Oil tanker Cap Pembroke near Quebec City April 2026
Sailing from Ingleside (US YIG) in the Gulf of Mexico, the Greek-flagged oil tanker Cap Pembroke is heading toward the Valero Energy facilities in Lévis (CA QUE). The crew leaves the Gulf of Mexico in T-shirts and arrives in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River a few days later.
The tanker can be seen as it rounds Île d’Orléans at high tide, assisted by two tugboats from the Ocean Group.
At very low speeds, the steering efficiency of a ship like the Cap Pembroke is greatly reduced. Measuring 277 meters long and 48 meters wide, it relies on tugboats to avoid obstacles and navigate the tides and winds of the river near Quebec City.
Federal Trident sailing through the ice in front of Quebec City 2026
Days with temperatures of -25 °C and below are becoming increasingly rare in Quebec City. With the wind chill factor, the temperature today feels like -36 °C. This is a golden opportunity to try to capture the sea smoke on the St. Lawrence River.
Photography technique
Sea mist between Île d’Orléans and Quebec City, winter 2026
Night photography in these weather conditions remains difficult. The low light requires a tripod, which itself vibrates in the gusty wind. This means increasing the ISO and decreasing the depth of field to achieve a faster shutter speed, which slightly reduces image quality. In addition, using a 300 mm telephoto lens increases the risk of blurry photos. Photography is all about compromise!
Canadian Coastguard icebreaker Des Groseillers at work near Quebec City winter 2026
Above is a photo of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Des Groseillers at work. It is not surprising to see this type of vessel in the area, as the Seaway must remain ice-free in its centre to allow ships to navigate year-round. And this year, there is ice!
The Solar Sally from Shandong Shipping sailing south of Île d’Orléans. Summer 2023.
Above, Shandong Shipping’s Solar Sally photographed south of Île d’Orléans. I positioned the horizon according to the rule of thirds and gave plenty of room to the sky, filled with beautiful contrasts. The clouds let the sun filter through for a brief moment, bringing out the vegetation and horses. All that remained was to wait for the ship to enter the field of vision before taking the shot.
The Soulanges in front of Lévis in 2015.
The photo above shows the Soulanges, a tug built in 1905, on the St. Lawrence River in front of the city of Lévis. Seen from a distance, this type of vessel always looks like it’s sinking. The water seems to be overtaking the stern of the boat, but there are very few waves.
The Barcelona Express and the MSC Tuxpan on the St.Lawrence Seaway 2023
The Barcelona Express and the MSC Tuxpan meet in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, off Île d’Orléans. Lacking a telephoto lens on hand, I captured the scene with a Canon Ef 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens and enlarged the photo. The boats were at a much greater distance than they appear here. I used an image processing software with artificial intelligence to improve the focus after cropping.
The Federal Skye and Mona Lisa ships on the St. Lawrence seaway near Quebec City
Above, the Mona Lisa (green hull) sails from Montreal to the port of Tanger Med in Morocco. The container ship sails under the Liberian flag. The port of Tanger Med boasts an exceptional geographical location when it comes to transshipping goods to Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa. Also visible in the photo, the Federal Skye arrives from Vila do Conde Brazil (BR VDC) and heads for Les Escoumins in Quebec, Canada (CA QLE). This port has a dry dock where major repairs can be carried out. The Federal Skye sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands.
The MSC Tampa vessel by Quebec City in 2024.
A final photo shows the MSC Tampa sailing between Liverpool, Great Britain (GB LIV) and Montreal, Canada (CA MTR). This 294.12-meter-long container ship sails under the Liberian flag. The photo was taken from the Grey Terrace in Quebec City’s Parc des Champs-de-Bataille.
A “pilote du St-Laurent” leaves the Quebec harbour and heads towards the Explora 1 cruise ship in 2023.
As the St. Lawrence River is a fairly difficult waterway to navigate, Canadian law obliges the captains of certain large vessels to accept local pilots, who are fully conversant with the particularities of the seaway, on board for the riskiest journeys.
Once the Quebec pilot has helped the Explora 1 captain, the ship continues on its way to Quebec City, rounding the Île d’Orléans, as shown in the photo below. After playing its role as a sea cab, the little boat belonging to the St. Lawrence Pilots pulls away from the ship and returns to the Bassin Louise in the Port of Québec.
The Explora 1 cruise ship sails around île d’Orléans and a “pilote du Saint-Laurent” comes back to the Québec harbour in 2023.
Returning to Quebec harbour after a change of pilot in the Explora 1 cruise ship. 2023.
Serena Melani, “the first woman in the world to steer a cruise ship out of a shipyard“, ensures a smooth approach for the Explora 1 to Pier 30 in the Port of Québec. This brand-new vessel completed its sea trials in April 2023, and Quebec City is among the first destinations scheduled for 2023.
The Explora 1 approaching Quebec City with Mont St-Anne in the background 2023
Every captain would love to dock at the popular Pier 22, as it offers a perfect view of the Château Frontenac. But on this fine October day, the Norwegian Sky is already occupying the spot.
The Norwegian Sky cruise ship docked in Quebec City.
The Norwegian Joy cruise ship docked at pier 22 in Quebec City in 2023.
The Norwegian Joy cruise ship, which weighs close to 168,000 tons, is one of the biggest ships to dock in Old Quebec in autumn.
Le navire de croisière Norwegian Joy amarré à Québec à l’automne 2023.
