06 Sept. 2014; Montreal, Canada.

And so we arrived on the good ship Maasdam in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the 5^th of Sept.  Canadian Customs were carrying out random in depth inspections and I was one of the lucky ones. Thus I had to wait for 90 minutes in the holding pen at the airport, then had a 2 minute conversation about who I was and what I was going to do, before I was deemed not to be danger to human society at large and Canada in particular. This is something that happens to every crewmember all the time when coming into the USA so it was nothing special. However as the Canadians do it randomly without making any exception to nationality (including their own) or race or religion, it was quite interesting to see how diverse the reactions were from people from various cultural backgrounds.  Varying from dignified resignation (India), to total confusion and mis-understanding (China, Korea), to highly indignant (Americans), to total bewilderment (Canadians). It was most interesting and made the time pass quickly. Montreal suffered from a very hot day, 32oC. and my hotel had AC in the rooms but not in the corridors as it was built around an indoor swimming pool, where the architect had tried to recreate a tropical paradise. Well today it was a real tropical journey to get from the room to the restaurant so the architect had more than succeeded in his/her ambitions.

Due to the tides in Montreal, unfortunately they have very long gangways and they are very narrow.

As I was joining the ship on a regular change over day, I had the benefit of getting to the ship by means of the crew shuttle.  Two minivans and a luggage transporter brought a very diverse group, consisting out of a Ch. Engineer, a Doctor, a Shop Lady, four service engineers, a Musician, a DJ and me to the ship. Here they were very happy to see us, sort of …………………………. as we brought disembarkation to a grinding halt. In Montreal there is only one gangway, which is very long and very narrow and thus allows only one way traffic.  I got the green light from an Operations Lady to go down and thus I did, followed by the rest.  At the same time the next group of guests tried to get up the ramp and for a moment things got very interesting. In the end gravity won the argument and we all rolled downwards with our suitcases, while a poor security guard tried to save the upward guests from being “rolled over”.

As I have mentioned in the past, during a change over day, everybody is extremely busy and should not be bothered. That is except the Captain, who more or less has to wait until he can get the show on the road again once the transformation from end of cruise to new cruise has been made. Which means there was time to say hello.  In command of the Maasdam is Captain Arno Jutten, who said that he was a 4^th. Officer with me when I was already a Master. If his recollections are correct, then that should date me a little bit.

He was very concerned  about one thing and that was to get to Quebec on time, because there was a challenge. Just north of downtown Quebec there is a bridge and you can only get under the bridge with an S-class ship when it is low tide. The deadline tonight is 3 am. So to keep it safe he was planning to aim for 2 am. But you are never certain about these times until the latest measurements have been verified by the pilots. The fact that the tide is suddenly not as low as expected or is going to go higher than expected or earlier can greatly influence the time window that is available. Plus the wind can have a positive or a negative effect on the water height, especially on an estuary river such as the St. Lawrence. A wind that is in the same direction as the tide can easily push up the water height by a foot or more in areas were the river is small. The other way around and it can push the water to open sea faster and thus lower the water height more than calculated. If you miss the Bridge-Tide-window, you have to wait about six hours and then the Maasdam would not be able to dock until 10 am at the earliest. That would mean a lot of unhappy campers on board, and stressed out Shore excursion people.

The strong current swirling around a buoy in the river

But the pilots did not make life complicated and with everybody on board, and on time, the Maasdam set sail for Quebec at 1600 hrs. The first stretch of the river goes slow to avoid creating suction (and thus breaking ropes) with the ships docked along the river bank but once clear the ship can speed up. The current will be with us going down river, so we will get anything between 2 and 5 knots of free speed this time.

If all goes well and we pass under the bridge at 2 am at the beginning of the flood, we should be docked by 3 am in Quebec. Weather forecast for the day, sunny but chilly. I will not notice it as I will start my program telling crewmembers exciting things about lifeboats.