Month: July 2018

Saturday July 21, Day 58. We are due to leave Tadoussac, having stayed the night in the marina there, where we had also run into our new friends from Trois Rivieres, Maurice and Renée of the 36 Monk trawler “Le Sophie et Marie”, who were in Tadoussac on their son’s sailing boat. Small world.

We had ahead of us the first of the two big legs back to Quebec City, when the tide has to be right – flood, not ebb, the former being weaker than the latter – and the winds light (and never in opposition to the currents, a state of affairs which is not all that common), and all this for two days straight. The next two days looked good, so we grabbed ’em.

We started the engines at 05:30 and on our way out of Tadoussac we see some harbour seals surfacing and diving in the channel. A fond farewell.

The two days were worth choosing: we have a good run both days, the first for 47 miles to Cap A L’Aigle, which we reach by 11 o clock in the morning with the current giving us a boost most of the time.

Continue reading “A Hop, Skip, a few Jumps, and Hurry Up and Wait”

A very long time ago – 20 years, in fact – we had driven to Tadoussac in late winter when almost everything was still closed, and there was still ice on the Saguenay. This time, arriving by boat, we found a bustling, happy place, with lots of funky restaurants, numerous whale watchers and the whale watching boats they watch whales from constantly coming and going, a multitude of gift shops – some of them not at all bad – a wonderful new whale museum & interpretation centre, and at the marina, sailboats visiting from all over, with bronzed, good looking men strumming guitars and singing love songs to good looking women as they sipped wine at sunset. All in French. The grand old Hotel Tadoussac, surrounded by all this, still manages to retain its dignity, though its glory is a trifle faded.

Continue reading “From Here to Baie Eternité”

After a week in the hustle and bustle of the city – any city, even Quebec – we are ready to get back to our quest for the prize: the Saguenay. We have logged 680 miles so far, but Tadoussac, the mouth of the fjord, is another 130 miles away. However, there’s nowhere to stop between Quebec and there other than Cap A L’Aigle at Malbaie (site of the infamous 2018 G7), other than Ile D’Orleans, a mere 10 miles into the trip, because there’s nowhere to anchor. Starting from Ile D’Orleans will allow us to knock up to two hours off the longest sector of the journey, so, after supplying the boat, topping up with water and brewing several cups of our Balzac’s coffee we depart Quebec marina on Tuesday July 10, the winds and tides having at last come into harmony for us.

After the jog, we tie up in the basin of Ile Bacchus de Ile D’Orleans in the afternoon, bucking a major current at the harbour mouth, and on a rising tide to avoid the bit in the middle that causes grief at low water.

The harbour is completely different from the fancy, comfortable marinas we have been staying in. Already, there is a no-nonsense salty flavour, and add in the 12 foot tide and you start to feel like you’re heading towards the Atlantic. ‘Cos you are.

Continue reading “A Whale of a Time and Tide”

June 25. Day 32. While we could theoretically make the 140/45 miles from Chambly to Quebec City for our target date of July 3 in only 3 or 4 days, it would take having the appropriate weather on all consecutive days (light winds, i.e. 10 knots or less, from the Southwest and with no thunderstorms), stopping further down the Richelieu near Sorel, and at Trois Rivieres and Portneuf.

But if we left today, we would likely be running into contrary weather by the time we were crossing Lac St-Pierre, and one doesn’t want to do that. It is extremely shallow outside of the channel, and is subject to rough waters appearing very suddenly if the wind shifts, and there are threats of thunderstorms about. Besides, there is a nice spa/resort/restaurant/marina not too far downriver at St.-Marc-sur-Richelieu, and Michel fancies a massage and pedicure. Perhaps two nights there?

So we do a slow shuffle down river so we can spend Canada Day weekend in the city of Trois Rivieres, third largest in Quebec. We leave Chambly on a very windy Monday, the breeze giving us extreme challenges in the three locks which step down to the river, but we survive that. Shortly thereafter, we are tying up at the Auberge Handfield, just beyond Beloiel, as the wind keeps on shifting around us.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Cities, a Lake, and The Van Doos.”