LAST DAY - DAY 11 - Baie-Comeau - June 20, 2017

We spent our last day of Leg 2 at Baie-Comeau, docked alongside a huge industrial wharf. It was nice being able to walk off the ship, but it was bittersweet knowing that we were almost done our adventure, and there would be no more splashy rides in the Zodiacs. Our morning was spent at a conference nearby, within walking distance. The conference was the CCUNESCO Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association AGM, hosted in Baie-Comeau, part of the Manicouagan Uapishka Biosphere Reserve. The conference is hosted in one of Canada's 18 Biosphere Reserves every year (or second year? I'm not sure), and the timing and location lined up perfectly with the arrival of C3 ship. The sessions that we were able to attend were really interesting, as the focus of the conference this year was Reconciliation in Sustainable Development. There are three Biosphere Reserves in Nova Scotia, and wouldn't you know it? I ran into someone I know. My friend Katy Hopkins was there!

In our requisite conference credentials, drinking our requisite conference-catered beverages. Photo credit to an unknown conference attendee!

It felt weird and good to see a familiar face after 10 days of being a stranger in a strange land. Seeing her was very comforting (even though I didn't need comforting in any way!), like a nice cup of tea on a cold day. Because our ship was docked and not anchored, Katy was able to come aboard for a tour later that day.  She was excited to see the ship, but she was more excited to meet Alex Cuba :)

After lunch we headed up to the nearby Le Jardin des Glaciers. The Garden of the Glaciers is an interactive multi-media attraction inside a re-purposed cathedral, and it allows visitors to explore the geologic history of the region, and how it was formed by glaciers. I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had been air-conditioned. Honestly, making us watch a movie about ice while it was 30 degrees in the building was a lot to take! However, we got through it, and I have to say it was pretty cool (pardon the pun).

After that we headed back to the ship to pack and clean our cabins for the participants of Leg 3, and to finish up odds and ends like signing the drum in the Legacy Room and put the finishing touches on the Leg 2 mural panel in the hangar that was spearheaded by Sandra.

A journal was placed in each cabin with the intent that there would be a unique thread throughout the journey within each cabin. Lyne and I were scrambling to complete our journal entries for the next people who would take over our bunks. I finished up my part, and Lyne was still working on the journal in the van to the airport later that afternoon! She got her part done and sent the journal back to the ship with the van-driver. Phew!

We changed sheets, made up the bunks, cleaned out our cupboards, and swept and vacuumed the floors, making everything as clean and welcoming as our welcome had been. Then there was nothing left to do but say goodbye. Final hugs were shared. Final pictures were taken, including this one, one of my favourites. That's me with Al, one of the members of the totally awesome Polar Prince crew. Oh, and Kevin.

To quote Al re. Kevin: "He certainly knows how to turn on the Manson lamps, doesn't he?" Hahaha!

I held it together pretty good, hugging everyone with promises of staying in touch (we have, by the way). Then I turned to Dardia, darling Dardia, and we cried all over each other!

Fortunately, there wasn't a ton of time to spend crying because about a fifteen of us had to get to the airport; we were all on the same flight back to Montreal, and from there we splintered all over the country. The airport in Baie-Comeau is pretty small, with just a few flights everyday. The plane we were about to board was the same plane that the Leg 3 people flew in on. As the Leg 3-ers walked in to the airport (which is pretty small) we formed up an impromptu choir behind the security windows and sang River of Nations to them. (I wrote about the writing of this song here.)  What a welcome for them, and what a way for us to say goodbye!

Each leg of the Expedition has some very special Canadians along as journey participants: Olympians! Leg 2 was exceptional in that we had two, Guylaine Bernier (1976, rowing, also unanimously elected as the Mayor of Leg 2) and Jennifer Jones (2014, Gold-Medallist, curling). Jennifer and I hit it off, and ended up being bus-buddies; we often wound up sitting together when we took a bus to an event or museum. Imagine our delight when, completely by chance (fate?) we ended up sitting together on the plane! It certainly made for a pleasant flight home.

We all got off the plane in Montreal, and more hugs were exchanged as we headed for our different gates and hotels. It was bittersweet. Sad that our time on the C3 Expedition was truly over, but so intensely grateful for the experiences and opportunities we had been given.   

DAY 10 - Rimouski - June 19, 2017

We arrived ashore via Zodiacs to a wonderful welcome: an elementary school (we would visit later that day) stood on the shores waving posters and banners and cheering our arrival. It was so cute!

Aftre a brief meet and greet with the children we headed to the DFO/Coast Guard base, Maurice LaMontagne Institute - Marine Science Research Centre.

The building is beautiful, with an airy courtyard in the middle.

