Spirit Journey: 2014-08-11 Bay of Fundy to Bar Harbor

These pictures aren't quite in order, so I'll explain: we left Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, with Texas Ranger at about 2 a.m. to cross the Bay of Fundy (between Nova Scotia on our way to Maine). We have a wonderfully smooth crossing - leaving early meant that we hit the tides and currents "right", and we also had good weather. Clear and sunny. Ron and I spelled each other at the helm so that we could each nap a bit. Even leaving Yarmouth at 2 a.m., still meant that we encountered passing by a few commercial fishing vessels coming in to port at that time. We crossed the Bay and motored into Southwest Harbor, Maine - a community almost "next door" to Bar Harbor. We tied-up at Great Harbor Marina - and interestingly - one of the tuna boats docked there is a part of National Geographic TV's "Wicked Tuna" series. And one night while there, they were filming an episode of Wicked Tuna so we watched - the boat had brought in about three, 500-600 lb tunas! Amazing! So the picture above and below are when they were off-loading the tunas and weighing-in. TV cameras were a rollin' and we don't know if we got filmed or not, but it was still fun to watch!


A view of the marina - that's our "little" boat on the dock furthest away, wedged in between the much bigger yach	ts!

Lobster buoys were EVERYWHERE! It was a real talent for Captain Ron to bring us through the tangle of markers - more like a game of "dodge the lobster pot"!

More lobster traps below the buoys...

High tides in this region too...soon the little island will be almost covered with water!

The marina office buildings - notice the angle of the ramps...it's low tide.

Finally! As we crossed the Bay of Fundy we saw some whales! Ron turned SJ around and took her back a little closer, then shut off the engine. We could actually hear the whales spouting!

Look at all the lobster markers we had to dodge - not to mention sailboats; with sails up, they have the right-of-way.

The tuna boat, on the left, used for the TV series. This tuna crew hired an airplane to scout for schools of tuna from above. Then, the pilot would radio the boat to let them know where to go. The boat driver would sit high atop in the raised seat and drive the boat, then shoot the spear off the nose of the boat to kill the tuna.