St. Martins 1, New Brunswick, Canada

We left P.E.I. on Thursday morning about 7:00 am – before any of the other campers were awake.  I did not trust the GPS so the night before I did it the old fashioned  way – I used a paper fold up map and carefully plotted our route to the bridge leaving the island.  We were doing great until we could see the bridge – then I screwed up – I thought what harm could it do and turned on the GPS and followed the instructions she was giving – instantaneously we were lost down some back road leading away from the bridge – I turned her off and found an old trucking yard to turn around in and we were back on track after a few corrections.   It is interesting they let you on the island for free but it cost us $62.00 to leave.

The drive to St. Martins was uneventful and little Miss Know-It -All did not lead us astray.  Lots of forest and lakes that all look like they would be good places to do some fly fishing but it is just not feasible when pulling the trailer.

Sunday July 9, 2017

It’s been a couple of days since we have done the blog so today is a catch-up day.  We are doing the laundry and there is an attached kitchen with some tables so we are catching up.  The weather here is dreadful – it’s about 70 degrees with a good stiff wind blowing.

We relaxed a little after we arrived and started planning our activities for St. John.  We decided to find a B&B in St. John and June Yvonne found a gem.  It was two homes build on a hill by a man who owned a ship building company in 1858.  The houses were on the same level and mirror images of each other.  In 2000 the owner of the two houses decided to join the two houses with a huge living room and basement area.  The house is beautifully decorated and still has many of the pieces of furniture and decorations from 1858.  There are new owners who just purchased the property 4 months ago – they are a young couple from Beijing – he was a programmer with IBM for many years and was looking for a change.  The previous owner also used it as a B&B for 25 years prior to selling but was getting too old to keep up with it.  Having a little construction experience I looked around the place and I don’t think the new owner realized how much work will need to go into the structure itself.  They are very nice people, kind, gentle and great hosts – we wish them all the best.

We visited the City Market which was interesting but very small – they have tried to follow the model of Pike Market in Seattle and Faneuil Hall in Boston but haven’t come close – we were through it in about 45 minutes.  After getting a bite to eat we walked along the boardwalk for a short way and stopped for a coffee.  Decided to check into the B&B and once we were settled went for Chinese.  Our host, David, recommended a place nearby for great Chinese food so we went there – on a scale it was maybe a “B”.

On the way back to the B&B we stopped in at the Reversing Falls which is a local tourist attraction here – it is quite the site.  It is hard to explain but I will take a shot at it.  I hope that I can attach the three videos that I took so they will help with the explanation.

Two tectonic plates have come together over the last 700 million years creating a very narrow gorge for the waters of the St. John river and the tide from the Bay of Fundy to pass through – in the opposite direction.  In addition there are a series of three underwater steps below the surface with some sections 175 to 200 feet deep.

The St. John River is the only outlet for Northern Main, Vermont and New Brunswick – a total of 55,000 square miles – consequently 2.2 million cubic feet of water pass through this gorge every second – with just that alone you can imagine the turbulence that is created by the force of this capacity of water as it passes through the gorge and over the subsurface topography. Those tides and the volume of water are driven by the Atlantic Ocean so that is a force that will not be denied.

Well the two forces meet at the gorge and it is a battle that occurs twice a day.  When there is a low tide the water from the river flows over the underwater escarpments with such force that the turbulence created class 5 rapids and because it is flowing down stream ii is referred to as “falls” although the falls are underwater.  At high tide the force of the tide water is so powerful that it overcomes the force of the river water and pushes the river water back up the river for 90 miles.  At high tide the tide waters rises 29 feet.  The force of the water going upstream against the underwater escarpments creates such force and turbulence that the rapids are also considered class five and have taken a few lives over the years.

There is also a period of calm in this battle between the two forces and that is called the slack tide.  That is when the river and the tide are at the same height and on the surface the waters are deceptively very calm.  It is the only time that boats can navigate safely through the gorge.  The slack tide is only a momentary point in time as the waters change direction as one overpowers the other.  Almost like throwing a ball straight into the air – it goes up but before it can start coming down it has to stop for just a millisecond before it changes direction and starts coming down.  The change in the flow of water happens and gradually picks up speed and force over the opposing current whether it is low tide or high tide.