We had a whirlwind tour of the facility, including Coast Guard rescue operations, the marine animal research facility, and hydrographic services. We spent less than two hours there; I could easily have spent the whole day.

Holding tanks full of turbot are studied at various stages of life.

SHRIMP!

The little white piece of equipment in front is used for remote-controlled survey. 

This is a self-righting vessel, meaning that if it capsizes and flips completely upside-down it will roll itself over so that it is right-side-up again. Now who wants to go for a boat ride?

This skeleton of a grey seal is on display in the corridor.

This is the skeleton of a beluga.

Before we left, we were all gifted a beautiful poster detailing the "Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain". It's gorgeous and, in light of recent revelations about my Acadian heritage, I especially love that it connects Atlantic Canada with Quebec.

Next up was a visit to the Pointe au Pere Maritime Historic Site where we visited the Empress of Ireland pavilion. The museum is full of artifacts from the wreck, thoughtfully displayed, and our costumed interpretive guide was excellent. But, far-and-away the best part of the museum is the short film they show in a small movie theatre off the main gallery. The intro to the movie is a 30-second time-delayed live shot of the theatre audience filing in and taking seats. When we realized we were the previews, all manner of subdued silliness ensued while we waited for the feature attraction. The movie tells the story of a few passengers boarding the ship, and then the collision that caused her to sink. Images are displayed on the screen and front, but also on the side-walls of the theatre, plus they use flashing lights, fog machines, and fans to make it total sensory experience. It is very effective story telling, emotional and terrifying in all the right ways. 

After lunch we were went to the Ecole Bleue, the elementary school whose pupils had greeted us upon our arrival at the wharf that morning! The school uses emergent-learning to teach the students, with an emphasis on their connection to the environment and the ocean. We were there for an open-house, where the children presented projects they had been working on all year, like a science fair that included biology, ecology, and social history. The displays and presentations were fantastic! 

After touring around and looking at the student projects, the C3 team spread out the giant floor map for a presentation to the kids.

After that, we had some time to wander around the school and take it all in. The school has been decorated by professional artists who worked with the children to paint murals all over the walls and lockers. They did an amazing job adding hundreds of species of the St. Lawrence River in very life-like and accurate portrayals. The upper floors are decorated to reflect the surface and middle-parts of the water column. The bottom floor is scheduled to be painted next, depicting the sea-floor. 

Imagine our surprise and delight to find that they had included our ship, Polar Prince, in their mural. What an honour!

C3ers were stoked to discover this part of the mural!

We had a wonderful day in Rimouski, our last full day of the expedition before the Leg 3 participants took over the next day. We spent the evening aboard ship, hanging out and saying good-bye over a special hangar-dinner prepared by Chef Matt.

The crew joined us for dinner, and for speeches and special presentations, including this one:

JR and Joanne present the Plunger d'Or.

This was a very special award, called the Plunger d'Or. I'm proud to say Leg 2 was the recipient of this award, for not having caused any of the toilets to back up during the entire leg... something Leg 1 couldn't attain, and for which the crew was especially thankful for.

The sunset was particularly beautiful that evening, and I couldn't resist the urge to take the mic and lead the Nova Scotians in a rousing version of Farewell To Nova Scotia.  

The sun was setting in the west...

When I was done singing, the bosun, Kevin "Canso" Newell, told me something strange happened to his eyes while he was listening ("They got all wet."), and Captain Guy hugged me and thanked me and told me it gave him goosebumps. That meant so much to me. I was glad to share a beautiful song in a beautiful place.

DAY 9 - Essipit and Les Escoumins - June 18, 2017

We spent the morning of our ninth day at the small First Nations reserve, Innue Essipit. Having been educated in a system that I'm beginning to realize places very little emphasis on Canadian history and even less so on Indigenous history, I didn't know that Innu and Inuit are not the same thing. I know the difference between Austria and Australia, so how is it that I don't know the difference between Innu and Inuit? Whoever said "Ignorance is bliss" is full of shit. Chances are you don't know the difference between Innu and Inuit either, so let me fill you in a bit.

"Like many other Aboriginal peoples, until recently the Innu were known by what was, for them, foreign labels, rather than by the name they used for themselves. The early missionaries, encountering Innu who came to the St. Lawrence River French settlements from the nearby hills, called them 'Montagnais', meaning 'mountain people'. In Labrador this term was sometimes changed to 'Mountaineer.' By contrast, those Innu living in the tundra region of northern Labrador and Québec, who became known to Europeans later, were called 'Naskapi.' This word is of uncertain origin, but for the missionaries it meant a pagan and 'less civilized' group than the Montagnais. In the 20th century, anthropologists recognized that these two groups had, for the most part, a single common culture, and so coined the term 'Montagnais-Naskapi'.

