Baddeck

Sunday July 26, 2015

46 06 010 N

60 44 752 W

Baddeck is the “tourist capital” of Cape Breton Island. It’s a little town that has a government dock and a yacht club with a few moorings. When we arrived there was only one mooring available, so after some phone calls and some messing around Cavara took the mooring and we tied up to the very rough government dock. There was no wifi so we went into “town” for a cup of coffee and to get email. Back on the dock we noticed that a ball was now free and took it.

We may be here for a few days. The weather down the east coast does not look so hot.

Monday July 27, 2015

Another beautiful morning – NOT! We had hoped to rent a car but the one car was rented to someone else! So we took it easy and went into town to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum which was OK. Dinner and cards on on Cavara. It rained.

Tuesday July 28, 2015

The other day on the Government dock I ran into the captain of the tourist boat. We had a nice chat and he offered his car to me to "go shopping, whatever". So I took the dink over to his boat this AM and suggested that we rented his car for the day. He said OK but did not want any money, and gave me the keys. So I gathered up the clan and we headed out to explore the Cape of Cape Breton.

Little Harbor

Saturday July 25, 2015

46 05 985 N

60 44 830 W

Easy 10 mile run to Little Harbor from MacNabs. Typical day, cool and overcast, but it did not rain.

There are a few more cruising boats in the Bras d’Or lakes, not many, but a few. On the way we heard an Australian voice on the radio talking to a bridge. We immediately interrupted and got some details. They were “sorta” Australians, a bit like us. The husband (Robert) was Scottish, immigrated to Australia and then got a job in Singapore. The wife (Judy) is Australian born, went to Merton Hall in Melbourne, and we had mutual friends! So we agreed to meet at the “Little harbor” anchorage for a drink and a chat, which we did. Cavara also caught up with us there.

The entrance into Little Harbor (On our way out!)

Little harbor is an amazing anchorage. Tiny but deep entrance, then a one mile circular anchorage 20’-25’ deep, surrounded with heavy forest and a nice muddy bottom. Strangely, there is a small restaurant on the shore located in a log house, only accessible by water or a dirt road. No-one else was interested so Deidre and I took the dink in for dinner. Run by very German Germans, it was German smokehouse style – Deidre had smoked salmon, I had smoked chicken. We were the only people there. The inside of the log house was amazing. The sat us at the table under a huge window with a view of the lake. It was worth the $50.

A side note on the dinghy. I think I found and resolved the latest two dinghy issues. The engine now seems to be able to run for more than 5 minutes without stalling and the forward air compartment is staying inflated. 

MacNab's Cove

Friday July 24, 2015

45 43 997 N

60 44 224 W

Barb and Don wanted/needed to stay another day in St Peters but we were ready to move on. We were anxious to experience the lakes and enjoy the highly rated anchorages, so we agreed to meet in Baddeck in a few days. The fuel price at the marina was very reasonable so we decided to fill’er up and get a pump out before we left. It was a calm day, overcast and threatening rain as usual.

Only about 35 NM to Baddeck, so we did not plan to go far before finding our ideal anchorage. It was fun wandering in and out of coves and thru narrow passages between islands. The scenery was certainly rather idyllic, although it would have been even more so with a bit of sun and another 10 degrees of warm.

There are about XX,000 “First nation” Mic’Maq” Indians living in several reservations on the island. Turns out they were having a “pow wow” on the shore of our first anchorage choice. The shore line was lined with a large number of travel trailers and huts, and even a couple of wigwams, not what we were looking for, so we moved on.

This looked nice

This was "not so nice"

Second choice was pretty perfect, although there was one rather fancy house on the shore  behind a little island. We dropped anchor so that the island obscured our view of the house and settled in for a quiet afternoon. It was just a bit too cool to launch the dink and explore further.

We were soon joined by several loons – they are quite pretty birds and their call is very beguiling. Later on we spotted two large bald eagles. Saw some seals pop their heads on the way here.

The wind was pretty calm and we were well protected, but Tide Hiker seemed uncomfortable and squirmed around a lot, but otherwise stayed put. There is no local TV, no Sat TV and even no radio. So we watched a movie on TV from the library on my laptop. 

