Regatta Cruise #13, 2016

 Fri, Nov 4, 2016

My Regatta Cruise #13 

 Bonjour, Lots of French all of a sudden in Canada. Our next stop was Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Now, I'm sorry to say that I don't have a single photo of this place. It was just a town that wasn't that great and the weather was awful. Joyce and I took the little shuttle to town and walked a bit and she decided there was nothing to see and went right back to the ship. 

Me, stubborn me, decided to try and make something of it and I did find a little mall and bought a couple t-shirts and a scarf. I then found a Tim Horton's, which is like a Denny's here in the U. S., and ate some chili. Not very exciting. Many of the crew were also in Tim Horton's since they had wifi and I walked back to the shuttle with one of the entertainers, Adam, and he and I had a nice chat. 

I'd really like to see Newfoundland someday but not here. Sorry. 

Now we head to Quebec and the little town of Havre Saint Pierre. Today the sun is out and this is a cute little place. We didn't have a tour but enjoyed just looking around the area near the ship. There was the cutest little yacht club and the lady, who spoke zero English, gave us each a sand dollar with the yacht club name written on the back. She was trying very hard to explain that we needed to look out to the surrounding islands and see the face of, what she called, Captain in the rock formation. She was sweet. The little marina, the local bar and a small gift shop for local crafts was about the extent of the place, but we liked it. 

The bar had a personality, and we were told it was the only one in the area and that EVERYONE, young and old, showed up on weekends. And a dead moose went by in a truck and got a lot of attention from many of our ship's passengers. 

There is a National Park Reserve called the Mingan Archipelago which is nearby and has interesting limestone monoliths that date back millions of years when this area was once covered by a shallow tropical sea. Old style global warming I assume. Our horn blowing Captain took a tour out to these islands that day and he decided that our ship could fit through these rocky channels. So off we went to check it out after leaving the dock that a ernoon. It was pretty crazy as the channels were not wide but he took us through without incident. I really like this guy. The rock formations were incredible, and I was sorry that I had to take photos through glass but the best formations were not on our side of the ship so our balcony wasn't available. The sky that night was incredible. 

Another Quebec destination was Saguenay, which is way up a fjord. To be a fjord you have to be made by glacial activity and have salt water. Otherwise you're something else. The timing was such that we traveled up the fjord during the morning hours, spend the afternoon at the town and on tours and returned out the fjord in the dark. 

 Part way in on one of the higher cliffs is a statue of the Virgin Mary. There's quite a story about how they got her up there. The statue had to be cut into slices and rebuilt. She's quite impressive. 

 We were anchored and tendered in at this port. There were a lot of vendors selling their wares at the dock where the buses picked us up for tours. Very nicely done and such friendly people all speaking French. Our tour was back down the fjord from the direction we came to Saguenay National Park for a walk in the woods near the water. It was very pretty and reminded me a lot of the Pacific Northwest as to flora and fauna. There were almost some fall colors starting in places but we were a bit early. The weather was good but chilly and our guide was interesting. 

 So, once again, our Captain had something in store for us. It's now dark as we make our way out the fjord towards Quebec City and when we near the statue of the Virgin Mary he nearly stopped the ship and had someone go out and shine a spotlight on the statue. He also got Courtney, one of the singers, to sing Ave Maria over the ships intercom. We were at dinner near a window and caught glimpses of the statue as we went by. I love this Captain and he's having a great me. He's from a group of islands (The Faroe Islands) that is over by Finland, I think, that speaks their own language and no one ever heard of. Interesting fellow and sure different from the one we had earlier. Anyway, it was entertaining to say the least. 

 One more stop at Quebec City..... Til then, Gayle