Aboard the Prince Albert II, leaving the Ramea Islands off the southern coast of Newfoundland.
My first update since arriving in St. John's, Newfoundland. Upon arriving at the St. John's airport non-stop from Newark, New Jersey on Friday night we have had a lovely welcome to this maritime province. Terry Adey who lives and works in the St. John's - Twillingate area was there to greet us just after midnight. We did a quick tour around town in the early Saturday morning hours, even venturing to the top of Signal Hill for a splendid night time panoramic view of St. John's. Signal Hill was the place where Marconi received his first transmissions across the Atlantic.
The two nights in St. John's were at the Balmoral Inn (38 Queens Road). It has a nice self serve cold breakfast available most of the morning, comfortable rooms albeit with a small bath. The biggest drawback is the necessity of moving almost 200 lbs of luggage (video & still camera gear is more than 60% of this) up almost two full flights of stairs. However I survived and it was an altogether pleasant stay.
Terry and his wife Debbie were exceeding gracious hosts and tour guides on the Saturday before departure. Cape Spear, the village of Quidi Vidi, the Battery along with harbor front... all wonderful walks on a picture perfect day. I'll annotate these days more when I am not uploading posts via satellite and can add more pictures & text easily.
We boarded the Prince Albert II about 1pm on Friday. St. John's is in the Newfoundland time zone, and it is 1.5 hrs ahead of Eastern Time.... so 2.5 hrs ahead of Texas time. The night before boarding it has rained for about 10 hours and for sure the weather pattern was changing. Once upon the ship the 3pm sailing was pushed back to 8:00 pm due to the wind, and sadly our first destination, L'anse aux Meadows, was cancelled due to the high wind and north swell bearing down on our planned course. Plan B was to turn south and do some of the itinerary in reverse. The small port of Argentia and some historic ruins there, then then Ramea Islands followed by Gros Morne National Park in the north, and finally returning south to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon before resuming our original schedule toward Nova Scotia and eventually New York City on August 25th.
The photo is of port side in Argentia of the ship and one of her moorings.
Written at noon, Sunday, August 17th, 2008.
Commentary on blogging: It is best done when traveling alone. That said, I'll do a paragraph to get from St. John's Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we will arrive in about 10 hours. Ramea Islands were rainy, foggy and interesting, but not very special insofar as photography of my interests. Gros Morne was wonderful, but we had had barely enough time to do a short walk, let alone a boat ride up the fjord and a hike at the end.... so only the former was accomplished. I'll be back without slow moving guides. Today we were in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia... one of the last defenses of the French. Begun in 1713 and elegantly preserved in that period. It was a superb historical tour of the early province.
