Friday, July 13 - North Sydney, NS to New Foundland Ferry

The day was sort of a lazy, kick back day, starting with getting up late and  organizing our "stuff" to take the overnight ferry to New Foundland.  Our ferry was scheduled to load at 2:30 PM and leave at 3:30 PM.  Its expected sea time for the 325 mile journey was 14 hours, so we expected to arrive in New Foundland at 5:30 AM the next day.

Staying in adjacent rooms at our motel in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, were several couples on motorcycles who were going back home to New Foundland, after attending a big rally on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia.  We enjoyed talking to them for quite a while in the morning.  They were very helpful with our developing plans of where to go and what to see in New Foundland.  As it turned out, they were going on the same ferry, and they sort of included us in their group for the ferry ride.  What a fun and friendly group!

The ocean-going ferry (much like this one - 500 feet long) loaded up on time, and it was surprising to see so many other people on all kinds of motorcycles.  We counted 18 motorcycles awaiting loading.  Everybody tied down their motorcycles when on the ferry car deck, just in case of heavy weather.  Both this ferry and the previous "Cat" ferry had ratcheting-type strap tie-downs for us to use.  Norm and Deane had each brought two tie-down straps, but used two more from the ship on each bike.  One of the other motorcyclists had warned us also to put our covers on the bikes, in case of wind-blown salt spray getting into this deck.  As it turned out, no problems occurred with salt spray, but we were prepared.

The day was beautiful on the ferry, and while the ocean had some white caps, the sea wasn't bad.  We took a Dramamine, just in case, but did OK.

In making our reservations, we were too late to get a sleeping cabin, so we slept in "day/night sleepers", which were much like airline reclining seats (but of a size to match first-class airline seats).  So, it was somewhat better  than trying to sleep on an overnight airline flight.  So, our day ended with trying to get to sleep in the equivalent of a double-wide 747 (moving very slowly).

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