Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that there were two Oceania ships in the Quay in Montréal? De ja vu all over again…Viking Summer Sailing 2023 without Covid Jail. Insignia is Nautica’s “sister” ship, doing a one week Montréal to New York run with us. We all know what that means—-another game of rock, paper, scissor…and our captain will lose. Bottom line, Insignia will park next to the dock and we (Team Nautica) will anchor and tender to shore.
The small town of Saguenay is almost at the end of the Saguenay Fjord off of the St. Lawerence River. Excursions include fun things like going to a paper mill, paper museum or a pulp wood factory….in the rain…No thanks, we have been to Laurel, Mississippi-many times-and know what making paper smells like. It is a classic fjord, with a river, glacier formed mountains on both sides, that eventually meets a larger body of water. This fjord is much wider than those in Norway, Alaska and Chile, not quite as picturesque. The shape of this fjord acts as a wind and current funnel…so both anchoring and tendering will be that something extra on todays’s stop. The weather…cold (30 degrees), overcast with a strong chance of rain. Eddie rolled over and said “Let’s sleep late, and decide”. About that time the anchor dropped, and dropped and dropped some more…definition of a fjord…deep water …Suite 6002 is right above the Theatre and the anchor porthole…metal chain on a steel ship hull. Special. Once dropped, Eddie attempted to go back to sleep….we are facing into the wind (and current)…to maintain our position, the Bridge must engage the bow thrusters…every two minutes. Wow! Glassware, remotes and our dental work all bounced around…every two minutes all day long. And to think we paid extra for this treatment. We had probably laughed more (between the bow thrusters engagements-lest we bite our tongues) at ourselves than usual on the trip so far.
Because we are so far north, with darkness setting in before 5:00, I have had my handy Aurora App set to alert me to the Northern Lights in my area…it knows where I am and have give the okay to send me notifications. In both May and earlier in October there has been heavy solar activity-So the Northern Lights have been visible as far south as Tennessee. Where we are, the lights are more common but it is cloudy…but I am waiting for my phone to indicate that the skies is green, orange and purple. So far, nothing, but I remain hopeful as we will be sailing the St Lawerence River for the next 36 hours with almost no light pollution…read day at sea.
During the night, Eddie and I both became aware of the extreme motion of the ocean. A couple from Houston that we met in the Airport before departing chuckled when we told them our room number. Larry and Connie are veteran Oceania cruisers. Larry said we should be prepared for “X” sleeping. Yup, we are “X” sleeping as we have hit heavier seas and the bow of our ship is digging into each and every wave. Think roller coaster in bed. We assumed the “X” position with Eddie hanging on with his left hand, me with my right and our one leg crossed over the other person’s to prevent rolling out of bed. We are having fun now! Can I get a Wohoo! Wait, it gets better. The tonnage of our boat is probably 1/3 of what we are accustomed to, so even the smallest of wave action makes for a interesting day. We know from past experience on much larger ships that a little sick tablet goes a long way…but also makes one sleepy. We once again assume the “X” position and waited for the seas to calm…36 hours later. No green and purple skies, but lots of green and purple passengers…is there an App for that?
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