Farewell to Nova Scotia

It's amazing how fast time passes when you're having fun! Seems like just the other day that I was landing on a rainy runway in Nova Scotia. Now a month has passed and I am once again westward bound. The time I spent in Pleasant Bay was all too short, but I guess that's the beauty of life. 

My last post ended with the Fishing Cove adventure. Above is a picture of the cove itself from the end of the trail. After seeing it from the boat so many times, it was nice to finally stand on the shore and glance seawards.

I'm going to miss the fishing boats all lined up in the harbour that always greeted us as we returned from our trips to sea. Their brilliant colours made Pleasant Bay that much more inviting. 

During the last week there were quite a few days that were rainy or too windy to go out. We didn't do any more long hikes, but walked along the MacIntosh Brook and visited the Lone Shielding. There were many beautiful sunsets and even some thunder storms.

Looking through my photos, it brings me back to the days of motoring along Cape Breton's cliffs. This is a photo of the rock faces just south of Otter Brook, where we would often find grey seals hanging out. The rugged coastline of this part of the country has a beauty like none other. Sometimes you almost feel as though you've been transported to a different world entirely.

The geology is also a part of Cape Breton that has been wonderful to explore throughout my time here. From beaches glittering with mica, to the sedimentary layering visible from the sides of rocks that flank the ocean, there is so much to learn about this part of Canada. It truly is a scientist's dream!

If you look closely among these rocky cliffs, there are numerous waterfalls and sea caves just waiting to be explored.

The whales themselves were wonderful the last few days. I woke up yesterday to flat seas and pilot whales spread across them as far as the eye could see. You might be observing a single pod, but there would be as many as nine distant groups visible on the horizon surrounding you. Hundreds of whales! One fella was even playing next to our boat, the resulting splashes being shown in the photo below.

My summer in Cape Breton has come to an end, but there will be next year to look forward to again. Now I'll be off to sail the tall ships around Vancouver Island for a while before coming back out east to begin school for the next two years. Farewell to Nova Scotia!

Fair Winds!

Stormy Seas

The days keep flying by at an unprecedented rate. As I look towards my last week and a bit here, I definitely have mixed emotions. One part of me feels like going home, while another already misses the adventures I have had in this corner of the world.

We’ve had some more beautiful sunset swims at the beach. It is always an adventure getting down to the water, as the side of the hill is so steep that a rope is needed to help everyone get down. I have done it without, but it takes a lot longer!

Down on the shore we swim and look at all the fish and seaweed beneath our feet. I have been told that there are crabs down on the beaches around here, but have yet to see one! In the sunset, our silhouettes make the perfect picture as we play frisbee and enjoy the evening.

The past few days have been windy and many of our boat trips out to the pilot whales were cancelled. On the first of these days, a couple of us headed up to the nearby Gampo Abbey. This Buddhist monastery has many quiet hikes and stunning views of the ocean. There is a beautiful tranquility to walking through their woods.

Our next adventure led us to hike a trail known as “Skyline”. We took the long way to get there, and bumped into a bull moose on the way. Even though I have seen many moose during my time here, this is the first one I have been able to snap a good photo of. The view from the end of the hike was phenomenal!

The last few evenings have been spent at my neighbor’s house, filled with good company, food, and fun. I’ve taken to playing the fiddle like a cello and have had a lot of fun jamming in the company of guitars, spoons, drums, mandolins, and other instruments.

After another full day of whales on the water, the wind picked up again giving me yet another day off. At this point I was beginning to feel like a landlubber. A bunch of us took this opportunity to go on a longer hike to Fishing Cove. It turned out to be a fantastic day. The trail meandered through the forest, following the river down to the sea. The rocks making up the beach were full of mica, so they glittered as the sun hit them. On the way back we even stopped at a beautiful waterfall pool in the river for a swim. After finishing the trip with ice cream, it was back home for a quite evening. Below is a photo of a mum and newborn pilot whale calf. The strips down its sides are fetal folds, which can take up to a year to fade away.

Today we were back out with the whales. It was such a joy to be out on the water! Even the pilot whales seemed relieved to be free of the crashing waves. Far across the horizon many different pods could be seen slowly travelling through the vast blue ocean.

Fair Winds!

Wind on the Water

Another week has passed and my adventures have continued to amaze me day by day. Some days the whales are far off in the distant ocean and we must travel miles out to find them. Other times they are waiting right outside the harbour for us.

I have seen them breach besides the boat and spy hop all around to check us out. Sometimes they merely travel by, but they often come close enough to the boat to give those who come to see them a good look. One thing about the Cape Breton is that the water here is clear enough to see many things beneath the waves. This includes the whales. Seeing the whales under water has been one of the most spectacular parts of my summer thus far. Often the pilot whales flip upside down as they swim under us, showing their light anchor patch.

We had a curious minke whale swimming close enough to the boat the other day, that we could see the white on it's pectoral flippers and the outline of the cetacean as it came up to breath. I got some photos, but since those are on the lab camera, I will have to show them to you at the end of the summer. On the topic of minkes, I was lucky enough to see one breach about ten times in a row the other day! This is phenomenal for a species that rarely is seen partaking in a behaviour made famous by the humpbacks. 

Perhaps the cutest thing out on the water are the newborn pilot whales! Complete with a floppy dorsal fin, fetal folding along their sides, and a sugar-lips smile, these awkward babies make you smile as they leap up for air. Every day we seem to see more. 

The sunsets here definitely rival most others I’ve seen, as the sky seems to always wear shades of pink, purple, and orange come nightfall. 

I have to run off to work now. Since I’m not done with the week’s adventures, I will write more soon J

Fair Winds

Summer by the Sea

It has been just over a week since my last posting and time continues to fly by. I have spent the last seven days on the wonderful isle of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

The first highlight of the week was not whales, but an entirely different creature of the sea. We were miles off the coast, looking for whales, when we stumbled upon a bait ball. What happened next felt like a scene out of a BBC documentary. Within an instant there were several hundred-pound blue fin tuna leaping out of the water after their quarry. These overfished giants moved with speed and grace that seemed far too great for a fish of such size. Not only was the school made up of several dozen blue fins, but they also stayed in the area for almost five minutes before moving along in a southerly direction. For a fish that can disappear in a blink of an eye, these tuna definitely graced the morning with a once in a lifetime appearance.

            The whales themselves were a bit slow in coming. We managed to find them every day, but sometimes there would be only a few individuals found during the entire eight hours we were out looking for them.

            Several days ago we happened upon our first minke whale of the season. These guys are often nicknamed “stinky minkes” because they can pop up once and then disappear for twenty minutes, never to been seen again. This one stayed by the boat, following us for several miles before we had to leave to get back to the harbor. Since I took photos on the big camera (named “Leroy”), I’ll have to grab them to put up later! Yet still the pilot whales were still scarce.

            However, yesterday was different. We left the harbor to find many pods of pilot whales swimming around Pleasant Bay. After a day of whales, we were treated to a social gathering of many groups during the late afternoon. There were spy hops, breaches, and an array of other playful behaviors. The whales were also very vocal during the whole encounter.

            We went home that evening to find that we could watch the whales from our front porch! They stayed in the bay in front of us until after the sun set.

            I find myself wanting to say that each new day is the best on yet. However, there always seem to be new adventures to be had and more phenomenal memories to be made. Today this continued as we went on a zodiac ride after our work was done on the larger boat. In the perfect light of the late afternoon sun we saw many groups of travelling and feeding pilot whales, as well as many of the epic sweeping cliffs that this side of Cape Breton has to offer.

            These are a few of my highlights from this week! I will try to post again soon with some more pictures from this adventure.

Fair Winds