We left Montreal and headed to Quebec City. We had a heck of a time crossing Lac St.Pierre. For the past four or five days, the wind was from the SW, I read one of the guide books and it sys that the lake can be very uncomfortable if the winds are out of the NE. So as soon as we a mile or so into the lake, the wind shifts to the NE at 10-15 knots, right on the nose. The lake is very shallow off of the shipping channel and not much room to maneuver. Throw in a two hour thunder storm, an overheating engine and it's starting to get dark. Not a good day. We made it to Trois Riviere just as the sun was going down, got dried off and warmed up. The next morning cleaned out the raw water intake hoses and the strainer of weeds.
We left Trois Rivieries at 10:45 thinking that our overheating problems were behind us only to have it raise it's ugly little head again after a couple hours. We decided to pull into Batiscan Marina a little ways down the t. Lawrence and try to fix the problem.
The harbour master said that he had room for us and he would give us instructions once we were in the channel. This marina is a half a mile up the Batiscan River. I would assume that rivers fflow out to the sea. They don't fo this on the St. Lawrence when there is a flood tide, the smaller rivers flows backwords. With a language barrier and a VHF cooming unplugged at the worst time, Xanadu was very close to getting swept into a 25 foot hiigh bridge, It wasn't to be. After docking safely and changing my pants, I went to work on the cooling problem again.
They call themselves a marina with facilities, except the restaurant was closed for renovations andd the bathroom facilities were out houses. We didn't leave the boat at all. You have to really watch these small river marinas the depth was fine but the currents are very strong. This was our first experience with this type of flow. Another lesson learned, I think there could be book borned by the time we are finished.
Needless to say it was an experience one we won't forget quickly, but on the other side we know what to do if we have no other choice but to stay at one again. Anchoring is preferable over river dcking against the tide. On a good note we got our overheating problem resolved.
When we got to Quebec City, we received a reciprocal at the Yacht Club De Quebec but it was a hike to town, out come the bikes. They has a bike path from the yacht club to right doowntoown Quebec, no cars to deal with, was good especially for me. We wnt sightseeing as I have never been there and Jack was a couple of times when he was in the navy. I'm not sure how much of the city he seen back in those days. it is quite a beautiful city.
For the Next leg of the trip, you have to plan your departure from Quebec City at least two hours before hiigh tide or you will have to fight the flood currents for quite awhile. High tide was at 14:10, so we were leaving at 9:00 to 10:00. We were advised against this by some of the locals that said we should leave at the next high tide that was at 03:00 the next morning, meaning at 1:00 departure. We did get to see a beautiful sunrise. They were right on the money. We got to Cap-a-l'Aigle at 1420, a half hour before a massive thunder storms.
During this leg, we only had to deal with currents and ships that can sneak up on you. Some of the ships have so many lights on deck, it's hard to tell if it is a ship or something on shore. The navigations lights blend in with every other light on board. We have seen more commerical shipping than we have seen pleasure craft. A couple of times during weekdays, in a twelve hours on the river, we don't see one pleasure boat and one day all we saw was one ship.
We are officially in the greater part of the St. Lawrence. It is much like Lke Ontario with the exception of having more greenery, mountains, currents and tides. We are still on the north shore of the river but will be crossing over to the south shore in a couple of days, weather permitting. Tomorrow we will be going to Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay River. This is a protected feeding ground for whales and they say that you can see up to eleven varieties here. It's a good thing that I brought along my fishing rod.
The television reception has been very good everywhere that we stopped. It's just all in French but the books and movies are being put to good use.
Well we are up to date going to have dinner and get some shut eye.
Jack and Linda
