Newfoundland - A Whale of a Day!

We are visiting relatives in Newfoundland, Canada, and we are so excited for the plans they have put together to show us this special island. They are taking off work and school to host us for a 4-day travel extravaganza! It started this morning, as we made the three-hour drive from their house in St. John's to the cute little town of Bonavista. At 1:00 we had reservations for a whale watch tour that includes these stylish water flotation suits. Think oversized coveralls with a crotch down to your knees.

In the past, we have gone on over-sized tourist boats with 150 other passengers. But today we are going on a 12-seat zodiac boat with Sea of Whales Adventures. They usually sail out of the village of Trinity, but this late in the whale season they have moved to Bonavista where more whales have been sighted.

The eight of us got the best seats in the front. We are excited!

We've read about the winds in Newfoundland, so we are so lucky to see that the water in the harbor is placid. Our boat captain, Kris, tells us that this is very unusual.

Out in the ocean, we have more ripples, but the wind is still very calm as we pull away from the picturesque village of Bonavista.

 

We were just a few minutes into our three-hour tour when Kris noticed activity on the surface of the water. The sea gulls were flying in a frenzy. We sped toward the churning water to find a large pod of dolphins cutting through the water.

They were following a school of fish, and they put on quite a show for us. This is going to be a great boat ride!

After spending some time with around 40 white-sided dolphins, we sped across the top of the ocean. We are learning that this zodiac boat can go fast! Captain Kris knows that Denisa wants to see puffins, so he slowed so she could take a picture of this young bird. He doesn't have the colorful beak yet, but we're counting this as a successful sighting. Nesting season is over, and most of the puffins have already headed south. But we saw several very young ones today.

But this is a whale watch tour, and that's what we are looking for. Like the puffins, most of the whales have headed south by now, but we're hoping to see some late migrating humpbacks. We got our wish! We got the classic whale tail photo with the water dripping off the edge when we had our first whale sighting.

The captain determined that it was a female, and it had some scars on her back that indicated she was an older gal. In honor of the old gal on this boat trip, the captain named our whale "Denisa."

We watched as "Denisa" gave us a high tale wave, which meant she was diving far below the water.

Whales can stay underwater for up to 60 minutes, so we waited patiently. They can also travel quite far during those deep dives. When we spotted her blowing water up in the air, our captain raced toward the new sighting. You can tell from the proximity of Mark's cap in the foreground, that we were getting an up-close view of that whale spout.

Being on the nimble little zodiac boat gave us the closest views that we have ever experienced on a whale tour. It was awesome!

Occasionally, "Denisa" would dive and leave us for a while, but she always returned to the surface to put on another show. Mark took a video when she started swimming at the top of the water, raising her tail just high enough to slap it against the surface of the ocean.

She slapped . . . and slapped . . . and slapped. We got nine consecutive slaps on the video, but she did a total of twelve. What fun! Again, we had never seen anything like that! The passengers on our boat were yelling phrases like "Dance Denisa!" and "Atta-girl Denisa!" We've never heard such words of encouragement like that from a whole boat-load of people before.

Then "Denisa" did a deep dive, and came straight up out of the water with her nose. This is a classic spy hopping pose that we had never seen before up close.

This allows the whale to get a better view of the surface of the water, and the little boat that was spending so much time with her. When she came up with sea weed strung over her nose, Captain Kris also said that she was playing in the sea weed, a behavior he calls "kelping."

When she would dive, we all scanned the water's surface to see where her next appearance would be. Even though humpback whales can stay underwater for a long time, she never kept us waiting long. The average was closer to 5 minutes.

Captain Kris brought watermelon along for a snack while we were waiting for "Denisa" to reappear.

Then someone would spot a spout or a fin, and we would race off in the new direction. We also realized another difference from whale tours on large boats. We were closer to the water, and our views were better. We've never been so close to see the bumps on the top of a whale's head as it slid along the surface of the water beside our boat.

