Ferry to Argentia, NewfoundlandAug 13, 2008
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The Marine-Atlantic Ferry Terminal, N. Sydney
The Joseph and Clara Smallwood
North Sydney in the Early Morning
| We had to be at the ferry dock in North Sydney by 6:30 a.m. for our 8:00 a.m. departure on the ‘Joseph and Clara Smallwood’. This is the same ferry we took over in 1995! It’s showing its age, too. One of the four engines was broken down, so the normally 14 hour trip took 17 hours. It was a looooong day. The ferry was fairly comfortable with two different lounges with movies and sitcoms playing. There are also areas with tables and chairs, a bar with live entertainers, ‘Robins’ coffee stand and cafeteria. We spent a fair bit of time in the outside seating areas as the weather was quite pleasant. The ferry has capacity for 340 automobiles and 1,200 passengers, but it was only half full. Apparently between the high Canadian dollar and the high fuel costs, the tourist traffic is down quite a bit. They have also levied additional surcharges to the fares to recognize the higher fuel costs and we had to pay a whopping $740 to take the truck, trailer (and us) across. We put the dogs in the kennel room the first leg of the trip, but put them back in the trailer for the remaining 2/3rd as there were some very unhappy/noisy dogs in the kennel room and we decided they would be happier in the trailer. We were able to take them out for a walk every six hours (twice during the sailing). A couple who had been at Nationals was also on the ferry. They are going over to visit relatives and attend Newfoundland’s first AAC Agility trial. I’m going to see if we can fit it into our plans, too as it would be really neat to support their first trial. We landed at 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning and went just as far as the Argentia Visitor Centre where we parked for the night. |
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