Category Archives: 2010 – Down East Cruise

Ananda’s Down East Cruise in 2010

Friday, August 13

It’s Friday the 13th and Ananda’s crew is content to stay in the marina in Shediac–especially with all of those lobster pots waiting out there for us! Best not to leave the dock on such an infamous day/date. Besides, we had a long day’s passage from Chandler, Quebec the day before so it was nice to just chill out and enjoy the rest. I contacted a few friends in Moncton and arranged for them to drop by the marina for a visit later on in the day.

Joan had been working pretty hard in the galley these past few weeks so we thought we would give her the morning off and take her out to breakfast. We walked down the pier to one of the local restaurants but the proprietor told us that they only served breakfasts on Saturdays and Sundays. We asked if there was another place close by and he told us there was one just around the corner at the lights, past the Irving station. So, we set out for a pre-breakfast walk. About 2 miles later (whew!) we finally arrived at our destination. The fellow we got directions from did not realize we were on foot and his “just around the corner” turned out to be a few miles—before the corner. Oh well, we needed the exercise anyway and it sharpened our appetites. 
After a great breakfast we figured that if we had come this far we might as well get some groceries to replenish the galley. I asked our server in the restaurant if there was a grocery store nearby. She quickly replied “yes, there’s one just up the road a bit”. I thought wait a minute, I should tell her that we are on foot. As soon as she heard we were on foot, up the road a bit turned out to be a 50 minute walk—that took us even further away from the marina. She kindly called a taxi for us and we were grateful that she did. 
Our taxi driver turned out to be a local fellow who moved to Toronto as a young man and then spent 58 years working there before he retired and moved “back home to Shediac”. He said that he drove taxi part time to get out of the house more often and keep busy. When we arrived at our (grocery store) destination we expected the fare to be about $15.00. When I asked the driver what I owed him, he said “$5.00 will be fine”. We all smiled and Chris immediately said “this sure ain’t Toronto!” (where it cost about $5.00 just to get inside a taxi) and we all had a great laugh—our taxi driver included. 
After we got back to the marina I found a comfortable spot in the Yacht Club clubhouse to set up my computer and work on my blog. Fueled by multiple cups of great free coffee, I managed to get all caught up on the blog. I also managed to connect up with Kathryn Barnes, Ron and Judy LeBlanc and with Mike McWilliams from Moncton. 
Kathryn is a long-serving member of Moncton City Council and I got to know her quite well when I was working on the public-private-partnership (“P3”) project for the City of Moncton Water Treatment Plant. Ron was the City’s Capital Project Manager and the Moncton WTP was his project. Mike McWilliams was our company’s solicitor for the P3 contract. I spent about 4 years working closely with the City staff and politicians on this important P3 project and during that time I got to know the city and several of its people quite well.
Unfortunately, I have not had many opportunities to get back to Moncton over the past years but I still have many fond memories of my times there and was very glad to get a chance to see Katherine and to meet her friend Claire, to see Ron and Judy and to catch up with Mike on the phone. 
Chris declared that he would be “chef du jour” and that he was making a chicken curry stir fry for our dinner. That was fine with Joan and I. Joan deserves a break from all of her hard work in the galley looking after the rest of the crew—and, don’t tell them, but my “plan” is working great.
When Chris and Joan first joined me in Longuiel, Quebec I proudly showed them the stockpile of Spam and Minute Rice that I had assembled and declared that we would eat like kings and queens on this journey! Their lack of enthusiasm for my culinary skills was politely evident. Next, a few days later I declared that I would make the breakfast for the crew and boasted about how great my poached eggs were. Well, the poached eggs ended up looking like a pair of yellow eyeballs on toast with some white slurry on the side. They politely ate their breakfast and I have not had access to the galley ever since! Joan suggested that I stick to navigation and engine care and that she and Chris would look after the galley. It works every time!

