In the fall of 2003, Cindy and I decided to venture to Canada to paddle the Bay of Fundy. This bay is famed for its high tides -- the highest in the world -- and for its maelstrom (giant whirlpool) at the south end of the bay. Tides there can exceed 50 feet, and the whirlpool -- the Old Sow -- is the second largest in the world. For both of those (excellent) reasons, we hired a guide through a company called Seascape Kayaking on Deer Island in the bay.

Little did we know that Hurricane Isabel would rear her head and wreak havoc on Annapolis (where we lived at the time) while we were away! Our poor daughter Rhiannon was left to hold down the fort during wild winds, power outages, heavy rains, and the (temporary) disappearance of one of our beloved cats. Fortunately (for us) none of that impacted us at all, and we had a week of absolutely beautiful weather. The Bay of Fundy is stunningly beautiful, teeming with sea life -- whales, harbor porpoises, seals, sea birds of all kinds, and many species of fish. If you are careful of the tides, you can have a truly wonderful experience there! And we did.  

As we drove north through Canada, we experienced driving rain that lasted all day and into the night.

The rain followed us on our ferry trip to Deer Island and continued as we checked in to our B&B. We went to sleep to the sound of torrents on the roof.

But the next morning the sun came out. We found our way to Seascape and met our guide Josh.

The Bay was calm and sunny for our entire trip. We had excellent kayaks and a wonderful guide, who knew the bay like the back of his hand.

We camped on a different island every night, while Josh prepared our excellent meals.

The satisfying experience had us performing the happy dance each morning before we headed out!

We were treated to scores of seals, sunning on islets all around us. We were passed by pods of harbor porpoises frequently as we paddled along.

Sunrise was always a revelation.

Mornings were a mist-filled wonderland.

Islands would completely change their shape as the enormous tides would roar in. We had to make sure our kayaks were very high up so they wouldn't float away.