In the 1980s the Innu themselves made it known that they preferred to be called 'Innu', a word meaning 'people' in their own language. They also began to publicly use their own name, Ntisinan, for their traditional territory. Despite the apparent similarity between 'Innu' and 'Inuit', the two words are not related.

In terms of culture and language, the Innu are the easternmost group of a very widespread people commonly known as the Cree, another term probably of European origin. Except for the Plains Cree, whose culture has much in common with that of the other horse-mounted buffalo hunters of the northern prairies, Cree groups (including the Innu) all inhabit the boreal forest and share a broadly similar cultural tradition." (Innu Culture)

We had a wonderful welcome at the community centre with singing and dancing, and they fed us some traditional Innu foods: banock with caribou fat, fir jelly, cedar jelly, and cranberry jelly, and a piping hot cup of Labrador tea to wash it down.

Having just had one of Paul-the-Cook's giant ham and bologne and eggs and hashbrowns and fruit and toast breakfasts aboard ship, I wasn't hungry at all. However, the food was delicious, and since I am a pig (and an opportunistic one at that) I had seconds of the delicate little snacks we were provided. When is the next time I'm going to have the chance to eat caribou? Or homemade jellies made from trees? It could be years, or it could be never. I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. The food was really tasty. The caribou fat had a mild taste, and the jellies were woodsy, savory, and fairly delicate tasting.

The Labrador tea is brewed from a plant that grows wild in the area, and had been pointed out to me the day before by the Parks Canada guide who I hiked up the fjord with. We stopped and picked some, and he told me that tea could be made with it. Little did I know I would be drinking it the very next day, and quite enjoying it. Now I wish I had asked more specific and pointed questions about it, so I could forage for it here at home.

After our welcome at the Essipit community centre, we boarded the bus for a tour of their very small community. The reserve is less than one square kilometre, so the tour was quite brief! Our guides were community leaders who took great pride in their community, as they should; there is zero unemployment on the reserve. ZERO. I feel like the significance of this amazing fact may have been lost on the Westerners in our group, but to an East-Coaster this is a totally foreign concept. I asked the guide to repeat and clarify what they meant. About 40 years ago there was a change in leadership and mindset on the reserve, and one of the goals was that everybody should have a job. Maybe its because I'm a Maritimer, but I didn't realize that 0% unemployment was like, an actual possible thing. What an accomplishment!

Next up we headed off the reserve to the Coast Guard Marine Communications & Traffic Services facility at Les Escoumins. This is a hub of communication for all marine traffic on the St. Lawrence River. The building overlooks the river, and there are about three dozen computer monitors tracking all the traffic in real time. We were able to spot Polar Prince at anchor on one of the monitors.

There were so many tankers and cargo ships on the monitors; the importance of the St. Lawrence River for trade and industry in Canada cannot be overstated.

This facility is also responsible for all marine rescue coordination for the province of Quebec. They coordinate all manner of rescue efforts; anything from pleasure craft vessels running out of gas on tiny tributaries, to full-on ship wrecks and groundings in the St. Lawrence, and everything in between. Luckily it was a busy day on the river, but everything was running smoothly while we were there. The C3-ers thanked the Coast Guard staff for the nice visit and hoped we wouldn't have to talk to them again :)

There are huge sections of the St. Lawrence River where a designated pilot is required for all vessels of a certain tonnage and class to pass safely. A short distance from the Coast Guard Marine Communications & Traffic Services building is the Pilot Boat station, and that's where we headed next. When a ship enters this part of the river, a pilot is ferried out to the ship on a pilot boat, where he boards and takes control of the vessel in order to navigate it safely through the shipping channel. The pilots have extensive knowledge of the river and its terrain, conditions, and navigation rules.

One of the pilot boats, docked at the station.

Guylaine Bernier is an Olympic Rower. Here we see her moonlighting as a pilot boat captain.  

From the pilotage building we watched one of the pilot boats leave the station and head out to meet an approaching cargo ship. The cargo ship maintained its speed and course as the pilot boat came alongside. As the two vessels coordinated speed and position with exceptional precision, the pilot jumped from the pilot boat onto a ladder on the cargo ship and boarded her. This is an incredibly dangerous part of the job, and I can't imagine having to do it everyday.

By the time we wrapped up our tour of the Pilot Boat Station and the Coast Guard it was lunch time. The mayor and council of Les Escoumins graciously hosted us for lunch, and a brief presentation and reception at the community centre before ushering us off to one of the town's points of pride: whale watching at the Parks Canada Marine Environment Discovery Centre.

