Day 35 – August 7th – Norris Point
Today’s weather looked very threatening when we
woke up and we were concerned if the outdoor activity (Kayaking) we had booked
was going to proceed.
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| A Pan of Norris Point Harbour |
Off to the Norris Point docks we went to start
our kayaking adventure. We had booked
the 3-hour tour (sound familiar? No, the first mates name was not Gilligan so
we felt safe J). The weather started to show improvement and the forecast called for
showers maybe after lunch, never happened!
While waiting to start our kayaking adventure we
watched dock hands unload a cargo vessel that was carrying road salt. Truck after truck backed up onto the dock for
awhile two cranes unloaded the salty cargo.
Evidently this is done at every community along the coast for the
upcoming winter.
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| Going Under the Waterfalls! |
Diane and I had a double with Joan and Vance
each taking a single kayak. It was
interesting trying to get this 6’ 4” body through a plastic hole cut in a long
tube and sit down with a life vest and a water proof skirt. Hmmm, there are supposed to be rudder pedals
here somewhere?? Found them, the last
person to use this kayak must have been 4’ nothin’!! Good, now we got the rudder pedals all set
up, the skirt is on, oh crap the camera is still in my pocket…..got it! They slid us into the water and we floated
away, hmmm we are floating, maybe I don’t have to go on that diet J. Too bad if you have to pee now, we are on the
water!
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| Joan and Vance |
The water was very calm as we paddled across the
narrows to our first feature, the water is so clear here; it is very similar to
the Caribbean, but just a little colder.
One of the most interesting features of this area is the there are two
arms of the ocean where Norris Point and Woody Point are located. The Woody Point arm is about 240 feet deep
whereas the Norris Point arm’s depth goes down to 800+ feet. The narrows where we crossed in the kayaks is
shallow in comparison which does not allow the deep-sea creatures and
vegetation to mix with the rest of the area waters and keeps this as a very
pristine area. This allows marine
biologists to study the deep-sea creatures and vegetation without having to
travel out into the deep oceans depths and challenging weather systems.
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| Mary and a King Crab |
We continued our tour along the shoreline at a
leisurely pace, our marine specialist; Mary (student) explained the different
species we could see in the crystal clear water. We saw three bald eagles swooping down along
the water trying to catch breakfast – big birds!
Our tour finished up with a tour of the Marine
Station on the docks of Norris Point.
Mary gave us a very good talk on the different studies and research
going on at the station. She showed us
live Wolf Fish, Sea Anemones, King Crabs and Lobsters, including three Blue
Lobsters which are very rare. Some other
tidbits of information included; a whale’s baleen is made out of the same
material as our finger nails and the “sea peach” is an ancestor of humans.
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| "Herman" The Blue Lobster |
The marine station is only open in the summer
most of the sea creatures are returned to their habitat for the winter with the
exception of the Blue Lobsters and the King Crabs, the lobsters are watched
over during the winter while the King Crabs are, well let’s just say the
students and staff have a very nice season wind-up dinner J.
Following the tour and lunch we toured around a
couple of the local craft stores both in Norris Point and Rocky Harbour and
then headed back to the trailers for happy hour.
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| Mike and Bob Gibson |
They say the world seems to be getting smaller,
I agree with that. During happy hour at
Vance and Joan’s a Class “C” motorhome pulled in beside us with Ontario
plates. Of course once the driver got
out it was “What part of Ontario are you from”, and I thought gee that guy looks
familiar, of course Bob Gibson, I used to work with Bob. He was a helicopter pilot with MNR before he
retired. Yes, it is a small, small
world!! Following happy hour Joan and
Vance joined us for a Chili dinner and some picture viewing.
Another good day had by all!! Wow, meeting a guy
I used to work with in Newfoundland – cool!
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