We woke up to rain again this morning but were determined not to let another day get away drove back down the Irish Loop to Bay Bulls, about 15 miles south of St John's, to go on a Whale and Puffin Cruise. The weather all the way down and when we arrived at Gatheralls was wet but the earlier cruise got back and reported lots of whale sightings so we were off!
Just at the mouth of the bay was Gull Island that has no natural predators of birds so is loaded with several species of winged inhabitants including Puffins, Common Mures, and a couple of eagles hoping to snitch lunch from the smaller birds.
The Puffins are small birds barely 10 inches long who are aerodynamically challenged with very short wings and no tail feathers for directional control. They nest in small caves in the grass above the rocky cliffs and were there in large numbers.
Common Mures were another bird we saw in Alaska last summer and they nested on the open rock ledges of the cliffs. Their appearance is very much like small penguins with black coasts and white necks.
As we departed Gull Island out into open water the ride got very rough but fortunately the drizzle had stopped and the visibility improved. We traveled about ten miles along the coast until we found several whales who seemed content to perform for us solo and in pairs.
The whales spend their summers here feeding on large schools of Caplin fish ("Whale Food" in Newfoundland) and then return to the Caribbean near Santo Domingo for the winter. Their diet can be up to two tons of fish a day while feeding.We had a great time and then returned to Gatheralls where we had lunch at the restaurant on the dock with a couple from Ontario we had met on the boat. 
We watched a freighter next door unloading what appeared to be several hundred (or thousand) feet of anchor chain for a new off-shore oil field that is being developed just to the east. Jeff maintained his diet by enjoying another (small) lobster.Tomorrow we plan to travel north of the city if the weather cooperates or take a guided tour of St John's and visit the Institute for Ocean technology if it doesn't. What a choice!
