Whales and Bergs

Sunday afternoon was another windy day for a boat ride; but that was better than the 100% chance of rain they were calling for on Monday morning.  You could see some of the houses in St. Anthony along the harbor as we headed out the bay.

St. Anthony is a big fishing community and there were a lot of big fishing boats.

Many of the boats had huge rolls of nets.

To the south, we could see the lighthouse at St. Anthony at Fishing Point....

...and the restaurant we were going to Tuesday night for The Great Viking Feast.  (Real fancy, don't you agree?)

They took us out of the bay but not too far because the water was rougher today. 

The guide told us that if he or we spotted a whale we were to say “Thar she blows!”  It was not too long after we got out past the bay that we spotted some whales. 

Because they move so fast and the water was so rough, I decided the best thing to do was to take some videos.  This clip is the best one where you can get some idea of size of the whales.

I only caught the spout in this clip but Chuck could see it better through his binoculars.

And in this very short clip, I once again get just the tale.

The whales we saw were humpback and they were huge. .. and beautiful.  When they moved, it was like they were in slow motion. 

We got to see some Atlantic dolphins too as they would follow along the boat.  Unfortunately, the water was just too rough, so we had to head back into the bay.

They took us to the iceberg we had seen from the land.

It was even more beautiful up close.

Pieces of the iceberg had broken off and were floating in the water around it.

The boat in this picture gives you an idea of how big the iceberg was and what we see is only about 1/8th of the total berg.  The rest of it is under the water.

It makes me cold just looking at the pictures.

You could see cracks in the iceberg and hear it popping in the water.

It was just so beautiful; I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it.

Listen to the guide’s explanation regarding the icebergs.

The "bergie bits" would pop and fizzle in the water.  Listen to how it sounds like something frying in a skillet:

The guide went iceberg fishing and brought a few bergie bits up on deck for us to taste.

Surprisingly, it didn’t taste like salt water.

And it is some of the purest ice you can eat.

As we headed back to the dock, the guide pointed out the pots that the fishermen use to catch the big snow crab.

The guide was very good and talked not only about the whales and the icebergs but also about the Newfoundland culture too.

Seeing the bergs and the whales up close made for a really fun and adventurous day.