ZODIAC RIDE on BONNE BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA

I wasn't particularly looking forward to the expedition today, a Zodiac ride on Bonne Bay, a smallish body of sea water of around 26 square miles, with people living around it, including the town of Woody Point, off which the Viking Octantis is moored.

• Newfoundland and Labrador form a province, initially called Newfoundland, but since 2001 known offficially by both names. Newfoundland is an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and has 95% the population of the province.  Most of them are on the east side of the island where the capital of St. John's is located.

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  The west side, though, is where we are moored.  The total population surrounding Bonne Bay is 2,765, a drop of 4% from 2016
• The population of Woody Point is 244.  Peak was reached in 1966 of 341 people.
• The population of Canada was 20 million in 1966, but more than doubled to 41 million today.
• The population of this province was 493,396 in 1966, suffered the loss of the cod industry in 1992, but still increased to 548,557 today.  Boats were mostly from the northeast portion of the province.
• What I'm getting to is that Bonne Bay is in the western side of Newfoundland and, while there more people in the entire country and Newfoundland from 1966 to today, the population of this region dropped.  Why?  It's too damn cold!

Okay, so here was the situation on the Octantis.

• Temperature just above freezing outside.
• We were scheduled for a ride on one of their Special Operations boat, which has seats, with a roof and looks fairly safe.  Unfortunately, it had a mechanical problem.

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  We were then instead placed in a Zodiac vessel which has no cover and can hold around 10 people.
• But if you've never been on one of these, the seats are around the outer edge of the boat.
• You lean back and you fall out of the boat.  Only go on a Zodiac if you have a death wish.
• Thus, you need to hold on to ropes on the inside of where you sit when the craft is moving, and some of them exceed 50 MPH,  You then hang on to the rope to preserve your dear life.  It is essentially impossible to take photos or videos with an iPhone unless you have three hands.
• When the Zodiac is moving slowly or idling, you still risk your life trying to record what is around you, because with no warning, the pilot just moves on,
• Worse for me, I was the only one without gloves.  I did wonder, though, how others were operating their phone, for in the past when I had gloves on, I had to take one off to operate it.  
• So appreciate what you will see today, for not only was I freezing, it was drizzling rain.  Came and went and came back, etc.
• With that, here they are.

To begin, from our stateroom, we looked towards Woody Point,.

First our briefing for the Special Ops ride.  But this was the one that was cancelled,

There was no briefing for the Zodiac.  If I had learned these details ahead of time, I would have chosen not to go.  In addition to the fact that I might not have been sufficiently dressed to withstand the outside conditions, my knees are weak, and I had difficulty getting into the Zodiac, Finally, I gingerly sat down and saw that if I leaned back, I would fall of the the boat.   Note the ropes in the boat.  You always have at least one hand on the rope, even while the Zodiac is not moving.  You absolutely need to use both when at any speed.

Some videos and photos,

Frozen waterfalls.

Sheets of ice.

This waterfall was not frozen.  Only one in the entire trip.

45 minutes of torment in frigid conditions, and thankfully we finally returned to the ship, reasonably dry, and alive.  I still had to get out of the Zodiac, and that was a severe challenge.

Still shaky from the cold and fear, went to lunch.  Lobster was featured today.

I had soup, salad, pork belly, codfish, fried rice, Chardonnay and beer.

Danced the night away.

It occurred to me on this next day when I composed this posting that I could have frightened you further with mention of icebergs.  They are named by size (the following from Google AI):

• Growler: <1 meter high, <5 meters long.
• Bergy Bit: 1–5 meters high, 5–15 meters long.
• Small Berg: 5–15 meters high, 15–60 meters long.
• Medium Berg: 16–45 meters high, 61–120 meters long.
• Large Berg: 46–75 meters high, 121–200 meters long.
• Very Large Berg: >75 meters high, >200 meters long. 

The iceberg that sank the Titanic was estimated to be roughly 15–30 meters (50–100 feet) high above the water and around 120–150 meters (400–500 feet) long.

• In other words, the iceberg that sank the Titanic was only of medium size. We saw icebergs on our Zodiac ride, but they were smaller than a Growler.
• What could be seen got as large as, well, a turkey, so I've found another name.
• Maybe a foot high, but largely transparent.  Like an icy turkey floating, which means that nine more would be below.  Not like the white or bluish ones you've seen....but colorless, transparent.
• The potential danger to us was if our pilot missed seeing one while going 40 MPH.  I can imagine that this Turkey would rip the bottom of our Zodiac, and we would immediately sink.
• But ah, I'm alive and well.

All that to end with what I saw on You Tube that was created by Artificial Intelligence.  The 1997 Titanic cast, then vs now, 29 years later.  This is not a Titanic alert.  The overall effect is something wonderful.

I enjoyed that so much, I found another AI video of the 1965 Sound of Music cast, then vs now, 60 years later.  Several have since passed away.  How were they portrayed?  Click on that link.

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