Iceberg Quest Boat Tour, St. John’s, NL-Day 30, July 20

https://icebergquest.com/experience-the-wonder/

Today we were fortunate to go on another boat tour with a company called Iceberg Quest. Usually they take tours out to see icebergs, but the iceberg “season” has already passed. They will be taking us out to see birds and whales along the coastline. We took our motion sickness pills and have on our bracelets! We saw how much the boat rocked yesterday from the shore so we knew we were going to need these for sure today.

As soon as Zoom Zoom and I got on we headed to the top , up front like on the last boat. Now this time its a tad colder and much windier! We are ready to rock and roll! The tour guide begins his talk as soon as the boat starts. He is very knowledgeable, as all of them have been. I know it’s their job! Still it could have been his first day and we could have ended up with the guide with the shy bones.

The tour guide and our Captain.
Phil – with the camera strapped to his front
Nick – Blue jacket
Nancy – Purple Jacket

This port is used for several different boating operations. The oil rigs have boats that come in each week for more supplies, cruise ships come in here, boats that need repairs come here, regular boaters come here (they are rich), and fishermen come here to offload their loads.

One of the supply boats for the oil rigs.

Brand new pleasure boat – $15,000,000.00 is all this set the folks back!
Fishing boat
Where they keep the load of fish, crab or lobster.
Fishing vessel
For the oil rigs – they are located 200 miles out in the ocean
Pleasure boat

This is Battery Park. We thought we were able to drive through there – wrong. The only way to see Battery Park is on foot, unless you live there. Battery Park is full of artisans.

Look closely and you can see people hiking.

As you enter the harbor, Fort Amherst is off to the left. There is a lighthouse, the remains of some gun emplacements, and some pillboxes (guardhouses) still remaining from WWII. These were put there to defend against German U-Boats. Looking from Signal Hill you can see the small Fort.

The whales didn’t want to cooperate today. The boat captain did his best at chasing down each siting of any whale spotted. We do know that birds = fish = whales. We did not see the birds like we saw yesterday. This little fellow here is a Minke whale. Minkes don’t come up as far out of the water as Humpback whales do and their flippers are usually black with a white band. They can weigh as much as 10 tons!

Dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
And again it’s dorsal fin

Minke whale from a Google search
From another Google search

The next set of photos are those of Signal Hill. There are a few ways to get to the top of the hill. The easiest way is to drive to the top. Their are some designated hiking trails also that get you to the top. The day we went to signal hill it was windy and freezing so we decided to just drive to the top. During the mid 17 century, fortifications were built on this hill since it overlooks the harbor. During the 7 year’s war flag mast signals were used between the land and sea in order to help the British win the war. The tower, Cabot Tower, was started in 1897 to celebrate the 400th year of John Cabot’s landfall and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. In 1900, the building was officially opened. The first transatlantic transmission was received here by G. Macaroni in December of 1901. During WWII the US Kept anti-aircraft guns on the hill. Railway guns were kept here, too, as were 155 mm guns.

One way to get to Signal Hill is hike from the Battery.
It is waaay up there!
If you look closely you can see people hiking along the edge. >

Atlantic Ocean
My Zoom Zoom
Cape Spear – where we saw all the whales yesterday! Zero today!
Eastern most point of North America!
That’s me! Just call me, Honey!
They are cod fishing.

We had already been “Screeched -In” at the campground in Codroy, NL. These people are getting “Screeched-In” on the boat tour – now they are honorary Newfoundlander’s too! Instead of kissing the cod, they kissed the puffin’s bottom! There were around 10 of them in all that got “Screeched- IN.” All I can say is compared to our ceremony is this one was – WEAK!