Frigid Fundy .

Yesterday Lynne and I, with Wendy and Trey in tow, went to see how the Bay of Fundy is dealing with this bitter winter.

Normally when you go to visit a place you check to make sure you know where you're going and what the weather will be like.  When you visit Fundy, you must also take into account one other very significant factor -- the tides.

Here's a what a tide table looks like.  In the sample below you can see that HIGH tide was at 4.26 a.m. and peaked at 13.6 m or 44.6 ft.  YES, 44.6 FEET !   Low tide was at 10:51 a.m. at 1.9 m or 6.2 ft.

The high and the low tides do not occur at the same time each day.  They advance around the clock by about 50 minutes each day.   Note too, that there are two high and two low tides each day.  It takes the tide about six hours to go out and then six hours to come in, then six hours to go out, well you get the picture.

The tides on the Bay of Fundy are the highest tides on the planet.  The 100 billion tonnes water flowing in and out of the Bay of Fundy is greater than all the water in all the freshwater rivers on Earth !  

As you can see from the image below, Fundy is wider at its mouth and gets narrower towards the top. What you can't see is that its bottom likewise goes from deeper to shallower.  Now, imagine lifting up one end of a bathtub with six inches of water in it.  The tub is shallower and narrower at the far end.  As you tip it, the water gets far deeper than the six inches it started at.  Fundy's like that bathtub.  Neat eh ?

As we were headed for Burn(t)coat Head (no one can agree on the spelling), the site of the highest recorded tides in the world, it was important to know where we were in the tide cycle.  Can you guess where Burncoat Head would be located on this map ?

Here is an image of Fundy at low tide in the summer.  No water in sight.  Six hours later, at high tide, the water would be reaching into the foreground area.

So what did Lynne and I find at low tide yesterday ?

The ice that formed at high tide was left behind when the water underneath it receded.

My plans for Lynne and I to walk the shore at low tide, were quickly dashed.

Gypsum cliff at Cheverie.

With a few exceptions the shore was impassible.  We consoled ourselves with getting as close as we could, and taking lots of photos.

Lynne freezing her hands to take photos.

Trey on the ice.

With their built-in, claw-grippers, the dogs walked safely on top of the slushy tops of the ice blocks.  As the tide was out, there was no water below them.

Wendy with the gypsum cliff at Cheverie.

The same little island at Burncoat Head at low tide in summer and winter.

I am not liking this colder than usual winter, but I must confess that it has created some incredibly beautiful scenes.