This day started at 8:00pm yesterday when we checked in at the Marine Atlantic ferry port in North Sydney, NS. We had booked passage on the 11:15pm overnight ferry to Newfoundland. We did this in February of this year and this was the only ferry sailing today that had any availability! If you plan on traveling to Newfoundland by ferry, heed this advice and book 4-6 months in advance, especially if you are traveling in the Summer months.
Transport Canada does not permit travelers to remain in their vehicles during the crossing and as such the ferry has cabins or fully reclining ‘sleeping chairs’ that can be booked. We were waitlisted in February for a cabin. Fingers-crossed that our names are called for a cabin that someone didn’t show up for.
Ferry loading is uneventful and takes almost 2 full hours. These ferries are huge, here is what Google tells me the vehicle capacity of the ferry we are taking is:
Marine Atlantic’s MV Highlanders Ro-Pax ferry has a total vehicle capacity of 2,840 lane meters. This translates to a maximum of 570 standard passenger vehicles or 190 lorries/tractor-trailers, spread across 4 designated vehicle decks.
There was a good mix of tractor trailers (almost 2 1/2 decks) plus a full deck of cars and almost 1/2 deck of recreational vehicles.
Deck 7 is the general passenger deck with a cafe, restaurant, bar and general seating area for those that don’t have reserved cabins or sleeping chairs…… we’re still hoping!
We find a couple of chairs and although they recline, not fully. Lots of legroom and windows to look out of (albeit nighttime). There are also televisions scattered about playing a variety of shows and sports.
Shortly after 11:00pm the ferry departs having fully loaded all vehicles. We begin to hear names being called offering them upgraded sleeping accommodations. This goes on for about an hour, each time groups of names are read we await to hear ours. However, the final announcement stating that all cabins have now been sold means that we will have to make do in our semi-reclining seating for the remainder of the night.
It was a long night. We had trouble getting comfortable enough for a good sleep and so the night passes with the both of us getting just a couple of hours of sleep. 5:20am arrives, the sun is above the horizon and we begin to get ourselves organized to go to the restaurant for breakfast. A hot egg breakfast was welcomed after a mostly sleepless night.
Shortly before 7:30am we arrived in Port-aux-Basques, NL. Unloading is always easier than loading and within 20 minutes of returning to our van we were driving off of the ferry and onto Newfoundland roads.
Navigating out of town we head North about 20 minutes to find a roadside rest stop where we can have a nap. We stayed for a couple of hours catching up on missed sleep before returning to the highway and heading to Corner Brook where we plan on spending the night.
About halfway to Corner Brook Barb saw a young moose standing near the other side of the road. It was being watched by someone in a Ministry vehicle probably ensuring that it retreated into the woods rather than try to cross the highway. This is the first sighting of four items that Barb is hoping to see on this trip, the others being an iceberg, a puffin a whale. 1 down 3 to go. Sorry, no picture of the moose.
Arriving in Corner Brook we stopped by the tourist information location, but it was closed. So we headed to the Margaret Bowater Park where we parked in a shady spot and relaxed for the afternoon, still recovering from our long night at sea.
Later in the afternoon we went out for a walk about the park and then drove to the local A&W for a burger. When we returned we located to another spot within the parking area and setup for the evening. This is where we will spend the night.
We have BIG things planned for tomorrow.