Correction- they were dolphins at Baie de L’Oest! And we saw more as well as our first Puffin sighting on the way out.

July 4^th

We motored and sailed to the Petite Rigolet Channel in the St Augustine archipelago, PQ, first in fog (it was 5:30am) then under a clear sky. Temperatures are 10 degrees warmer inshore, both air and water, than out on the Gulf. Greeted by a seal colony who are so curious.

While these channels are relatively narrow, they are deep (between 10 – 50m), so easily navigated.  We arrived at 2:30pm and explored some anchoring options… there are lots.  We went with Plan ‘Anse Old Bill Robin’. The wind was expected to remain light from the SSW for the next 48 hours so the orientation in this bay was perfect. After some boating maintenance, we packed a backpack with snacks and set off in the dinghy. Fortunately, Ali packed her face-net for the black flies but Steve did not…they bite and leave you bleeding! We clambered over deep sphagnum and muskeg, with the walking poles disappearing 3 ft down to rock! The hiking was limited but the view was worth it! We stayed 2 nights here just because we could!

July 6^th

We decided to venture only 21nm further within the Petite Rigolet area to the next anchorage. We were greeted by locals in their motorboats as there are cabins scattered through this beautiful part of Canada. We sailed, genoa only, for part of the way and dropped anchor in a small bay, based on the current wind direction. We had lunch in sunshine, our hiking gear was ready, when out of nowhere (ok…a single black cloud north of us) the wind swung 180 degrees and increased from 4 kts to +20 knots, swinging the boat violently in this narrow bay. The anchor was pulled 180°, 40m of chain let loose and we quickly realized we were headed for the shingle beach about 150 m off our stern… this is too close! We quickly got the motor started, and the bow thruster ready (narrow channel) … so with some deft boat handling and quick anchor recovery and we extricated ourselves… looking for a safer anchorage in such changing conditions.  Yes… there was yelling and bad words… but that’s ok! It was just incredibly lucky that the localized wind gusts came when we were on the boat and not hiking the local hills, or at night when we were asleep.  A lesson to us – winds shift quickly here – locals call it the typical afternoon sou-wester. We shifted to a much bigger bay with good shelter from all directions.  We had a visit from the couple who own the cabin on this bay and promised to bring us some of their catch once they checked their nets at dusk. They scaled and gutted it for us too… amazing hospitality and delicious fresh salmon!

July 7th

We tend to rise with the dawn, so we hauled anchor by 6:30 am and started out for our next destination, about 40 nm away… we are trying to stay focused to ultimately get to Labrador! The forecast was for clear skies and steady winds out of the SW, so we were looking forward to a good day’s sailing aiming Havre de Belles Amour (just south of Blanc Sablon).

As we cleared the islands and entered the Strait of Belle Isle, we ran into fluky weak winds and a mixed sea.  The winds were building from the south, but the residual waves/slop from the prior east winds were making for confused choppy seas. The result was a queasy Ali after making breakfast below. We hoisted sails, gybed sails, poled out sails and generally mucked about with the rig to try to get the boat sailing, but we realized all we had achieved was to get queasy stomachs and get further from our destination.  Sails down, motor on.

Thankfully, the forecasted wind did come in and the waves settled down so were able to enjoy a cold (water temperature 11°C) and steady sail along the coast.  Along the way we spotted dolphins,  Puffins, and many Dovekies (Puffiin-like, beaks black). Here is my attempt to video the Dovekies ‘flight’!

Havre des Belles Amours was a lovely, shallow, wide open bay. There were aquaculture nets in the corner of the bay so lots of room. We hiked the dunes – sand, sphagnum mosses, granite – and enjoyed stretching our legs on solid ground. A thunderstorm with lightening brightened the sky that night.

July 8

We made it to Labrador!

With plans for shorter runs, Ali planned the next stop in L’Anse au Loup (31nm), crossing Quebec to Labrador. The sea-state continued to be very rollie thanks to the storm so no breakfast was made till we were in the lee of some islands off Blanc Sablon. Then the winds built through the day and remained off our stern. We tried to sail – Gennaker, Genoa, preventer on, but the rolling waves collapsed any sail we put up in <12 knots of wind. So frustrating… but we gave it the college try!! Honest!!

The SSW winds built quickly at 1pm (typical) to 30-35 knots and that last hour into L’Anse au Loup was nerve-racking. It was ‘Sporty’ as we manhandled the boat through the building seas wondering if we could safely dock in the strong winds. The L’Anse au Loup wharf is in the most sheltered part of the wide bay and thankfully it was only 16 knots blowing at the wharf and we were headed straight into the wind to dock at the end of the wharf. Locals saw us coming in and were there to help… THANK YOU!

Quick physics for non-sailors…The force -the actual effort that drives the boat forward) is not linearly correlated with the windspeed.  When the wind goes from 20 kts to 30 knots it is a 50% increase, so the force doubles. Faced with 35knots we were a bit concerned about landing the dock.

July 8-10

L’Anse au Loup was an absolute pleasure – friendly locals, many services.  The people of L’Anse au Loup were so kind, from Jerry who caught our lines and told us how to cook Capelin, to the Harbourmaster Kevin who drove Steve to the gas station at the end of his day to fill our (6) diesel jerry cans, to Chester who provided the bowl of fresh Capelin and showed us how to gut them, and to the locals who came by to say Hi. Labrador/Newfoundland hospitality at its finest. Thank you L’Anse au Loup! We will return!

We spent the day at L’Anse au Loup doing boat chores, loading water, restocking food supplies, water and diesel.  We shook out our sea legs walking to Schooner’s Cove.

Kevin, harbourmaster, confirmed that we had gone through 2 time zones in 1 day ( from Eastern standard time to Newfoundland time) and added an hour and a half to our clocks!  

July 10th

We departed L’Anse au Loup at 7:24am under a cold blanket of dense fog.  The water temperature was 3.5 degrees, the air temperature not much more, the wind was 10-15 knots out of the southwest and our visibility was about 400 m. Yikes! That’s the lowest water temperature yet.

Under radar navigation we cleared the Bay. Chester called on the VHF as he headed to NFLD that same time – so good to hear a friendly voice on the VHF!  The wind built 15 to 20 knots and we sailed!..still totally blanketed in fog. However, the wind was swinging 50° and varied from 4 to 30 knots.  The genoa went out, then in; Gennaker went up, then down, then gybed, then dropped, etc, etc( you get the idea). Needless to say, we had several hours of wonderful sailing (doing 7-8 knots in 20 knots in wind) and the wind pushed back some of the fog so we saw blue sky.  We tracked ships on radar, checked for icebergs (but are presently too far south) and heard 3 whale spoutings but could not see them.

We were heading to Pitts Harbour, Chateau Bay, in the fog and, of course, the wind was building (typical afternoon) to 30-35 knots, whitecaps forming. On entry there is a unique island, called the Devil’s Table, that rivals the Cape Town’s Table Mtn, the fog partially obscured it. So beautiful.  

As we passed though the channel to enter Pitts Harbour (a big bay with a few cottages) the fog lifted and the temperature increased 15 degrees! We enjoyed the scent of pine and some blue sky emerged!  The winds were swirling so we took our time dropping the anchor, in 15m depth, in the centre of the bay – lots of swing room.

We had waited for our first anchorage in Labrador (a wharf does not count) to enjoy the bottle of magnificent champagne that had been a gift from Steve’s colleagues at AGF. Thank you very much, my friends!

We are here for a couple of nights exploring Henley Harbour. In retrospect, it is good timing that we left Toronto later and the journey has taken longer because it is only just warming up here – they have had a cold spring here!