Tuesday, May 26, 2015
We arrived on time in St. John’s, Newfoundland for our very
short day here today. We were docked from 8am to 1:30pm. At 2pm, we were
sailing away. It is an interesting sail in. We had the land side. Those on the
sea side got to see an iceberg! It looks
like a very nice town to visit. But since our stay here was so short we didn’t
get to visit the city. We had opted to join some people from our Cruise Critic
roll call on a Gatherall’s Puffin & Whale Watch at Witless Bay Ecological
Reserve. It is the largest breeding colony in North America. Gatherall’s is
known for its high speed catamaran which is the smooth ride available out
there. It was still a risky proposition, but I decided to take a chance and
hope for the best. Our organizer got us a special rate of $75 pp which included
transportation to and from Bay Bulls to their pier. It was about a 30 minute
drive out and a bit longer on the scenic route back. Oceania offered what
sounded like the same tour, without listing the vessel. Oceania charged $249 pp
for the same excursion on an unknown boat!
The catamaran appeared to be faster and more stable than the
smaller tour boats we saw out there, but I confess that was small comfort. The
ride was still a horror show. There were at least 12 foot rolling swells as we
left the protected harbor on a boat that was only about 15 feet tall. We climbed
up, had a few seconds of hang time and then fell down the other side. Then they
claimed they sighted a minke whale, so even though they are very hard to sight
in good conditions, the captain stopped the boat and we sat right there at that
breaking point and bobbed and rotated for a good 15 minutes with the minke
being spotted again. That just about did me in. But, I kept my seat outside, in
front of the wheel house until we made it to Gull Island. They said they have
at least 180,000 (either birds or breeding pairs) of puffins! I am sure I must
have seen at least 100,000. I had taken 2 meclizine 2 hours before boarding, I
had on my Relief Band at the highest zap setting and I applied Motion Ease 3
times. I was losing though. When I spotted the humpback whale, I was done. We
hit a calm spot as everyone moved into position to whale watch and I made a
dash for the bench indoors one deck below. I made it and laid down in private.
I managed to fall asleep and only woke up to sit up and vomit up raspberries on
the trip back in. I am very upset as I still feel bad and we have 3 days of
Trans-Atlantic sailing now. I had been doing a really good job on only 1 to 1.5
meclizine a day. I could feel that I was able to ignore the wacky signals from
my ears and yet still function with just proprioception. I could feel that I
was doing something very right to function and enjoy myself and eat on the high
decks and all with very little queasiness. But, I hadn’t been able to figure
out what I was doing or how and now it is gone. I had actually thought that it
was because of the progression of the Meniere’s Disease, that I had finally
reached a stage where there was a benefit, no seasickness at sea. But I was clearly
wrong. Fingers crossed I find my way back to coping tomorrow. The puffins were
amazing and we will absolutely never seen anything like that again!
Tonight I am staying in. We will miss A Celebration of Music
with Siglo, pianist Tim Kruse and Ginger String Quartet with Jean Ann Ryan
Company. Tonight we move the clocks forward 30 minutes. Tomorrow we move them
forward one hour. Tomorrow morning, our deck 7 has the last slot at 11:30am to
1pm to clear UK Immigration. I guess we picked up the immigration officials
today in St. John’s and they are onboard with us until at least Belfast, our
first UK port.