St. Peter's Marina

Wednesday, July 22, 2015
45 39 683 N
60 52 537 W

It blew a bit during the night and we arose to a horrible morning - very grey, almost fog, low 50's, breezy and raining on and off. We had planned a 9 AM departure but we all begged off. The weather forecast suggested tomorrow would be the same plus more wind, so we decided to move on 20 miles into the Bras D'or lakes and take a slip at a little marina just through the lock. Don had arranged for a mechanic to look at his outboard at the marina. Before that could happen Don rode over in our dink, I took him back to Cavara and then headed back to Tide Hiker where Deidre and I got the dink back on board and secure - all in the rain of course.

On the way back in the dink this AM

Engines started at 11:30 AM and we were underway into the fog and rain. The boating was not difficult or unpleasant, But it was just such a shame that we were cruising thru such spectacular country, and we could hardly see the shore - all guided by radar and the chart plotter. We have to come back basically the same way, so maybe the sun will be shining then.

It was only 20 miles or so to the canal and lock that would let us into the lakes. The geography here is quite amazing. The canal and lock were built in a convenient fold in the hills between the Atlantic and the lakes, and the canal is less than a mile long. We were thru in 30 minutes or so and into the lake - 80' deep - and around to the marina. The marina put both boats on a 80' dock, so we are back to back with our bows hanging over, but that's OK. When we arrived it was just pouring with rain so we all got soaked. This is such fun.............

In the St. Peters Canal

Wet deck hand

Thursday, July 23rd, 2015

While Deidre did the shopping I walked down to the canal and had a chat with the Lock master. He was only too pleased to talk. He explained some of the the history of the area. The Portuguese were first in the 1500's, the French in the 1600's and the English in the 1700's. The French established a trading post and in those days boats were hauled over log rollers thru ("portaged") the valley where the canal is now located. The British built the canal in 18XX, and a stone fort.

View of the little marina

Good thing its Wednesday already

The "Little Basin"

July 21, 2015

45 34 684 N

61 11 930 W

Great night’s sleep, according to “Drag Queen” Tide Hiker just did not move all night. Another dreary and cool morning. Apparently the sun is not scheduled to reappear until Thursday. We were up at about 7 AM and underway by 8 AM. Once the anchor was up Deidre took Tide Hiker out of the anchorage and I secured the anchor and hosed down the fore deck – this is our usual routine.

Couple of miles later we were heading SE into the Canso Straights. The Canso Straights is a natural channel, about 10 miles long, a mile wide and 100’ plus deep, that separates Cape Breton Island from Nova Scotia and provides easy access to the Atlantic. If not for the Canso we would have to go another 100 miles north to get out into the Atlantic.

Nice house on the shore of the Canso

The channel has been blocked by a man made causeway and lock that was installed to stop the tide from rushing thru the channel – before the causeway the tide could reach 8 kts and was a hassle for shipping. The rock was mined straight from one of the adjacent mountains – there is a huge scar. But now there is no tidal current in the channel. The lock master allowed us to idle the boats in the lock while he closed one end and opened the other – there is no depth change.

Cavara in the Canso Lock and Bridge

The quarry where the stone came from for the causway

Our target anchorage today was a pool of water entirely surrounded by several islands covered in dense fir forest – I think very Cape Breton-ish. Maybe I can dig up a satellite image to show how “tucked-in” we are. Soon after we arrived we inflated the dinghy (it seems to have sprung a leak) and dropped it in the water and ran around the anchorage taking in our surroundings. (The dinghy motor still gives me fits. But Don was not able to start his at all, so I suppose I should be happy!) We would like to land and hike around a bit but it would be a “wet landing” and the weather is a bit cool – oh, for the Bahamas! Maybe when the sun comes out………..

