“Hi, I’m Carolane. I’m 21. I am from La Baie. Two years ago, I had cancer, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.»
«As I’m speaking to you, a small group of us is preparing dinner. Here’s how it works: a crew of three with an adult prepares each meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also do the dishes. Then, another group takes over for the next meal. This ensures a diversity of chores for the participants.
At each meal, we select the menu. As you can imagine, there is no grocery store on board the ship. So, we make do with what’s in the fridge. For example, yesterday, my team cooked chicken drumsticks with a potato salad and a green salad.
This morning, we had a small problem with the ship. The engine ran out of cooling fluid. So to kill time, we used the Zodiac to go to the beach. We visited Tadoussac, walked a trail, climbed to the belvedere and took photos. It was a beautiful vista. All in all, this was unplanned but nevertheless a very positive experience. We left two hours later, after fixing the engine.
Today, I noticed the group was showing signs of fatigue. After all, we’ve been sailing for three days. We sleep well, but all through the night some of us have to get up and take on their watch to make sure the ship does not go adrift. With a two-hour watch each night, people are getting a little tired. Nevertheless, this is exciting.
Yesterday, I had a heart to heart conversation with one of the other girls on board. We talked about our cancer, of what we had experienced. We discovered we had gone through pretty much the same things. Must be the same for everyone, we all had to live through hell. It’s good to be able to talk about it.
At this time, I’m going through a rough patch: my back aches. Not everyone knows about this. Some people ask me to do chores that I cannot do. I am uneasy to have to tell them I cannot do certain things. It’s hard for me. I’d like to tell them, but, then, I’d look like I’m complaining. Yet, I’m really in pain.
For sure, I’d love to have no limitations and do like all the others; unfortunately, I can’t.
The expedition helps us overcome our problems, and, most of all, to talk about them.»