Thursday, August 12

 We got up at 4:00am and left Chandler at 4:30, headed for Shediac, New Brunswick. Au revoir, Quebec & hello New Brunswick! After being out on the water for about 45 minutes we were greeted by another beautiful sunrise—how lucky are we! Once we were underway, Chris went back to bed to catch a few more zzzzz’s and Joan and I stayed up and keeping an eye on our course.
We could see the sun rising and Percé rock off in the distance behind us. Our objective today was to take a straight line from Chandler, across the Baie de Chaleur and then “hang a slight right” when we got to the middle of the track leading down the Northumberland Straight.
This route would take us out on to the ocean for a bit & we could not have had a better day for it—light winds, a gentle swell behind us and no worries at all about shoals or reefs. Chris got up about 8:00am and we set up the main sail to help us along a bit and to help take a bit of the rolling motion out of the boat. After that it was my turn to grab a few zzzzz’s. The sun was shining & it was warming up nicely so I assumed my favorite watch post on the bow and had a great snooze for about two hours.
When I awoke it was interesting to see that there was no land in sight anywhere. For as far as we could see there was only blue water and some clouds over the land way off beyond the horizon. We continued in this manner for another 6-7 hours. It was amazing that during that whole time we did not see one other boat or even an airplane in the sky. It was like we had our own private ocean, with a few seagulls and a couple of small whales or porpoises thrown in for good measure.
We had many hours yet to go as this was an 18 hour passage and I thought about working on the blog or taking on a small boat job or two, but the day was so fabulous that the little bit of inspiration that we had faded quickly and we sat there for hours marveling at where we were. We had the wind at our stern, so when we were on the deck it was perfectly still. Great cigar smoking weather, so we broke  out a couple of beautiful “La Aroma de Cuba” cigars compliments of Brent Temmer—thanks buddy, they were awesome—the only thing that could make them any better would be if you were here too, to help us enjoy!
We finally sighted land about 4:00pm. Our first sighting was a wind farm on Prince Edward Island (PEI), which was off our port bow. It was an interesting perspective because the first thing you can see are the windmill blades but no land underneath them. Gradually more and more detail appears and we start to see the land underneath. We now made a course adjustment to take us south into the Northumberland Strait and towards our destination.
The wind began to build and the swells got larger but it did not make our ride at all uncomfortable, we just had more of a sensation of sailing and of being on the ocean with the large gentle swells. Each swell was 2-3 times as wide as Ananda is long and when we were in the “bottom” between two swells, we could see that the wave that had just passed under us was at least 2 meters high. We were continually rideing a gentle up and down motion which was very rythymic and peaceful.
As we got further in to the Northumberland Strait we began to see New Brunswick on our starboard side—now we had land on both sides of us. About 7:00pm the sun was showing strong signs that it was headed to the horizon over New Brunswick and it was a fabulous view. However, little did we know, but we would soon be paying a high price for our leisurely day and the approaching sunset! We had about an hour’s light left when we saw our first lobster pot floats on the water—how quaint! Fifteen minutes later we were in a “field” of hundreds of lobster pots and we had to start paying very close attention to them because if we ran over one there was a strong chance that we could get the float rope wrapped around our propeller—and that would pretty much be the end of our trip for the day—or perhaps even longer!
The traps were far enough apart that we could easily maneuver away from them as we saw each one but once the sun set it was going to be an entirely different story!  Chris moved to the outside steering station while Joan and I gathered up some spotlights to help us when the sun finally disappeared. I stood on the bow and pointed out approaching markers buoys—three sets of eyes are better than one in a situation like this. As soon as the sun went down it got very difficult to spot the buoys and we still had 2½ hours to go to our destination. This was not going to be any fun at all. Thank goodness that water was very calm and there was only a bit of wind or it could have been very messy indeed.
I set up a routine where every minute or so I would wave the spotlight in our path forward and look for any reflection from a lobster pot marker buoy. When I spotted one in our path I would shine the light directly on the buoy so Chris and Joan could see it clearly and then call out “port” or “starboard”, for Chris to adjust our course to go around the approaching buoy. This worked pretty good except for a couple of times when a buoy suddenly appeared out of nowhere and I would frantically point to starboard and yell “port” to Chris. Needless to say, it was more confusing to him than helpful, but we got lucky and managed to avoid getting tangled.
After 2½ hours of this “fun” we were finally approaching the marina and now we had a new challenge. The Shediac area is very built up along the shoreline and our view ahead was simply a mass of lights. It looked very pretty but it also made navigation to shore extremely difficult. We contacted the marina on our radio and asked for instructions and the marina manager gave us a few tips how to navigate our way in. Following the marker lights, his landmark tips, and with the help of our TIKI navigation system we managed to get to the marina entrance. The light around us was still very confusing but the marina manager was kind enough to hop in his little outboard motor boat, come out in to the last bit of the channel and lead us to our slip. Now that’s maritime hospitality at it’s best! 
We finally tied up on our dock at 11:00pm local time (we are now in the Atlantic time zone). As soon as Ananda was secure on the dock we had high fives all around, breathed a huge collective sigh of relief and said “time for a drink!”. As I was registering our boat for the stay in the marina the manager told me that we were lucky—lobster season has just started and the pots just went in the water last Monday!

