17 Jul 15

The tide called for a 07:43 departure, so we were up at 06:45. The day was clear and cool, but completely calm. We were away from the dock on schedule and motored out onto an absolutely glassy sea. Just off Gros Cap-a-l’Aigle, about 3 miles north of our departure, we spotted numerous Beluga whales cruising south and grazing as they went; they were very easy to pick out on the sea, as they are pure white in color. Within an hour, the tide had picked us up and we were roaring north-east at speeds up to 11.5 kn SOG. About 10:30, we were ahead of schedule for our arrival for low water slack at the entry to Saugenay River, so we stopped the engine and drifted for half an hour - at 5.0 kn SOG. While we were drifting, we spotted a couple of more whales - I think these were fin-backs, but they did not hang around long enough for positive identification; we also saw a few more Belugas. We crossed the notorious bar into Saugenay River at 12:00 and because we were making such good progress and it was early, we decided to skip Tadoussac for the time being and press on to Anse St. Jean, about 22 miles up the Saugenay River. The river is a gorgeous fjord, rivaling many of our favorite spots in Desolation Sound, BC. The wind got up as we pushed into the fjord, so we finished off the afternoon with a fine downwind sail in 20 kn of wind into Anse St. Jean. The entry into the marina, Club Nautique Anse St. Jean, was quite dramatic with the wind behind us, but many dock-mates rushed to assist the sole dock-hand and we got in and tied up with no problems, at 15:20. 62 N-m in 7.6 hours; very cool. The wind calmed down during the evening and we had a quiet dinner aboard. The only problem with this gorgeous setting is the regular banging of the floating breakwaters that surround the marina, but we cannot hear them down below, so no problem.  

The link to the time-lapse video of the trip from Cap-a-l’Aigle to Anse St. Jean can be found here: 

https://youtu.be/JSGaG6LBy1g

48-14.687’N, 070-10.853’W 

18 Jul 15

As forecast, we awoke to intermittent rain showers. Although we had thought of running upriver to Baie Eternite to check out the park and the mooring balls, the weather was just too gloomy to get excited about leaving the dock and our nice dry, warm cockpit enclosure. So, in the end, we sat around the boat all day long, reading, ordering a life-raft (to be delivered to Charlottetown, PEI), trying to order an EPIRB (another long story there), reading, playing guitar, transposing various songs into new, more user-friendly keys, reading some more and watching the weather. Intermittent rain showers were the norm all day long. Just after noon a dense fog rolled up the Saugenay from the St. Lawrence and reduced visibility out on the river to virtually nil, although it never encompassed us at the marina. The Admiral brewed up a nice, warm vegetable soup for lunch, and it was so good, we had it again for dinner. The high temp today was about 59 deg F (15 C); hard to believe this is the 2nd half of July. The long-range forecast shows good westerlies on Wednesday, which would be good for heading east, down and across the St. Lawrence Seaway to Rimouski on the south side of the river/north side of the Gaspe peninsula; so, not sure how much more of the Saugenay Fjord we are going to be able to see. But, after all of our touring and traveling, it was just fine to have a day to sit around reading and relaxing. Ah, well, ain’t cruising fun. I’ll publish a day early while we still have good internet.