I sailed off the anchor on Wednesday morning, there was a light breeze and I was able to gurgle along at about 4.5kts. Within a couple hours I was seeing my first beluga whales! I figure I saw six separate ones over the next few hours and a couple were close enough to hear them breath. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good photos as I don’t have telephoto but it was exciting to watch them using binoculars.

There were also grey seals following me like stray dogs.

I sailed into Baie du Ha! Ha! (yes, it’s spelled that way on the chart) at sunset on a stiffening breeze, 8.5kts with the current, rail down. Heaven. Guess who was in the bay? Rotorsand. I woke up to a perfect morning sipping coffee in the cockpit with seals frolicking in the kelp beds a few hundred meters away. I had a starfish on my anchor chain when I weighed it and left for Rimouski about 12nm away.

When I got to Rimouski Harbour I filled up with diesel (about 25gallons total so far this trip) I got a dock so I can prepare for my first offshore sail to Gaspe.  While I was sitting down below I heard some commotion and looked out the window to see none other than Yves Gelinas rowing his boat Jean du Sud into the dock across from mine. Yves is the inventor of the Cape Horn self-steering gear I use and also somewhat of a hero of mine, having sailed an Alberg 30 around the world from Quebec in the 80’s. He made a movie of it called “Jean de Sud Around the World”

Another great day.
Good night Rimouski!

A friend of mine sent me the poem ‘Invictus’ the other day in reply to me telling him about some of the more trying times I’ve experienced.

When I was anchored in Cacouna, in the middle of the dark, thick fog, night I awoke to a scraping noise. I jumped up on deck and saw, to my horror, that I was rubbing against another boat. I reset the anchor a few hundred feet away and went back to bed very nervous and freaked out. The morning came and it was beautiful sunny day. I looked across the harbour and laughed when I saw the name on the boat I scraped in the foggy night.

I tried to get some good winds leaving Cap a l’aigle but it came with pouring rain and the threat of t-storms. Then the wind backed off and the fog rolled in. With t-storms in the forecast I decided to put in after only 25nm to Port de Gros Cacouna, which is directly across from Tadoussac and the mouth of the Saguenay river. It’s a well protected commercial harbour with a mud bottom. I’ll wait here until some nicer weather.

The dividers point to where I am on the chart. The lamp is sitting on the mouth of the Saguenay.

The wind didn’t start blowing until late morning but it was worth the wait, the entire afternoon was perfect sunny sailing weather with sweeping vistas of the St. Lawrence.

I sailed most of the afternoon with the Rotersand nearby, she was making her way from the same anchorage as I was in in Quebec. http://rotersand.tsg600.de/ and ended up in the same harbour at Cap a L’aigle.

The only harbour accessible at any time of the tidal cycle is 72 miles from Quebec City.

Port de Refuge Cap a L’aigle (low tide)

I weighed anchor at 0100 under a starry sky and crescent moon. The morning sky began at 0330, surprisingly early. The sunrise did not dissapoint. 🙂

Just waiting for the right time to leave and make my way the 72nm non-stop trip to Cap-a-l’Aigle (cape of the eagle) It’s the next port that’s available at all tide depths. I have to time my departure to take advantage of the ebb tidal currents and also not get caught in the Isle aux Coudres channel when the flood current returns.

Had an amazing long and peaceful sail all the way from Trois Rivieres, through the Richelieu rapids and into Quebec City at sunset.

Another day of dodging ships.

At one point, a set of HUGE speakers atop the cliffs played Oh Canada and Star-Spangled Banner really loud and clear.

I’m now in the tidal zone and I timed my sail from Trois Rivieres to go with the ebb tide and take advantage of all the extra current. I saw 10kts over the ground coming under the bridge into Quebec. I anchored in 13 feet and I’m now seeing 25ft on my depth meter.

On Friday June 21, the summer solstice, I sailed into Trois Rivieres and anchored up a little river. There was a very nice ‘world cruising’ ketch anchored there as well

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I sailed out of Montreal harbour and into the strong 2-3 kt current that will be this strong until Quebec.
After a couple hours I realized I left my life jacket back at CNL so I had to slog back against the current for about 4 hours to get it. I made it about where I had got to the first time and pulled into a great little anchorage. The current is about 2kts here and it’s feels odd to be slipping through the water at 2kts but not moving at all.
I passed a cathedral just before pulling over to anchor for the night. I can just see it through the trees in the distance.