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We had planned to stay 2 nights in Rimouski but I was concerned about Wednesday's weather for the next hop along the coast to Matane. A day ago the forecast for Wednesday was 25 kts from the East and this morning the forecast for Wednesday had changed marginally to 15-20 kts from the North-East, with 1 to 2 meter waves. That would be right on our nose, and Tide Hiker would not be comfortable pushing into the forecast 3' to 7' waves.
Barb and Don wanted to visit the "Empress of Ireland" museum in Rimouski and (correctly as it turned out) calculated that if they left early on Wednesday they would get to Matane before the worst of the weather arrived. So they decided to stay the extra day, and left Rimouski at 4:30 AM Wednesday.
Tide Hiker enjoyed a perfect run. We never saw less than 7.5 kts and as the tide turned in our favor our speed built up to 8.5 kts. We completed the 47 NM trip in slightly over 6 hours in watery sun with virtually no wind and smooth water. The shore line was basically rural with some small coastal villages along the way. Closer to Matane we observed a large "windmill farm" with over 100 units.
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| Usually the biggest structure in this little river towns is the church....... |
We needed to arrived at about 1/2 tide to get over the bar at the "Yacht Club" and we entered the "Yacht Club" basin at about 4:15 PM with no issues. The facilities here are a bit basic, the dock we were assigned is about 5' short and is very wobbly, much to Deidre's discomfort. But the young lady who caught our lines and signed us in was quite delightful.We have one cruising neighbor - the same yacht we saw in the Baie Ha Ha anchorage a couple of days ago.
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| Matane Yacht Club, looking from Tide Hikers deck |
After settling Tide Hiker into the slip we unloaded the bikes and headed into town.
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| Crossing the river in Matane |
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Cavara arrived at about 10:30 AM after a good 6 hour run from Rimowski, arriving before the weather turned. Deidre and I rode our bikes to the salmon observation display next to the damn on the Matane River. The Matane River is a salmon stream and a "salmon ladder" has been built to allow the salmon to make it back upstream. Some of the ladder has glass sides so one can see the salmon making their way up the "ladder".
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| A salmon in the "salmon ladder" |
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Up at 5:30 AM looking at the weather then met with Don and Barb at 6 AM. We decided not to go - the conditions were marginal and a decision needed to be made. Gray and rainy and rather windy day. When the rain let up Deidre and I rode the bikes "into town" - not much going on there. Deidre found a place to get her haircut. Barb and Don visited to play cards - the BOYS won a game and now we are 2 and 2
Friday, July 3, 2015
Bad weather continues but Saturday looks OK. We are all suffering from "cabin fever" so today we rented a car. I had tried yesterday, but neither of the local operations spoke English. So this morning I arranged for the marina lady to make the call and she kindly drove us over to pick it up. We were on our way by 10:30 AM heading for the hinterland and determined to find a moose.
We seemed to get off paved roads pretty soon - we were looking for moose! The weather was awful - just did not seem to stop raining. The hinterland was mostly forested mountains. The dirt roads were rather muddy and slippery.
No moose. But we did see what had to be a wolf.
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| Lots of covered bridges in the area. My Dad would have loved to see the wooden construction. |
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| This is salmon fishing region with lots of rivers |
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| Pretty creeks in every mountain valley |
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| Mountain lake - just to give you an idea of the day's weather |
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| Lots of evidence of logging |
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| And more logs........ |
The weather and tide look OK for Saturday - early start about 5:30 AM.
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