Grand Manan Day1

Today we are off for an overnight stay on Grand Manan and tomorrow we are booked to go see puffins on Machias Island which is 10 miles from Grand Manan.

We leave the house at 5Am to go to Blacks Harbor which is a 2.5 hours drive to catch the 9:30 ferry. We need to be there 45 minutes before departure. 

As soon as we take the exit to Blacks Harbor, we hit fog.  Will not make an interesting ferry ride.  Blacks Harbor is famous for the Connors Sardines.

Only a 10 minute ride in the fog to the ferry

We saw many house on main street that were all the same, must be corporate house built way back.

We are about 1 hour early for the ferry, time to take a few pictures near the terminal

We can hear the ferry fog horn but it is only when it docks at the terminal that we can see it. It will be a boring 90 minutes ferry ride to grand Manan.

Hopefully not needed

Less than 100n yards away

Not very nice outside

Looking for whales, dolphins and porpoises. Unless they are 50 feet from the boat it is not going to happen 

Very quiet on the ferry and lots of space to self isolate

Once we got on the boat, we got an email from Sea Watch tours that our puffins tour for tomorrow was cancelled.  We may have decided not to come if we have know earlier but now that we are on the ferry, we will do some hiking instead.

The fog was so thick that when we got to Grand Manan we could hear the fog horns but could not see anything.

Our first stop is the wharf next to the ferry terminal to take pictures of fishing boats. The tide is out this morning. The tides are very large here, Up to 20 feet. 

Gulls fighting over a dead crab

Not talking to each other now

I wonder what the fisherman did to call his boat this

If I get a boat, I will not be allowed to get one in this shape

Low tides mean you need to climb down and up

Next stop was a beach near the ferry terminal to do look for some beach glass.

Many of the house have buoys that they found on the beach as ornaments.

So foggy, you can almost not see the end of the beach

We then drive to Dark Harbour to do some hiking.  We spent almost 2 hours here walking in one direction and the returning to where we parked the car and then go the other way. Dark Harbour is famous for dulce where they rake it from small boats. The harbour is protected by a natural barrier but is is very hard to walk on. We went for a bit and then return. Some small houses/cottages or fisherman sheds are built on this barrier.

 

Herring Weir

Lighthouse on the right side

 

Next stop was to check in at out cottage but first we stopped to buy some dulce.

The view from our cottage

Pier near the cottage where the fisherman put their lobster traps.

After a break at the cottage, we decided to go for a hike but needed to do one more stop at a nearby wharf first. This is where you can catch a free ferry to White Rock Island. We went there last time we were here, so we will skip on it.

Ferry coming in

The fog is now very heavy and at times you can only see something like 100 feet.  We started at Ox Head and walked to Long Pond.

Plants that looks like wild peas. Along the beach everywhere.

Benches in the shape of a Lobster Trap.

Water has condense on the pine cones from the fog

After the hike we decided it would be a good time to go for a drink at bar we had seen earlier in the day.  Hopefully it is open as there is not much open on the island.  The bar is called Trapped in reference to the Lobster traps. The owners are fishermen.

The beer holders on the chairs are made from bait bags (new).

We had a half order of lobster dip. Only 2 dips on the food menu, Lobster or Spinach.

For supper we had chili that we had pack with us as we were not sure if there would be any places to eat on Sunday night.

Sign on our fridge.