The inhabitants of the Bas-Saint-Laurent call their 6,000 year-old river ‘the sea,’ la mer in French. In the lower estuary of the St. Lawrence, where the conditions become less fluvial and more marine, the region of La Mitis
is at a point where the depth of the
river has changed—in a sudden break
past Saguenay—from 25 to almost
350 meters.
If Mavic loses connection to the controller, it might try to land in place when the battery starts running low. In a surge of confidence, I sent my collaborator farther out that day. I only regained connection, by chance, when it was about half a meter above “sea” level while attempting a water landing. I wonder what the sturgeons would’ve made of it—maybe it wouldn’t have been the first time they found one submerged.