We invited Barb and Don over for dinner (sweet and sour chicken) and for cards. I picked them up in the dink. Cavara was anchored about ½ a mile away from Tide Hiker. Diner was great as usual and we played a round of 500 that the boys won. Barb wanted to get back before dark so we loaded up the dink – but it would not start! So we unloaded the dink and played another game of 500 that the boys also won! This time the dink started, but now it was pitch black and the wind was up a bit, and I was now quite apprehensive about coming back in the dark by myself with a dicey motor! It’s just too cold up here to contemplate spending a night exposed outside.

I invited Barb and Don to sleep over on Tide Hiker but they wanted to get back to Cavara. So we settled on them taking the dink and bringing it back in the AM. (Two people in the dink is less risky as two people can paddle – one person cannot.) Pleased to say that they made it!

Harvre Boucher (Anchorage)

July 20, 2015

45 41 264 N

61 31 291 W

Don and Barb did a great “leading” job today and I did a good following job and we completed the xx nm in good time – averaged 7 kts. The day was cool, overcast with fog and rain threatening – typical Canadian summer. But the rain held off exactly until it was time to drop the anchor in this very nice anchorage, and I got wet again.

Early this century a bridge was built from the mainland to the island. It is 7 miles long and "the longest bridge ever built over a frozen sea"

The anchor took two tries to set, we moved about ¼ mile between attempts. But when we brought it up this morning we had to use the main engines to drive Tide Hiker over the anchor to break it loose. The anchor brought up a big bight of the red clay bottom – very nice!

We are now “positioned” a couple of miles from the Canso Canal and lock. This is a good anchorage, 360 protection. But the sky is so cloudy that the solar panels contributed zero. No local or even satellite TV. But in Charlottetown we had stumbled over a great used book store and came away with a dozen books.  The owner had friends in Melbourne and was ready for a chat.

Charlottetown (Marina)

Friday July 17, 2015
N
W

The auto pilot did not work. I suspect when checking the connections the tech had accidentally broken one and then fixed it. I had checked all the connections previously......... He had given me a name and number in Halifax (two weeks away) so I made the call and asked the company to start looking for a fluxgate compass for Tide Hiker.

Other than the hassle of steering the 48 NM to Charlotterown, the day was pleasant enough. Deidre had purchased an abridged copy of Anne of Green Gables as a birthday gift for our Ruby, and carefully read it to me as we motored along.

We arrived outside the Charlottetown Yacht Club about 4 PM. I had made a reservation the previous day. They were thoroughly confused - seemed to be expecting two 16' boats not 49' boats! Then our turn to be confused - we were expecting to pay $1.50 a foot but were required to pay $2.10 a foot! Added to that the docks are beat up and offer no protection from the weather and the shore side is just a mess. We are not impressed so have decided to cut our 4 days down to 2. Time to move on. Its a shame as the town area was attractive.

Deidre made salad dinner for the 4 of us, followed by a stroll around the down town area.

Saturday July 18, 2015

Took a cab to the phone store and recharged the phone and iPad. Then over to Walmart for the shopping and a cab back to the boat.

The marina had a pet mink that lived under the floating docks. We saw it a lot today, apparently it had a litter that it had hidden on a fishing boat that had left for the day without Mum! It searched all over the dock most of the day. When the fishing boat returned the mink found her babies and carried them by the scruff to a new hiding place. I tried to get a photo but I was worried it might take fright and run up Deidre's jeans!

Mink looking for its babies

Summerside (Prince Edward Island)

July 14, 2015
46 23 306 N
63 47 087 W

We left at 7 AM so we had more than 1/2 the tide and never saw less than 2' under the keel in the channel. The auto pilot still refused to work, but the sea was pretty calm so steering by hand was not so bad. As usual, we did not see another vessel all day. It is amazing just how empty the sea is in these parts. maybe a freighter in the distance. Virtually no radio chatter.

Arrived at the Summerside marina at 2 PM. Don and Barb had given us the scoop on the marina over the radio and we had a nice reception crew on the dock to take lines. The sun was out (and actually felt warm) so we enjoyed a drink on the top deck.

As usual we attract lots of attention in the marina, and one of the visitors gave us a phone number for a auto pilot guy. I called and he is visiting us at 8 AM tomorrow.

