Monday June 2 – Sorel to Quebec City

The next morning, the winds had swung sufficiently west that a series of potential anchorages had opened up on Lake St Pierre. As we could not get out of Sorel Marina fast enough (and they could not get rid of us fast enough), we motored out (in the rain) and found a semi quiet anchorage just off the seaway channel, put down our hook, had some breakfast, and stretched out for a nap.

We had contemplated stopping in Trois Riviere (another 32 nautical miles up the river) before making the longer push to Quebec City, but the marina was disorganized first saying no room then offering a berth but too late.

The run to Quebec City takes a little more planning, as you are entering the tidal zones and need to contend with the tides, which can materially alter the currents in the river ( Quebec City has 15 foot tides and a normal 5 knot current, that can vary from 2 to 10 kts).  As the tides impact the current a long way up the river, bad planning can turn the 12 hour trip into a much longer odyssey.

We did our tide/current calculations and decided to leave that night around 7pm, with the plan of making Quebec around 9:30am (2 hours after low tide) when the currents near the Marina Bassin Louise entrance were lower.

While it was cold and rained intermittently, the wind shifted west and we could sail (Yes, SAILING !). With the river current, 15 kts of wind and just the staysail up, we cruised along averaging 7 kts.  We did bring the sail in through the darkest period of the night (12-4 am) as this was also the narrowest part of the seaway.  That proved wise, and it seemed that every narrowing of the channel resulted in a huge freighter going past us, 150m to our beam.  While we would track them on radar and AIS, they run dark at night so are a mostly black blob until a mile away but they are moving at 8kts…covering that distance in about 5 minutes.

June 3 – Overnight Done!

Dodging ferries and ships at Quebec City we managed to find the entrance, connect with the lock keeper and find our way into the Marina Port Quebec, Bassin Louise, right by the old town. Bassin Lousie is unique in the city since the maintain a stable water level and access the river via ther own private lock system. Every time you leave or enter the Marina, you go through their lock.

Time to rest, recuperate, clean the boat, eat out, resupply fresh food during this 3 day break

BUT!…Our challenge is that the engine is still not back to 100%. We can run her up to about 1600 rpm ( generating about 5 kts of speed in flat water) but above 1600 rpm she chokes and dies ( i am suspecting fuel pump issues).

We had a potential transit “window”(see below) open up on Thursday for an overnight passage to Cap L’Aigle and we went for it at noon. Shortly after exiting the lock, a squall front with a strong east wind came through stopping us dead in our tracks and completely destroying our timing – 1600 rpm would not get us alligned with the good tidal flow…so back to the Yacht Basin.

As was proved, this is a critical weakness, since to get out of Quebec City requires us to have near perfect wind from the west and near perfect timing, 2 hours before high tide and with boat speed of 7 knots. This is all about the tides down river and around Ile-d’Orleans and Ile de Coudres. Failing those conditions, we get stuck somewhere in the river either putting an anchor out to wait out the tide cycle, or basically motoring to stay in one place until the tide turns at any time of the day or night.

Neither of these “perfect conditions” is occurring, and we are desperately trying to get a mechanic to look at the engine. It is busy season at the moment – so far one has answered for next week. Send us your positive vibes, please!! Crossing fingers and toes. Until this gets resolved, we are captives in Quebec City…a nice place to be a captive, but we would really rather be sailing!

Hope week 4 is in Tadoussac!