We woke up to a beautiful morning with amazing light and a boat with a fisherman that wasn’t fishing. Curious as we are, we looked closely and saw that he was “cleaning” the bay of seaweed. He worked for at least two and a half hours and had his boat packed with seaweed and pumped excess water out of his boat before heading into the distance.
Of course we had to stop at the next harbour with red fishing boats, but they became the sideshow when we saw boats and fisherman unloading seaweed by crane into containers. Now we were curious and asked one of the fisherman what the seaweed is used for. He explained that the seaweed or Irish moss is processed to extract a substance called carrageenan which is used in all sorts of foods (like ice cream), cosmetics, and lubricants.
One of the travel brochures mentioned a Living Wharves program where visitors can discover the tools and skills used by real fishermen who are available to answer questions. On Monday this program takes place at the Dennis Point Wharf. Dennis Point Wharf is one of the largest commercial fishing ports in Canada and we were amazed by the number of ships and were eager to find out more.
The program didn’t start until 1:30PM, so we had lunch at the Dennis Point Cafe across the street. Ruth had a cup of seafood chowder and her first lobster roll. She was in seafood heaven!
The fisherman didn’t come for the information session, but two young people did a good job filling in and explaining the different lobster fishing regions and seasons in the Maritimes.
Further down the Pubnico peninsula there is a wind farm and hiking trails. We heard the woop-woop of the wind mills and were mesmerized by the huge moving shadows cast by the blades. We went for a short hike along the beach were we saw rocks with shimmering colours.
The Yarmouth – Maine ferry isn’t running this season which is affecting some of the tourism businesses in the area because of reduction in US visitors. We stopped at the YesterYear’s Bed and Breakfast which advertised a photography gallery and spoke to the owner who was from France.
The Yarmouth and Acadian Shores area is home to North America’s first “Starlight Destination” and Martin was eager to do a star trails photograph. We chose the Lower Wedgeport area which is one of the suggested star gazing spots and the brochure advertised that loaner telescopes were available at the nearby Tuna Museum. We visited the Tuna Museum to enquire and Cody, the museum guide, and his supervisor were very surprised and said they knew nothing of that program. The museum was well worth visiting and Cody was very knowledgeable about the whole fishing industry and willing to share his knowledge. One of the tuna fishing chairs on display was worth $4000.
We drove the short distance to the end of the peninsula where a newly constructed star gazing area was set up with tables and benches. A great parking spot for the van was also there. We hiked along the shore for close to an hour and found some sea glass.
Back at the van Martin waited for dark and took a 2 hour exposure from 10:20pm to 12:20am. It was cold and windy night, but what had to be done, had to be done.