Barb and Don had lined up a concert at "The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada" and we rode our bikes over for the 7:30 PM concert. The girls loved it, I thought it was OK. Here is a video - I will let you be the judge.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The technician did not turn up and when I called him at 9 AM he confessed that he forgot all about us. He rescheduled for later this afternoon. We had planned to hire a car for the day but put it off 'till tomorrow.  Deidre and I explored Summerside on the bikes and enjoyed a coffee at Tim Horton's. We cleaned up Tide Hiker a bit, I washed the decks.

It is a bit hard to understand why people live here - the winters are just horrible. Let me give you a few examples:
* The snow total for February this year was 18 feet!
* One recent winter, it snowed 9 feet on day one and 6 feet a couple of days later
* The ice gets to be 6 feet deep in the marina where we are docked.
Other than that, it seems quite pleasant!

The techie turned up at about 5:30 PM. To make a long story short - he found a lose wire! The auto pilot appears better - we will see when we leave on Friday.


Thursday, July 16, 2015

Today we rented a car and explored this end of Prince Edward island. The countryside is quite pleasant - gentle rolling hills, mostly cultivated. The island soil is badly podsolized and the big crop is potatoes, rotated with hay. Potatoes are a big deal here. We visited the Potato Museum and had lunch at the cafe - only potato based food was offered!

We drove around the north coast where fishing is big, It was interesting to see that the sand beaches were as red as the red soil.

Red sand beach

Fishing port

Don and barb learning about crayfish?

You wonder how any of them get away.

I met an interesting character also

Definitely grow potatoes here!

Rivals the "world's biggest banana"?

What did we have for lunch? A baked potato "with the lot" of course!

Of course we had to visit Green Gables as in "Anne of Green Gables". Deidre purchased an abridged version of the book for Ruby. Let's just see how wide and deep that generational gap turns out to be!

Deidre was going on about some sort of house with a green roof? 

Buctouche (Marina)

Monday July 13, 2015
46 28 535 N
64 42 821 W

The auto pilot started to act up yesterday, but it seemed to settled down later in the day and so decided to forget about it. Well, the same thing happened today and it did not get better. Steering the boat by hand in a following sea is a real pain. I suspect that the problem is in the Fluxgate Compass, or in its connections to the steering control. The compass is under the bed in the stateroom so this morning I dismantled the bed to have a look for loose wire etc but no dice. Have sent some cries for help to a few learned boaters and waiting to hear what they say.

Other than that, today was a pleasant 52 NM run. The water was a bit rough this morning but settled down nicely this afternoon. We arrived within an hour of low tide and the water was a bit skinny in the long private channel into the marina - seeing zeros on both depth meters and churning up some mud for a 1/4 mile or so, but made it through OK.

To our great surprise our slip was only 32' long! So we backed in and secured the bow as best we could. We had made a reservation, and provided all our dimensions, so I was a bit bummed to be in such an undersized slip - but it was the biggest they had!

Dropped the bikes after we settled in and headed into town. Buctouche is a pleasant little town but not much going on. Some nice bike trails. We visited Le Pays de la Sagouine, based on Antonine Maillet's award-winning book La Sagouine, is a theme park filled with Acadian entertainment and history. But it was closed. 

Out on our bikes.

Tide Hiker with her bow hanging loose.

Escuminac (Fishing Port)

Sunday July 12
47 04 856 N
64 53 131 W

Could not leave Shippegan till Noon because of the tide, so we enjoyed a bit of a sleep in and then took the bikes for a ride around town. Sunday in a conservative catholic town, not much going on.

The exit navigation was pretty straightforward but Barb's depth/tide/current concerns had spooked me a bit. The Noon tide was one of those half tides that some places have between the two real tides - so the extra depth was only going to be a foot or so, but on the other hand the current should not be as strong. The guides had also suggested "local knowledge" re the exit thru the "Shippenan Gully" so I had asked three local boaters - the sum total of their advice was basically "go at high tide and stay inside the channel". I am so pleased that I asked!

First we had to go under an old style lifting bridge, he opened almost upon our call, so that was good. The dredged channel was narrow and the tide was moving pretty fast but we had plenty of depth the whole way. There was a decent rip between the breakwaters but that was soon over. It seemed a buoy had been dragged out of place so we discounted it but did report it to the bridge tender over the radio.

