August 8–14; After a nice rest in Quebec City we were looking forward to Monday morning and another week of adventure.
We were in the marina's lock at 9 o'clock and headed back out into the river. Everything seemed ok as we left. We should have stayed another day. As we motored out of the protection of the harbour and back into the river everything changed. It was windy, cold and raining. Winds were from the NE, 15-20 knots directly on our bow. The current was against us as well, reducing boat speed to almost zero, and it rained off and on all day. We were already out there and committed, so we made the decision to continue on. Our destination was to be a quiet anchorage @ Ile aux Courdes. 50 miles and 11 hours later we arrived and dropped the anchor. This was the pattern all week and we had to remind one another several times a day of the ultimate goal, south. We've now rotated our wardrobes and donned the foul weather gear. Long pants and multiple sweatshirts is the style of the week. Tuesday we were able to reach a tiny marina in Cap-A-L'aigle only completing 20 miles. We confirmed the presence of salt water and the water temp has dropped from the upper 60's to just 48º F. Jim keeps asking people “does the river freeze over in the winter?” We better not still be here to find out. :)
The currents and the tides are two things we have no experience with. We have books on the subject which we have both read. And there are tide tables embedded in our electronic charts. Now what? After two days of what we would consider failed attempts, we changed our interpretation of the data. If we understand it at all, the tides would suggest that we leave Wednesday morning at 4am to have the greatest advantage of that day. So off we go into the dark to conquer the river. We arrived in Tadoussac no worse for the wear @1p. It rained all afternoon and night. I took a nap. In spite of the cold and the damp, it was a better day. We've spotted our first whale and first dolphins! Tadoussac is located at the mouth of the Saguenay River. It's a beautiful, fascinating place. If it wasn't so cold we might have stayed longer. The area is home to many of the endangered beluga whale.
Next stop, anchored in Baie du-Ha-Ha in the Parc National du BIC. It was not a funny haha after listening to the winds all night and holding on tight to the berth so we didn't roll around. We failed to anchor close enough to shore due to the heavy fog and zero visibility, so we were exposed to the river's torment all night long. Needless to say, we were up very early and left there as soon as we could see the bow of the boat through the continued fog. It was off to Rimouski on Friday where we were able to borrow bicycles and pedal to the mall. What a hoot!
After 6 days of rain and strong NE winds, change was finally here. The sun reappeared, the winds calmed to 3-5 kts out of the west, and the water was calm as it ever gets. Saturday we made 70 miles to a nice anchorage in Les Mechins, and Sunday another 75 miles to Grande Vallee, both on the rim of the Gaspesie Peninsule. Tripmeter now at 900 nautical miles. We've spotted a few more Minke whales, dolphins, and even stared down a Grey seal this morning. We have also now passed the northern most point of this voyage (79 degrees 16 minutes) at 2:38p EST Sunday afternoon!! Tomorrow we will official leave the St Lawrence River and begin navigating the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We're also changing time zones this week as we cross into New Brunswick and Atlantic Daylight. It will be an hour later than EST and 4 hours ahead of AZ. Maybe we'll even get some cell phone coverage again. Sorry if we've missed your calls or failed to answer an email timely. We try every day but some places don't have WiFi. We're going to look into an antenna/receiver of some kind as soon as we're back in the States.
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