Tab 9: Tiverton to Pictou

“That was great but the one thing you don’t want to hear while in a zodiac is ‘are you going to vomit, honey?’”
-Marco, after the whale watch

Call us Ishmael.

Today was whale watch day and we were not disappointed.

To see the whales, we had to drive out to the Digby neck of Nova Scotia and then take a ferry across the bay of Fundy to the booming metropolis of Tiverton. Note the boomingness.

The whale watching outfit we chose was called Ocean Explorations. It is one of the only environmentally friendly whale watches operating out of the Digby neck. The guy operating it, Captain Tom, tries to ensure that his actions don’t harm the whales or the ocean. This appealed to us, especially after the horrifying whale exhibit at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. We didn’t want to participate in contributing to the local dog food industry.

Apparently, to watch whales you must look redunkulous. This is so the whales will approach the zodiac and then linger to laugh at how completely insane you look. This floatation suit is from the 2007 collection and is lightly scented with mildew. Hat is from a giant bucket at the whale watch outfit. Please take a moment to enjoy this look, which I have decided will be my new work outfit (but only when I meet with clients). It’s not only practical… it’s ever-so-slimming.

Hang on a tic – “what’s a zodiac?” you might ask. Well, kids, it is essentially an inflatable pool raft with an outboard motor. You sit on the inflatable edges while the guide whips around in the choppy ocean. Your job is to hold onto the ropes on the top edges of the inflatable bit and try not to jostle uncontrollably about the boat like a rag doll.

We went out about 5 miles from the shoreline of Tiverton. As a warm-up, we saw some pretty cool sea birds

and also some puffins, which you may not be able to see in the following picture but which I assure you, were pufftastic.

Of course, the whales were the real attraction. We were able to get really close (about 20 feet) to some Minke whales and some humpback whales, including a baby humpback. It was very difficult to take pictures, considering the boat was bobbing wildly up and down and I needed one hand to hold on to avoid reenacting Pinocchio.

However, I managed to get this cool movie of a whale “fluking”.

Even though Captain Silas told us that a whale could easily flip over our pool-toy-boat, we remained cool and collected. The only tense moment was when the small blonde boy from Ohio that we were sharing the zodiac with started to turn green. His parents kept telling him in urgent tones that if he needed to vomit, he should do so over the side rather than all over the nice people from Toronto. Of course, nothing ruins a good time like a boat full of puke. Thankfully, he managed to hold it together and we didn’t have to feed him (accidentally-on-purpose) to the humpbacks.

The rest of the day was quite dull. We had to make it to Pictou tonight to catch our ferry to PEI tomorrow. I’m not sure if you’re aware but Tiverton to Pictou is quite a trek… if you don’t believe me, google maps will set you straight. The car trip was uneventful. We stopped in Wolfville for lunch and managed to make it here by 6:15 pm.

Aside from being a modern day ferry connection to Green Gables mania, Pictou (pronounced, pic-toe) has historicality. It was established as part of a development scheme hatched by speculators from Philadelphia in 1760. Under the terms of their land grant, the speculators needed to place 250 settlers near the harbour. That was a problem. Few Philadelphians wanted to live in the middle of absolutely nowhere… I wonder why. So, the company sent a ship called the Hector to Scotland in 1773 to rustle up some impoverished souls who thought starting over in North America was a grand idea.

This worked out a lot better. About 200 passengers came over to the New World, mostly Gaelic-speaking Highlanders. The voyage was baaaad (storms, starvation, etc.) but when they arrived at Pictou, they disembarked playing bagpipes and wearing tartans. Perhaps they should have packed a few more canned goods and a few fewer bagpipes. In any case, the Scottish heritage still pervades the town.

We are staying at the Customs House Inn. It was built in 1872 and renovated in 1997.

The rooms are MASSIVE. Ours is about 18’ x 18’ with 12’ high ceilings. Lots of room for cartwheels and practicing my version of the Anne of Green Gables musical (involving a short gymnastic number.)

The only nasty thing about Pictou (so far) is the horrible blight that can be seen across the harbour:

Ummm… whoever decided to put a giant, smoke-belching pulp and paper mill right across from the town’s waterfront has exceptionally poor judgment. As we were driving to the town, we saw the smoke and thought something was on fire. As it turns out, it pumps out vast amounts of smoke 24 hours a day… I can only imagine what it does to the water. Ick. Remind me not to eat any Pictou scallops.

Tomorrow, we leave Nova Scotia for PEI. See you in Charlottetown.