Staff at the Marine Discovery Centre gave us a brief intro about the whales that inhabit the waters of the St. Lawrence, then had us watch a 10-minute movie about marine life in the area. I guess the long days and short sleeps were starting to catch up, because (with the exception of Carole) the lot of us fell asleep. Another first for me courtesy of Canada C3: I don't think I've ever fallen asleep in public before! The movie was just so soothing, and the theatre so dim and cozy...

The nine-and-a-half minute nap did me wonders, and after we left the theatre we headed outside to wander around the shoreline of the Marine Discovery Centre, or to explore the river by getting in.

A group of C3-ers get suited up for a diving adventure in the St. Lawrence.

While a few people opted to go snorkelling/diving, most of us went and sat on the rocky outcrop between the Marine Discovery Centre and the river to enjoy the beautiful sunshine-y day, and to watch the whales feeding mere metres from where we sat.

That little black bump just past the rocks is a minke whale.

We saw dozens of whales, mostly minkes and a few belugas too. Even though we had been seeing whales for two days, it never got boring and every sighting was exciting. I managed to capture a video of one of the minkes coming up to the surface and then diving. 

My voice in this video illustrates the typical reaction I had every time I saw a whale. First you hear me trying to contain my excitement so as not to frighten the whale, as if me yelling "wow" would scare it off. That's Dennis saying "Boy, that's close." and Parks Canada staff saying "There's a dive." Minkes tend to break the surface once or twice (presumably to breath) before they dive down swallowing up prey as they go. Off camera you can't see me, Heather, and Andrea exchanging gleeful looks of amazement with each other... but you can hear me giggling with delight and awe. This was our reaction to every whale we spotted, despite this video being quite possibly and literally our 100th sighting. I mean, it just never got old. Andrea, in particular, found being in the presence of the whales, especially the belugas, to be very spiritual and profoundly emotional. There is something deeply soothing about seeing them, and Andrea was able to put it into words in ways that I can't quite capture. I'm glad she was there to talk to me about it that afternoon.

We went back to Polar Prince for a quick dinner, then back into the Zodiacs and put ashore at the Marine Discovery Centre for a public event, the C3 "Ship T'Shore Sharing Show". Andrea, Heather, and Alex all gave spirited performances, and Dardia performed her graduation slam poem as well. You can watch part of the Facebook live broadcast of the show here. Another awesome day was done, and it was back to the ship for a quiet evening underway.

DAY 8 - Saguenay Fjords National Park, Tadoussac - June 17, 2017

But as our restless shallop from her prow

Scatters the liquid pearls in her mad haste,

These naked boulders lag behind, and now

The smiling hills with verdant life are graced.

Charles Sangster, The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay 

We sailed through the night from l'Islet, and when I woke up in the morning we were cruising toward Tadoussac and the Saguenay Fjord.

I had volunteered to work the breakfast shift in the galley that morning, but there weren't too many diners around. Everyone was up on deck checking out the scenery... and the whales! I tried my best to stay in the mess and fulfill my galley duties, but there was just so much excitement. Despite my protests, everyone insisted I go up and have a look, from Paul-the-Cook, to C3 staffer Ellie, to Bosun Kevin ("Git up there and check out the livestock!"). I can't very well disobey the bosses, so off I went. There were whales everywhere. Minkes and belugas! Believe it or not, this Bluenoser had never seen a whale before, so this was a big deal for me. They seemed huge, even though minkes and belugas are some of the smallest whales. Dr. Lyne was on deck, giving us a run-down on these species, and this population in particular. While belugas live in various parts of the world, this population is endangered with only 936 individuals left. Lyne pointed out calves swimming alongside their mamas (the calves are grey, not white like the Raffi song suggests). She described their preferred food and environment, and their social habits. What an extraordinary opportunity to view these animals standing next to a world renowned expert! I'm so, so lucky. I'm not much of a hugger, but Lyne got a huge hug from me that morning. I was so grateful to be sharing this awesome experience with her.

Eventually we arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay and headed west toward the Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay. One of the zodiacs headed out and picked up our Parks Canada tour guide, Nadia, who joined us for the rest of the day. Now we had two experts with us, answering every question, and pointing out things the casual observer would miss. Check this out, it blew my mind: This part of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay is heavily influenced by the salt water of the Atlantic ocean. In fact, the water and currents interact here such that the colder, denser salt water stays on the bottom, and the freshwater is a more-or-less separate layer on top. It is essentially a river flowing on top of the ocean. Not only that, but you can fish for both freshwater and saltwater fish here. You want to catch freshwater fish? You drop your line less than, say, 20 feet. You want to catch saltwater fish? You drop your line 20+ feet. It's incredible!  The water here is very deep, and very cold, and is habitat for the elusive Greenland shark. (No, we didn't see any Greenland sharks. But just knowing they are there was awe-inspiring.)

