Today is the only sea day of this 7 day cruise and that makes the hotel department very busy. All standard HAL activities have to be crammed into this one day. Mariners presentation, luncheon, speaker on board lecture, Park West Auctions, Bridge lessons etc. etc. it all happens this day. On other days there might be a few things going on but with the majority of the guests going ashore, being ashore, or coming back from shore it is hard to find an audience. Thus everything has to happen today. Tomorrow we are in Quebec and the next day we are in Montreal and that is for most guests the end of the cruise.

The weather is sunny but very chilly with a balming 9 degrees or just touching 50oF. There is hardly any wind but the Maasdam plows along with 16 knots and that already causes a 4 wind chill factor on the outside decks. Luckily the cold temperature also ensures we have good visibility as the outside air is as crisp as the sea water.

The whole St/ Lawrence River. We are too large for the locks which lead to the Great Lakes and thus our Journey has to stop in Montreal

The St Laurence is a very wide river and in the beginning you do not really have the idea that you are on a river. The opposite shore lines are miles away from each other. So far that the Canadian Government has not seen any reason that we should have a pilot while we are still in –almost- open waters. Only tonight at 21.00 hrs. we will embark the pilot at a location where the river slowly starts to get smaller. The pilot station is called Les Escomins and from there it is 265 miles to Montreal. These pilots stay with us until about 05.30 tomorrow morning and then just before turning into the harbor area of Quebec, where the river makes a 90o turn, the docking pilot comes on board.

From Quebec to Montreal we will have two different pilot groups. One group from Quebec to Trois Rivieres and from Trios Rivieres to Montreal. Apart from the docking pilot in Quebec, the other pilots come in a team of two, so they can relieve each other and remain fresh while conning. With the strong current one has to be very alert as the ship might easily be pushed away from the middle of the river and into the river banks. Plus there is a fair chance of large numbers of Sunday Sailors around who do not always understand that a big ship cannot move around a small sailing boat, especially not on a river and certainly not with all the current.

Part 1 of the River. The is the part we can sail without a pilot by staying in the purple tracks. At the lower left is Escomins pilot station. And this section is monitored by Traffic Control on Ch, 14 and later Ch. 08.

Although we are allowed to sail more than 150 miles up the St. Lawrence estuary and river and as it is so wide, The Canadian Government has ensured that all those free wheeling ships will behave themselves by introducing Vessel Traffic Separation schemes. As everywhere else in the world they ensure that ships that go in opposite directions keep apart. At the same time there is a reporting requirement for all the ships. Everybody has to call in at certain points and then give their expected ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) to the next calling in point.  If needed that information is then relayed by the reporting system to other ships in the area. When the pilot(s) gets on board this just continues as the system is covering the whole river.  To avoid too much irrelevant information to be broadcast the river has been divided into 5 sections which each have its own VHF channel and when you sail into a new sector or zone, Traffic Control hands you over to the next monitoring team.

This is part two of the river. From Escomins pilot station to Montreal. The black spades are the calling in points. (Both diagrams courtesy of the Canadian Coastguard)

The weather for Quebec is going to be a bit uncertain but definitely chilly. 14o C / 57oF with a gentle to moderate breeze. And a 50% chance of “une peu de Pluie”.  Still it will not keep the guests from going ashore and enjoy themselves. Quebec is the highest rated city on all our Comment on Board forms. Regardless of Rain or Sunshine.