Everyone must have thought we gave up on the blog, but no we are still at it. I'm blaming the internet service and then sometimes, I am just too tired to stay awake. So here we are again catching up on the blog up with a drink of cranberry and club soda plus a little extra. Those who know me, know what the extra is. The sun is shining and for a change it is warm out you don't even need a jacket today.
Well it has been a few days since we left Rimouski, probably a week in my calculations. Our plan was to go to a small town of Matane but the water depths were a little too shallow for our liking so we changed plans and decided to sail overnight to Ste. Anne Des Monts.
The French love their churches.
As we past Matane commercial harbour we were in touch with our new found friends Mary and Kevin on Rolaro and they stayed in the commercial harbour but as planned we choose to move on.
We were on three hour shifts until 2 in the morning I (Linda) was on my shift when it became pea soup fog. As fog is not one of my favourite things, I woke up Jack. We got the radar on and spent the next 2 hours not able to see 20 feet past the bow.
Sunrise was at 0420 but it starts getting light out at about 0345 and fortunately the fog had cleared by then to allow us to get into St. Anne Du Monts where at 0515 we secured our lines and went to bed.
They still have barber shops
The next morning we are preparing to leave St. Anne and the fog rolls in so we waited for it to lift but again the wind is blowing us onto the dock and we have to ask the boat in front of us to move up some so could get out. They like to parallel dock in Quebec. They were very accommodating and knew we would meet up again.
Today's sail had a mix of fog patches in the morning then increasing seas in the afternoon. The waves were about 6 feet on the stern and made for a lumpy ride but increased our speed a full knot. We arrived at Riviere de Madeleine at 1645 on July 7. This is one of those harbours that you are glad that you are arriving to get in from the lumpy conditions, and glad that it is high tide. If you seen it at low tide, you may change your mind about coming in.
Well this is when you think you are in a movie. It seemed like a nice little rural Quebec village at first, but then that wares off and you want to get outta here. There was no internet service, no stores, no cell phone service and the nearest pay phone was a 15 minute walk. They had a canteen ashore that sold junk food and everyone in town came down at some point for poutine and to check out the boat from Toronto. The weather forecast was always bad. It seemed they did not want you to leave here. This is the farthest we travel north. From here on, the latitudes will be decreasing and hopefully, the temperatures increasing. Jack has had long pants on for a week. That never happens. The weather forecasts that we listen to on the VHF radio say that the normal highs are around 22 C and the lows 12 C.
Low tide in Riviere de Madeleine
On July 8 we stayed put in the dead zone as there were small craft high wind warnings. We did go to dinner at the only restaurant in a 5 mile radius and I must say if was very good but pricey. Then July 9 rolls around and now they are calling for a gale with winds 30 kts. gusting to 40 kts. So once again we stayed put but went for a walk to see how bad the winds were. They were bad.
Yes I am still here
Jack checking the wind during gale
Well needless to say the winds finally died down and we were ready to get going. Once we left the harbour the chop was very uncomfortable but we made it out and decided to continue on to Riviere Au Renard. Well in less than 2 hours the wind was at 25 knots gusting to 30 knots with 6 to 8 foot seas.
Another day that showed us what items were not secured down below. It's bad enough keeping everything put away but now the wind and the pounding finds ways to open lockers and have things come flying out. Well my solution is bungee cords. Thanks Howard for suggesting that we get the large package of bungee cords in Belleville, as I am putting them to good use now.
At doing 7 plus knots we arrived in Riviere Au Renard at Noon but we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon tied up to a dock. This is a major fishing port with a fish processing plant at one end of the harbour. Luckily, we were upwind of it
Largest fishing port in Quebec is Riviere Au Renard
So now it is July 11, 2012 and we are headed to Gaspe' Bay it looks to be a good day for sailing we even had the sails up for awhile but in this part of the country the winds are constantly changing so the sails are up and down and up again. At 1025 this morning, we officially left the St. Lawrence River and are now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
When we were in Gaspe' Bay, heading for the town of Gaspe' we had several large whale sightings and a harbour seal as the depth is close to 300 feet in the bay. One of the whales surfaced right in front of the boat, about 50 ft. ahead, it was about 30 ft. long. We needed to stop here and take on fuel and water. We arrived in Gaspe' at 1500.
We have noticed that each slip we have gotten is the furthest from the clubhouse. Are you guys radioing ahead and letting them know that is where we like it? We stayed at the bar for a couple of drinks, they have beer, and wine from a box. Wouldn't the members at PCYC be upset, especially with wine in a box and they put a slice of orange in your beer. One of the residents offered us a ride to a local restaurant and we had dinner then back to the boat and guess what we had internet service but we had a bunch of catching up to do so the blog had to wait.
On July 12, 2012 we left Gaspe' at 8:00 to a calm start for the day, glassy seas and we thought that we would have more whale sightings, but it wasn't to be. We set our sails for about 15 minutes and of course the wind changes right on our nose once again. The sails come down.
At about 11;30 the winds pick up and it is very lumpy but at least we are heading south. We go by Perce' Rock and Bonaventure Island which is a bird sanctuary. I wonder how the birds know it's a sanctuary. We have seen birds that look like seagulls but they have yellow heads. There is such a variety of birds here, we actually looked for a book to identify them, but they were all in French. Yeah guys Jack was trying to identify the birds.
Perce' Rock
We are now in Chandler, it is a small town but friendly. About a quarter of the people speak English here, but I must say during the whole trip people have been very accommodating with speaking English. This will be our last stop in Quebec and our second day here. There is a heat wave today, 76 F. There were 8 people in the water at the beach and about 20 ashore on a beach half a mile long.
It is now July 13, 2012 and we were going to leave for PEI today but we didn't realize how tried we were and I came down with a major migraine so we delayed our departure for PEI until tomorrow. It looks to be a good choice, as the weather and winds will be in our favour at our departure from Chandler and good throughout passage until we arrive in Summerside PEI. It will take us about 28 hours to get to Summerside from Chandler.
Well I am going to add a few pictures and let Jack add his comments.
Jack and Linda
