Monday, August 5th

Ron was awake early and tried his hand at fishing again, this time with some success. 

Everyone was using heavy lures to catch the mackerel close to the sea floor, but I only had a light one.  A fellow fisherman gave me a weight to add to my lure and this proved successful.  However, the first fish I caught put up such a fight that the weight fell off and I was left with the surface floating lure.  So we made do with one huge mackerel – it was 10” long if it was an inch!

We then took a walk to Cap Gaspe, about 5 miles each way.  It was stunning – we could see that because every so often the fog lifted enough for us to see what we were missing.  Then it started raining and visibility got even worse.  Fortunately, at the Cap, there was a hut where we, and several other hardy walkers, ate our picnic.  The rain subsided on the way back and we returned to Quinita relatively damp but no longer soaking wet. 

Dennis and Ank were just about to set off for the town of Gaspe, 48 49.55N 064 28.10W, and we followed shortly after.  They were obviously jealous of our fishing success and challenged us to a competition - they would fish off the boat on the way to Gaspe!  There had been no wind all day so we were expecting another motoring trip.  There was no wind to start with, but then it picked up a little, and a little more, and a little more…  We ended up have a fantastic sail at 8-10knots in flat seas on a reach – perfect conditions for Quinita.  Bodyguard took several photos of us – posted here.

We anchored outside the marina and enjoyed grilled mackerel for appetizer, followed by Salmon pie. 

Ship’s Log: 3204.4nm, Today's log: 23.2nm, Season total: 750.5nm.

PS.  We found out that Bodyguard had caught no fish at all, so we won our very first fishing competition with a score of 1:0.  Now we need to find out what the prize is!