July 10th, 2024

This was our first time to St Anthony and it is a tender port. we had booked a tour off the ship to go whale and ice berg watching. Apparently the arctic currents take the icebergs right past St Anthony so it is a popular place to see them. We anchored at 9 and we went down to get our tender tickets a little before then. We did not have to wait long until they called us to board the tender. It was about a 30 minute ride to the pier in downtown St Anthony. We walked over to the next pier which is where our boat ride was supposed to leave from and they had the inflatable boat and a bigger boat with an inside cabin. When we booked they had asked us which we preferred and we said the inflatable boat. There were several other people from the boat on the pier but all of them wanted the bigger boat with the cabin. After a few minutes someone came over and told us we were the only 2 that had booked the inflatable boat for 10am so would we consider coming back at noon or going on the bigger boat. We explained that we really wanted the inflatable and after a little bit of discussion the owner of the company said he would take just the 2 of us out for our own private ride. We had to go put on our survival suits and then off we went.

The picture on the left is the boat we went on but this was the afternoon tour. This is Kathy and me in our survival suits on our return from our ride. The wind did a number on our hair. You can see the bigger boat in the back ground. The inflatable was unlike any we had been in before and the seats were more like saddles where you sat on them with your feet on either side. It was actually very steady and since there were only 2 of us we were behind the wind and spray screen but we still got splashed quite a bit.

We went along the coast of Newfoundland and Kier, our boat captain and the owner of the company, told us all about living in St Anthony. He also explained that all the ice bergs were gone, the last one they saw was 2 weeks ago. He took us to a large sea cave.

Largest sea cave in Newfoundland.

After the sea cave we headed off in search of whales. Apparently this is a favorite spot for humpbacks and fin whales to feed. He got a couple of radio calls telling him where some whales were seen and he explained to us that his uncle was up on one of the cliffs overlooking the ocean spotting for him. His uncle is 84 and does this for fun.

It took us a little bit but we did see a humpback and followed it around for about 30 minutes.

The whale back

Same whale, 2 different fluke views

Tail shots

Our boat at anchor

After about and hour we headed back in and got in at the same time as the big boat which had 26 people on it. The other boat never saw the whales. As we were taking off our survival gear we overhead a couple asking for their money back since they saw no whales or ice bergs.

There is not much to do in St Anthony so we mainly walked around and found a pub that served some food and local beer and had live music. They were also going to do a “screech’ ceremony at 2pm for anybody who wanted to become an honorary Newfoundlander. If anyone saw the broadway musical Come from Away they know what a screech ceremony is. Basically you drink a shot of local liquor, a short recitation and kiss a cod fish. We did not stick around for the ceremony.

Our lunch snack, artichoke dip and onion rings.

After lunch we walked around some more.

We came across this Mallard family with Mom, her chicks and the male Mallards all tucked in for a nap.

Some of the wildflowers on our walk.

We were expecting cool weather and while we were on the inflatable it was chilly but walking around town it got a little warm and we were taking off our jackets and rolling up our sleeves.

Boats were everywhere

We went into the one grocery store we found and the prices were quite high but we also noticed that they had Kirkland products on the shelf even though it was a Coleman’s grocery store. We think someone drives to the closest Costco which is 5 hours away and brings back stuff that they sell in the local grocery store.

Around 3pm we took the tender back to the boat. We heard from lots of people that the tender process to get in was not well done and some people waited 3 hours to get a tender. Not sure what happened but not well handled.

These are a couple of fishing boats that mainly fish for shrimp and crab. We asked why they were so short and we were told that the longer the boat the more you had to pay in taxes to the government so they have these short boats.

Some views from the boat and on the right is the channel we sailed into town. Our boat captain in the morning told us that the channel is called a “tickle” in Canada. He also told us that this “tickle” completely freezes over in the winter.

It took a bit to get all the tenders back and stowed away so we sailed around 6pm. We are pretty far up north so the sun rises at 4am and sets at 9:30pm. The sun came out right before we sailed.

The Newfoundland coast line.

Before sailing the Captain came on to tell us we had a change in the itinerary. He said that our next 2 ports in Greenland, both tender ports, had too much ice in the harbors so we would not be able to get to either one of them. We are instead going to go to the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, and the good news is we dock there instead of having to tender. We are fine either way since there really is not much to do in Greenland anyway. So we have 3 days at sea and then Nuuk and then 3 more days at sea before Iceland.

The seas have been incredibly calm. So calm that we have not felt the boat move at all. Amazingly smooth. Also due to the warm air and the cold water we have had tons of fog. At times we are totally fogged in and the boat is sounding the fog horn every 5 minutes even during the night.

Next day at sea and since going north it will be colder.