WHALES ON PARADE!
Day 74 – It felt cooler this morning at 60 degrees, especially during the gusts of wind. However, the wind did not stop the biting black flies as they circled around us outside while we were whale watching. We went whale watching? No, not from a boat tour – from the RV. This was soon after we got up. What a day!
A Blow-by-Blow Diary:
8 a.m., Humpback Whales, at least 5 of them (two of them closer, a mother and a baby & three of them farther away.) We could hear the blow sound.
An hour later – 5 more Whales, not the same ones, 2 pairs and a single Whale, spread out in the distance. We looked behind us; people were watching the action from their front porch.
This continued throughout the morning, every time we looked out, we could see some activity as they swam east to west in the distance. We’d come inside; the bugs had become overwhelming. Meanwhile, today was partially sunny with a bit of fog and some haze. The high was 72 degrees. The March of the Whales continued, really messing with our productivity. LOL.
In the middle of lunch sitting at the dining room table, we saw a Humpback Whale breach with a large splash, closer to the cove. Rob raced outside with his camera, leaving his sandwich behind. Of course, I continued to eat my sandwich, hee hee, while watching from the table. Whales, whales, whales.
1:35 p.m., real-time thoughts: We’ve never seen so many Whales at once; they were everywhere out there! Wish we had a motor boat & could get closer. But maybe that’s why there are so many and why they seem to be having such a good time; no one is bothering them. As I sit here inside working on the Blog & avoiding the bugs, Rob is outside, shouting for me to look, keeping a running chronicle for me: “There’s another one. Look to the right. Oh, there’s 3 of them. There’s one close in. Look, there’s a Minke behind a Humpback. Oooo, look at that one.” Every time, I turned around and looked, they are everywhere. The one close in – it was in the Cove, and it was glistening in the sunlight when it surfaced. Amazing!
Their behavior has ranged from the typical just swimming along, diving, coming up again; to lolly-gagging along, rolling around, slapping their tails in the water, lying on their sides with their flippers up out of the water, splashing the water with flippers, breaching & splashing down, mostly humpbacks but at least one Minke Whale. ALL DAY LONG. They come in groups, stay awhile and show off, then move on. A little while later, more would arrive. I repeat, “What a day!”
Oh wow. 2:15 p.m. I’m still working on the Blog and I hear Rob talking to someone. Then he came inside with three good-sized chunks of freshly-caught Cod.
A man had come back from his fishing boat with his catch of the day and stopped by to ask if we’d like some Cod. He said he lives here “at that yellow house”, and pointed to a house down the road overlooking the harbor. He’d been out fishing and did we want some Cod? “Uh, sure.” Rob said. Then he asked where we were from and had we been to the Eagle’s nest yet. Rob said no, and he said he’d take the fish home and then come back and take Rob to the nest!
2:30 p.m. The wind has changed from one minute to the next – changing180 degrees – and has brought the fog in with it. Now we don’t see any Whales.
3:10 p.m. The Cod Man (Louis, pronounced Lewey) came back on his ATV & took Rob to see the Eagle’s nest, saying as they headed off, “now you will know where it is when you want to look”. Shortly thereafter when they returned, Rob had great pictures of an Eagle in the nest with its Fuzzy Baby. The Cod Man said that they are from Quebec (he had a French accent). He said that they come here every year from spring thru fall; then in the winter they go back to Quebec. Rob said they drove through town on the ATV, waving at all the people they saw (which is what people do in Newfoundland). As he left the campground, we saw Louis stop to talk to some people in a Van, pointing up towards the Eagle’s nest. It made me think that maybe the Cod Man should lead guided tours to the nest. Eagle’s Nest Tours by the Cod Man. LOL. What a day!
3:45 p.m. The fog had lifted. There’s still a continual stream of Whales going by – Rob says, too far in the distance for decent pictures.
5 p.m. Earlier, we’d called the Artist’s Studio Restaurant to see if they’d gotten the water situation fixed and be able to open. Finally getting through (we had a lousy signal): yes, they would be serving, and we made reservations. Dinner was very good, like it was in 2019. The restaurant is casual with only a few tables. There is no printed menu; the items offered change daily. We chose an appetizer that we’d had in the past – the Korean Pancake (carmelized & seasoned vegetables in a thin batter and cooked crisp with a spicy soy sauce for dipping). For dinner we split the Snow Crab Etouffee (a Cajun dish served in a big bowl with seaweed broth, tomatoes, peppers, onions & garlic alongside spicy white rice and Snow Crab – leg meat and claw), and in another big bowl, the Curry Lentil with Shrimp (smashed cooked lentils, onion, carrots, & garlic with curry seasoning served with spicy white rice and 8 spicy Shrimp). We made reservations for dinner the next two nights. We’ll be leaving the day after that.
We met two women, one from Louisiana & one from Mississippi. They travel north every summer to escape the heat. They proceeded to tell us that another favorite place that they go to for part of the summer was a little, out-of-the-way town in Maine called Lubec. They said nobody had ever heard of it. We told them that we have some land ten minutes from there. They couldn’t believe it! It’s a small world.
We celebrated our 43rd anniversary a day late, and altogether, What a Day It Was!
Happy Anniversary! 😀😀😀