Eventually we arrived at our anchorage in the Bay of Eternity at the nature reserve, and we took the Zodiacs over to the shore for a hike up the side of the fjord. The whales weren't the only thing of beauty and wonder; the landscape was unbelievable. We walked up the very steep mountain, and I was dripping in sweat by the time I reached our destination. But boy was it worth it.

It took about two hours to reach our destination, all uphill. In fact, it's all stairs, about a thousand feet up. Years ago, a path was cut up the side of the mountain and huge stone stairs were laid the whole way up. I wish I had more details about how this was done and by whom, as this must have been an incredible effort. 

We didn't have the time to hike the entire thing (that would take days), but we did hike to a wonderful stopping point with a gorgeous vista and (surprise!) a huge statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the river below.

We were also greeted by a Parks Canada interpreter who reenacted the story of how the statue came to be there. 

The story wasn't really supposed to be funny, but our storyteller was very animated and entertaining and was a real joy to listen to and laugh along with. She was a Quebecois dressed as a man and kept mixing up pronouns and dates and numbers, and Nadia had to keep correcting her/him. It was too funny! However, the point of the story was this: a man in the late 1800s had several brushes with death that he narrowly escaped by praying. He made a promise to the Virgin that, for sparing his life, he would erect a beautiful tribute. And that's just what he did. Even the story of how he fund-raised for the statue, and then getting it up the mountain was astonishing, and particularly effective when telling it to a group of people who barely managed to get their carcasses up there, let alone carry a 3-ton statue with them.

As we were sitting there listening to the story, enjoying (ha!) the heat from the sun and resting before our trek back down, we had a new arrival to the group. Captain Stephan let us get a good head start, then jogged up the mountain in time to catch most of the story. Not only did he jog the mountain, it took him well under an hour, and he arrived looking like he had just jogged about 100 meters. No fuss, no muss! He really is an impressive man. 

 After story-time, we headed back down the mountain to the ship. It was a little quicker going down than up, but not much. The plan for the night was to have dinner underway, stopping in at Tadoussac before carrying on down the river to our next destination. Dinner was a fancy one that night, prepared by Chef Matt in celebration of the beautiful place we were visiting.

Dinner in the open-air hanger was really special; dining with the best people in the most beautiful place on earth.

We arrived at Tadoussac a little after dark, where we were ferried ashore by Zodiac and met by two tour guides who gave us a brief walking tour of the town. Raven took care of dividing us into groups ("Hey guys! The english tour is this way!") and we were off. Our tour guide, Jane, was awesome. Sympathetic to our state of physical exhaustion after the day's grueling hike and sensing our urgency to visit some of the local public houses, she kept the tour upbeat and brief. Like every place I visited with C3, I wish I could have spent more time there and had a lot more energy to devote to it. Tadoussac was a traditional meeting place of the Innu, Wendat, Mohawk, and Mi'kmaq for millennia because of its location at the intersection of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay. Europeans first visited Tadoussac in the 1500s, and a trading post was established there in 1600, the first in what would become Canada. These days, Tadoussac relies primarily on tourism thanks to the abundance of belugas and other whales.

Tadoussac is a a hopping little town in the summer, a boater's paradise with a small marina. Jane took us round to the dry-dock, which was one of the coolest pieces of infrastructure I've ever seen. It was too dark for photos, so I'll try and describe what I saw.  Actually, it's pretty easy to describe what I saw: a gravel parking lot that kind of resembled a small-ish quarry. Other than a set of heavy wooden gates on one side of the parking lot, it was pretty unremarkable. Turns out, this quarry-type parking lot is where every Tadoussac boat is launched in the spring, and where all the boats are hauled out in the fall. The big wooden gates hold back the St. Lawrence River. On the highest tide in the spring, the floodgates are opened, the parking lot floods, and the boats that have been sitting in their in their cradles all winter float off, while others are lowered in via derrick. During the highest tide in the fall, the gates are opened and the boats all gather in the parking lot/dry-dock. All the boats float over their cradles until the tide goes out and the water recedes. Then the gates are closed again until spring. It's nuts! Jane said it is quite the party on both the first and last days of boating season every year. The last day is usually right around the end of October, and apparently the town goes all out for Halloween. I can only imagine!

The last stop on our tour was the fancy Hotel Tadoussac in the middle of town. It is gorgeous, and we saw it standing majestically on the shore when we sailed past that morning en route to the Bay of Eternity in the Saguenay Fjord. 

The Hotel Tadoussac is just left of centre, with the red roof.

