Why fly when you can take a ferry? Fresh air, an opportunity to walk about, and chat with folks – travelers and locals. A chance for some sea birds too.

The MV Lief Ericson, a smaller sister ferry heading into North Sydney

Our first ferry was from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. A seven hour, daytime crossing. Much to our surprise we were instructed to be checked in no later than 2 hours before the scheduled 11:45 departure, otherwise the operator can cancel your reservation. The clerk explained that marine conditions drive the departure time, and an earlier than scheduled departure is a possibility, along with cancellation and delay.

Twenty-one of these were loaded on board the ferry

We crossed on the MV Atlantic Vision. It’s vehicle lanes can accommodate approximately 500 passenger vehicles, making it around 5 times larger than the Cape May Lewes Ferry Driving onto (into?) the ferry was quite the experience. We were parked on the lowest level.

We drove down through an opening in the floor to deck 1, the bottom of the boat!

Luck was on our side for this crossing. The day before the wind was gusting to 80 mph (!) and the ferry was delayed. When it finally left it took only commercial traffic. We had bright sun, calm seas, and enough wind to keep us inside much of the time. We did manage to see the usual sea birds – Black Scoters, Northern Gannets, and Double-crested Cormorants. Interestingly these are the same birds we see from the CMLF.

We arrived at Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, about 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Disembarking was a bit faster than loading, even though we were close to the last ones off. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and an amazing halibut dinner. A fine welcome to Newfoundland.

This was a HUGE piece of halibut. Skipped the fries and ate the leftovers cold for lunch the next day – it was just as good!

Sunset view of the harbor from our hotel