Who thought making people set their watches 30 minutes ahead was funny?
This is what we had to do before going to bed last night. When clocks strike the hour in most other parts of the world, clocks in Newfoundland are striking the half-hour. Newfoundland is not alone, however, in not conforming to hourly increments based on GMT/UTC.
The passage from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, was long enough that we arrived there early in the afternoon.
Although there was fairly heavy cloud cover, visibility was clear as we approached the Bay of Islands. Crossing through the bay, INSIGNIA proceeded up Hummer Arm to Corner Brook.
Today we did a tour titled Captain Cook's Trail.
Our first stop was an overlook named the Captain James Cook National Historic Site. Cook visited Newfoundland several times, including a four-year stint doing cartography of the entire coastline.
Our next stop was Lark Harbour. Before getting there, our guide assured us it was full of fishing boats. Upon arriving there, that quickly changed to all the boats except one that was out fishing.
Rolling down into York Harbor, we were told that we would stop for a snack and have the chance to view a variety of crafts - not the boat kind - in the basement of St. James Church Congregation. This sounded like a complete groan that would waste daylight. I was so wrong. It was an authentic Newfoundland experience, unpolished and completely natural. The welcome was sincere. The ladies serving the homemade snacks, which they probably each made, were fun to chat with. The crafts had all been in and around York Harbor by artisans who were happy just to talk about their work. This experience was delightful because it completely surprised everyone on the bus (except the guide and driver).
Our last stop on the tour was Bottle Cove. Unfortunately, the sun chose that moment to come out full force and directly into our eyes. Amplifying our inability to appreciate the scene was its reflection off the water.
To help entertain us as we rolled along, our guide told us bad jokes, passed around her scrapbooks, and spoke eloquently on any question she chose to answer, even if it wasn't the one asked. A case in point: a passenger asked about tidal fluctuations. This evoked a five-minute rant on the local tax structure. When he repeated the question, emphasizing the word "tidal", she allowed that the tides did not come up high enough to wash across the road.
Back on the ship, several of us surmised that she might be a mite deaf. We guessed she was about eighty. We knew it was her birthday because the ladies in the church basement announced it and led us in singing "Happy Birthday" to her. We all agreed that she was a character as genuine as the ladies in that church basement.
As we approached Corner Brook, darkness was settling in, and we rolled past a fish plant and the lumber mill. We were assured that all the white smoke emanating from the plant was steam, not pollutants.
After getting off the bus at the pier, Pam & I scrambled to catch a tender back to the ship. The tour returned later than expected, and we had a dinner reservation at one of the specialty restaurants aboard the ship.
Four people who had appeared to be close friends were ahead of us. When the six of us got to the ramp, we were told there were only two seats left. We thought the friends would want to go back together, yielding the two remaining seats to Pam and me. Wrong. Without discussion or hesitation, one couple stepped forward and down the ramp. There was no suggestion that the wives of the foursome should go first. Nope, it was "Hasta la vista, baby!" and the couple was gone. Either they were not friends (anymore), or one woman was the older sister.
When Pam & I did get back aboard, we had fifteen minutes before our reservation slot expired. We climbed up two decks, walked the ship's length, and climbed up two more decks. We then walked to our stateroom, changed our clothes, went up three more flights of stairs, and presented ourselves to the maitre d', where we were told there was an additional allowance because of tender congestion at the pier.
INSIGNIA got underway while we were enjoying our dinner at a window facing aft, so we watched the lights of Corner Brook fade astern as the ship began an approximately 40-hour passage to Saguenay, Quebec.
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