We got up at 6:50 a.m., went to the bathrooms, then got into the 4Runner for the drive down to Tiverton. We called first from the front gate to confirm that the water was not too rough. Then we ate bagels and drank coffee (1/2 cup for me) on the 45 minute drive through Digby and down #213 West. We arrived at East Ferry (across the straits from Tiverton) at 8:00. When the ferry came, we got on, and, as per instructions, asked to use the bathroom on the ferry. This was one of the little things that caused me to question the professionalism of our whale boat tour.

The Ferry was a mid-sized boat with a capacity of about 20 cars. We waited for it to unload then drove down to the ramp. Something about the way people operate here in the maritimes told me that was the right thing to do—then a man on the boat waved us up to the front. The tide was almost completely out so the ferry came in very low and it was a steep little descent to the ferry level. All around, there were fishing boats, mostly for scallops, I believe, and some buildings that looked like processing plants, that were very old and dilapidated. The weather, once again, was perfect: sunny and warm. The water was relatively calm.

In any case, the bathrooms were not functioning, so, when we arrived at the other side, we asked Tom, the whale guy, if we could use the bathrooms in his building. Tom was about 5 feet 2 inches, dark and faintly oriental in appearance. He was a little miffed about the ferry, telling us that since they got the new boat they’d had nothing but problems, but he was good-humoured and immediately offered us use of his bathrooms. He was running around like a one man band, taking care of the store, the bed and breakfast customers, and whale watch cruisers all at once. When it was clear the bathroom upstairs was busy with customers for his bed and breakfast, he reluctantly pointed out the bathroom downstairs, which was in a small room off the back which was immensely cluttered with papers, pictures (art wildlife prints), old computer components (at least one printer) and various sundry items.

Once everyone was done with that, we met out front to don our orange flotation suits. Some of these were quite new and bright orange, but most were very faded and discolored. We all looked like volunteers for the next space shuttle.

Along with our family, there was a young Austrian, his wife, and their two children, a girl and a boy aged about 10 and 7 respectively. We found out he works for LePage Cement and is on a three year assignment to Truro, Nova Scotia. The last two passengers were an older American couple.

We stepped carefully onto the boat from a sloping boat launch. There are no seats in this boat: just a shallow fiberglass bottom and then the inflatable pontoons on the sides. We all took our places and he started the twin Yamaha 50’s and pulled out of the harbour. After a few seconds at full speed, some kind of electronic alarm sounded indicating an engine crisis. Twice he shut down the engines until the alarms stopped and restarted. He looked baffled, telling us that this was the first time this had happened. Just when I thought the excursion was doomed, he discovered that some seaweed was clogging the water inlets. He cleared it out and off we went.

I saw a dolphin shortly after we left the coast (which no one else saw) but we saw nothing else until we approached a rival whale watching boat (a converted fishing boat) from East Ferry. They had apparently spotted a humpback. We caught up with the other boat after a few minutes and, sure enough, there was a humpback swimming close to the service. We hung around for about an hour as the humpback dove, surfaced, swam along, then dove again. It stayed under for about 8 minutes at a time. Only twice, did he put his tail up out of the water. The first time, I think my picture was blocked by Helen’s hand. The second time, both Paul and I got a good shot of it, with the Nikon and the Pentax. We were able to get within about five feet of the whale, just before he showed his tail once last time. This was a terrific thrill for everyone in the boat.

The children of the Austrian couple seemed to really enjoy the cruise, especially the girl, who liked sitting right at the very front especially when it got rough. She reminded me of discussions we have recently heard about how 10 year old girls seem ready to take on the world, but, by the time they are fifteen, have become shy and defeatest in some respects, out of consciousness of their demeaned role in society as sex objects or subordinates. This girl was excited about the adventure and confident in herself and looked ready to take on the world.

The boat was small, room for 12, maximum, but we never felt unsafe. For one thing, the flotation suits provide a good measure of safety, and, for another thing, the boat seemed handle the slightly choppy water very well. Maybe it’s another story if the seas are rough. In any case, it was a good idea to go in the morning, when the water is calmer and the wind not as strong.

