N.50º26’16” W.58º41’54”
In the night whilst I’m asleep the remote-control boat slips into the ‘sound’ of the St Lawrence and leaves the ocean behind. We reach the lee of Anticosti Island – the wind drops and the swell calms. After hours of steaming up the waterway the sea only very gradually gives way to river. The shores are distant lines of green but they gradually draw closer until they are near enough to see the odd house or village.
Heads start to appear in the water – blinking at the ship before slipping back under the surface. There are flashes of fins as creatures roll through the water – seen in the distance or suddenly appearing under the prow of the ship. A fellow passenger deciphers these glimpses as seals, dolphins and Minke whales. A little further on, she explains that the pack of 20 or so slow-moving, white-shadows are a pod of passing Beluga whales. I can’t see beneath the surface of the waves but it must be like Piccadilly Circus down there.