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Tag Archives: St. Lawrence River

July 17th – Rivière-Madeleine

17 Jul

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At about 9:00 last night, after having the entire day of no wind whatsoever, the wind suddenly picked up (of course!). I was worried that I wouldn’t sleep because we were anchored and I thought the anchor might break free. So, after about two minutes of worrying, I woke up at 5:00 this morning (very refreshed too, I might add!). Dennis had assured me that our anchor and the 150 feet of chain would hold and it did. He didn’t lose any sleep either!
I think that the reason the wind came up was because of the katabatic wind phenomenon that occurs here. This is what the guidebook says:
“The katabatic wind is a land breeze that at night blows down a valley and out through its mouth. The deeper and broader the valley, the more the wind will be violent. A breeze swoops down from the hilltops and easily reaches 25 knots, while the rest of the coast has only dead calm.”
Anyway, it all worked out and we carried on to Rivière-Madeleine this morning.

We are officially heading south now! We reached the most northern point at the village of Gros Morne – 49.15 degrees (about the same as Kapuskasing).

Not much happened today after we arrived. The village is very beautiful and the people are extremely nice. I would like to add that if anyone does stop here, the french-fries are delicious (Frites Maison). They are peeled right in the cantine which is also the marina office. A bit of advice though, you really only need the petit serving as the moyen would fill an entire platter!

After we ate the fries (we are saving some for supper), we went for a LONG walk. I am glad we did because I got a couple of good pictures of the coastline from the top of a hill.

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We are headed to Rivière-au-Renard tomorrow if weather permits and then we will be one day away from Gaspé.

 
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Posted by on July 17, 2013 in Sailing in the St. Lawrence

 

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July 14th – Bastille Day – St-Anne-des-Monts

14 Jul

Same old story, I know… We left at 6:00 this morning to get to St-Anne-des-Monts. It was another uneventful day. We just about reached the breakwall when the wind really picked up. It only took a few minutes to get behind the the breakwall and get tied up, but I am very glad that we arrived when we did. The wind is still howling out there but we are safe inside the harbour.
If you get a chance to see these little towns on Google Earth, you should take the time to do so. The entire coast is very rugged and there are not many places to run for shelter so these little towns have build huge breakwalls to protect them from the water and wind. Take a look at this view of us entering the harbour:

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Notice the church quite a ways behind the wall.
St-Anne-des-Monts is a very pretty town. It almost looks European (or what I imagine a European town would look like) because the streets near the water are very close together and the buildings are right next to the road. As you walk to the newer part of town, it starts to resemble any other place in Canada with the Tim Hortons and IGA on the corner.

There are all sorts of sculptures around the town. At the wharf especially, there are many made of driftwood. The large white driftwood one is known as “le Drapeau blanc” (the white flag).

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Here are a couple of pictures of the church:

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Here is a picture of the town looking west:

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I am not sure if we are staying here tomorrow – I guess the wind will let us know in the morning!

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Posted by on July 14, 2013 in Sailing in the St. Lawrence

 

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August 3 – Gananoque

03 Aug

I think we are either getting way too relaxed or just plain stupid! This morning we set off and didn’t even realize that we had forgotten to pull up the dinghy. That wasn’t so bad but Dennis always ties it off in two places – bow and stern, so we were actually towing it sideways. Good for a laugh, that’s for sure!

We got to Gananoque quite early and had our tanks emptied (holding tanks) and filled (water). We couldn’t get to the shopper’s dock – it was full, so we decided to backtrack, anchor and take the dinghy to town. The trip was uneventful except that it was (is) so hot! We did the grocery shopping (this seems to take up a lot of our time) and staggered back to the dinghy and then to the boat. I did take a few pictures of a girl fiddling (she’s a university student) and of the beautiful churches.

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We swam for most of the afternoon and are sitting out now as it is getting dark. Might have one more swim before we turn in. Tomorrow is supposed to be 35 degrees, so we will most likely be doing a lot of swimming further up (or is it down?) the river.

 
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Posted by on August 3, 2012 in Sailing in the St. Lawrence

 

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August 2 – The St. Lawrence River

02 Aug

Greetings from the St. Lawrence! We have officially reached the end of the Great Lakes and are now heading eastward towards Montreal and Quebec City. Tomorrow is Gananoque.

We are in the official 1000 Islands and if the first day’s anchorage is any indication, we are going to really enjoy the rest of the trip! The water is clean, there are lots of nice anchorages, some even have picnic sites and walking trails and excessive noise as well as running your engine or generator is not allowed. So, this is the place for me!

This morning, since we were about 100 metres away from Fort Henry, we thought we had better check it out. Fort Henry is the main attraction of Kingston so we rowed over to the fort, climbed the hill, paid our admission and wandered around for a couple of hours. It is pretty amazing (as forts go). The stonework is beautiful – the walls are very thick. There is also a moat around the fort (dry now) but I can’t imagine how much work it would have taken to complete the fort – all by hand too.

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There were quite a few people in costume, doing some heavy duty marching around in the parade square. They must have been boiling in their red wool uniforms!

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The most fun part though was watching the kids take part. Under the direction of a park employee, the kids put on uniforms and learned how to march. It was pretty funny and it looked like they were having a great time!

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After our tour of the fort, we headed back down the hill and dinghied back to the boat. We were surrounded by the Royal Military Sailing School (with varying degrees of skill). They looked like they were having fun too with the occasional tipping of boats and near collisions. They all had helmets on though – I guess there must have been one too many whacks in the head with the boom!

On the boat, we discussed where we would go next. We also started the generator and after a few minutes, I noticed a big pool of water on the floor (or should I say deck?). Unfortunately, the generator had malfunctioned so Dennis had to figure out where it needed fixing. He thought it needed a part of some sort and we were quite close to Kingston Marine, so we quickly pulled up the anchor and headed back to Kingston (it was only one bay away but we wanted to catch the 1:00 bridge). We had a good laugh when we saw what the anchor had pulled up.

20120802-201941.jpg A rudder from the sailing school!

We dropped the anchor in the inner harbour of Kingston and Dennis got to work right away. He actually fixed the problem (whatever it was) without having to order parts so by 2:15, we were ready to go. We had to wait until the 3:00 bridge but once it was up, we just sailed on out of Kingston and are here now at the Milton Island anchorage. We hiked around the island and again, were amazed at the facilities available. We are looking forward to the next week or so. After that, Montreal, Trois Rivieres and then Quebec City!

 
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Posted by on August 2, 2012 in Sailing in the St. Lawrence

 

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