We followed this humpback for about an hour, but it was clear there were no other whales in the area, or dolphins, or any other marine mammals, so we headed back to the harbour. Then the captain – the whale guy—took us to the other side of the isthmus, the Digby Neck, to see seals at the corner of the inlet. The seals were mostly in the water. They seemed as interested in us as we were in them. They dove in and surfaced and watched us, sometimes actually approaching the boat, though never much closer than 30 feet away. They were large and friendly looking. After a while, we went west again to see the "balancing rock", which wasn’t of great interest, and saw one more dolphin. Then we went back to shore. Everyone on the tour seemed pleased about seeing the one whale. The Austrian family was charming and friendly.

Back at the Ocean Explorations offices, the whale guy offered us coffee and gave the kids free buttons. We discovered—no great shock—that he was originally from the Kitchener area. He had an uncle or something in Elmira, and had attended oceanic environmental studies at the University of Guelph. He had come out east to work on his PHD but ended up going into business. The first five years "nearly sunk" him, but he recovered and indicated he was now doing okay. He said he got in "over his head". His offices/house/ bed and breakfast/shop was very interesting. It was a total clutter of souvenirs, pictures, paintings of wild life, sculptures from some kind of molded synthetic material created by an artist, and paraphernalia related to the boat. He had a picture of himself meeting Jacques Cousteau on the wall, and lots of other snap shots, including some very grainy ones, of the boat and whales—usually a humpback’s tail.

Then I paid him—he seemed likely to forget to collect from us. It cost us $135.00 for 2 adults and 3 kids under 15. On the whole, we definitely recommend the zodiac boats over the larger converted fishing vessels.

We then drove back to Digby. We found our way to the ferry to Saint John and booked our place for the 8:30 p.m. trip. The we drove into Digby again (about 5-8 kilometres away from the Ferry dock. You wonder about this: did the citizens of Digby do something stupid to discourage them from locating it right in town, where it should have been?). The kids weren’t hungry yet but I was so I got myself a lousy burger and fries from a small informal looking take-out joint. Good price: $2.99, lousy food. I ate at the water front watching sail boats and fishing boats go in and out (still high tide) and some moron in a sea doo splashing people on the deck around the fishing boat museum (a converted fishing vessel, dry docked and attached to a gift shop). The rest of the family strolled downtown and shopped. Then we filled up with gas, got some cash from CIBC Interact terminal, picked up a couple of coffees from Tim Horton’s, and headed back to our campsite to pack and enjoy a relaxing afternoon, our last in Nova Scotia.

Digby is all right. A couple of bad signs: energetic parking patrols, and lots of "No Loitering" signs on places that just seem tailor made for loitering. I loitered anyway and no one bothered me. There is a Tim Horton’s in a mall outside of town, lots of ice cream stores, and lots of souvenir stores, but nothing special. You can see why natives consider the south part of Nova Scotia to be the "vacation land".

We returned to our campsite in Smith’s Cove and played a last game of mini-golf and then ate dinner of sphagetti and packed up carefully. Then we drove to the Ferry. We paid our $150 and had to wait for almost an hour before we could get on. Then we drove into the belly of the large ship and left the 4Runner and went to the main decks. This ship had a level of luxury we had not seen yet on most of the smaller ferries we had used. There were several lounges including one with a bar, a cafeteria with unwholesome-looking food, and large screen tv sets. I went to the top deck and remained there through the entire 3 hours, eventually getting sea sick though the seas were not rough, and finally thrilled to see the lights of the city of Saint John appear on the horizons and slowly grow more distinct. By the way, it was very, very cold on the deck of the Princess of Acadia in the Bay of Fundy. There were always lights and a vague horizon in view, but the soft rolling of the ship eventually wore me down. I found that I could maintain my equilibrium with concentration, but after the family came up to chat for a few moments, I lost it and threw up over the side of the ship, just 15 seconds before Paul came out with a sea-sickness bag from the bar.

Incidentally, we considered the Ferry to Maine as it looks on a map as if that would be a shorter drive back to Ontario. We figured out the mileage and the time and it appeared to us that there really wasn’t any advantage to that route because any time you gained because of the lower mileage (1100 kilometres versus 1400 from Saint John’s) was more than eaten up by the additional time on the ferry (6 hours).

In Saint John, we tried a Comfort Inn but it had no vacancy. Other hotels were listed in our guide as charging more than $100 for a room (with the kids) so we drove up a hill to Magawagonish Road (which, it turns out, becomes Highway #7) and found the Hillside Hotel, a modest but tidy looking outfit which offered us the entire upstairs of the house for $60.00. This turned out to be a terrific find: it was really an entire apartment and very clean and well furnished. Because it was after 12:30 a.m., we went right to sleep.