We woke on the Fourth just before dawn broke. We knew we had to cover 170 nautical miles and we wanted to do that distance in daylight. That meant traveling at a cruising speed of 20 knots for 8 1/2 hours. Little did we know what entertainment Brio had in store for us!
Let's first go back to the chart, for there's a lot of helpful information here.
Sydney is on Cape Breton. Nova Scotia stretched to the southwest and you can see Halifax there. Newfoundland is the large landmass above the "finish flag" at the end of the trip across Cabot Strait. St. John's is located on the southeast corner of Newfoundland. Saint Pierre is where the flag is.
Notice the absence of contour lines in wide "paths" running from the Atlantic Ocean past the Brio image to the northwest, past the 1640 sounding and up to the top of the chart where Anacosti Island (not labeled) is. Imagine it is late glacial times (11,000 years before present) and sea level is 200 to 300 feet below today. Ice caps might still exist on Newfoundland and northern Quebec. Their meltwater would fill rivers running away from the ice caps and down what would become the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Atlantic Ocean. These rivers would cut broad valleys such as you see on the chart. Only as the ice caps melted, and the sea level rose would the land become flooded with a new Gulf of St. Lawrence and higher Atlantic Ocean.
But there's much more! About where Brio is pictured on the chart is where she found new playmates.
Notice the open blow hole as the dolphin is breathing in air before diving again.
These antics went on for 15 minutes anyway as we continued to motor at a slow, 5-knot speed. If the dolphins in the bow wake tired and peeled off, others from astern would rush in to take their place. Then, as if they were calling in their buddies, dolphins would come swimming, and leaping, up from afar to jump into the game.
This wasn't the only encounter we had. As we were steaming at 20 knots, suddenly on our starboard beam a tail rose up out of the water perhaps fifteen feet away and splashed the entire house (perhaps 20 feet in length) on the starboard side with water. I'd guess that the tail was ten feet across. The mammal dove, but that was a reminder that we had gotten too close.
We knew we had to move along, so Brio bid her buddies adieu.
We knew we were getting close to Saint Pierre and Miquelon because our watches changed time. The French are an hour earlier than Atlantic Time. To keep you on your toes, Newfoundland is only a half hour earlier than Atlantic Time. These islands have a bold shore, a foretaste of what we will see on Newfoundland.
Once ashore, we settled in and went to a delicious dinner of French cooking. Of course, we enjoyed a fabulous dessert!
And a close-up:
The next morning, Brio greeted the sun.
And we went off to a patisserie for croissant, a quiche, a baguette and other goodies. Livin' large!!
It is now September 5th and we bid France adieu as we head back to Newfoundland. We will travel to Fortune this afternoon since that is where we must go for Customs. We understand there is a Fossil Museum in Fortune. But that's a story for another post!
Cheers,
Brio
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