Sainte Anne Des Monts

Saturday July 4, 2015
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Today is the 40th anniversary of our arrival in the USA from down under.

We were underway at 5:30 AM this morning. The sun was out and there was virtually no wind. Our next stop was 46 NM away and we needed 6 hours of decent weather to get there comfortably. Ten minutes before we docked in SADM the wind returned to its "normal" 20-30 kts, and the sea started to kick up as we entered the breakwater. Otherwise it was a perfect trip. Both Deidre and I enjoyed our breakfast and a one hour nap while underway.

The largest vertical axis windmill in the world..... they say. This has to be the best place in the world for wind mills!

SADM is a pretty ordinary place. Two good supermarkets and the usual small town shops. Other than that it seems devoid of personality. After wandering thru "downtown" we both went back to bed for an afternoon nap.

It is currently blowing hard but the weather looks OK for tomorrow. We are going to head out with the tide at about 5:30 AM and continue east as long as the weather holds.

Matane Marina

Tuesday June 30, 2015
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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.

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.

Matane Yacht Club, looking from Tide Hikers deck

After settling Tide Hiker into the slip we unloaded the bikes and headed into town.

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".

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.

Lots of covered bridges in the area. My Dad would have loved to see the wooden construction.

This is salmon fishing region with lots of rivers

Pretty creeks in every mountain valley

Mountain lake - just to give you an idea of the day's weather

Lots of evidence of logging

And more logs........

The weather and tide look OK for Saturday - early start about 5:30 AM.

Rimouski Marina

Monday June 29, 2015
48 28.784 N
68 30.771 W

Still gray and raining this morning. I should have taken photos of the anchorage last night, as this morning the cliffs and mountains were shrouded in cloud. But the wind had turned as forecast and the anchorage was quite calm. I was up about 7:30AM while Deidre slept on. I wanted to start a generator so I could make coffee and toast and run up the batteries, but I did not want to disturb her. (I am such a considerate husband!)

Another bright Canadian summer morning.

The 20 miles or so to Rimouski were uneventful. We were running into a 15 kt breeze and against the tide but Tide Hiker plowed on. The waves were beginning to build but we were in the marina shortly after noon and out of it. This seems more of a combination working and pleasure boat marina.

After registering at the office we took a cab to the local Walmart - yes, they are everywhere. But the Walmart did not have fresh veges or meat, so after we returned I rode a bike to a supermarket and finished the shopping.

Tide Hiker has some friends to chat with here

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........

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.

Toudassac marina

Thursday June 25, 2015
48 08.308 N
69 42.911 W

There was a small restaurant above the marina office that served breakfast. We could not leave till about 11 AM because if the tide and so we decided to enjoy breakfast out. The menu was 100% French so we had plenty of fun placing our orders - the highlight was how the waiter identified spinach - think about Popeye. After breakfast we still had time to kill so we ordered up a taxi and went into town and strolled main street.

The 40 NM run was pretty peaceful. the wind seems to come in fits and starts - most of the day the wind was less than 10 MPH but we had an hour of so with a strong westerly, sometimes gusting to 35 MPH. As we neared the Saguenay fjord we started scanning the sea for the expected heard of whales.

Our initial target for the day was the confluence of the St Lawrence and the Saguenay Rivers. The water here is very deep (1,000’ plus in places) and apparently whales like it here and come to breed. Whale spotting was the local tourist activity. In 3 ¼ years of boating we had yet to see a whale and this was one of the reasons we had chosen this northerly route.

On the dock that morning in Cap-a-l'aigle we were told to pop into “the third bay on the north side” as that was a favorite spot for the Beluga whales. We did as instructed and did not seen a sardine, and we moved on.  As we approached the confluence area we spotted a bunch of whale spotting tourist boats and headed in that direction.

The water was certainly very deep. Our depth finder only manages to see to about 250’deep and then has a tendency to just make up numbers. It gets quite disconcerting when the depth alarm goes off (it is set at 3’ under the keel) when the chart tells you the water is 800’ feet deep.

We crawled around the general area at idle speed without success, disappointment mounting. I did see a black hump ½ mile away. Then we both saw a beluga approaching us, quite close. It surfaced three times for a breath then disappeared, never to reappear. The whale was 100% white and 3’ to 4’ in diameter. But that was it. After another 30 minutes we were getting cold and set off for the opening of the Saguenay river/fiord and the Tadoussac Marina.

We had called the marina a few days ago, but they did not take reservations – they had tried taking reservations sometime in the past, but it “just did not work out!” We called them on the radio about a mile out, asking for two spots. In my best “Frenglish” I explained that “nous somme deux bateau a 15 metres”. After some delay we established that they had room for only one boat. We asked if we could raft the second boat and they said OK. We were quickly in and secured and Cavara was attached to us shortly thereafter.

It looked like a cute little holiday town and we ask and received a recommendation for dinner and walked into town after we had cleaned up. Deidre and I ordered the same thing and our meals were spectacular. I wish I had taken a photo.

Cap-a-l'Aigle Marina

Wednesday, June 24, 2015
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We had 72 NM to make today but could not leave until 10:30 AM to avoid fighting the incoming tide (which is about 18' at Quebec City). When the incoming tide matches the water level in the marina pool the lock gates are opened at both ends to re-fill the pool and so boats can pass straight thru, and that is what we did. For the first couple of hours we pushed against the remaining incoming tide and could only make about 6 knots, but soon afternoon things started speeding up.

By 2 PM we were making a steady 10 knots and where the river was constricted (and for for other reasons that are beyond my understanding) we moved at up to 13 knots. In several places we ran thru strong eddies and tidal rips that swung Tide Hiker around somewhat. The water was always deep - often over 100 feet. Overall we averaged 8.25 kts for the day.

For the first 15 miles of the day we followed the north shore of Isle De Orleans - initially semi-urban then giving away to rural as we progressed. It was quite rugged with cliffs falling into the river. After the island we were entering the foothills of the Laurentian mountains and the river started to widen into an estuary. The north shore was quite rugged and heavily forested. For some miles, there was a railway track along the shore line at the base of the cliffs, and we spotted several tunnels. We could see that there was waterfalls down the mountain side but they were by and large hidden by the foliage.

The weather had started out rather breezy but the wind was basically on our stern and did not bother us. Once the tide turned the sea state settled down and we enjoyed a pleasant ride. The sun was in and out and the temperature went up and down from comfortable to cool accordingly.

Our ETA was about 7 PM. As we approached our destination the tide turned against us for the last couple of miles, so it seemed we had timed the day reasonable well. Our marina did not speak English, and had gone home at 6PM anyway, so we had to sort out our own arrival. We had drawing of the marina and a sat view (but taken in winter when the floating docks had been taken out of the water!) Tide Hiker was first to arrive - and a couple of boaters arrived to take our lines. The marina was a lot smaller than we have pictured in our minds - very little turning space. the tide was low and there was a lot of "dry land" inside. Turning Tide Hiker in the AM will be interesting.

The falls that we visited the day before by bus

Rural view of the Isle D'Orleans

Into the Laurentian Mountains - and the water turned yellow

We noticed a track along the edge of the lake - and then a train!

Did I mention that I like trains?

Train going into a tunnel

We knew there were waterfalls but the foliage hid them most of the time

Ski Resort

A town, the usual large church

The marina was a bit of a squeeze

I think the sign was printed in China