Baie Du Ha Ha Anchorage

Sunday June 28, 2015

48 20.717 N

68 49.617 W

Tharr she blows.........

On the weekend I received an email confirming that West Marine (Canada) could not guarantee delivery of the replacement pump collar to Tadoussac on Monday and was waiting further instructions. That relieved us of the need to be in the Tadoussac on Monday to pick up the package. The forecast indicated that there was some bad weather coming out of the South, so we decided to immediately continue north and out of the “red zone”.

We dropped the moorings sharp at 8 AM and headed back into the Sag  river channel. It was a bit cool and breezy but sunny and otherwise OK. We had about 25 NM to get back to the St Lawrence and had picked out an anchorage on the east shore about 40 NM further north east. We also wanted to retry our luck whale spotting as we passed thru the confluence.

Nice Muslim lady I met in Canada this SUMMER!

Within minutes of entering the St Lawrence we started seeing whales – Belugas and (we think) Minke whales. Belugas are pure white. Minkes are dark/black with white bellies. We headed to where the commercial whale spotting boats were located and had immediate success. I suppose we saw 50 plus whales of the two types. Plus a bunch of seals. The weather was perfect for spotting whales – dead calm with some watery sun.

Needless to see, this area attracts a lot of tourists. Not all the whale spotting boats are this large. 

Our highlight was when two Minke whales on different courses seemed to run into each other about 50 yards in front of Tide Hiker. They started to circle each other, creating quite some turbulence. Then Tide Hiker seemed to disturb them (we were drifting at idle) and one rolled onto its side and dived under us, just feet from the bow. Very cool.

This one seemed to dive right under Tide Hiker. I was waiting for the bang!

Taking photos of whales seems a bit futile. Most of the photos show a lot of grey water and not much whale. But we tried “for the record”.

Great photo of a Beluga - I think he is smiling at us?

When there were whales around us I tended to shut down the engines and drift. As previously mentioned there is a lot of river and tidal current in the area, with the occasional rip or eddy. During one of our “shut downs” we were drawn into an eddy and Tide Hiker did two complete 360s in short order before I was able to start the engines and power out.

We seemed to disturb a bunch of seals

After enjoying our fill of whales for an hour or so (after a while they all seem to look alike?) we pointed NE with about 40 NM to go. The weather was “Canada-fine” as opposed to “Florida- fine” - it’s not warm. Not really surprising considering how far north we are getting. But one benefit is 17 or so hours of daylight – and if the sun is actually shining, that also makes the solar panels and batteries happy.

This is the image on the chart plotter as Tide Hiker leaves the fjord. Its very interesting in that you get a visual of how the glacier dropped the moraine as it entered the St Lawrence valley. As a result the water goes from 500 feet  deep to as little as 13' deep. Once you get over the "moraine dam" the river gets back to its typical depth. Can you pick out the charted whirlpools - they look like a @ without the "a"

We made the anchorage by about 6 PM. It’s a ruggedly pretty spot, providing protection from the North, North West, East and South East. Of course, as I type this the wind is coming from the South West, but the forecast has it rotating to the East and then North East as it strengthens overnight. The anchor chain has been groaning so I just added a rope “bridle” and that seems to have eliminated the noise.

As we entered the anchorage, we spotted a radio mast on hill/mountain in the distance, and we are picking up some signal – enough to get the weather and some emails, but not enough to update the blog.

It’s quite dark now and just started to rain. So I popped up to the bridge to make sure all was buttoned down. There is no moon and it’s pretty bleak outside. Two sailing boats have joined us in the anchorage – so there are 4 anchor lights, and I could see another two single lights up the coast a couple of miles away. Will be a two blanket night, but we will open the engine room door (opens into our stateroom) and enjoy the residual heat from the engines.

A yacht has joined us in the anchorage. Its really a nice day, considering........