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.