Sea voyage on St. Lawrence River wows Manitoba man on free sail

A Manitoba man on a sea voyage says the trip has reaffirmed what he already knew about Canada: it's beautiful.

• Applications open for sea voyage around Canada's 3 coasts

"Everywhere you go in the country is almost like visiting another mini country within our borders," said Kevin Laliberte during a phone interview from Les Escoumins, Que. Sunday afternoon.

Laliberte, a Lac Du Bonnet, Man. resident, is on day eight of a 10-day Canada C3 expedition that's taken him through several communities along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.

The trip is the second leg of the Canadian C3 expedition, which is taking Canadians from coast to coast in different legs on a 150-day voyage put on by the Students on Ice Foundation.

Laliberte applied to go on the free trip after reading a CBC.ca story about the expedition. He said his passion for the environment got him the free ticket.

"They wanted people who had a passion for one of the themes of the trip."

Hard to keep up with activities

Laliberte was snorkelling Sunday with minke whales and said he's hardly been able to keep up with all the activities.

"There's so many things that we're doing."

"It's event after event after event and I honestly haven't had time to sit down and think about all the stuff we do because everything we do is something new."

Laliberte said there's about 23 participants on the ship a retired icebreaker that's been fixed up for the trip and about 30 crew members.

He said visiting Quebec has made him want to learn French so he can go back to the province one day and better communicate with the people there.

Laliberte has two more days on the trip before coming back home to Manitoba. That's when the next group will go on the third leg of the trip.