Tuesday, July 23rd

Happy birthday Rome!

The tides dictated that we wake up at 5am and set off at 5:30am which we did.  Once again the winds failed us and we motored with some very helpful tides to Tadoussac, 48 08.71N 069 44.17W.  At one point we were doing 10 knots over the ground with a boat speed through the water of 4 knots – a tidal assist of 6 knots making it worthwhile getting up so early.  We did try sailing twice, but the winds only lasted 15 minutes on both occasions.  This is getting too regular an occurrence!

We’ve been using paper tidal stream calculations to plan our trips.  The electronic charts we have (Navionics), also have tidal stream information, but they’re hopelessly inaccurate.  At one point, the electronic prediction was for a foul tide of 3 knots, but the paper charts, (and what we were seeing on the ground), was for 4 knots of fair tide.  Go figure. 

On the way we saw some black porpoises and later some white ones, about 10+ feet long, much closer to the boat.  We believe the white ones were Beluga whales.  Our guide book says that we’re not allowed to go looking for whales, but since we just happened to be there when the whales turned up we reckon we’re within the law. 

We arrived at the bay where we had planned to anchor, and which is recommended by our guide book.  We were at spring tides and had a tidal range 18ft.  In addition, the sea bottom was very steep so just a short distance off the beach the water was very deep.  And there were moorings in all the best spots to anchor.  We couldn’t find a suitable spot, so we left for the next bay up the river, Anse à la Barque, only a mile away.  This was even worse, the bottom shoaled just as quickly, there was much less room and the only spot that would have worked was too close to the single mooring buoy in the cove.  The cove also had uncharted rocks which we just getting covered as we arrived.  So we returned to Tadoussac, and dropped the anchor in 70 feet of water (at high tide).  This may not sound like a lot, but believe me it is.  We laid out just over 200 feet of rode (rope), a scope of 3:1. We would have like to have more rode, but then there was a danger of swinging into the beach or other boats.  Not an easy anchoring location.  At low tide the anchor would be in 52 feet, a scope of 4:1. 

We went ashore for a quick walk around the town, and met a Dutch couple who were anchored next to us. 

The weather has definitely taken a turn to the colder – high 50s Fahrenheit.  We had dinner and went to bed early to read, where we were nice and cozy. 

Ship’s Log: 2891.0nm, Today's log: 27.7nm, Season total: 437.1nm.