Out in Gulf the wind was blowing 20-25 kts out of the west on our beam, as forecast. The water was definitely choppy, we had the stabilizers active, and Deidre was eating ginger. But it settled down after an hour or so and turned into a nice afternoon with calm seas.

We arrived in the Escuminac harbor about 6 PM. No marina here, its one of the many fishing harbors, and is owned and operated by the local fishing co-op. It was a bit shallow, but we found a spot on the wall and tide up without any fuss. There is not much here. The spring fishing season ended a few days ago. A lot of the boats are already out of the water. The fish processing plant is deserted. Its pretty quiet. Local people seem to drive the wharf for their entertainment and at least a dozen cars stopped: "Where are you from?" "Nice boat" etc etc. A dentist would do well here if there was dental insurance.

We walked over to the fishing co-op canteen to eat. Lots of excitement there - tonight was fireworks! True enough the fire department arrived about 8 PM and started setting up on the wharf about 100' from Tide Hiker. I was a bit concerned that we would be right in the firing range, but they were not. Promptly at 10 PM we experienced our own personal 30 minute show - it was fun to be so close.

The people that live in this area are called Acadians. The Acadians are the descendants of French settlers who came to North America from 1604 onward.  Most of them originated from the western part of central France.  They settled in the territory formerly known as “Acadie” that was ceded to Great Britain in the Treaty of Utrech in 1707. Lots of Arcadians were then expelled by the British or emigrated, some ending up in Louisiana (the Kajuns). The British then encouraged Irish and Scottish migration to the area to blend down the Arcadians.  What a mess!

We had a pleasant chat with a few of them over dinner. They are not "purists" like the Quebecians try to be, and their local language is a mix of French and English words. 

We also met a couple of very pleasant girls on the dock. They were on vacation from college in Montreal, sleeping in their car. We invited them over the boat for a drink and to watch the fireworks. We had a nice chat with them about the separatist movement and Quebec politics.

It was actually warm enough to sit outside

Shippegan (Marina)

Saturday July 11, 2015
N
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For some reason Shippegan was spooking Barb so they decided to leave early and do the 92 NM direct to Escuminac. They left at 5:30 AM. We took it easy and left about 8 AM heading for Shippegan. It was only about 45 NM but it seemed to take all day. Shippegan is in the Atlantic Coast time zone so we advanced our clocks another hour.

The marina was OK, a bit shallow, and we churned up mud as we landed. Turns out the weekend was "crab festival" and we could hear a band somewhere as we docked. I grabbed a bike and went searching but did not find much action, so we stayed on the boat for dinner. We did find a super market so did some top up shopping.

We did discover that there would be fireworks, and that they would be happening on the wharf right next to the marina. As usual, we were the biggest boat in the marina and it turned out we were blocking the view of some people planning to watch the fireworks from their boats - so we were asked to move! Moving the boat after we have settled in is a bit of a pain and Deidre was a bit PO'd, but we moved to a new spot "at the back" and still had a perfect view of the show.

Returning from our ride

The fishing fleet was already out of the water

Cape..........

Anse-au-Beaufils (Marina, sort of)

Thursday, July 9, 2015
N
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Beautiful morning, We were underway by 8 AM. had to back track about 15 miles thru the Baie du Gaspe before we could turn East, although we thought we might be compensated by seeing a few whales. No dice. But we had the tide on our side and made 7+ knots most of the time.

Once we made the turn around XXXXXXXXXXXX we had Perse Rock in sight about 8 NM in the distance. (The literal translation is "pierce" because it has a tunnel through it). This is the "most photographed rock in Canada" which seems to indicate to me that there is a shortage of tourist quality rocks in Canada. There is no need for Arizona to panic.

Land Ho!!!!!

We approached and had a good look at the rock and took some photos. Time to move on to the next highlight - Bonaventure Island. BI is a small and rugged island in the same general area that is home to 250,000 sea birds, 50,000 of which are gannets (Not sure why they are special). Rather than come back and do the tour (which involved walking a few miles) we had decided to circumnavigate the island and spot the rookeries from the sea. And we were really delighted that we did.