She also rolled out of the water, to show us a back view of her top fin.

"Denisa" stayed with us for over an hour, and we loved this special time with this old girl. This might seem like a lot of whale pictures, but we had close to 100 to choose from with all her antics above the water. Denisa was proud to have this entertaining whale as her namesake.

 We have gotten to wander among another of God's wonders today!

Captain Kris also caught sight of another interesting sea creature. We saw a head above the water, and he determined it was a leatherback sea turtle. This was a special sighting, as these turtles are a "vulnerable" species under the endangered species act because their population numbers are quite low. Even Captain Kris was thrilled to see a leatherback.

The largest of all turtles, we watched as the leatherback swam at the top of the water. It's hard to get a scale for the size, but this turtle was around six feet long. Instead of a hard shell, they have a unique tough leathery shell that gives them their name.

Mark had a front row seat as the leatherback slid underwater and swam right under our boat. The water was so clear that we could see the pilot fish that attach to large turtles and hitch a ride. These are carnivorous fish that eat the parasites off the host turtle. Wow! What a great trip this has been!

As it got closer to time to return to the harbor, our captain gave us a unique view of the Bonavista lighthouse as he steered us through the rocky channel.

That zodiac boat can really fly across the water, and we loved this new boating experience! Even at high speeds, Captain Kris was standing up on the back of his seat, looking over the water for any new sightings.

The three hour tour flew by, and we were a little sad to return to our harbor in Bonavista around 4:30.

We all had big smiles when we took this group picture in our boat before unloading.

Our next stop is that tall blue boat house in the harbor. It's the winter home of the tall ship "The Matthew."  This boat is stored inside in the winter to protect it from the storms and ice of the North Atlantic.

"The Matthew" is a replica of the ships that sailed these ocean waters during medieval times. It can carry 50 tons of cargo, but today it only carried 8 explorers.

Visitors are allowed to climb and explore this three-masted wooden ship, and our group was good at that.

It's usually out sailing during the summer, but the last two summers the Covid restraints have kept this boat out of the water. Likewise, Covid restrictions have kept the museum and boat house closed. Even though our host family has visited Bonavista several times, this is the first time that they have found the boat house open for touring. 

Because Denisa loves lighthouses, we made a side trip to see the Bonavista Lighthouse up close. We had already seen this red-striped lighthouse from the water, but we couldn't turn down a picture from land on this beautiful blue-sky day.

We had read about this area of Bonavista, famous for the puffins that come here to nest in the spring. In fact, right behind Mark and Cole is a rock island that would be full of those cute birds in the spring.

This is one of the best places in the world to see the colorful puffins up close. But by the fall, all the nests are empty and the birds have headed south.

Alexia shared a picture she took on one of these rocks at Bonavista Lighthouse this past April. No zoom was needed as the birds are so close. Denisa would love to return in the spring to see them for herself! 

We learned about Canada's provincial parks when we were traveling in Canada in 2019. Our next stop is Dungeon Provincial Park, named for the skull-like rock that guards the entrance to the ocean. It is the remains of a collapsed sea cave with two natural arches formed by the sea. By the time we arrived, the arches were already in the shadows.

We got a picture at the top, just to show how big that sea cave was.

Our next stop is Spillar's Cove for more beautiful views of the sea stacks in the ocean.

We were the only ones there this evening as we walked this rugged coast line.

There's also a snacking bonus on this walk, as we got to sample our first Newfoundland wild blueberries.

We're memorizing this shore line, because we might recognize it later at the theater. Scenes from the new Disney movie, "Peter Pan and Wendy" were filmed here at Spillar's Cove just last month. We saw pictures on-line of the army of actors and film crew that covered these cliffs during filming.

We're hiking today where Peter Pan hiked!

The sun was low in the sky and casting long shadows by the time we finished our hike. We took this shadow picture at the end of a very memorable day of wandering God's wonders with some of our favorite people. This has been a whale of a day in Newfoundland!