Monday, July 28th – Little Cuiller Bay , first night at anchor this season.

We left McCallum headed for our first long fiord – North Bay off Bay d’Espoir, 47 51.72N 056 09.99W.  The locals pronounce Bay d’ Espoir “Bay Despair” which is ironic since the original French name means “Bay of Hope”.  And it’s beautiful sailing area – no despair needed!

The winds were very light initially, but for once we didn’t have far to go, so we simply sailed slowly – 2-3 knots.  Fiords funnel the winds so if you’re sailing up or down them you either have a dead run or it’s bang on the nose.  We had a very sedate run up the fiord, and winds gradually built up for the beat back.  We had up to 18 knots, on the nose, but with flat seas it was a very pleasant sail.  And the fiord was beautiful, but actually not as spectacular as we had been expecting.    We think that the Saguenay River spoiled us last year.

We looked into our chosen anchorage – Long Reach, 47 44.71N 056 05.18W, but the winds were funneling right into this cove, which is not what you want for an anchorage.  We found another, more sheltered, spot across the bay – Little Cuiller Bay, 47 43.06N 056 09.77W, where we dropped the hook.  

It was beautiful, and so far peaceful and quite. 

During the days sail, we noticed the water temperature had risen dramatically from 15C (61F) a couple of days ago to 20C (68F), so Ron took the first (non wetsuit) dip of the season. 

It was a beautiful, clear, starry and fresh night, so we left all the hatches open and went to sleep looking up at the stars though the forward windows.  At 6am we got up to close the hatches and wipe up the puddles that the showers had brought.  Hmmm, we must be getting a little too good at sleeping. 

Ships Log: 4058.3, Todays Log: 27.2, Seasons Total: 470.3