The tidal schedule is what determines the timing of the event so it happens twice each day everyday and can be witnessed from several vantage points.  Trouble is you have to show up at specific times during the day to catch the water flow at it’s peak.

The three video clips at the bottom illustrate this phenomena   PRC

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LAST NIGHT IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (Wednesday, July 5)

We celebrated our last night in PEI with lobster of course. That is, Peter had lobster, I had scallops. When ordering we asked about the gender of the lobster. Our waiter told Peter it would be fortunate if he got a female lobster as the eggs are considered delicious by many.  OK, enough about lobsters for now. FYI: Peter’s goal is to have at least one lobster in each Maritime province.

St. MARTINS, NEW BRUNSWICK (Thursday, July 6)

We arrived in St. Martins, New Brunswick to very windy weather. We ate chili beans for dinner (not lobster) as they are relatively easy to make in the trailer.

St. JOHN (Friday, July 7)

As the weather forecast predicted decent weather for two days we decided to drive into St John, about an hour drive from St. Martin. Peter suggested spending the night there and seeing some of the sights that interested us. I found a really cool B and B – Homeport Historic B&B. It really was quite lovely. It was the highlight of our getaway.

The new owners of the B &B are from Beijing, China. The husband, David previously worked for IBM. They are a very gracious couple who are lovingly restoring and maintaining the inn. It’s a lot of work, as it was built in 1858. They provided a delicious breakfast of fruit, muffins and eggs Benedict. Friday night Peter asked the wife, Anne what was for breakfast the next day – she said “bent eggs.” I had no idea what that meant but was presently surprised in the morning.

Before checking into the Inn in the afternoon, we spent the morning at the St. John City Market. I was hoping for something like Pike’s Market where I could pick up some smoked fish. No such luck. It was colorful but not very big.

After some coffee, we walked to the Saint John Jewish Museum. As  Sephardic and “crypto-Jew, I was interested in Jewish history in Canada. We were given a tour by an engaging young woman who belongs to what now is the only synagogue in St. John. The St. John Jewish Community was founded in 1858 by a family from England. The second wave of Jewish immigration began in 1892 . By the 1960’s, the grandchildren of the immigrants were leaving the city to pursue educational and employment opportunities  in larger Canadian and American cities. Consequently it is a small community now days and they don’t have a rabbi.  For High Holy Days, a cantor from Montreal drives down to do services.

The inn where we stayed had an extensive collection of DVD’s. We saw the movie “Snow Walker,” filmed and produced in Canada. The location was Nunavik close to the Arctic Circle. It was excellent and I would highly recommend it. (By the way, Canadian singer  Michael Buble had a cameo in the movie.) We have not watched TV since leaving Phoenix on May 11. Consequently watching a movie is kind of exciting and a novelty for us.

Saturday we went to see the “Reversing Falls Rapids,” another attraction we planned to see in St. John. It’s not quite as dramatic visually as it sounds although the geological phenomenon is quite spectacular. The reversing waterfalls occurs underwater. The Reversing Falls Rapids are created by the daily collision of the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River.  At different times in the tide cycle, there are three distinct interactions between these two bodies of water. They are low tide, slack tide and high tide. We managed to get photos of all three tide conditions.

St. John is an old port city. It is my least favorite  of the Canadian cities we have visited. It’s very industrial looking. We visited the Falls View Park and enjoyed watching the reversing rapids, the seals and the cormorants. However, the scenic views were marred by the refinery or maybe a pulp mill in the background.  (See pic.)  JY

 

 

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Video 1 – high tide – incoming tidal flow moving from right to left – the tide raises the water level 28 feet above the surface level of the river over powering the force of the 2.2 million gallons per second flowing out of the river

 

Video 2 – slack tide – when the surface of the two opposing water flows are at the same level there is little to no surface turbulence.

 

Video 3 – low tide – as the tide goes out the water level drops 28 feet and the surface of the tide becomes lower than the surface of the river – this allows the 2.2 million gallons per second of river water to flow through the gorge unabated.