Wednesday, August 11

We left Riviere au Renard about 6:30am—destination today: the actual peninsula at Gaspe and Percé rock. Once we reached the rock we would alter our course and head on to Chandler, Quebec which was about another 2 hours beyond. 
This part of the Gaspe Peninsula is very dramatic, with cliffs rising steeply from the water to the land hundreds of feet above. Percé rock is massive. It stands on its own out at the end of the peninsula and it has no trees on it. 
It got its name from the predominate hole at the base of the rock (“percé” translated from French means “pierced”). This hole is huge, larger enough to take a small boat through it at high tide but there was no way we would try to take Ananda through it!
We all took turns banging off lots of photos of the rock (ya gotta love digital cameras) and took our time passing it so we could enjoy the view for as long as possible. I was very grateful for having been able to come so far (from Goderich) without a lot of stress—and of course there is still lots more to come.
My TIKI navigation system had a lot to do with this safe arrival so, in a moment of inspiration, I took a shot of Percé Rock with my iPhone and emailed it along with a short note to Fred Jenssen, the creator of TIKI Navigation, in Norway. Thanks Fred, TIKI is awesome and I have been singing its praises to other sailors all along the way. FYI – Fred is awesome too! 
When I was first shopping for navigation software, many of my contacts in the Nauticat Owner’s Association strongly recommended TIKI. I contacted Fred by email and asked him lots of questions about it. He very patiently answered every question and I downloaded the software. 
When I was installing it on my new computer it had some difficulty finding the GPS antenna because of some compatibility issues between Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems. I emailed Fred about this and he quickly replied back with a solution to my problem. However, I missed one important step so I had to apply certain settings every time I started up the computer. 
I emailed Fred about this and he said he would help me—and help me he did! At 10:00am on Boxing Day morning (December 26th) Catherine and I were sitting in our pajamas in the kitchen having a quiet coffee together. The phone rang, Catherine answered it and then passed me the phone, saying “its for you”. I was greeted by a voice saying, “hello Wally, this is Fred from TIKI calling from Norway, have you solved your problem and what can I do to help you?”. Now how’s that for customer service! I was blown away. Fred talked me through my problem and we exchanged season’s greetings. I think you can all understand now why I am such a big fan of TIKI Navigation and Fred Jenssen.
Anyway, back to our journey. Our passage to Percé was a bit rough, the winds were on our stern and we were getting bounced around a bit. We could see Perce for over an hour as we approached it. After we rounded the rock it disappeared from sight in about 15 minutes!
It took a minute to figure out that our perspective had changed with our course and the rock was now “behind” the end of the peninsula. We would have liked to have stayed longer at the rock but we still had a lot of miles to go, so on to Chandler we went.
We chose Chandler because this marina has a fuel dock and we were approaching the ½ full mark on our tank—with a long distance to cover the next day and no gas stations along the way.
Chandler is a very nice community with a great little marina. We were warmly greeted by staff who helped us tie up to our dock and show us around the marina. Annie, one of the staff members spoke excellent English and Spanish too. I told her that I had a couple of Spanish speakers aboard (Chris & Joan) and that she should pop by the boat to say “hola” to them.
We were just settling in for our afternoon libation and Annie appeared. She joined us for a bit, gammed with Chris and Joan in Spanish, and then told us more about the community of Chandler and about herself. We really enjoy meeting the local people when we are in a port. You learn so much more about where you are and what the community is really all about.
The entrance to Chandler harbour has a small reef just in front of it. Over the years this reef has claimed a few unfortunate victims and the marina has an interpretive display about the notable shipwrecks. The display’s prominent feature is the masthead from a shipwreck in the 1980’s. Thankfully no one died in that shipwreck.
 

