Cruising the St. Lawrence

 May 23, 2023

At sea (at River?) Cruising the St. Lawrence

I’d forgotten that we had a little hiccup yesterday afternoon when we returned from our excursion in and around Quebec (keh-beck). We got back to the cruise terminal (nice, big place with lots of chairs and wifi) around 3:15 prepared to quick step down the covered pedestrian runway (like a 500 foot jetway that runs from the terminal down to the ship’s gangway) in time for the 3:30 All Aboard but were stopped in the terminal. The runway was closed while some passengers who had tested positive were escorted with luggage off the ship to a waiting dark grey van. Da da daaaaah. Bye, bye ship, hello quarantine. But this meant that the entire passenger runway from terminal to ship had to be disinfected before we could enter it. Did I mention it was 500 feet long?! Eventually we got aboard with the now-familiar Eau de Cleaner in the air and went to our cabin to watch the departure. We were on the quai side so could observe the hustle and bustle. Two long blasts of the horn but the ship was still tied up so??? Then we could see three people, two with canes, hobbling down the runway (it has glass walls), stopping every 30 or 40 feet to look out those glass walls. This was when one of the ship’s officers (Always looking very natty in dark trousers and white uniform shirts with identifying bars on their epaulets) walked from the ship up to greet them and very gently nudge them along. The ship’s crew is unfailingly polite to all the passengers, no matter the circumstances. Plus HAL has one of the highest loyalty rates in cruising, so I’m sure that’s an incentive to the crew not to piss off some rando that has 1400 sailing days on HAL. (We met an ancient Mariner last night who’s racked up 2700+ days at sea with HAL. You better believe EVeryone with a HAL name badge knows him on sight!)

Anywho, the stragglers eventually made it onto the ship, the lines were dropped, the horn was sounded and we pushed off. When docked the ship was pointed up river so our departure included a 180 turn by thrusters so we could proceed down river. It’s just fascinating that this ship can turn on a dime without help. Kind of miss the tugboats doing their dance.

The ship glided down the river all night (so smooth, couldn’t tell we were moving) at a respectable 18 knots. We woke up Monday (Thank heavens they still have the days-of-the-week carpets in the elevators so one can keep track) to fresh winds and a lot of white caps. The decks are so high from the surface of the water that it’s very hard to tell if the swells are one meter or ten, but even though it was very choppy, the movement was very slight. 

Sometime during days at sea the Captain comes over the intercom to give a position and weather report and tell anything unusual or interesting about where we are or where we’re going. In this case it was both. He announced that at 1:45 that afternoon the ship’s speed would be reduced to 10 knots as we entered a marine wildlife preserve area. Several varieties of whales migrate to this area. (Alas, all the chop and white caps make it impossible to spot any). One area between the Gulf of St Lawrence is off limits to commercial ships so we will swing wide around it and eventually approach our destination, Charlottetown, from the east, still maintaining the stately 10 knots.

By late afternoon the wind had calmed a bit as had the seas and the clouds had finally cleared so we had a stunning sunset. We didn’t do much during the day other than a couple of short receptions for 3, 4, and 5 Star Mariners. We’ll hit 5 Star on this trip (free laundry at 4, free Wifi and 50% discount at shops and specialty restaurants at 5). I did manage an  epic afternoon nap. Jim probably finished three more books while I was sawing logs.

We had dinner with a couple from Charlotte and another couple from Montreal. He was a retired educator and she was retired from something that took her everywhere. They were so charming and engaging, with great accents. We had a far-ranging conversation about Canada and Montreal and world politics and the relationships between world leaders. (They call Bush 41 “Father Bush.”) I remarked that we hadn’t really encountered any militant I’ll-only-speak-French people in Quebec. Jacque (of course his name was Jacque) confirmed that all the children in the Province studied English from first to twelfth grade. Plus he said, “Of the 38 or so million Canadians, only three million speak French, so bilingual they are.” Justine confirmed Real’s description of winter in Quebec, long, very cold and lots of snow. She was so elegant I just knew she could wear a scarf as only a French women can. 

We dock in Charlottetown tomorrow morning at 9 with plans to go visit a lighthouse (love me a lighthouse) and a winery in the afternoon. We’re prepared for the anticipated rain and cold.