Quebec City and Onward

Tuesday, June 3 – Quebec City, Port Quebec Bassin Louise Marina

Arrive dodging ferries and freighters then negotiated an interesting, dedicated lock into this Marina! Booked 3 nights and planned a tidal exit with an overnight to Cap a l’aigle on Thursday, with wind forecasted south; left marina, headed east. Put up mainsail… but squall came in, wind on the nose, dropped sail, engine died…turned the boat around. Felt  very despondent… Tikaani is not healthy, just won’t tolerate torque on that engine and we needed 7knots boat speed to make the tides/currents to head east.

Called the Mechanic… must wait till Monday. Did basic boat maintenance. Went for long walks. Even caught the new Mission Impossible movie with 5 people in a huge IMAX theatre! Quebec City is beautiful and the food&drink excellent.

Monday, June 9 – Tikaani is back in motion!

Mechanic arrived in the morning. He was thorough and after 1.5 hrs discovered the problem was not the engine, but microtears in the fuel line….not enough to drip diesel but enough to suck in air.  Steve had extra fuel line; we were good to go! We set our departure for the next day doing an overnight run leaving 4pm=2 hours before high tide, for a 15 hour run to Tadoussac.

Tuesday, June 10

I am not sure if it is the time of year or location but weather forecasts seem to have a shelf life of about 2 hours.  The forecast was for an hour of headwind, moving to light winds cycling aft through the night. Nope. We fought a 14 kt headwind with rain for the first 4 hours, then the wind swung south around midnight and pushed us with a 20 kt tailwind down the St. Lawrence. Our tide/current calculations proved accurate, making all waypoints withing 25 minute’s of each target. Around 11 pm, at Baie Saint Paul the channel narrows and deepens and makes a sharp right around Ile Aux Coudres…we went from 7 kts to over 12 kts; tried to slow the boat to 11 knots to avoid a freighter! Full moon showed up until we ran into a wall of solid St Lawrence fog after Ile Aux Coudres. Visibility went from 2 miles to 200m in about 10 minutes, and we went from VFR to IFR in the blink of an eye.  The current, of course, was still driving us along at a sporty 11 kts. Predawn was 4am and we were itching to put a sail up with the healthy tailwind, but the lack of visibility, lack of sleep and regular freighter traffic made us cautious so we continued to motor in wind, waves and fog. We actively tracked all freighter traffic to stay well clear… love the B&G Nav System! Most vessels broadcast an AIS signature, with boat names, heading, speed.  One vessel was running “incognito” upstream at 14 kts – it was either a large fast power cruiser or a big ship to have that kind of power. Tracking this on radar it suddenly lit up with details. It was the Canada Warship 434 Frederick Rolette, one of our Navy’s newest Arctic Patrol Vessels. Sadly they passed about a mile to our port beam in the fog so we never got a good look at them.

The Saint Lawrence Seaway is one active and dynamic river!  As we left Quebec City the current was 3 kts against us, depth was about 10m and water temperature 18C. As we moved into the main channel, the current shifted to 1 kt with us, depth went to 20m and water temperature fell to 10C. North of Ile Aux Coudres the current exceeded 6 kts downstream, and depth 40m, then dropped to 80m as we entered the widening river.

On approach to the Saguenay River entrance, the currents were all over the place with eddies created by the underwater “hills” -the depth went from 100 meters to 8 meters in less than a nautical mile. The water temperature just 8 degrees…same as the air!

Wednesday, June 11

We turned into the Saguenay River at about 6am, with clear sky overhead and a line of sight on the harbour. Seals greeting us! Now we know to question the slip before arrival – you can’t put a 50’ boat in a 40’ slip! Bow thruster decided to quit but docking straightforward. Once secured, retried bow thruster and she worked… Hallejulah! First, a delicious breakfast at LaBoheme, a nap, then hiked some local trails.

Tadoussac is a Picture Postcard – It feels like the middle of a Hallmark movie. Quaint, bright buildings, friendly faces. The harbour is shallow and sheltered. The area is a marine preserve, with Beluga’s, Minke, Right and Fin Whales often visible from shore. We spotted a minke whale and some harbour seals on our way in. It blew 25kts down the Saguenay, so any hope of taking the dinghy up to explore was abandoned. We ante-upped for a 3-hour whale watching tour. We were told the Beluga’s are raising their calves 2 hours up the river so will have to see them on the way back. The Microbrasserie Tadoussac was a fave! We are leaving Tadoussac in the middle of their Music Festival, but have enjoyed this vibrant village.

Saturday, June 14

We caught the outgoing tide from Tadoussac to anchor off Sept-Iles. Bow Thruster not working again:( Seals on the outgoing river current. Soon after, we sailed through a school of Belugas! 100 to 300’ away, but all around, bobbing heads up and diving, good view through binoculars. Made my week! Mixed winds but sunny and warm day – combo of motor and sail wing-on-wing, pole out, 10-15knts breeze behind us. Maintained >5knts.

Stars out, then harvest moon rising. Nautical dawn at 3:30am. We switched off watch through the short night (almost summer solstice). It was a 30-hour sail for the 184nm. Taking the binnacle apart underway to check bow thruster connections. Took 3 tries to find a protected anchorage from SSW winds that had a sandy bottom. We are on the East side of Ile Grand Basque. Early night then onward to Mingan to beat the rain/wind coming in. Getting closer to NFLD!