Friday, September 14, 2012

Matane to Chandler

July 22. Left Matane at 5:25am.  The wind has been consistently from a westerly direction, either southwest or northwest' and less than 10kts, enough to fill the sails and combined with the current and tide they help make good progress.  The  waves are on average 1' - 2' unless the tide is against the current then it can become uncomfortable and skies have been a mix of sun and cloud. The average run these last few days has been approximately 40 to 45 nm, an average of 8 hrs on the water.

Today was my first close encounter with a large whale. By close I mean a couple of hundred feet away. What caught my attention was what looked like an explosion in the water.  A short while later another explosion and the whale gently came to the surface and slowly slid back into the water.  I was about the same size as my boat.

whale off in the distance


Catherine with painted driftwood sculpture in St. Anne des Monts
Forecast predicted a front to come through so I decided to stay in St. Anne des Monts.  This was a welcome break as I had been traveling several days in a row without a break.

St. Anne de Monts has some very interesting driftwood sculptures.  Each year they have a competition in creating driftwood sculptures.

On one of the rest days we got to see the first boat of the Transat race go by.  This is an event that takes place every four years.  Boat race from Quebec City to St. Malo, France non stop and round several marks outside of some of the cities along the Gaspé before they head across the Atlantic. Initially the boats were to round the mark at St. Anne des Monts around noon but because the winds died down it was not until much later that the first place boat crossed the path with the bulk of the fleet coming through in the middle of the night and the last two, early in the morning.
driftwood sculpture in Sainte Anne des Monts
Transat race boats enroute from Quebec City to St. Malo France pass by Saint Anne des Monts check point.

Transat race: Quebec to St. Malo
rain day = road trip

The next day was a rain day which meant that I was not going anywhere.  Instead it was a road trip day. I got to experience some of the beautiful countryside from the shore.



2m + following seas and 20-25kt winds

July 25.  Left at 5:35 with winds from the west at 10 - 15kts. A great day for sailing.  What I didn't know was that the forecast changed an hour after I left. Winds ended up being 20 - 25kts and the waves became more than 2 metres.   I started out with the full genoa sail out but found it too powerful  once I was doing more than 9kts with the wind and current. When the waves started to come in over the stern, I reduced the sail somewhat.  I called Catherine wondering if it the conditions were better at the destination to see whether I should find a place for the night earlier.  She assured me that things were fine at the next stop, Riviere de Madeleine and so I continued with my surfing.  It became very tiring trying to control the boat, sail and surf down the waves.  The harbour that I was heading to was not on the charts so based on the instructions in the guide book and instructions from Catherine I headed into the harbour.  A little tricky as the waves as I entered the harbour were on the beam causing the boat to rock violently. Once inside the break wall everything was calm and serene.

I was now at the northern most part of the trip.

Later the day we went for a drive to find a gas station for some fuel. It was at that time that I got a call from my mother with the sad news that my cousin in Italy, Christina, had passed away that day. She had lost her battle with cancer.

I'm the tiny little speck in the distance

Riviere de Madeleine

Riviere des Madeleine, northern most part of the trip
July 26. I was now heading south (actually southeast) looking forward to getting back into summer like conditions that I am used to. It has not been warm enough to wear shorts since I left Quebec City.
Music festival in Riviere au Renard
The regular weather pattern has returned, clear skies, winds <10kts out of the SW shifting to NW and waves less than 1m.  The current was still noticeable providing an extra 1 - 2 kts and the high tidal range was no longer and issue. All of this allowed for a comfortable motor sail with the genoa at an average speed of 7.5kts. This also means I arrive at a destination early enough to enjoy the day ashore as well.  That evening were entertained at the marina of Riviere au Renard with live music.



sailing past Gaspé
July 27.  I was able to leave a little later as the distance for the day was the shortest in a long time, a mere 37nm. Winds were light and constantly changing direction. First NW then W then back to NW and finally to NE allowing very little sailing instead mostly motoring. Early in the morning it became overcast and I was able to watch the rain clouds approach. Rain was light to moderate along the north side of the Gaspé bay and finally cleared up just in time so I would have great photo ops as I sailed past Percé Rock.
Catherine had driven on ahead as usual and secured a spot on the wall at the tiny hamlet of  Anse de Beaufils.  -->

Once there I found out docking is at a first come first served basis and boats are moved around to accommodate as many as possible. Initially we had another Alberg 30 raft next to us, who then moved behind us and then back next to us to make room for two other boats, one of which was quite large and whose owner did not look impressed when another boat that had children and dogs on board raft next to him.

