Early in our stay at Salty Towers, we had asked about the chance of whale watching and possibly Sea Kayaking. Jamie knew of several outfits offering whale watching experiences departing from St. Andrews. He knew of no Kayak places departing from the area. He did have a recommendation for whale watching from Kayak’s offered by Bruce of Seascape Kayak Tours https://goo.gl/maps/4b1iqXYzwwYHrTjRA http://www.seascapekayaktours.com/ Bruce returned a voice message to Silvia indicating he had spot open on Sunday August 1st. This was or departure day from St. Andrews as we drop east to St. johns. It meant a relatively early departure to catch a free ferry to Deer island. I had pre packed a bit so our early morning departure and packing was not that tough. It was nice to stop at a fish ladder along the way at St. George Falls https://goo.gl/maps/2XccaBoxam8wvgWA8
We made very good time to the ferry and were the first of 3 cars to board. There is no obvious signs of where to stop and line up for the ferry on both sides. We kinda looked like goofs lining up in the wrong line. The ferry pulled in pretty quick as it’s only a 20 minute crossing. We waited while buddy had a smoke break and found the time to board is indicated by a toot of the horn. Covid prevented us from leaving the vehicle so pics were not abundant. From the other side I could see people looking at our overloaded fit and smirking. Departing on hill climbs required a slow approach else the trail hitch (I hope) would strike the ground. We had time to spare on Deer Island so we found and blasted past Bruce’s place as I feared his place was a dead end road. Not far from Bruce’s is a nice little town called Leonard Ville https://goo.gl/maps/JqdqXRy6tRvMrcxo8 and a wharf offering great pics. We are very close to the American border so there is also a Canadian Border control thingy there as well.
It was soon time to head towards Bruce’s place. It was a dead end and his driveway was a little bumpy/rocky. I think we bottomed out 3 times and he mentioned he heard us later lol. I saw someone who turned out to be Bruce on the beach chilling out. We left him to chill while we got our Kayak gear and clothes ready. Soon same across Guy Quinn an employee of the company http://www.seascapekayaktours.com/about/our-staff/. We shared stories of riding, botany, and no longer living in the city. Guy’s brother was huge onto genealogy so I gave him my card for further communication with my Dad. Perhaps I should learn and take on what he knows.
Bruce was soon walking up to greet us as others came in to Kayak. Bruce was very chill. He offers Kayak tours for 3 months in Canada and 8 months in Costa Rica. You could tell he found his lives purpose many moons ago. We met the other guests Lou/Hugh, Jared/Jessica and Maria. Bruce sized us up for life jackets, gave us each a Kayak bib and life jacket and soon soon lugging our stuff down to the beach. Bruce had several tandem and single Kayaks setup for us. The couples went tandem while Marie and Bruce went single. Getting into the bib required a bit of training as well as comfortable paddle setup and posture.
We practiced getting into our seats and setting up the bibs on land first. I felt kinda bad sitting in the thing on the rocks and sand but Bruce indicated they are pretty beefed up at the bottom. After our little land based training 4 people shared the load of 1 tandem at a time. They are kinda heavy.
It was not long before we were on the water, putting down our rudder and zipping around practicing our turns. This was my first time in a decent Kayak and certainly a tandem. It turn’s very slow but took not much time to master. It was very nice to follow Bruce up front for a while and witness his calm. We ping ponged around point a various land marks as we searched for life. We saw a few small creatures, plenty of birds but no whales. We did witness a few Whale watching boats flying by with their motors blaring. Not seeing whales from a Kayak is still better than that noise. We took frequent breaks on the water so nobody got burned out. We parked at an awesome break spot for tea, snacks, pee and photos. It was a good time to sit and chat with our random new friends. Bruce made tea and hot chocolate for any who asked. Yum. Lou had brought apples, zucchini, cucumber and a homemade dip. She passed out several to me and others, yum again.
After popping back into our craft, we were once again ping ponging back towards where we started. Bruce and others had no pressing need to get back on time so we took an extended trip. In fact several times we all just stopped paddling and floated along with the incoming tide. We landed back in Bruce’s beach at low tide so the craft were much further from his home. A few longer trips later and we had all our stuff and his parked and ready for the next tour. I had mentioned to others my phone camera takes impressive pictures so I passed around my card asking for emails if any wanted a links to my images. It was sad to depart the others and Bruce but we knew we would meet him again. We slowly crept out of Bruce’s space and only bottomed out once. We arrived like idiots again at the ferry crossing and someone selling ice cream told us where to park. It’s essential wait at the stop sign. Silvia and I had to check out his Ice Cream. It was wonderful. You could tell it was homemade. I asked him about it and he also was a Torontonian who sold his wares in the city at one time. He now sells his stuff on Deer Island. Go grab some https://www.mercuryicecream.ca/
Sadly we had to leave Deer island, get onto the highway and head the City of St. John. I had picked an Airbnb that was relatively close to getting on the 8 AM Ferry the next day. The reviews for the Airbnb I picked were decent but it was wound up feeling like sketchy part of town. https://goo.gl/maps/X6iuDTrRYoebmYnm8 In fact the entire area felt sketchy. We were so used to friendly St. Andrews that the less than friendly people in their crappy row housing neighborhood kinda felt yucky. The Airbnb was clean enough and offered decent internet speeds and a great shared kitchen. It was all we needed to 1 nights sleep. We walked to a place with good reviews through an empty sketchy neighborhood and entered a mostly empty restraint called Locks Stocks and Barrels https://www.facebook.com/lockstockandbarrels/. The food was great and we watched a few Olympic events for entertainment. We headed home full and baked from the day, packed a bit and tried to sleep anticipating the next day Ferry craziness. BTW, We had to park on the road and Silvia was so nervous with the crazy noise outside she wanted to move the car to a safer location. I reminded her the party outside was NB Day. I secretly was nervous as well but took a chance that we would be ok. We were.
