The crew of the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule‘a got a close-up view of the Bay of Fundy, regarded as one of the natural wonders of the world, during a stop in Nova Scotia last week.

The bay is located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia amid some 170 miles of rugged cliffs. In 2014, an international panel of experts named the bay one of the natural wonders of the world in recognition of its having the highest tides on Earth (along with Ungava Bay in northeastern Canada), attracting the rarest species of whales in the world and housing semiprecious minerals and dinosaur fossils.

“It’s the geography of the bay that really accentuates the tidal currents here,” said master navigator Kalepa Baybayan in a release. “It’s very wide at the mouth and very narrow at the end. There’s also this thing called tidal resonance, where the water flows in the mouth of the bay to the inland shore, matching the tidal period and that accentuates the tide.”

The crew’s daytrip to Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick, coincided with a new moon cycle, a time when the tidal shifts are even more dramatic.

As tour guide and bay expert Greg Turner described: “I think one of the most spectacular parts of that (natural) formation and many others around the Bay of Fundy is the fact that if you are standing on the ocean floor, you can imagine six hours from now being completely covered in water and all of (the area) being totally underwater.”

The crew was in Nova Scotia for about a week to meet with indigenous peoples, learn about the area’s natural resources and conservation efforts, and engage with the community at large.

The canoe left Nova Scotia on Aug. 4 and will return to New York City.

Since departing Hawaiian waters in May 2014, Hokule‘a has sailed more than 26,000 nautical miles and made stops in 14 countries and 70 ports. More than 200 volunteer crew members have participated in various legs of the worldwide journey.