Unbelievably, there was a piano bar in the hotel, and apparently no dress code (I asked). Since we had 45 minutes before we had to be back at the marina to board the Zodiacs, I opted to stay for a beverage.  Everyone else headed out to one of the two small pubs we had strolled past on our tour, but there was no way I'd forego my chance to sit at the bar and listen to monsieur tickle the ivories. It was just so... surreal. Polar Prince cook, Paul had joined us for our walking tour, and he didn't like the idea of leaving me on my own, so, gentleman that he is, opted to join me at the bar. (Turns out, we made the smart decision - the others reported that the other pubs were noisy and almost too crowded to get in, but they didn't have time to walk back to the hotel bar so headed back to the ship.) Paul had a beer, but I took full advantage of my surroundings and ordered a Manhattan. My god, it was exquisite. Paul and I had a lovely chat with the bartender, who, although she was fluent in both french and english, simply could not place our accents. I blame this on the Newfoundlander, as I'm certain I have no accent whatsoever ;)  

One drink down the hatch, and by then it was almost 11pm - time to board the ship, pull up the anchor and head down the river for another day of whale watching and adventure!

POSTSCRIPT: I was so impressed with Jane Evans, our tour guide, I scribbled her a thank you note when I got home. I addressed it to Jane-The-Tour-Guide, c/o Tadoussac Tourism. Amazingly, she got it (thank you, Canada Post!) and sent me a note back.  We're all invited back to Tadoussac anytime, and we're to look her up when we get there!

Day 7, Part 2 - l'Islet - June 16, 2017

Reviewing my notes from the C3 Expedition, here's what I wrote about the afternoon of June 16: "l'Islet was the most magical place I've ever been. Quite possibly the best day of my life." Needless to say, it left an impression. Sandra had so much joy and pride in her voice when she spoke of her hometown, I really shouldn't have been surprised. I totally get it.

Photo by Martin Lipman

l'Islet is a small town of about 4,000 people on the southeast shore of the St. Lawrence River. It didn't have a dock to accommodate Polar Prince, so Capt. Guy anchored us offshore and we Zodiac'd in. The tide affects the river here, and we arrived at low tide. The Zodiacs deposited us at the edge of a mudflat, which meant a walk of a few hundred meters to reach land.

Expedition leader, Geoff Green, shlepping a guitar across the mudflats. Photo by Martin Lipman.

Beyond the mudflats we had to crawl up a rock embankment about 30' high, to what is essentially the backyard of the town's museum, the Capitaine J.E. Bernier Musee Maritime du Quebec. (As a quick side note, one of our journey participants was 1976 Olympic rower, Guylaine Bernier, who also happened to be a relative of Capt. Bernier. Say wha?!? More on Guylaine later...)

Hundreds of people were waiting for us at the museum wharf, and they also got to witness us comically walking/falling/struggling through the mudflats too - quite the show! I was met partway across the flats by the advanced welcoming party, a couple of women who introduced themselves as staff of the Musee Maritime. One of them, Sophie, was the Director of the museum, so it was cool that she had taken the time to come and personally meet us. I worked at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax for a few years, and I have a real passion for maritime museums. Of course I told Sophie how much I was looking forward to visiting her museum, that I used to work at the MMA, and that I am a big fat museum nerd!

We finally all made it ashore, and who was waiting there? Sandra's family! I got to meet her dad, her sister, and her two adorable little nephews. I also got to meet what felt like the entire population of l'Islet, as I'm sure most of them were there on the wharf. The language barrier was tough for me in this town, because I would have enjoyed talking to everyone unfettered, instead of in my broken French or with the help of a translator. ("Pourquoi, oh porquoi," I lamented to myself throughout the trip, "don't I parle francais?!?")

The back yard of the museum is quite an impressive public space. They have two museum ships, an historic sailboat, and an anchor yard.

Hydrofoil  HMCS Bras d'Or is parked here! Who knew?

This sailboat is called J.E. Bernier II.

The anchor yard is off the starboard side of  Ernest Lapointe, and that's the museum building behind it.

When I worked at the Maritime Museum in Halifax, I spent most of my time aboard museum ship CSS Acadia. She was built in 1913 for the Canadian Hydrographic Service, and served around the Maritimes, Hudsons Bay, and Newfoundland. She had a thick iron hull, so designed for light icebreaking duties frequently required of her up around Baffin Island. Our C3 vessel, Polar Prince, was launched some 46 years after CSS Acadia. She was built in 1959 for the Dept. of Transport Marine Service as the light icebreaker Sir Humphrey Gilbert, eventually being transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962.  CCGS Ernest Lapointe, now docked at the Musee Maritime du Quebec in l'Islet, was launched in 1941, chronologically in the middle of Acadia and Polar Prince.

