Harmonie - Whales and Dolphins and Seals Oh My!

Whales and Dolphins and Seals Oh My!

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Sat 28 Jul 2007 07:06

48:40.803N 68:01.041W

What a difference a day makes! We've entered the St. Lawrence river version of the forest scene in the Wizard of Oz. First of all, it's a little scary. The fog moved in and stayed all day - see the first picture below for our view of, well, nothing. I'm not sure how boaters navigated these waters with confidence before GPS and radar? Even with all of our electronic gadgets, we still came within a couple of boat lengths of another sailboat that suddenly appeared out of the fog. Ugh. Also, the air temperature went from 83F yesterday to 68F today. The guide book says, "As you leave Quebec City and head downstream, you enter the estuary of the St. Lawrence - the largest in the world. Upwellings of cold water penetrate the Laurentian Channel, attracting whales and seals and helping lower the temperature. Warmer clothing is needed for boating in this region.". We read this a couple of days ago and thought, 'No kidding, colder temperatures - hmmmm like 75 probably.' Then I thought, huh, whales and seals - you probably only get to see them if you go on one of those whale watching tours or something.

Anyway, back to why it's scary in this part of the river. The fog was (and still is as I type this) bad, the water is freezing, the air is cold, it rained on and off all day and there was no wind. So, we motored from 6:30 am to 8 pm in the fog and rain, and Don kept watch most of that time. By the time we got here (Anse Du Petit Metis) to anchor, Don was good and exhausted and very chilly. When we arrived, it was low tide and we could barely make out the rocks that show themselves at low tide (the tidal range here is about 9 feet). What we could make out was that the rocks were really big slabs with what looked like smooth surfaces. So we put the anchor down. Then we backed up to make sure the anchor was caught, and instead of that tug that feels so nice and secure when the anchor catches, we got a sound like a snowplow makes when it scrapes a bare road - or like an anchor makes when it slides across smooth rock and doesn't catch. So, we pulled up the anchor and tried again. Nope. At this point it is 8:30, we haven't had dinner yet, we can't see anything through the fog and we are both in foul moods. If the anchor doesn't catch, we would have no choice but to head back out in the dark, in the fog, which would have meant an overnight motor (there is no other place to anchor near here) that we weren't prepared for - especially given the wild night we had last night (the current and waves smashing into the boat thing, not a crazy drinking binge). So, we tried a third time.

Just a quick aside here on Don's anchoring skills. In all the years I have sailed with him, I have never seen Don try more than twice to get an anchor to catch, and most of the time the first try does it.

So you can imagine the angst involved with a third try. In goes the anchor for the third try, and it catches very precariously. Really, it's precarious, we can tell. I'd explain how we can tell, but I've already put enough boater talk into this update as it is. So - to make a really long story about why it is scary here shorter, we decided the best course of action would be for one of us to be up at all times during the night on anchor watch. Ah - more boater talk, sorry. [Non-boater translation: anchor watch means staying awake to make sure the boat is not moving because the anchor is dragging. This is not done by sitting outside on the bow of the boat and staring at the anchor chain, but is done by staying inside where it is nice and warm and cozy, writing extremely long blog updates to pass the time, and listening for that snowplow scrape sound as well as watching the GPS to make sure the boat doesn't travel beyond a certain distance. All while the tired husband sleeps because he got stuck doing watch duty all day in the cold, rainy fog.]

So there you go. Very longwinded. To make it easier, I'll summarize the scary stuff for you. Fog. Rain. Cold. Precarious anchoring. Tired husband.

Now, back to the point of this update, which was the analogy between the forest scene in the Wizard of Oz and this part of the St. Lawrence river. Remember when Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man and the Scare Crow were walking through the forest and the trees were alive and nasty and Dorothy and the group got themselves all worked up about lions and tigers and bears? Then remember how they ran into the Lion and he turned out to be such a good guy and the forest wasn't so scary anymore?

Well, so it is with the St. Lawrence estuary. Despite the fog, rain, cold, precarious anchoring and tired husband, this place is incredible. We saw dozens of beluga whales, at least 5 or 6 seals and about 5 pairs of dolphins today. Seriously, we did. It was unbelievable. We saw our first whales just after we left Gros Pelerin Island this morning. Even with the fog, we saw these huge white things moving through the water and it took us a little while (after using the binoculars) to figure out that we were seeing the white parts on the top of beluga whales (belugas are known to frolic about in these waters at this time of year). Don experienced the first sighting when two of these creatures crested the water not too far in front of the boat. Don was so freaked out at first that he pulled the engine out of gear to try and stop the boat. He wasn't sure at that point what he saw, just that they were big. After a few minutes, we figured out what they were and started seeing them everywhere. We must have motored by a whole pod or something. After that we saw more of them on and off throughout the day. In between the whale sightings, we also saw some seals. Every now and then we would see one of them stick its head above the water and because the water was extremely calm (no wind again) their heads were easy to spot. They would typically peer about for a short while, and then dive back down again. They didn't seem all that interested in us. The dolphins were always traveling in pairs, and we would see them leap out of the water several times and then disappear. We never got a really good look at them up close, so we could be wrong about their identity....but they sure looked like dolphins.

I wasn't able to get any decent pictures of these creatures because they were either too fast or too far away. My one sad attempt at marine life photography is attached below. In case you are thinking that it's a picture of a big hunk of white plastic (a fisherman's float maybe?) it really is a whale cresting the surface of the water. If you don't believe me, you can ask Don and he will tell you it's a whale - and you know he always tells it like it is. Kelly at Curbell will probably say it's a sea serpent (she was trying to convince us that such things existed before we left).

Ok enough. This one-sided written conversation is a great way to kill time when on anchor watch. If you've gotten this far, thanks for your time and patience! And, for you working folks - get back to work!

Anne