Trips

Sun., 9/4/22 - At Sea

Another day at sea as we head from PEI, around the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec Province and into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The weather turned from a calm 70+° to a windy, cloudy 57° with some rain. This was an area for Right whales, but we did not see any.

Gale attended two more EXC Talks: Routes to Happiness and Gone Fishing. The first one presented information gathered by the Happiness Research Institution in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Scandinavian countries are all among the “happiest” in their annual survey. The second presentation "Gone Fishing" was about lobsters - hard shell vs new shell; how the Fishermen’s Wives Assoc. of Gloucester, MA hounded Congress to increase US fishing rights from 12 miles off shore to 200 miles basically to save the cod fishing industry; and how we must learn to eat the bi-catch fish, like pollack, dogfish, red fish, and skate, because eating only certain fish is not sustainable.

Mon., 9/5/22 - Baie-Comeau

The MS Nieuw Statendam is now within the St. Lawrence River where we first visited the small town of Baie-Comeau.

It was a two-mile walk into town and there wasn't a great deal to see after arriving there. At least it was a beautiful 68° sunny day with a slight breeze.

Our stroll took us around the Parc des Pionniers (Park of Pioneers) along the water front.

Flag of Quebec Province
Fire boat out to greet us	Looks like a gravel pit operation
School buses lined up to take passengers into town - we walked rather than wait two hours for a bus ride	Town sign and map
Descriptive sign	Floral decorations along the walkway
The park had an exhibit of wooden “sculptures” from 2016. They were mostly 3-D geometric designs except for the pink flamingoes near the water.
Pink Flamingos	Rocky area along the shore
A walk up a steep hill took us to the Englise Ste. Amelie Catholic Church. We wanted to see the advertised “altar.” It was all painted (oil, fresco,?) but the ladies wanted $6 just to enter and look at the inside - a little steep, so we did not go in. After a wrong turn that took us uphill, we retraced our steps and finally arrived in town. It consisted of one block with one pub (closed) and one coffee shop and not much else. I guess Walmart is a ways out of town. By the time we walked all the way back to the ship , the FitBits had logged more than 18,000 steps - a fair day's effort. At the dock we saw the back of a Minke whale, two otters and, later, two harbor seals. Those were the first sea life for this voyage.
	Ste. Amelie Catholic Church
	Hungry bee
Bronze statue of Robert McCormick in a canoe. McCormick owned the Chicago Tribune and started the NY Daily News and founded this town to build and operate a paper mill.	The shadow in the foreground is a Minke whale. My camera wasn't ready when he first surfaced and he didn't surface again while everyone was watching - uncooperative.
Tues., 9/6/22 - Saguenay, Quebec The Nieuw Statendam entered the Saguenay Fjord early this morning and docked at Saguenay City. This is a scenic, very small town with not much to do. We sat in the nice new ship terminal and down loaded emails. The town folk of Saguenay met our ship in Pioneer clothes, singing and exhibiting some old skills like sawing logs, cooking on an open fire, etc. The map of town was very confusing but we found the Catholic church and the “craft market” which sold the knitted, embroidered, and needlepoint goods the women probably spend the winter making. There was also a kiosk selling real fur jackets - one had a price tag of $2,198 Canadian! Fur clothing would be confiscated at Customs entering the US, so we didn’t try any on!
	Wharf-side demonstration area
Wharf-side demonstration area	Local house
Typical apartment building	St. Alphonse Catholic church
Interior of St. Alphonse	Organ loft
Cute bench	Lady operating a simple foot pedal loom
Nice way to designate a 4-way stop	We walked along the shoreline but there was not much to see or look at. After lunch on board we packed for disembarkation tomorrow. Before dinner we will sail back out of this river/fjord and the scenery should be pretty.

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