Day Thirteen – Baa Haba

July 3, 2016 – Puffins and More

Since we’ve got to be up at yuck o’clock (read that as 5:00) to get to the whale watch, we push the time back a half hour to 4:30 so we can watch the sunrise. Amazingly we both actually get up!! And the weather is perfect and the sun rises!  Life is good!

There is plenty of time to do all the morning stuff (even make this stupid blogger program upload my photos!) and get down to the office to pick up our breakfast-to-go.  We drive downtown and on the way check out the locations for tomorrow’s Fourth of July festivities.  We’ll have to walk from the Village Green because you’ve got to be nuts to try to drive and park in the village on a national holiday! There will be a seafood festival, arts and crafts, a blueberry pancake breakfast, lobster races, several concerts, and, of course, fireworks.

We park and cross our fingers that our tour hasn’t been cancelled again.  And it hasn’t!  I wander and take a few photos while Marilyn gives her heel a break.  I get to see a lobsterman loading his traps into his boat., and as I’m heading back, I get a text from Marilyn telling me that the boat is loading.

They scan our tickets and we climb up to the top deck of the Friendship V.  We are introduced to Captain Larry, Deanne, who will be our naturalist, and Hailey, who will be her assistant today.  Deanne, who wrote her dissertation in the UK , is with Whale Sense, which ensures that when a boat approaches a whale, they do it in such a way as to not upset or disturb the whale. Hailey is with Allied Whale and is doing research at the College of the Atlantic, across the street from our hotel. 

The ship leaves port at 8:30 and Deanne begins to impart lots of information about whales and lobstermen and some of the many birds we might be seeing. She tells us that there were 7,000 lobstering licenses issued this year and each one entitles the holder to 800 traps.  Each trap is marked with a buoy that has the licensee’s assigned colors and license number. 

We aren’t very far off shore before we experience a bald-eagle fly over!

Next we pass the Egg Light.  This is much closer than we’ve come to it before.  Deanne tells us that it has been chosen as Maine’s ugliest light!  How sad!  I think it’s cute!

Who wouldn't love this light?

Cadillac Mountain

As we approach Petit Manan, a ten-acre island that is a seabird refuge, Deanne tells us that there used to be a family that “kept” the light.  When they left and the light became automated, the gulls moved onto the island and drove off the terns.  Because the terns were the favored species, naturalists tried everything to discourage the gulls.  Eventually they had to poison the gulls, but the scientists were careful to be sure that no other species were affected.  As soon as the gulls were gone, the terns came back and are thriving now.  The island also has puffins and double-crested cormorants and black birds with a big white spot on each wing.

Puffins have such funny wings!

 

Captain Larry turns the boat so that everyone has an equal opportunity to see the multitude of birds in the air, on the island and in the water.  The birds aren’t very large and we aren’t very close.

Now it’s time to go hunting for the big game, the whales.  Instead of the leisurely pace we've become used to, the jet-propelled catamaran really picks up speed!  The wind is fierce and the waves are, um, noticeable! Usually the boat can find finbacks and minke whales and seals, porpoises and dolphins.  Yesterday's bad weather has changed the location of the little fish and krill that the whales eat, and there are no whales to be seen. We do see one seal, but after a lot of time and searching two different spots, Captain Larry says we’ll have to go back.  Not only has the time for the cruise expired;  but there are a couple of people on board who are really feeling the effects of the two and a half foot waves.  I'm fine;  but it was a thrill ride going down to the first deck to get to the bathroom!  Coming back I'm nearly home free when I get to the one stretch where I have to release one handhold before I can get to the next.  There's a lurch and the front two rows of people are impressed that I can catch a railing without landing on my...nose!

On the way back we pass another island that has lots of seals lying on the rocks, taking their ease.  Deanne describes them as brown sausages!

So this is what happens when you release balloons!

Seal playing in the splash zone!

We knew enough to wear lots of layers because it gets cold on the ocean. And when the boat is flying! It was quite a surprise, though, when we were coming back and the temperature seemed to jump twenty degrees in less than a minute! 

 

Captain Larry reminds us that there is a “whale guarantee” and that our tickets will be honored for another tour any time within the next three years.

Once back on land we drop our jackets off at the car and walk down to Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast for pancakes, partly because their ad promises gluten-free pancakes, and partly because it’s really close.  The pancakes are delicious and come out quickly.  The waitress reminds me (actually, I never knew this!) that the syrup has trace amounts of gluten;  but I’ve ordered the blueberry sauce, with whole blueberries in it, so I’m good.  And so is the bacon!

Look at the lobsters and moose made from Jeannie's grand kids' hand and foot prints!

Are they adult in size or text?

 Jeannie is the hostess and cashier and she has two young women who work the tables.  They are a well-oiled machine and Jeannie tells us that she lets the other two suggest new employees, so that everyone gets along.  The restaurant has been open seven years and one of the two ladies has been with her since the beginning.

After lunch (well, after all, it’s well past one o’clock) we head back to the hotel to shed some more layers. The plan had been to go to Acadia for another round of exploration, then wine tasting, then lobster with Marilyn’s friends at Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound.  But plans change.  Marilyn decides to take a nap and we both agree that after all that food we won’t be able to do justice to the lobster.  It also helps that her friends won’t be able to join us tonight. 

We wind up just doing the wine tasting at the Bar Harbor Cellars Winery.  They have an unusual selection of wines in that all their whites and reds are dry!  They make up for it, though with a selection of five fruit wines and an icewine!  For five dollars you can taste six wines, which makes twelve for the two of us.  We are both shocked that one of our three favorites is the pinot noir, Red Pine, from Italy.  Marilyn doesn’t even like red wine!  Our other two are the cranberry wine from Cape Cod and Apple-Raspberry from Nova Scotia and Maine.  We get one of each, so there will be a bottle for the Fourth and two to take to the lake on Tuesday.  

The winery also has a café called Sweet Pea’s Farm Café.  They specialize in wood-fired pizza, but we get two salads to go. When we get home we add the last of our cheese and cherry tomatoes and red peppers, and have quite a feast, sitting outside on our balcony.  We see the four-masted sailing ship   with the red sails leave port again and this time we also notice that there are people on the sand bar.  That's only interesting because the sand bar is only exposed at low tide.  You can walk along it to get to Bar Island;  but you have to be sure to get back before the tide comes back in.  most sources suggest that you allow two hours on either side of low tide for your journey.  Somehow, that wasn’t enough for these folks and they are having to wade back!  On the tour this morning we heard about some people who parked their car on the sand bar and it got flooded! 

Dinner is served, with the fine china, crystal, and sterling flatware!

Baa Haba from our balcony

Since we’ve had our laugh at others' expense, it must be time to pack it in for the evening!  Tomorrow is the parade and we’ll see what else we can fit in before we have company for the evening’s fireworks.