Waiting for The World

After all the excitement of the cruise ship Balmoral, someone on the Bourne Residents Facebook page posted that another cruise ship would be traversing the Canal in early October.  We monitored the page (by 'we' I mean the members of the Bourne Facebook page) and the Marine Traffic site obsessively all week.

This ship is called The World and is a luxury condominium cruise ship, where you can buy the room and live on it.  It's taking quite the trip, all around the world.  I wonder what the residents do when it's in port or has to go to dry dock for repairs?  Wouldn't it be awesome to have that kind of money to have a condo on a cruise ship?  The ship pulls into various ports, so I guess the people that live on it stock up on their supplies.

It finally came through on October 2, which was a very rainy and windy day.  Still, I wasn't about to miss it so down to the Canal I went, along with other obsessive photographers, to brave the weather and wait.  And I have to say, it was totally worth it.  Here she is approaching the Bourne Bridge.

It wasn't long, so much as tall.  And it looked massive in the Canal.

I had to laugh though....there we all were, out in the torrential rain and wind, waving to the ship, and all we could see was hands sticking out of the sliders waving back.  For crying out loud, man up, get out on the balcony and wave back properly!  lol

I know it's an optical illusion, but we were all collectively holding our breath to see if it would clear the railroad bridge.  

Will it? Won't it?

Yes it will!

I believe their next port of call was either Newport, RI or New York City.  From there, it goes down the east coast, through the Panama Canal, down the west side of South America and close to Antarctica.  According to their 2015 Journey part of their website, the cruise started in Asia, hit India, Africa, all of Europe and even Greenland before it got to eastern Canada and USA. Wouldn't you love to take that trip??  I sure would!

Cruise Ship Balmoral

Every now and then, a really large ship will utilize the Canal.  Usually I only get to see the same barges and commercial/industrial type vessels.  There was one night I was taking Russell to his truck when we saw the top of a massive ship towering over the buildings along Main Street.  We were unable to get down there in time to see what it was....it would have been gone by the time we stopped at all the lights and signs and turned into the park.

Last week, I happened to see a post on the Bourne Facebook page that a 750' cruise ship would be making it's way through the Canal, from Sagamore down to my end, that evening.  Russell and I jumped in the car and headed down to wait.  What can I say?  Small town excitement.  

I shot this while we waited.  That's the moon on the left.  Not bad for hand held and being pitch dark but for the moon and bridge lights.

Moon reflection on the water.

We waited around 20 minutes and finally saw it slooooowly making it's way towards us.  Yes, that's a fisherman in the foreground....the stripers have been biting and night fishing is very popular here.

The Balmoral started its voyage from Southampton, England and had already visiting Nova Scotia, Boston and Salem.  It was on its way to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, the down the east coast to the Caribbean before returned home to England.  It's a 35 day cruise.

We could see lots of people lined up on the balconies, waving to us and whooping, and we all waved back too.

Safe travels, Balmoral!

Icebergs In The Canal

I'm not sure that the Canal has ever completely frozen over as the currents/tides run fast, and it's sea level, but every now and then in winter there will be ice chunks.  I headed over to Sandwich around 10 AM and the water was totally clear of ice, even small pieces.  It was dead low tide on the Bay.  By the time I crossed back over at 1:30, the ice was so thick you could barely see any blue water at all.  

I went home, grabbed my camera and headed back out.  I thought I could get some good 'aerial' views from the vista points on Scenic Highway, but all the snow piles were pushed to the end of the parking lot and I was not about to risk my life scaling them....not with a sheer drop on the other side.  So I ended up at the Herring Run parking lot, where I still had to climb up a snow bank to see over to the water.  I only got 3 pictures at that place.  

Looking west

Looking east at Sagamore Bridge

So I drove back to Buzzards Bay and tried to get access to the Canal from the park.  It was a very cold and icy walk from the parking lot to the service road, and I had to very slowly and gingerly pick my way across the icy walkway and hope to god I didn't fall.  Looking east at Bourne Bridge.

This really blew my mind.  Never, ever have I seen this.

There's a channel of water out there in the center.

Brrrrrrrr

One last look at the Bourne Bridge and I was in a hurry to get to my car.  It was 14* and my ears were frozen.  I was probably minutes away from frostbite because they really hurt and burned after I got back in the car and turned the heat on!

Well I always wanted to see the icebergs in Newfoundland, but this will suffice for now!

Foliage on the Canal

Liz was down for the weekend a couple weeks ago, so she & I met up at the Sandwich Marina for a walk to the Sagamore Bridge and back.  It was a GORGEOUS day.  So warm & clear.  The trees were on fire.

I hadn't walked to the bridge on this side since the 1980s, before I moved away.  They have now marked the miles and half miles on the service roads on both sides.  We were so engrossed in our conversation that I didn't notice exactly how far it is from the Marina to the bridge and back.  I looked it up when I got home; I never realized it was a 4 mile round trip.  Not too shabby!

They are still painting the bridge.  See that guy up there?  The traffic is a nightmare because of this project which is taking way, way too long.

There was a woman on a bike, that was stopped and looking straight down at the water.  At this point, the service road is quite a bit higher from the water than it is on the other side, so we couldn't see what she was looking at.  She looked up at us, saw our cameras and said, 'You might want to take a picture of the heron down there.'  We were grateful for the heads up!

Cormorants on a boom.

Looking at the east entrance.

Walking Around Town

Still in search of foliage, I stopped by Bourne Pond to see if there was anything to offer yet.  It did not disappoint.

The next pics were taken of our friend Sue's house, here in town.  They did a great job with their lawn decorations!

They have a fantastic piece of property!

Love their barn.

Bourne Bridge.

Foliage at the BBay rotary

A closer up view.

Epic Halloween House is epic again this year.

This pretty porch scene is a couple houses down.

Gas under $3.00 as of 10/12/14.  I'm sure by the time this posts, it will be back up again!

Columbus Day Canadian Thanksgiving was cloudy, but warm enough to be comfortable in shorts and a long sleeved shirt for a walk on the Canal.