We had to be at the ferry dock two hours before sailing time, so we had plenty of time for more visiting and sharing snacks. Shelby had her last chance to relieve herself before being shut in the motorhome for the 14-hour ride. We could have put her in the kennel on board, which would have allowed us to visit her, but after seeing and smelling the kennel we decided we'd made the right choice in leaving her at home.
Our ferry, the Atlantic Vision, is one of the larger of the ferries owned by Marine Atlantic. It runs only in the summer time across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Cabot Strait to Argentia; in the wintertime, only the much shorter run to Port au Basques operates. In this photo, the ferry is partially obscured by the Marine Atlantic offices.
Once our motohomes were all lined up inside the lower deck of the ferry, we climbed five flights of stairs to pick up the key to our stateroom, then after we'd stowed our overnight stuff, we wandered around the decks watching the loading process. One of the smaller ferries, the Leif Erikson, was arriving from Port au Basques on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland. We were surprised when the bow of the boat opened up even before the ship docked:
As the boat came into the dock, a ramp extended out the open maw to the exit lane. The power of the four bow and stern thrusters that positioned the boat at the dock was quite impressive.
We finally got underway at about 5:30 pm, and slowly made our way out of Sydney Harbor, eyeing the shoreline as we went:
After a social hour with our traveling mates and dinner in one of the dining rooms on board, we retired for the night. The seas were amazingly calm, leaving only the slight vibration of the ship's engines to let us know we were on the water. We would have slept soundly if not for the fact that the built in twin beds were hard as rocks, making it difficult to get comfortable. In the morning we had a buffet breakfast, then again hit the decks to watch our travel up Placentia Bay and into Argentia harbor:
In the slight mist of the morning, these islands that fill the bay looked serene but mysterious.
A group of us gathered on the foredeck to watch the docking process:
From the left: Anna Leuenberger, Barbara, Sigi Dinse, Ken Jenkins (our wagonmaster), Jim Ploesser, Ursula Dinse, and Ray Leuenberger. Note the ever so stylish caravan jackets - we felt like bumblebees (and I opted for the warmer jacket that I won as a door prize in Shediac, NB)!
After a very short trip from the ferry to the aptly named Sunset Park, Tom walked up the adjacent hill and took this photo of our ferry at the dock. There's not much infrastructure left at this World War II installation:
The weather was lovely, sunny and not cold, so after we were settled, we unhitched the car and drove down to the Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, which will be the next topic posted to this blog.
I remember taking our RV on a ferry like this before. How was Shelby when you got back to your rig? I hope okay.
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