29 Jul 15

A beautiful morning awaited us when we got up. Forecast looked good, so we took off just after 09:00 for L’Anse a Beaufils. For once, the wind was good right from the start and within quarter mile of leaving the marina, we had full sail up, engine off and were making for the opening of the sand bar at the exit to Havre de Gaspe. Past the sand bar, the wind was directly behind us, so I furled the jib and hoisted the spinnaker. Unfortunately, after about half an hour, the wind dropped, so we doused the spinnaker and motored. In another hour, and nearing the eastern end of Baie Gaspe, the wind picked up, so we sailed again, jib and main, as it was a bit too rolly to handle the spinnaker easily. Passing through the small gap between Ile Plate and Pointe Ste. Pierre, we set course for Rocher Perce (Perce Rock), passing this much-photographed site just after 14:00. By 14:50, having sailed to within a half a mile of the harbor entrance, we were tied up to the government dock in L’Anse a Beaufils. Best sail in weeks!! The harbormaster had originally planned to raft us beside one of the tourist boats, but another sailboat had come in before us and snatched our place, so we tied up to the corrugated steel dock; first time we have had to use the fender board, and it worked just fine. There is only a 1.0 m tidal range here, so not much concern about moving around as the tide changes. The harbormaster said that the tourist boat that usually ties up here is going to stay at Perce tonight, since it is predicted to be calm weather, so we are good for the night. The daily time-lapse is here:

http://youtu.be/XdmQl8PLsYo

48-28.312’N, 064-18.412’W

30 Jul 15

We took a day off from cruising and hit the tourist trail; we caught a taxi into Perce and boarded the tourist navette to Ile Bonaventure. This island is home to 250,000 nesting birds, including the largest gannet colony on the Atlantic. The gannet colony is fantastic: all these birds crowded into a very small space. The noise and the smell are both overwhelming. They squawked and we gawked for about an hour. The island is run by Parks Canada and there are trails all around the island; we did “The Colonies” and “Chemin du Roy” trails - 8.5 miles total and caught the 15:00 navette back to Perce. Since the taxi was gone to Gaspe for the afternoon, we hitched a ride with one of the navettes back to L’Anse a Beaufils, where they all park for the night. We had to move the boat from the wall of the Federal wharf to raft alongside the “Hatigonian”, another of the tour boats, as the harbor was filling up. The rest of the evening was spent up at the Bistro, trying to make sense of the forecasts and decide if we are going to chance the 92 mile run to Escuminac tomorrow.