Everyone was charged $1per foot, even boats that rafted, and the harbour was full in the evening. The washrooms/showers were inside the museum/restaurant and were closed overnight.
Percé Rock


Chandler, on the Baie de Chaleur, done with the St. Lawrence
July 28.  Another short day and therefore did not leave until 7:45am.  The skies were clear and the winds were light, 5-10kts from the SW. I no longer had a current to help me move along, speeds would now be much slower.  I ended up motor sailing on a beam reach to Chandler QC on the Baie de Chaleur.  This would the last stop in Quebec.  The next day I would be in New Brunswick.

Again Catherine had arranged a spot for us and as it was early when I arrived we went for a short drive in the afternoon.  Found a florist and arranged to have some flowers sent for Catherine's mother who turned 80.  Once we got back we treated ourselves to some marinated salmon and sangria at the marina. Very tasty.
Marinated salmon and sangria in Chandler

Quebec City to Matane

St. Laurent at low tide
July 17.  I left Quebec city with overcast skies and periodic light rain and headed to St. Laurent so that the next leg would be shorter and I would not have to leave at 1am and go against the tide for several hours. Starting in Quebec city the tides are enormous, ranging from 12' to 16' and finding a marina that has enough water at low tide is limited.

Isle d'Orleans at low tide
July 18. Left St. Laurent at 4am and motored into the tide for 2.5 hours averaging a mere3.5 kts until it changed and then got to enjoy the current and tide moving me along at 8 to 9kts. During that time the wind was constantly on my back and rarely was stronger than my boat speed thereby requiring me to motor.  Each time the wind picked up I would toss out some sail to help my little engine which has been running erratically since day one.

The area of Isle de Coudres has the strongest current.  In this stretch I managed an average speed of 11kts with peaks as much as 13.4kts.

watching the sunrise while under way
It was in the area of Cap de Oies that the wind started to pick up and I was able to motor sail. This was good as now the tide was against me and the engine had bogged down a bit after having run quite hard for such a long time. With the increase of wind also came an increase in the size of the waves as I was now traveling against the tide. Cloud cover also started to increase and it was not until I was safely tied up in the afternoon at Cap a la Aigles that it finally started to rain. 




knot meter reads 13.4kts

Picture taken by Veronique and Steeve who saw me sail past while they were on holiday in the area and having lunch at the Le Manoir Richelieu

July 19.  Left early again, 5:45. It gets light very early. QC has the same time zone throughout the province even though   it goes into the Long. as the provinces that in the Atlantic time zone.  Winds were again, light in the morning and then increasing to 10 to 15kts in the afternoon. Crossing the river was fine. The water was flat and the tide and current were in the same direction allowing me to motor sail with the genoa only at a speed of 8 to 10kts.  Saw my first "sea monster" today.  A seal kept peeking up to see what I was and where I was going.  I arrived at Riviere de Loup an hour before low tide and the marina was totally dry.  In the guide book it didn't say that the marina is totally dry at low tide. The service dock was the only place where there was enough water. Luckily I was able to convince both the harbour master and then the owner of the tour boat operation, which owns these docks, that I could stay there as I would be leaving there the next day before the tide was up again.

12' tide: low tide, the marina is dry

high tide

seals of in the distance
July 20.  Left at 4:45am. Light out already, but cold. had several layers on, t-shirt, sweater, fleece sweater, fleece vest and foul weather jacket.  Another beautiful day with clear skies. Winds were light again and from the SW10kts and tide was with me and therefore enough to sail with the genoa at an average speed of 6.kts.  In the afternoon the wind became lighter and changed to the west, needed to run with the motor only. especially when the tide changed. Change in tide and opposing current created short choppy 1' - 2' waves.  During this time I also had the engine backfire three times. After which for the first time on the trip it ran without any problems.

cold weather sailing in the middle of July
During this stretch of the journey  I saw numerous whales and seals.  The whales were far off in the distance, the seals on the other hand were always close by, very curious creatures.  The water temperature is quite cold now.  The beer cans in the bilge are changing colour, cold certified beer.




July 21.  Ever since the engine backfired it continued to run fine.  Today was mostly motoring and some motor sailing as the winds were light and from the west.  Arrived outside of Matane just after noon but had to wait outside of the harbour for an hour until the tide was high enough to cross a sand bar in the entrance. As it was sunny, warm and the winds were light, at this time it was not a problem. Once in the harbour I was met at the dock by Catherine who had driven from Montreal that day to meet me. Catherine would be my ground support, interpreter and company for the trip.


Brockville to Quebec City


July 7.  Left Brockville with some light rain and light winds so therefore ended motoring to the first of seven locks on the St. Lawrence, the Iroquois Lock. After transiting the lock around noon the skies began to clear and the rest of the day was another sunny, hot and humid day.  Ended up stopping for the night at Chrysler Park Marina. No more free docking.