For me, Ernest Lapointe was sort of like "the missing link" between the elegant Edwardian sensibility of CSS Acadia and the practical Cold War aesthetic of Polar Prince. The three ships have a lot in common. They're all of similar size and hull shape. They have similar service records and carried out similar duties in overlapping regions. Ernest Lapointe and Polar Prince were built in the same yard, at Davie Shipbuilding in Quebec. Acadia was powered by triple-expansion steam engines; Ernest Lapointe was initially designed to be powered by triple-expansion steam engines, but the ship carrying the engines to Canada was sunk during World War II, and other engines had to be used instead. All three vessels have similar top speeds. I could go on and on (and in much greater detail) but I'll spare you.

Foredeck of Ernest Lapointe

This metal skylight, above Ernest Lapointe's engine room, is reminiscent of the teak skylight similarly positioned aboard CSS Acadia.  

Ernest Lapointe's navigation bridge is reminiscent of both Polar Prince's bridge and CSS Acadia's chart room.

We didn't get a chance to go below decks of Ernest Lapointe, but what I did see of her was really well maintained, and I was fascinated with the details.

The other museum ship maintained by the Musee Maritime is HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400).  When I finally realized what I was looking at, I was surprised and delighted.

This ship served out of Halifax from 1968 to 1971. It took me a while to clue in to what I was looking at, because that structure below the ship? It's not some crazy cradle. Bras d'Or is a hydrofoil! Believe it or not, it's part ship, part airplane. Seriously. When she was in service, the helmsman had to be qualified as a sea pilot and an aircraft pilot. 

From her wikipedia page: 

"Bras d'Or first flew on 9 April 1969 near Chebucto Head off the entrance to Halifax Harbour. The vessel exhibited extraordinary stability in rough weather, frequently more stable at 40 knots (70 km/h; 50 mph) than a conventional ship at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Bras d'Or exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph) on trials, quite possibly making her the fastest warship ever built. It was however, never fitted with equipment for warfare (no weapons or weapon systems) and the title now lies with the Norwegian Skjold-class corvettes that do 60 knots (110 km/h; 70 mph), fully equipped."

There are a few videos online of HMCS Bras d'Or underway, but I chose this one because the uploader has set it to the "Top Gun" theme - hahaha.

The Canadian Navy's experimental hydrofoil program ended abruptly in 1971 after a change in policy, and she was donated to the Musee Maritime du Quebec a few years later. 

So now that we've covered what is outside the museum, let's move inside...

We were pretty mucky from our walk across the mudflats, but someone had the foresight to hook up a garden hose and give us all a good rinse we before we headed to the official reception in the museum's boat shed. The boat shed was packed, and it was great reception. There were the usual speeches one would expect, plus they had a small choir sing for us.

The choir was wonderful, and they looked super sharp in their white and navy stripes.

Our very own musicians Andrea Menard, Heather Rankin, and Alex Cuba contributed to the festivities by each singing a song as well. There was a Grade Two class in attendance, who brought with them a very special gift. Each student wrote a letter to another student who lives way up north. They packaged their letters and a few other small gifts in a treasure box they had made, and the C3 ship is carrying the package to be delivered to the students upon arrival in Pond Inlet. 

Student, teacher, and expedition leader! Photo by Martin Lipman.

After the reception, the incredible hospitality team somehow arranged a barbecue for us at the museum, and while we waited for Matt, Jason, and Shazad to grill the kabobs, we milled around and took in the beautiful scene. Sophie, the director of the museum, tracked me down after our initial meeting on the mudflats and offered me a private tour of the museum's storage area. The invitation was extended to Geoff, and off we went for a behind the scenes peak at some really cool artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Empress of Ireland.  The Empress sank in the St. Lawrence River after a collision in 1913. Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died, and it is the largest loss of life of any Canadian maritime accident in peacetime. 

Some of the items in storage include these wine bottles, recovered from the wreck of Empress of Ireland.

Sophie chose one to give us a close-up look. They somehow survived with wine still in them!

This is the leg from a piano in one of the salons of Empress of Ireland.

There were also racks and racks of ships portraits that we had a peak at while we were back there, and some of Capt. Bernier's (the museum's namesake) personal belongings that aren't on display, including this unique piece of furniture:

It's a stool made out of whale vertebrae!

