So I’ve recently finished two weeks on a cruise ship from Montreal round Newfoundland then to Quebec, carrying out repair work to scratches, cracks and general hard surface damage.

Although the repair work is carried out at night while the passengers are fast asleep this does give us the advantage of being able to get off the ship at various ports/harbours.

Unfortunately a late flight and early arrival at the ship meant no time to look around Montreal.

Cruising up the St. Lawrence river was very picturesque and calm.. until two nights in we hit a force 10 storm, attempting to touch in scratches on furniture while getting thrown from one side to the next was fun but ultimately futile and we eventually called it a night, not that we got much sleep with 7m seas hitting the ship and literally shaking and rolling you out of your bunk.

Being so busy we were unfortunately unable to get off at Harve-Saint-Pierre, but did manage to see us sail into the beautiful natural harbour of St John’s.

Found the history of St John’s really interesting, from being used as a fishing port from the early 1500’s to serving as a naval base.

Highlight for me was finding some great microbrewery pubs, a favourite being Mill Street BrewPub, fantastic beers.

Luckily sailing out into the Atlantic and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence was fairly calm and we managed to a fair amount of polishing and surface repair work done.

(Even if friends needed a photo of the clock to prove I was working at night )

My favourite stop was Quebec City, a beautiful City with so much history, spent the day exploring the old quarters, walking around Chateau Frontenac, the Plains of Abraham with over 200 years of military history and finally along the Promenade Des Gouverneurs.. Then stumbled across an Irish Bar St-Patrick’s, with seating outside in the sun, or where I disappeared to inside in front of a large TV watching sport with a cold Guinness.

My ship looking tiny behind the magnificent QMII.