Visit to St. Paul Island in August 2007

This page has a five minute 20 second slideshow of the visit that Bob Bonifas and I made to St. Paul Island on August 21, 2007. These 79 photos are one of the most extensive sets of St. Paul Island photos on the Internet.

St. Paul Island is small and uninhabited with many ship wrecks. There is a sense of discovery to visit it. To get there, Bob and I chartered a boat from Oshan Whale Watch based in Bay St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Canada. Our friendly captain was Cyril Fraser, who wanted to leave early to avoid fighting the waves and current on our return. Bob and I arrived at the dock at 6:30 am.

Captain Fraser had a crew and friends totaling six. We left the forested bluffs of scenic Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and in two hours arrived off the coast of St. Paul Island. Bob and I were rowed ashore in a dinghy. Our adventure started by scaling the 50-foot cliffs using a piece of antenna and a rope. The few travelers here are all adventurous.

Next we had to trudge thru the brush for about a quarter of a mile to the so-called Governor's Mansion built in 1912. It is a complete ruin with interesting clean graffiti from divers, ham radio operators, and military on its walls. After snapping photos, we returned to the cliffs, climbed down, took the dinghy back to our boat and returned to Bay St. Lawrence.

There we saw Ray Fraser's home being built using ICF construction. This superior technique creates very strong houses for about 10% more than standard construction. We also watched crab boats discharge their catch which is sorted into standard sized containers under government supervision.

We had perfect weather for our visit to St. Paul Island which because of its large number of shipwrecks caused by frequent fog is known as the Graveyard of the Gulf.

The slideshow (7.7Mb) takes about a minute to load. When the background changes to black it is ready to play, click on the small arrow on the bottom left side of the slideshow to start. If desired, click to pause or resume.
The controls also allow a full screen show, but it will be a bit fuzzy. If controls not visible, point to video window.