On the Ferry to North Sydney

We had a leisurely breakfast at The Murray Premise and then headed out.
The drive from St John's to Argentia is only about 2 hours. Just an easy drive.

The distance from Port Aux Basque to Argentia is about 900 kilometres via the Trans Canada highway.  It took us 2,865 kilometres to do that trip. There was a lot of up and down, and over and out on the trip.

The ferry leaves from Argentia, but the town is actually Placentia. Apparently there is no town of Argentia anymore. I realized that was why Argentia would not come up in my GPS.

As we were early for our 5:00 PM departure, we looked around Placentia Bay.
The 1st picture below shows some boats in the harbour, and the next one, just to the right of the boats, and all you can see is fog. It is clear at first, and then the fog literally rolls in and you cannot see anything in just 5 minutes.

With an average of 206 days per year of fog, I guess that is to be expected.

We had time to check out Castle Hill. Castle Hill overlooks Placentia Bay. The French government founded a colony there in 1662. They called the colony Plaisance. They were attracted here by large quantities of codfish, highly prized in Europe. From Castle Hill, they were able to defend the colony from the British.

You can see the cannons that helped defend the Bay, as well as some pictures of the Bay from Castle Hill.

Placentia proved to be a poor choice for the French colonists.
Despite the successful fortifications at Castle Hill, Placentia had serious problems.
The British could blockade the bay fairly easily, and thus the French colonists had limited access to basic supplies. The French colony was destined to fail.
And that's why Plaisance became Placentia!!!

On our way to Digby, (while still on Cape Breton Island) we noticed a couple of signs that said,
Caution: Beware of blowing snow. I checked the outside temperature gauge in the car and it said 28C.
I guess that's why the maritime folks say "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes"

Time to head to the ferry. Our ship is called the Atlantic Vision.
The picture is only the front part of the ship as it was too large for the camera.

What a wonderful ship. They have 2 restaurants, 2 bars, a movie theatre, and anything else you may want.
Our cabin, although a 4 berth, was booked for just the two of us.

We spent the evening in the colours lounge where a girl played music (singing, piano and guitar) from 6:00 PM until 11:00 PM.
The pictures below will show why the lounge is called the colours lounge.

A good nights sleep on the ferry, coffee and muffins in the morning, and we were on our way by 9:00 PM.
Only a 16 hour crossing. Wonderful.

Off to Digby. Now Digby is about 6 hour drive from North Sydney, and we arrived around 3:30.
Our B&B is called "Come from Away" and is excellent.
You may or may not know but Digby is the "scallop" capital of the world"
We went out for dinner and Joe had the scallops and Bonnie had the pasta!!!
The beer and wine were real good as well.

The 1st picture is from our B&B and the 2nd is from the restaurant where we had dinner.

Today was an overcast day for the most part. If tomorrow is any better, I will attempt some more pictures of the beautiful town of Digby.

Tomorrow morning we are off to get the ferry to St John, New Brunswick.  It leaves at 11:00 AM. Stay tuned.