After our private tour of the storage area, we ate our delightful picnic/barbecue, and then Sophie gave us a tour of the rest of the museum, focusing on the expeditions and personal belongings of Capt. J. E. Bernier.  Bernier is known for making many northern expeditions, and for claiming for Canada in 1909 the entire arctic, from the west border to the eastern borders of Canada extending all the way to the North Pole. And he was born right there in l'Islet! I'm surprised at myself for this, but I had never heard of J. E. Bernier. When I think of northern explorers, I think first of the Franklin Expedition. The big difference between Bernier and Franklin, was that Bernier was really good at his job, and Franklin was absolute shite. History seems to have painted Franklin as this heroic and tragic figure who had the fates against him, but in my opinion this is not true; Franklin was an arrogant idiot.

When Bernier headed north, unlike Franklin, he developed personal relationships with the Inuit, learned the language, asked for help and guidance when he needed it, and listened to their counsel. Like any smart traveler, he made nice with the locals. The museum has many of his personal articles on display, like these office supplies:

Bernier's typewriter and business card engraving. 

Space is always at a premium aboard ship. Bernier's typewriter is foldable!

After our tour, Sophie had an extra special item to show us. Bernier's custom, hand-made snow suit is part of the museum's collection, but is not on display. (I suspect it is kept in cold storage so it doesn't deteriorate.)

Captain Bernier's parka.

The suit is absolutely beautiful, and is made of several different pelts. It was most likely made by an Inuit woman named Qulittalik. Qulittalik and the other women in her community were instrumental to the success of Bernier's expedition, dressing the entire crew in appropriate attire. Legend has it that Bernier never once suffered from the Arctic cold, thanks to the traditional knowledge and fine craftsmanship of Qulittalik. 

After our tour of the museum, l'Islet had another surprise for us. We were invited to the quarter deck of Ernest Lapointe for a sunset ceremony presented to us by the local Sea Cadet troupe.

These kids were young, like maybe 10-13 years old, and could not have been playing for very long. What confidence and gusto! I'm not just a maritime museum nerd. I'm also a band geek.  THIS DAY HAD IT ALL!!!! Not only did they do a classic sunset flag-lowering ceremony for us, they offered to parade us to our next stop which was a ten-minute walk down the main drag of l'Islet. Hello, New Orleans style parade! Off we went with the band leading the way. They didn't just know O Canada and the usual catalogue of marches. They also played Bruno Mars, The White Stripes, and other songs too hip for me to know. We picked up a few pedestrians along the way, and cars and even a tractor slowed down and honked for us. It was pretty great.

Our next destination in l'Islet was the Chappelle Saint-Joseph-Secours-des-Marins. Built in 1834, this elegant little chapel is a tribute to the hundreds of sailors who were born in l'Islet who lost their lives at sea.

We were invited by the minister to have a blessing bestowed upon us and the entire C3 expedition, which started with Carole ringing the chapel bell.

After the welcome and blessing, l'Islet surprised us again with another musical performance. These two sang us three songs, acapella.

One would expect the mood to be fairly serious and sombre, but that is not the l'Islet way. Their opening number was a drinking song that was hilarious (yes, even in French I got the humour.)

The gist of the song is that they keep drinking, verse after verse, and by verse three they were stumbling all over the place. I wish I had video of the whole thing, but I wanted to see it in real life and not through an electronic screen! I also wish I caught their names, but like so many of our days on C3, there was so much to take in it was hard to document everything. (Please comment if you know who they are!)

The duo performed three songs for us, and then Geoff got up to thank them for the delightful concert. He was so moved by the enthusiasm and charm of these performers, he was inspired to start his singing career, right then and there. Using his cell phone to read all the words, he sang Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage", and lucky for his unsuspecting audience, the man can sing! I was sitting between two francophones, Guylaine and Dardia, and they weren't familiar with the song at all. Inspired by Geoff and his phone, I quickly googled the words on my phone, and we gathered in and sang along, like we were gathered around a hymnal. Other people in other pews quickly did the same thing and it turned into a rousing sing-along by the lot of us. 

That's sort of when it hit me, and Dardia agreed, that during our time in l'Islet it felt like we were watching a movie, except that we were also in the movie. Like "Amelie" or "The Truman Show" or some other whimsical comedy. It was a perfect day.

Next up, it was time to head back to the ship. When we arrived in l'Islet the tide was low, but by the time we left it was high and we were able to avoid the muddy walk back to the Zodiacs and instead board them at a nearby boat launch. This was another short walk from the chapel, and the cadet band once again lead the way. The boat launch is next to a campground, and when the campers heard the ruckus headed down the street toward them they all came out to see what was going on.  The crowd as we left l'Islet was as big as when we arrived. The mayor came out for our departure too, and handed out souvenir gifts to each of us from the town. They had already given us so much, but each of us got a gift bag containing a l'Islet branded screwdriver keychain, a set of Bernier postcards, a homemade book about the legends of l'Islet, and a few other small tokens.

The day was tremendous, never to be matched again. A day I will never forget.