July 8. A clear day, sunny and hot again. The winds were from the NE at approx. 10kts and therefore had to motor into it.  Had a relatively short wait at the Eisenhower Lock as the lockmaster was waiting for another boat which never cam.  After the lock we continued to motor.  This time we had a current push us as well and averaged 8kts through Cornwall and 6.5 to 7.5 for the rest of the way.

An increase in wind allowed for some sailing for a few hours prior to heading to Valleyfield.


Tried to call Valleyfield Marina but got no response.  Figured that maybe no one was monitoring their radio even though it was a Sunday with many boats racing in and out of the marina. Once we arrived we noticed that there was a lot of conversation on the radio, apparently they only answered calls that were in French.  Although once moored the people in the marina were friendly.

July 9.  Again a hot and sunny day with light winds to start the day.  Motored to and passed through two bridges with little delay, had to wait a half hour for a freighter.  It was when we got to the locks that we had our longest wait. Two and a half hours as several freighters went through.

Rafting party in the locks
During that time several other boats joined us, four  powerboats and four sailboats. 
The sailboats were all travelling together.   They were from Kingston and were heading to Montreal.  After some conversation they suggested that we should try to go to the Royal Saint Laurent Y C instead of the Point Claire Y C as it had more water and could be easily accessed.  That was where they were heading.  So I went down below and called the club.  Ended up being on hold for some time because as I found out afterwards, they were talking to one of the people from the other boats that were calling in for us and added us to their group.

Once in the lock all the boats ended up rafting with each other.

Catherine's mother 'Mama" visiting
By the time we exited the lock the wind had picked up that we were able to sail close hauled with both main and genoa.  We had such good speed that we remained ahead of the group for the distance from the lock to outside the yacht club.  There we waited for the others to pass us and enter the club first as they had booked for us.

There we were met by Caroline and Mama.  Caroline picked up Oliver to go back to their house for Nicolas’ birthday celebration and Mama stayed behind for a while to enjoy a glass of wine with me.

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July 10.  Sunny and hot again.  Left later than planned as Oliver arrived late from the party, but it made no difference as we arrived at the last set of locks around noon only to find the boats that left earlier that day still waiting to go through the locks.  By this time the wind had picked up and made docking by the lock difficult. First time in a long time I had to try a couple of times to get to the last little space that was available, next to a work barge in front of all the other boats with strong winds and current.

After a two and a half hour wait we finally were let through. Again we rafted with the sailboats from the previous day.  As we left the lock one of the members of their group had engine trouble so they did not continue, all the other powerboats raced on ahead. We puttered along at our average speed and again caught up to the power boats as they were waiting to go through the last two locks.  This time the wait was only a half hour.
South Canal
Saint Lambert Lock and Bridge, Good Bye St. Lawrence Seaway

Once through the last lock and bridge we headed to Longueil Marina for the night.

Longueil Marina
 
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Good-bye Montreal
July 11. Waited for the marina to open so that we could get the deposit back for the washroom key. Another sunny and hot day with little to no wind. Fortunately the current averages 2kts, which really helped our progress.  Prior to Sorel we did get some wind from behind us allowing us to fly the spinnaker for the first time.

1966 original spinnaker
At Sorel marina we bumped the bottom a couple of times as we approached the fuel dock.  After checking in we were told that we could go to the other side of the marina for the night. As we approached the dock we ended up getting stuck in the mud just 15 feet from the dock.  After standing around and looking on, it finally occurred to one of the people on the dock that the marina staff could pull us off the sand bar with their work barge.  An hour later we were off the sand bar and moved back to the other side. 

The marina staff informed us that the water level has been dropping rapidly due to the lack of rain and hot days.

Sorel had a Metro within walking distance where we were able get some provisions i.e. Beer

Lac Saint Pierre

July 12.  6:00am Decided to get an early start as stronger winds were predicted that could make for uncomfortable sailing on the shallow lake St. Pierre.  Again we got stuck leaving the marina, though Oliver was able to push the bow of the boat so that we were able to motor out.

As forecast, the winds did pick up and once we were near Trois Rivieres we were able to sail without the engine running using only the genoa. 

The guidebook suggests that one should leave Trois Rivieres several hours before low tide in Quebec City. Based on our boat speed that would have been the time we were to be in Trois Rivieres and since it was early in the day and everything was going so well we decided to continue on to Quebec City.  With 15kt winds and the current and tidal flow we were able to do 10kts with only our genoa sail.  We continued like this for half the way when we started to fall behind the tide.  At that point we began to motor sail and maintained an average speed of 7 to 8 kts.

