Tides of the Bay of Fundy

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Memories of Canada

As Canada celebrates their 150th anniversary, promoted by the Canadian government as Canada 150, we continue taking a look back at some of our memorable moments from cruises and tours to Canada.

This would be an excellent time for you to visit Canada, as there will be year long celebrations throughout the land.

New Brusnwick

Our next stop down memory lane brings us to the Atlantic (east coast) side of Canada. New Brunswick (French: Nouveau-Brunswick) is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces, together with Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and is the only bilingual (English–French) province of Canada. This is a typical port of call during a Canada & New England cruise.

We booed a very unique shore excursion in Saint John, NB.   Our guide for the day was a professional photographer who took us to various locations where we could experiment with different techniques.  It was a small group, so he was able to provide individual attention to each of us.   If you like photography, consider checking either the ship's excursions or with local guides for a similar tour.  We quite enjoyed the experience.  This post will only concentrate on one stop of our tour.

Bay of Fundy - Reversing Falls

The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is one of the 7 wonders of North America due to recording the highest tides on earth along with having the rarest whales of the world.

View Entire Bay of Fundy Album

The Bay of Fundy was recently named the 3rd best attraction in Canada by USA Today. USA Today’s 10Best travel guide ranked the top 20 nominees, and the public decided the final 10. View the entire list here: the top ten attractions in Canada.

A unique phenomenon created by the collision of the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River. At low tide the river empties into the bay causing a series of rapids and whirlpools. As tides rise they slow the river current for a brief period called slack tide. The Bay's tides continue to rise, gradually reversing the flow of the river, and rapids form again, peaking at high tide. Tide cycles take about 12.5 hours.

During our visit to New Brunswick and the Bay of Fundy, our ship docked early in the morning and we toured the bay.   You'll note from these pictures that the gangplank had a steep angle in the morning when we disembarked the ship, but when we returned several hours later, the tide was low and the gangplank was now almost completely level with the pier and the ship was lower in the water.

The unique thing about this excursion was that we visited the Bay of Fundy twice so we could observe the change of directions cause by the tides.

Did you know that over 160 billion tons of water move in and out of the Bay of Fundy, every day, twice a day?

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Greetings from Saint John, NB

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Our first port of call was Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, not to be confused with St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Saint John is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick. It is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River.

This was the first time we visited this particular port in Atlantic Canada. While doing our research for this cruise, we learned about the Reversing Falls which is the most popular attraction in Saint John. The mighty Bay of Fundy causes the Saint John River to reverse direction twice every day and flow upstream. It is recommended to view the Falls twice - near low tide and near high tide. Tide charts can help you plan your visit.

The pictures above on the left were taken at high tide around noon. The pictures to the right were taken around 3:30 PM at low tide. Notice that the ship was about 14 feet lower in the second set of pictures.

Saint John is a port that you could tour on your own if you liked. There are tours for sale in the cruise terminal. I have to caution you that they could be sold out, however. We were booked on a Bay of Fundy Coastal Photography tour through Carnival, but we did ask about tours that were available. At that time, the only tour that was left was a San Francisco-style trolley tour . That tour is 1 hour and 15 minutes long with photo stops at the Reversing Falls Rapids, Historic Trinitiy Royal, and Fort Howe where you would be able to view your ship.

There are shops in a tented building adjacent to the pier. There is a good selection of merchandise and the prices are reasonable. The nice thing is that they accept U.S. dollars, so you don't need to exchange money. The vendors we bought from provided change in U.S. dollars also.

My husband has uploaded some pictures of the Carnival Triumph in the Port of Saint John. See his Saint John - Arrival / Departure photo album. We'll be posting more pictures as we continue our cruise review.