The hole that gives the rock its name.

The island is quite exotic looking - huge cliffs around the perimeter, dense pine forest on top and very green grass or moss in between.The sort of place that a pirate would bury a treasure, and maybe just because the location would look so good in the movie. This general impression was further elevated by the millions of birds that occupied every nook and cranny in the cliffs.

The water seemed pretty deep right up to the cliffs, and there were only a few rocks noted on the chart, but I still kept Tide Hiker in the 100' deep as we made our way around. We kept busy taking photos.

After completing the circumnavigation we headed to the "marina" we had picked for the night at Anse-au-Beaufils. It is a well protected harbor - that's seems to be the high point. For starters, they did not answer the radio of the phone. So we headed into the harbor with the intention of sorting it all out ourselves. There was a space at a floating dock (its good to be early!) but 50' short we ran out of water and quickly backed away, stirring up lots of mud in the process. There was a bulkhead/wall where our guide book had told us to expect more depth so we headed for the wall and Deidre expertly lasso-d a post and we made ourselves secure. Then radioed Cavara (they were doing their own independent tour) and gave them the scoop. They we in and secure 1/2 hour later.

No sooner had we tidied up the lines and broken out the gin, a very nice guy called "Michelle" (We think French Canadians are a great bunch, but they do seem to have a few basics confused) turned up and explained that we could not stay where we were because this was where the tour boats tied up. However after lots of Frenglish and a bit of waving and pointing and lots of "tres biens" and "je ne pas comprehends" we moved a few small fishing boats and both Cavara and Tide Hiker backwards and forwards a few times, and all was settled. There was no water and no power and no wifi (and Deidre could barely get off and on Tide Hiker) but they still charged us $1 a foot.

We ate at the small restaurant associated with the marina and it was very ordinary, But tomorrow they will have a band and I am sure the food will be better. We played 500 after dinner and the girls won. I just do not understand why that always happens!

Friday July 10, 2015

Barb and Don decided to ride a tour boat over to the island for the day. Deidre and I decided to take a cab the 5 miles into Perce township - which promised to be a great place to buy Tee Shirts with photos of the rock on them. Unfortunately, the day started out badly because there was only one cab in the area and it was busy. But the day was "saved" when the husband of the lady we had asked to make the call volunteered to give us a ride "just as soon as he adjusted the brakes on his car" (My translation from his French, which might have been a bit off.)

He must have been a pretty good mechanic as he was ready in no time and we were off to town.

Gaspe - the town

Tuesday July 7, 2015
48 49 704 N
64 28 678 W

Under way at 7 AM, with only about 35 NM planned to reach the town of Gaspe. As the crow flies Gaspe was only about 10 NM accross country on the other side of the Gaspe peninsula, but we needed to head south and around Cape Gaspe then double back North into Gaspe Bay ("Baie de Gaspe"). Barb (our weather guru) said we needed to get a wriggle on as the wind was coming up in the afternoon.

Ten miles out we ran into fog. It was not like the pea soup we ran into near Kingston, visibility was always a 100 yards or so, but it was foggy enough. The shame was that we were rounding Cape Gaspe and the scenery was meant to be pretty good - but we did not see a thing until we were well around and heading northish.

The fog rolling in - or us rolling into the fog

Any disappointment was quickly overcome by a call from Cavara "Tharrrrr she blows!". We were out of the fog and into the whales. We were a bit blase ("seen one whale seen them all") but with some prompting from cavara we turned back to have a look. This time they were Humpback whales, and Humpback whales show their tails when they dive, just like on the TV.

So we cruised around spotting whales and trying unsuccessfully to take a decent photo - and then, all of a sudden...............

Just kidding - the best photo we managed is below. But this whale surfaced and "blew" so close to Tide Hiker that Deidre got wet from the spray. Yuck! She was thrilled, but I suggested she went below and washed her face.

Another close-up. This time a hump back? It sneezed on Deidre. It did the tail thing.

