Last Day, here and in Newfoundland . . .
A lot going on today trying to get ready to leave here tomorrow morning.
But a lot still left to do.
So no real blog post today. But here’s the next volume in the continuing saga of our visit to Newfoundland in 2009.
I will try to catch up with what went on today in tomorrow’s blog.
More then . . .
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Thought for the Day:
TEAMWORK means never having to take all the blame yourself.
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Ferry, Ferry Bad…
Posted on September 9, 2009
Today is our day to catch the ferry back to North Sydney, NS, and the 30 mile drive back to our coach & cats in Louisbourg.
And we had another great view out our hotel window.
We’re supposed to be at the ferry by 10 am for a 11:30 departure so we head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast about 8:30. While we were eating we overheard someone saying the ferry was running late, about 6 hours late.
It should have been here at 7:00 am to get unloaded and ready for us to start loading at 10 and sailing at 11:30. But it wouldn’t be here until 1 pm with our departure scheduled for 3:30 pm.
We’ll see.
Since it was bright and sunny today, we decided to kill time by taking the 30 mile drive out to Rose Blanche Lighthouse a ways down the coast. We didn’t do it yesterday afternoon because it was so foggy.
The drive was really something.
After driving out to the lighthouse, we didn’t actually SEE the lighthouse. Jan didn’t want to make the long walk up the hill, and I didn’t want to pay the $5 admission to make the long walk up the hill to SEE the lighthouse.
But the drive was worth the trip, and it didn’t cost me $5.
We got back to the hotel and checked out about 11:30, and after waiting about an hour we saw our ship, the Atlantic Vision, come steaming in. She maneuvered into the harbor and then turned around and backed in, smooth as can be. Bow thrusters are amazing.
So now our truck is parked in the boarding line and Jan and I are sitting in the terminal lounge waiting to board…and waiting and waiting…
FLASH… We just heard over the PA that boarding will now start at 3:30 pm and the ship will depart as soon as it’s loaded. This will probably take at least an hour. It’s now 2:45 pm. We’ll see.
Well, they called us to our vehicles about 3:30 and we started actually boarding about 3:45 pm. By 4:00 pm we were setting in the lounge aboard ship. And about 4:20 we finally left the dock. This ship is very nicely decorated, almost like a cruise ship. Which I guess it really is, only for shorter cruises.
AV Interior
The Captain came on the PA and said we would be traveling at full speed (27 knots) to try and make up some of the lost time. Yeah, like the extra 5 knots is going to make up for the fact that we are running 5 hours behind schedule.
Well, Bummer! I’ve just found out that I’m Internetless and CellPhoneless.
Although this ship is 15 years newer than the one we came over on, and has electrical plugs everywhere, it has no Internet access or cell phone service. It has been down all summer since the satellite uplink/downlink is broken.
This trip just keeps getting better. A little before 6:30 pm Jan and I went down to the restaurant to try out the great buffet we had heard about. Where we discovered that they were closing because they had run out of food!
I guess it was really great…for some people.
So it’s off to the snack bar for cold sandwiches. Oh boy!
It’s now about 7:15 pm. The Captain just came on the PA and said we will be docking in about an hour. Let’s hope so.
8:15 pm. Well, we’re kind of here. But it seems like they’re having trouble getting docked. They keep starting and stopping and moving around.
9:00 pm. They just called us to our vehicles so there’s a mad rush for the stairs and elevators.
And at 9:15 pm we finally moved off the ship. At least the truck started this time!
Got home a little after 10 pm. Cats were OK. Rig is OK.
Tomorrow we have a long 300 mile trip to Halifax, NS
Long day. Going to bed
More tomorrow…
adsfdsf