A couple of times along the way we encountered some freighters that left such a large wake behind that we got soaked in the cockpit as we crashed through their waves. 
Quebec City YC
By 8:30pm we arrived at Quebec City YC. We covered 98nm that day, our longest run so far.  There we were able to negotiate some reciprocal privileges, one night free and $30 per night for the rest. 

Quebec City
The next day we went into the city where I said good-bye to Oliver, who headed back to Montreal, and I did some shopping at the waterfront Marché.  After the trip into the city it was pool time.
Because of the tide and the current in the next stretch, I decided to wait a couple of days so that I would not have to got through the night, but would be able to travel in day light. This allowed me to enjoy a couple of the hot days by the pool of the club.

Race night @ QCYC, fleet races and tacks through the mooring field then heads accross the wake of a freighter and up river with the tide and then back against the tide, very entertaining.

Good-bye Quebec City


Thursday, September 13, 2012

Oakville to Brockville

June 27, most of the preparations are done. Time to start the trip. First stop was Lakeshore Yacht club where I stayed for the last few days of school. It was a very pleasant commute to work, sailing along at an average speed of 5.5kts, arriving at work in time for the morning staff meeting.

June 29, the real start of the trip.  Left the school right after the morning meetings, passed up on the luncheon as the wind was a 15 to 20 out of the west and made for an easy and fast sail to Cathedral Bluff Yacht Club with an average speed of 6kts using only the Genoa sail. Hot, hazy and humid, the start of summer holidays.  Met with Catherine, who brought beer and food to the boat.  Had a lovely evening at the club.
(Good-bye Toronto)

The next day saw a gradual decrease in winds throughout the day. The winds changed to the SE and once past New Castle the winds died completely at which point I began to motor. The ride was somewhat uncomfortable as the waves were still close to 1m but they too flattened out by the time I got to Cobourg.  Cobourg was bustling with excitement as they hold one of the largest waterfront festivals on the July long weekend.

July 1, left Cobourg at 6:30am. The water was flat as glass and the winds were light. Motored to Presquille bay and through the Murray Canal. Once I got out of the canal there was a bit of a breeze which helped with the heat and I was able to sail as far as the bridge by Belleville using the genoa only.Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Belleville YC and watched the very spectacular Canada Day fireworks.

(Canada Day in Belleville)

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July 2. Another sunny and hot day. Since it is a short trip to Picton from Belleville, I had decided to sleep in. Winds were light again in the morning and gradually increased throughout the day. Long reach channels the winds resulting in sufficiently strong winds to sail at a good speed.  Unfortunately it was mostly dead on so I needed to tack up the Reach. As I got approx. 3 miles out of Picton the wind picked up and ended up having to motor into 20kt gusts. Since the beginning of the trip the engine has been erratically. This hard motoring did not seem to agree with it.  I stayed in Picton for a couple of days, as it is a great day for provisioning and getting fuel. Everything is close by.  
(tall ship leaving Picton)

July 4. Left Picton at 5:45am with overcast skies that gradually cleared and turned into another hot and hazy day. Westerly winds 10 to 15 kts allowed for good sailing. Thunderstorms were in the forecast for the day and it looked like a storm was going to form until I got to Kingston when the weather cleared.  Pulled in a Trident Yacht Club at around 2:00pm. A beautiful quiet club and in a lovely setting with very friendly staff.  It was great to get out of the burning sun and sit in the shade.
Trident Y C

Trident Y C

Leaving Bateau Channel

2kt current in the narrows


July 5, a cool start to the day with light clouds and winds requiring me to motor or motor sail all day.  Near Rockport Bridge a 1kt current started to help my progress. This current became approximately 2kts in a Brockville narrows. Since the engine was still running erratic I was a bit concerned about docking in Brockville with the current, but this proved to not be an issue as there is little to no current close to shore and by the marina.  Checked into Brockville Yacht Club where the members were very friendly.  One of the members gave me a half dozen hard boiled eggs, as he had received too many from a friend who works an egg processing plant.

Brockville is another great place for provisioning. Beer store and a large grocery store are within easy walking distance.

At this point I have reached the end for the Ports book. My Richardson charts book of the thousand islands will still be of use for another couple of days.

After Brockville comes the first of several locks on the St. Lawrence River.  In order to transit the locks a minimum of two people are required on board.  I sent out a request for crew to my friends and it was Catherine’s nephew, Oliver, who said that he would love to join me for that stretch, and would be able to get a ride to join me the next day.
the sailing school kids enjoyed bouncing of the waves from the freighters


Friday Yannick stopped by to visit as Caroline and Jean-Pierre were going to come and bring Oliver.  Had a great visit with everyone.