as they came really close to the boat and we could see them come up right in front of us. We went around in circles it seemed, and every time a new set of whales decided to entertain us. Some of them gave us their high five with their flipper and near the end a few of them started to show off by jumping out of the water in what is called breeching and showing us how high they could jump.

Overall it was a once in a lifetime experience, although we hope that having had this experience does not mean it is the end of our lifetime! We plan on doing this again next time we are visiting the Maritimes. We also got to see some puffins, other sea birds like shearwaters and phalaropes and yet others I do not know the name of. There was a pod of dolphins as well jumping through the waves and moving off at great speed. The whale boat crew does not usually go after these as they concentrate on showing people the whales. But the crew was in the mood so we did try to take off after the dolphins. However, it was to no avail as these mammals are just too speedy in their movements and they quickly left the boat behind even though we were at full throttle. Overall we stayed out on the water for an hour more than scheduled as there was so much to see that the crew themselves did not seem in a hurry to return. They indicated that they see whales breech perhaps 2 or 3 times a week in all the trips they take, but to see so many breeches today and to see some of them do this so close to the boat was special to them as well. While the whales will show their flipper waves and tail displays close to the boat, they never breech unless they are far off. All in all it was too bad the trip had to come to an end but there is always next time.

(And by the way, Leo did just fine. He did not get sea sick despite looking through the viewfinder of his camera for much of the trip, something which would normally increase the chances of motion sickness. Unfortunately, one lady passenger was not so lucky, however. She spent part of the last hour on the boat leaning over the railing to “feed the fish”.)

It was not easy for Leo to photograph the whales because of the rough sea and consequently bobbing boat but he did his best and the results can be viewed here.