We left Sydney at around 7 a.m. this morning. A beautiful blue sky and a colony of jellyfish had gathered around our boat for the occasion. Always impressive to see these disgusting slimy creatures marauding on the surface... Nothing to do with our oh-so-appetizing breakfast of French toast with bananas and Nutella...
There has been very little wind today; it’s almost as if the wind forgot to come to the office this morning. So, we’ve decided to use the engines, especially as we still have a considerable distance to cover – 270 nautical miles or around 500 kilometres – before we reach our final destination, Shediac. To get there, we’ll be working in shifts, so three teams of young people and adults have been formed to carry out the work in four-hour shifts for the next 36 hours. In the ever-imaginative nautical nomenclature, there will be a dog shift from noon to 4 p.m. and from midnight to 4 a.m., a romantic shift from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and a bear shift from 8 a.m. to noon and from 8 p.m. to midnight. The tasks? Reading the chart and then calculating the course or azimuth, steering the boat, keeping a lookout on the bow, noting data on the state of the engine room components, observing radar data to avoid collisions with possible boats, etc.
We then headed up the east coast of Cape Breton Island, round its northeastern tip and then down to the southwest. Off Cape North, a fog bank restricted our view… but not enough to make us miss a pod of about twenty pilot whales, a species of small whale also known as pothead whales! What a fabulous sight! We turn off the engines and admire… We’re lucky, they’re only about 100 metres from us. We enjoyed this graceful ballet for a good ten minutes.
We continue along Black Rock and Cape St. Lawrence towards Chéticamp. Rock formations of unimaginable beauty lay ahead. Our captain, who has been sailing for almost 40 years, says that this part of Cape Breton Island is probably the most beautiful coastline he’s ever seen, and that’s saying a lot! Above all, it’s a coast teeming with life. As proof, a second pod of pilot whales crosses our path! They were even more numerous, and they were heading straight for us! In no time at all, they were within 10 metres of us! It was absolutely crazy! And just when we thought we’d seen it all, part of the pod decided to get even closer and passed under our boat! I’m telling you, I’ve been on at least 50 kayak, zodiac and boat trips of all kinds to watch marine mammals in my life and I’ve never seen anything like this! Wild, crazy, incredible, breathtaking, stunning (please use the following line to add your favourite synonym) ______________________!!!
And I haven’t even mentioned the dozens of harp seals, each one more curious than the last, who stuck their heads out to greet us as we passed, or the albatrosses flying low around us, the colonies of gannets diving into the water and emerging five seconds later with a fish in their beaks, or the greeting from a puffin, an absolutely adorable little penguin. Almost forgot, we also had three sightings of fin whales, one of which delighted us by showing us its beautiful big tail before diving in.
As I write, the bears are in charge. The dogs will be back on duty at midnight and the romantics – myself included – will be getting up at 3:30 a.m. to get back to work. Try as I might, I really don’t see what’s so romantic about getting up at such an hour… Good night!
Translated by Lorraine Gagnon