Baie Eternite

Friday June 26, 2015

We were on our way early to catch the tide up the Saguenay Fjord/River. It was a calm and overcast morning. On the way out of the marina in the distance I saw a Mink whale break the surface and take a breath. Maybe a good sign?

The fjord was impressive, the walls a mixture of bare cliffs and steep tree covered mountains. The fjord was created in the last ice age when the ice was 3 to 4 kilometers thick. I only took a few photos as the sky was so grey and the forecast for tomorrow was better.

Entering the fjoid

There is nowhere to anchor in the fjord – the bottom is too deep, the underwater sides too steep. So our target was Baie Eternite (about 22 NM inland) where there might be some moorings. According to the various guides and reports, a few years ago there was 14 moorings, last year there was only 7 – who knows what the count is this “summer”. If we did not find a mooring we planned to head further into the hinterland to a small town where there was a marina. This marina business was starting to get expensive – our anchors had not been wet since before Montreal.

Our early start paid off – there were three moorings, all vacant and we grabbed two. A small yacht took the third one a couple of hours later. The setting is pretty spectacular with steep cliffs and mountains surrounding us. That afternoon we dropped our dinks into the water and went ashore to look around. Both dinks were hard to start.

Cavara's dink engine conked out and we had to paddle back to Tide Hiker.

 There is a small Canada Parks facility on shore with a bunch of people camping and a small office. The lady in the office was another delightful Quebecian – we communicated in Frenglish with lots of laughs as we paid for the various mooring ball and hiking permits.

Barb and Don visited Tide Hiker for another evening of 500 – the “boys” won a game!

Saturday, June 27, 2015

It was a two-blanket night, but a perfect sunny morning. The water was dead calm and I had fun taking some “reflective” photos. The Bay is open towards the east and so the solar panels were making 25 plus amps at 8 AM – so we just might get thru the day “generator free”

About 10:30 AM we picked up Don in the dink and headed to shore. Deidre was planning to explore the facilities, Don and I wanted to walk the trail up the mountain to a lookout. We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours. What a perfect day.

Tide Hiker on the far left

Don at one of the lookouts

Just in case you were wondering.