After an hour or so we resumed our Northerly path and arrived at the Gaspe marina about 1:30 PM. Apparently the old marina burnt down and the new marina is very smart, plus it has great WiFi so we are pretty happy here! We unloaded the bikes and headed over the bridge into town for a wander around and a cup of coffee. Dinner on Cavara tonight. .

Wednesday July 8, 2015

We are staying an extra day - this is a nice town and the weather looks stinky, and I need a haircut.It has blown a lot today so we are pleased to be here. Not much going on. Deidre and I went for a ride. I got a hair cut. Cavara came over for cards.

Riviere-au-Renard (Marina)

Sunday, July 5, 2015
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Long way to go today so we were underway at 5:30 AM with the tide. Leaving at this early hour is no big deal these days, The sun is up well before 5 AM and half the time we are awake anyhow. The weather was quite calm and stayed that way all day. We rode the tide and the "Gaspe Current" all day and averaged about 8.5 knots for the 92 NM. We had planned to anchor in the a large man made harbor at RAR but Barb and Don decided that they would like to go straight into the marina so that is what we did. None of our phones work so we contacted the marina a few miles out and with our best Frenglish sorted out the details. Fortunately the weather held up well and the docks were very easy to manage.

As we headed northeast today the coastline was more mountainous. There were some small settlements that seemed to be located at the end of a river valley. We were chasing the current and settled down in 200' to 400' feet deep water, 1 to 2 miles offshore. The water was calm all day.

Today we went as north as we were going to go during this voyage. When we started the day the coast was running ENE but it slowly gave up the northerly aspect. At the moment our course hit 90 degrees (true) I recorded our position. At 49 17.0226 degrees north we are the equivalent in the southern ocean of about 400 miles south of Hobart. (That is hard to say clearly!)

Not much sea life today - we saw a few seals and what we assume is a 'cold water" porpoise.

Riviere-au-Renard is a fishing town. The harbor is well protected with a massive man made rock wall. There seem to be few natural harbors in this area. After dinner on board Deidre and I changed the oil in the main engines and transmission. Our previous oil change was when we were anchored at Reedy island in the Delaware river. 

Monday July 6, 2015

Perfect sunny and calm morning. Deidre and I unloaded the bikes and headed into town looking for breakfast. We did not expect anything fancy as this is very much a working town, but as it turned out we enjoyed the best breakfast on the DEL to date.

We rode the bikes around town and the docks to work off our breakfast. The docks were busy - unloading shrimp, loading ice and fuel and mending nets. Deidre popped into the fish dealer and bought a cooked crayfish and some salmon pate.

Back at the boat, I unloaded the used oil onto a borrowed dolly and took it to the used oil facility. This is a facility that would be most welcome at marinas in the USA.

Barb and Don are arranging for us to load fuel from a truck here. Our combined purchase will be about 1,000 gallons (about 3,800 liters). Late in the afternoon we were told that the truck would be late - 5 PM to 7 PM. Barb and Don had moved Cavara to a dock in the corner of the marina (right next to the Coast Guard) where the truck could reach. The plan was that they would fuel first, move out and Tide Hiker would take its place.

Canadian Coast Guard at your service!

One of the Coast Guard guys had helped us tie up yesterday, and the whole crew had been very friendly. We were invited aboard for a tour.

I think the Admiral likes the Coast Guard captain

Admiral at the wheel

The truck had still not arrived at 6 PM and the wind was getting up. I did not relish the idea of docking Tide Hiker in the corner (next to the Coast Guard boat). So we moved Tide Hiker to a wide open space on the fishing boat pier and the diesel truck filled us up there. We took on 417 gallons. One of the Coast guard guys stayed with us the whole time and provided translation between us and the truck driver.

We took on 417 gallons. We have traveled 900 NM since our last fill in St. Johnsville - so that equals 2.16 NM per gallon. Our normal fuel consumption is about 1.7 NM per gallon (or 2.0 statute miles per gallon) so running downstream has boosted our fuel economy by about 27%! (But there is a "however" - because loading fuel from the truck was a bit awkward I do not think we filled the tanks 100%)