Tuesday, August 10

We got up at 5:00am, made coffee and prepared for another early departure. The weather forecast was great and we were looking at another beautiful sunrise. Destination today: Riviere au Renard, which is about 90 miles away and very close to Gaspe point. 
Joan spotted more whales about 7:30am. They were too far away to see their bodies coming out of the water but we could see their blows very clearly. Awesome! 
We arrived in Rivere au Renard about 3:30pm. This community is the largest commercial fishing village in the Gaspe region. The pleasure craft marina is small but very well equipped and there is an interpretive centre incorporated in to the marina office and facilities. 
We were also in for a treat because tonight there was to be live music on the front deck—bring your own libations—this is Quebec! (in other words, moderate and inconspicuous consumption of your own alcohol is acceptable—ya gotta love the Quebecois culture!). 
With this knowledge at hand hurried to get our showers, laundry and a light supper finished so we could go and enjoy the music. A small crowd had gathered and we were treated to a woman playing the fiddle and singing and accompanied by a fellow playing the guitar and mandolin and another fellow playing traditional drums. 
What a show! Chris and I were so inspired by one jig ‘n reel that we got up and danced with each other—much to Joan’s embarrassment and to the amusement of the locals!

Monday, August 9

We were up at 5:00am and the weather forecast for the day was very promising. Light winds and sunshine all along the south shore of the river. We left the marina before breakfast and set our course for Matane, which was about 40 miles downriver. This would not be our final destination for the day but we wanted to stop there and get more diesel fuel.
The cruising guidebooks we are referencing make note of the fact that the further down the river you go, the fewer ports there are which sell diesel fuel to pleasure craft. Many of the ports are focused on the fishing industry and they have no fuel docks. When a fisherman needs fuel he calls the local supplier and buys it by the truckload! Even if Ananda’s fuel tanks were bone dry we would not have capacity for more than about 300 gallons and a fuel truck carries about 2000 gallons!
Joan spotted the first whales about 7:30am. I was talking on the phone to Emily and Catherine at the time. We got a fantastic view of the whale’s tail fin breaking out of the water, along with several small water spouts from its blowhole. Unfortunately it all happened so fast that we were unable to get any photos of it. About an hour later Joan spotted a couple of seals with their heads out of the water and looking at right at us. This was all very exciting and I remained alert throughout the day in anticipation of seeing more marine life.
We maintained a course about 1 – 2 miles off the south shore of the river. This allowed us to enjoy the view of the land and the river. This part of Quebec is very picturesque with many small towns and villages along the way—each one built up along a road that followed the shoreline that is backdropped by continuous mountains and hillsides. We reached Cap Chat about 5:00pm. This community is well known on the St. Lawrence River for its dramatic shoreline, a beautiful lighthouse and a very large wind farm. We were now closing in on our destination—Sainte Anne des Monts, which was about 10 miles downriver from Cap Chat.
We arrived at Sainte Anne des Monts about 7:30pm. By the time we had our dock lines set and our stay for the night all organized the sun was beginning to set and the sky was ablaze with colour. We ran up to the shoreline and above the breakwater so we could see the sunset. Sainte Anne des Monts is a very pretty little community. The marina has a maritime interpretive center and there is also an excursion boat that will take tourists out to the site where the Empress of Ireland sunk. The property surrounding the marina office and interpretive center has a maritime themed playground for small children, picnic area and numerous driftwood sculptures that are very cleverly done.