The Amazing Bay of Fundy

We'd be 30 feet under water
seven hours later

Crossing Canada, one of our main objectives was to see the Bay of Fundy between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  One of the Seven Wonders of North America, this UNESCO site was was well worth the effort. The bay has tides five-ten times higher than the rest of the world.  They can reach up to 56 feet in the upper reaches of the bay.

Over 100 billion tons of water flow in and out of the Bay of Fundy every day.  The flow of water equals 24 hours of that of all the fresh water streams and rivers on earth combined! Think of it--more than the Mississippi, Amazon, Nile, Columbia and many more rivers every day.

Hopewell Rocks at low tide

Why is this?  The bay is funnel shaped, becoming narrower and shallower as it progresses inland.  The Bay is 62 miles across and 400-700 feet deep at its mouth.  But it tapers off over 181 miles, to 1.5 miles wide and 35 feet deep at low tide.  This length makes it synchronous with the Atlantic Ocean's tide cycle, creating what we know as the 'bathtub effect' when waves are amplified by the ocean.  I think it also has something to do with being distant from the equator, because when we lived in Malaysia, we seldom saw tides above 18 inches.

The Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy

Almost low tide at the Alma harbor

The next morning about an hour from high tide

Near low tide at Fundy National Park

The next morning, an hour before high tide

You can see a few more photos HERE

We were going to spend an extra day hiking in the national park, but we decided it is better to spend the day driving in heavy rains than hiking in them.  This got us into Becket, MA in the Berkshires our East Coast goal, two days ahead of time.  Skyler has a cottage there.

But the drive from the outskirts of Augusta to Becket wasn't pleasant.  In fact, it was rather stressful pulling a trailer.  We'd become too accustomed to courteous and slower-driving Canadians on two lane roads.  The Mass Turnpike, with its 70 mph limits, three lanes of heavy traffic, and legendary 'Mass-hole' drivers was quite a culture shock.

We'll be here for a few days, experiencing some the Tanglewood Festival and catching up with some of our family. Skyler, Spencer, their dogs and a friend are coming here for the long weekend, as is Feruza from New York with two friends.  Looks like the Airstream will be a backup bedroom, but not for us.  It felt so good to sleep on a queen bed last night!

Kathy drove the last hour and did a
yeoman's job of backing the trailer 75 feet
into it's tight resting spot.

Challenging back up job