It can accommodate 3,852 passengers and, for onboard service, there are 1,851 crew members – almost one employee for every two holidaymakers. The ship was built in 2017. Despite its young age, it benefited from renovations in 2020.
Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship
In the photo above, you can see a transparent tube raised above the upper deck in the top left-hand corner. With an enlarged photo, you’ll see that people are sliding down this water slide upside down. The shot below will help you get a better look at the guy in the red and blue swimsuit speeding by. The camera’s shutter speed had to be set to 1/2000 to avoid motion blur.
Sliding down the tube on the Norwegian Joy cruise ship 2023
That day, I was only carrying a Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4 USM zoom lens. I had to crop the photo a little to enlarge it, but you can still see the scene quite well. Part of the tube gives the sportsman the impression of suddenly plunging to the ground, as the installation protrudes over the sides of the ship.
Looking for dangerous goods on the Norwegian Sky cruise ship in Quebec City
While people are enjoying themselves on the upper deck, a whole team is busy refueling the ship and ensuring its safety. In the photo above, a dog can even be seen going around the pallets to detect any dangerous or illicit products.
The Norwegian Joy cruise ship in Québec.
Here’s a final photo of the Norwegian Joy, taken from inside a recently built cedar gangway near Quay 22 in the Port of Quebec. The sun filtering through the rungs provides a beautiful play of light, all captured by a Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4 USM zoom lens set to 11 mm. The effect is further enhanced by the pseudo HDR mode offered by digital processing software.
The cruise ship Mein Schiff 6 docked in Quebec City in 2023.
Autumn in Quebec City heralds the arrival of cruise ships in large numbers. Some days see the arrival and departure of as many as five ships. All these passengers disembark by the thousands in Old Quebec and delight the merchants. For the first time in Quebec City, the liner Mein Schiff 6 was recently seen moored at Quay 22 in the Port of Quebec.
The Mein Schiff 6 cruise ship docked in Quebec City in 2023.
The inscription “Mein Schiff” on the side means “my boat” in German. Note the obligatory capitalization of the common noun “Schiff” in this language. Common nouns are written in lower case in English. There’s also the word “Wohlfüllen” on the side, evoking something like “feeling of well-being“.
This cruise ship from Europe has 15 decks and can accommodate 2,517 passengers. More than 1,000 employees provide onboard service. For this trip to Quebec City, it carries mainly Germans. The company supplying the liner in Quebec City is called Hapag Lloyd. It has an international reputation and is also German-owned.
Hapag Lloyd and the Mein Schiff 6 in the Quebec harbour in 2023.
Hapag Lloyd also owns container ships and cargo planes. I was working in Iqaluit (airport code CYFB and formerly known as Frobisher Bay), Baffin Island, when I spotted a brand-new Boeing 737 in the company colors. It was arriving from Boeing Field (KBFI) and passing through Canada for customs clearance and fuel before continuing on to Germany.
Hapag Lloyd D-AHLO B737-4K5 in its delivery flight in 1989, from Boeing Field (KBFI) to Iqaluit, and then towards Germany. It is being refueled during difficult weather conditions. This type of aircraft did not experience much problem with the cold weather, but it was not the case with smaller business jets
The Mein Schiff 6’s next destination after leaving Quebec City is Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.
The MSC Maria Pia vessel on the St.Lawrence Seaway by Quebec City.
Here is a last picture of the winter of 2022 before going into spring mode. We can see the MSC Maria Pia sailing through the ice on the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis, with a temperature of -27C.
The container ship Maria Pia belongs to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). It was built in 1997 and flies the Panama flag. The ship passed by the Quai des Cageux at just the right time, as the very soft light of a late afternoon winter day is always more conducive to photography.
The Nave Equinox oil tanker with Lévis in the background during winter 2020.
Last week, there was virtually no ice on the St.Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City. Since the beginning of the winter, very mild temperatures had allowed ships to travel the St.Lawrence without encountering any obstacles. For the past week however, more seasonal temperatures with some days between -15C and -22C have been changing the appearance of the seaway.
The photo above shows the oil tanker Nave Equinox, a ship built in 2007 approaching Quebec City. Even at -15C, the day was still ideal for photography because the cloud cover was fragmented allowing the diffuse light of the January sun.
The photo was taken from the Dufferin Terrace near Château Frontenac.The vessel was quite distant and a significant cropping was applied to bring the vessel closer. The photo was taken hand-held and the image sharpness was retained using a very fast 1/8000 sec shutter speed. Doing so limited vibrations.
The camera used was a Canon 5DSr with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens. A 50.6 megapixel sensor limited image pixelization when cropped.
At the beginning of the trip towards the St. Lawrence estuary, a cable links the Ocean tugboat with the Euronav Cap Leon oil tanker. The current and the ice push the oil tanker towards the east and the speed of the oil tanker must be controlled for the tight turn around Île d’Orléans.
Oil tanker Euronav Cap Léon on the St Lawrence Seaway near Quebec City.
The container ship Hapag_Lloyd Quebec Express and the container ship MSC Paola are sailing around Île d’Orléans near Quebec City.
Those two container ships that sailed near Quebec City in July 2019 reminded me of recent news regarding the Port of Quebec‘s installations and the will to receive always bigger container ships.
To take the picture, I waited that the Quebec Express had completed his turn west of Île d’Orléans. From that moment, the photographic distance between the two container ships started to diminish. The MSC Paola’s bow became an artificial frame that included part of the Quebec Express.
