The days dawns warm and dry with sun so hopefully our oceanic excursion at 12noon will be okay. We are off to see Puffins,Seals and hopefully Whales although I'm not sure in the 2.5hrs we are out we will have time to get near enough to see Wales!

A leisurely get and get ready and into town for a late breakfast having stopped off at the supermarket for water. Eggs benedict today for us both with Anne also having salmon. When we had finished I asked the waiter for the location of a camera shop, he informed us that there was one a little way down the street called 'radio shack'. Didn't see the connection myself but off we set. We walked the length of the street at least a mile and all the time Anne telling me that she'd seen the sign, it was large and red. No it wasn't, it was small and red and about 100 yards from where we had set off, we had walked the best part of 2 miles looking for this place and it had been under our noses all the time. At least the walk had allowed me my customary moan!! Luckily the man had a 2GB xd card for my camera which I purchased at a cost of $25. As we made our way to the car Anne announced she needed a fleece to take with her on the whale watch trip as it might get chilly out at sea! Bare in mind she was already wearing a tee shirt, blouse and had a cardigan and wind proof jacket in the rucksack. I had on a tee shirt and my coat was in the rucksack. Anyway sure enough we went into the mountain wear shop and she came out with a White coloured $50 pull on North Face fleece. I just love holidays!! So the next challenge was to find somewhere to park the car for the 4 hour duration of the trip. Doesn't sound like much if a challenge dies it? But given that all the parking in Bar Harbor is for either a maximum of 2 or 3 hours you can see the dilemma. Luckily I saw a parking attendant wandering the streets and asked him, well apparently the large car park in the town near to the Harbor with a maximum time stay of 2 hrs isn't patrolled and no tickets are issued there!! I thanked him muttered under my breath about what a stupid system for a town reliant on visitors and duly parked the car where directed. We repacked the rucksack with as much warm weather gear as Anne could muster, just slightly less than the amount taken to the Arctic by Sir Ralph Feinnes on his last polar expedition, and boarded the boat having been searched and picture ID presented.

It was a very nice catamaran and I'm nit sure of it's name although it might have been Enterprise as when we were been given instructions etc, we were told something about there being no port left and Klingons on the starboard bow!! If the captain had been called James Tiberius Kirk I think I'd have got off. We took up a standing position about half way along the Klingon side as we set sail. It felt a little like something from Pirates of the Caribbean as we sailed majestically from port with nautical songs being played over the speaker system. Eventually we reached our first stop Puffin Island, so now I'd fallen into a Treasure Island film, very weird this journey but carry on we did. As you may have guessed puffins a plenty here and after a short natural history lesson from some sad guy living on the island to count puffins we left for deeper more dangerous water, water where some of the largest animals ever to live on the planet lurk and no it's not America's fattest family.

Suddenly the shout went up 'Klingons on the starboard bow' no sorry, 'there she blows' and we saw it gliding gracefully through the water, a Minke whale, camera's became red hot as snap after snap was taken, people jostling for position, children screaming to see and women offering themselves to the gods of the sea for a chance to see Minke, not Perky, just Minke!!

We rolled about on the sea for sometime photographing Minke while being told all sorts of what were I'm sure interesting facts by the naturist on board (luckily or unluckily depending in your point of view she'd kept her clothes on)! After awhile another call is heard, this time from Captain Ahab, "he did not feel the wind, or smell the salt air. He only stood, staring at the horizon, with the marks of some inner crucifixion and woe deep in his face" (Ishmael). We were stunned the Fin whale , the second largest whale type, had been seen on the side of the ship that didn't have any port left!! We followed if about taking photo after photo while the captain kept trying to launch longboats in order to reek vengeance upon it!! It all got a little crazy but the outcome was some great pictures were obtained, fantastic memories made of beautiful animals and a great time was had by all.

I do need to mention at this point the attire of some people on board this vessel. Okay we were at sea, sometimes travelling at around 25 knots but it was warm and sunny not a cloud in the sky but people were wearing more clothing on the ship than they do in the middle of winter!! There were, wooly hats, hats with ear flaps, caps and hoods, wind jackets, fleeces, bomber jackets, overcoats and raincoats, scarves, gloves and mittens. Long trousers, lined trousers, combat trousers, short trousers, shorts, ski pants and padded pants. Footwear included, trainers, boots, shoes, sandals, flip flops, shoes with toes, combat boots and trainers held together with gaffa tape. Me jeans, tee shirt and boots. Of all the stuff I carried for Anne she eventually put on her new fleece. And that doesn't take into account people were actually buying from the boat, blankets to wrap themselves up in, ridiculous, I certainly think so!!

So following disembarkation we returned to the car to find a note on the windscreen, I thought 'parking ticket' but no it was a note apparently from some young lady who was thinking about buying the same type if vehicle and asking us to ring a number and leave a message. Anne thought we should ring me I thought no, probably some sort of scam or a premium rate number something like that. The fact the note said to 'leave a message' set the alarm bells ringing.

Anyway back to the hotel for showers as the wind and spray had played havoc with my hair and complexion and Anne was no better. It also gave me time to work on this blog, I needed as long as I could get as I knew this was going to be something of a marathon!

About 2000hrs we went back to town and ended up at an Italian. Here Anne had a nice glass of wine, salad starter and some pasta stuffed with cranberries and chicken for her main. She followed this with a chocolate mousse and chocolate cappuccino, me I had gnocchi as a starter, breast of chicken in a caper sauce followed by lemon sorbet and an ordinary coffee. How is it I'm the size of a Fin Whale and Anne isn't? Not fair, not fair at all.

Home to the hotel and bed. Bug day tomorrow, 4.5hrs driving to the next destination for a one night stay, who planned this holiday? I have dear readers persuaded Anne to write tomorrow's blog. On a positive note it's likely to be short and will most certainly be more factual than my accounts.

See you all tomorrow, sleep well and prosper as Spock might say!