Whale Watching

**THIS POSTING IS OUT OF ORDER. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN POSTED AFTER – Our Last Day on the St Lawrence.**

Up early as we need to be in the lineup for the ferry by 7 a.m.  There is a possibility that we might not make it back to our campsite in Riviere-du-Loup and may need to stay on the north shore overnight.  The Zodiac we have booked is a 2 ½ hour outing that departs at 1:30 p.m. which means we won’t get back until 4 p.m. and the last ferry back to Riviere-du-Loup leaves Saint Simeon at 5:30 p.m.  With a one hour drive and the ferry across the Saguenay between us making the ferry in Saint Simeon will be tight and if it’s a busy day the ferry might even be full before we arrive.

When we arrive we check-in with the staff and verify that they have us on the list.  We need to return by 12:45 p.m. to complete paperwork and prepare for the outing.  There are 32 off us that will be going out today on two different Zodiacs.  They give us each a rubber coated jacket and pants to help keep us both dry and warm.  Once away from shore and out in the middle of the St. Lawrence the temperature drops and the winds really pick up.  We’re glad that we brought gloves with us. 

The vast majority of the group are French speaking and I think only David and I aren’t, so the Naturalist on board explains everything in French and then translates for us.  We need to travel quite a distance out into the river and towards the coast to get to where they have seen the whales earlier today.  Over the course of the 2 ½ hour trip we manage to see 3 different types of whales, Fin, Minke and Humpback.  A few on the other side of the boat see Belugas but we missed them.  There was also a spotting of a dolphin on our way back to the dock.  Nowhere near the number or variety that Deb and I had seen many years ago but that is mainly because we are very early in the season. 

While we’re out Deb learns that we can get dropped off in Baie-Saint-Catherine so she moves the RV from Tadoussac across the Saguenay on the ferry.   Doing so saves us valuable time and ensures we will have enough time to make it to the ferry in Saint Simeon.

All in all a successful day!