Whales

Sunday 9/29/19 erev Rosh Hashana

Jay and I had a stroll through the dockside visitor center and around the Saguenay water front. Based on what we heard from folks who did bus tours, we didn’t miss much. The huge German ship that we had docked near in Quebec was also docked in Saguenay when we arrived. These enormous floating cities have no appeal to me at all. The Grande Mariner is more like a floating village – we’ve gotten to know both the passengers and the crew, and there’s an informal family sort of atmosphere. But the monster cruise ships do draw resources a little boat like ours would not. At the pier we both docked at in Saguenay a troupe of young entertainers turned up – jugglers, musicians and acrobats, to entertain the passengers as they came and went. They had great makeup and costumes and loads of energy, talent and good spirits. One of the young guys from our crew joined the jugglers – turned out he had spent several years working in a circus – and seemed to have a great time.

We were up at 6:00 this morning to catch the first light as we sailed back down the Saguenay almost straight into the sunrise. It’s such stunning scenery, I was glad to have a second chance to see it. I took a few pictures, but I can’t capture the scale of the space or the texture of the rock cliff faces or the delicacy of the shifting dawn light. I doubt the pictures will resonate with anyone else, but they’ll be a little reminder for Jay and me of where we’ve been.

We reached the mouth of the Saguenay just before lunch and stopped where it enters the St. Lawrence long enough to send out a small boat to pick up a naturalist at the town of Tadoussac. She spent the afternoon on board with us. While we were still at lunch the capitain came on the PA and alerted us to whales spouting on the starboard side. Jay and I were facing the starboard windows and had a great view of the first few spouts and breaches. Of course, at that point we had no idea if these were the only whale sightings we’d get, and they were quite exciting. I finished lunch quickly and made my way to the frigid upper deck to look for more, and as it turned out, we could not have had a better whale watching afternoon. We saw dozens of smaller minkes and dozens more of the huge fin whales. Sometimes they breached in parallel pairs and trios, and often they were quite close to us – close enough for a really good look. They seemed to be everywhere around us, diving to feed and surfacing to breathe. It was an incredible couple of hours. A seal surfaced just off our bow and reappeared several times. And then, as if we had not been lucky enough, we had several great, clear sightings of a huge humpback, breaching and waving his tail. Our naturalist couldn’t keep up with the sightings, announcing them as fast as she could. I went inside several times to warm up, but the excitement of seeing these huge relatives kept drawing me back out into the cold wind where there was nothing between us but a little distance. We live on such an amazing, beautiful planet, and we share it with such awesome creatures. Our time here as a species is so short compared to the geologic time that shaped this scenery and the millions of years that saw whales emerge as land mammals and return to the sea. We’re so puny compared to them, but we’ve managed to do so much damage to the Eden we were all born into. I wonder if they know what a mess we’re making of the small planet we share and the damage we’re doing to our own health and theirs. But it was not a day for such dismal thoughts. It was an afternoon of pure joy. What a grand way to end the year! I am thinking of all our dear family and friends and wishing you a shana tova, hoping that we all have many such joyous days in the year to come.