September 22, 2009 – Here Kitty, Kitty or The Cat

Moving day and we spent the morning getting the RV ready. I had a couple of bottles of wine too many, so we gave one to Doug and Pauline, whom we had camped next to. He is a retired Canadian Post Office master. They live in Blockhouse, Nova Scotia which is near Lunenburg. They winter in Blockhouse and summer in Bridgetown, about one hundred miles away. I don’t get it either, but they’re Canadians, eh. Not to poke fun, they were very enjoyable people to visit with. Carol even went with Pauline to play bingo, but she has to tell that story. Pauline's sister,
Doreen, who also summers in Bridgetown, is from Blue Rocks. They were quite intrigued that we had been there.

With wine given and farewells said, it was time to head off to Yarmouth for the ferry to Bar Harbor, ME, U.S.A. Yarmouth lies approximately 85 miles west of Bridgetown, so it was a fairly quick trip. Carol found a Wal-Mart which was just a couple of miles from the ferry dock. Not that we really needed anything, but we did have $25 Canadian to spend and we did need to separate the vehicles for the ferry trip. An hour and a half later, after a leisurely lunch in the coach, a quick shopping trip in Wal-Mart, a decent walk with Spice and the two vehicles as separate entities, we were off to the ferry landing with absolutely no idea of what to expect.

We were early, which was a good thing. The nice traffic director asked if I had been on “the Cat” before. When I responded in the negative, he told me just about everything to expect, measured the length and height of the RV and moved me to the security inspection area. I had told him that Carol was in the Dakota behind me. He said not to worry; he would run her right up in trail. At the security inspection station, I stayed with the vehicles, while Carol went to get our boarding passes. The security inspection amounted to looking into all of the basement pods and a quick look inside the coach. What they were looking for, they didn’t say. Once that was done, we were marshaled towards the stern of the ferry to wait our turn to drive on, though “in” is a more correct description. They load tour buses and RV’s first, then cars. When it was our turn, we followed two tour buses, an RV and a pick-up/trailer combo. Inside the hull, it is seven lanes wide. After you drive in, you do a 180 so you are in position to drive off at the destination. Once inside, we had the option to reconnect the vehicles, but elected not to as our campground is only three miles from the ferry landing in Bar Harbor. Then we turned off the fridge, turned off the propane, told Spice to be good, locked the door and climbed the stairs to the main deck.

I don’t know quite how to describe the main deck of “the Cat”; picture six separate sitting areas each with comfortable reclining seats and plenty of foot room. Each area with its own large TV tuned to sports, or news, or movies, etc. In between the areas are snack bars, card tables, gift and duty free shops. Full view windows encompass the entire deck and the only exterior access is at the stern, where you can stand outside to smoke or enjoy the fresh air. Once all were loaded, we cleared the dock and moved easily out through the harbor. Clear of the breakwater, we began to accelerate. You don’t really notice the speed as the only visual reference is the water, but it is moving by quickly. After 90 minutes, I walked to the stern and stepped outside. This gave me my first real appreciation for the craft. The twin jets throw a pair of 15-20 foot rooster tails off the hulls of the catamaran as we cruised along between 50-55 MPH. Remember, in the hull of this thing are two tour buses, half-a-dozen RV’s and probably 100 cars and it is not full. Just over 3 hours after we left Yarmouth, we are docking in Bar Harbor; a journey of 100 miles and we had to slow for some areas of fog.