Category Archives: 2010 – Down East Cruise

Ananda’s Down East Cruise in 2010

Tuesday, August 3

We left the Portneuf Marina about 10:30 in the morning. It was another beautiful day with the river reasonably calm and light winds. We would prefer to have a bit of wind to help our sails but that is not to be and we are content with fine weather to motor in. Destination: Quebec City!
We arrived around 3:30pm and it was exciting to see the skyline which is dominated by the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, which is a huge structure on one of the city’s highest points and looks very much like a huge castle. Blog readers, if you have never been to Quebec City (“Quebec”) then is has to be an absolute must on your bucket list. Quebec celebrated its 400th anniversary last year. It is truly one of the most interesting cities on the continent.
Quebec has several marinas for pleasure craft but we elect to splurge a bit and stay in the City’s marina which is just on the edge of downtown and only a 15 minute walk from the oldest parts of the city. The St. Lawrence River in Quebec is influenced by Atlantic Ocean tides. Without extensive dredging the marina basin would dry out at low tide. Many years ago when this basin was important for commercial traffic the City solved this problem by installing a single lock at the entrance. This lock assures that the water level in the basin is constant. Many pleasure craft go through this lock each day so the staff operating it have the procedures down to a tee.
After passing through the lock we are assigned a slip and we tie up for the night. Time to go exploring! Just as we are getting ready to leave the boat it begins to rain.
We break out the umbrellas determined to see some sights—regardless of the weather. As it turned out the rain was light and intermittent so it did not bother us that much. We also discovered to our pleasure that the rain on the streets gave the lighting in the old city a wonderful aesthetic appearance.
The oldest part of the city is very well preserved and walking through it is like being in an old European city. We spent an hour wandering through the city admiring the sites and then stopped in a great restaurant for coffee and decadent desserts.

 

     

 

 

On our way back to the marina we came across an incredible “show” being projected on the massive grain elevators in the commercial port. This show was absolutely unbelievable! A series of videos and special effects were designed to be projected on the concrete elevator walls and to incorporate the design of each structure in to the theme and story being told. The storyline was basically a video history of the province of Quebec and life for its citizens. Hundreds of people were gathered on the shore to watch the spectacle. We arrived in about the middle of the show and watched until it ended—almost an hour later. In the morning we learned that this is the only production of its kind in the world. Wow! Our timing could not have been better.
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Monday, August 2

We left the Longuiel Marina (across the river from Montreal) at 6:30am. The sun was rising beautifully and the weather forecast for the day was great. Once we were in the main channel we started to pick up speed, hitching a “free ride” on the St. Lawrence River’s downstream current. Our normal motoring speed (with no sails up) is about 7.5 – 8.0 knots. With the current’s help we were easily hitting 9.5-10.5 knots, sometimes as much as 12 knots. 
The current is also quite turbulent in this part of the river so we are not able to use the autopilot because it spends too much time trying to correct our course heading. With the current constantly pushing us off course, the autopilot tries to compensate and the steering becomes an ever-deteriorating cycle of turns to port and starboard—at this point Ananda begins to look like a drunk staggering down the street, so we turn it off and steer by hand.
We traveled for about 1 hour past the shipping port of Montreal which is on our port (left) side. All kinds of cargo and container ships are tied up on the docks and we also encounter several freighters approaching the city to offload their cargo or to pick one up. Its pretty amazing the amount of North American and ocean freight that goes through this port. Seeing this gives us a deeper appreciation of how important the river is to the economy in all of the cities and towns in Canada and the USA that are ports on the river.
We are making really great time and at the rate we are moving we could easily get to Quebec City (about 130 miles downstream) in 1 day. Problem is about ¾ of the way we would begin to encounter a strong incoming tide which would slow our progress considerably. We would arrive in Quebec City about midnight and none of us were interested in that. As a result we decided to stop short of Quebec City and seek a safe anchorage or marina. Our preference is to find an anchorage because that is free, but we will go in to a marina if we cannot find a suitable place to anchor for the night. We check out a couple of potential anchorages around Trois-Rivieres but are not confident with what we see—the (side) channels are too shallow and narrow and do not provide enough shelter from the wind if a storm blows in.
We continue on to a small community called Portneuf, Quebec on the north shore of the river and arrive there about 3:30 in the afternoon. Portneuf has a very nice marina which is well surrounded by a massive breakwater constructed out of blasted rock. The entrance to the marina is marked by a statue of a mermaid holding a white light (compliments to Statue of Liberty) and a she has a leaping dolphin beside her.
Portneuf is a pretty little town but we decide not to walk in because it is about a mile away from the marina and we have boat chores to do before supper. This marina also marks our first overnight encounter with tides and salt water. The tides rise and fall about 7 feet in Portneuf. As a result, all of the docks in the marina are floating and have pretty substantial rigging and apparatus to hold the docks to the shore and to rise and fall smoothly with the tide.

 

 

Sunday, August 1

We debated leaving for Quebec City today but decided against it. Chris and Joan had a long drive from London the day before and the excitement they encountered along the way had worn them down a bit, so we decided to spend another day in the Montreal area and do a bit of sight-seeing. After all, it is not likely that Ananda will be back this way for a few years—if ever!
We took Ananda out of the marina and headed across the river towards Montreal. The river at this point is about 2-3 miles wide, with lots of turbulence in the water, strong current and boating traffic of all shapes and sizes. Headed upstream in the strongest part of the current our best speed was only about 2.8 knots. I’d hate to have to do a few hundred miles of climbing upstream like that!
The site of Expo 67 is on a small island just upstream from our marina and the old city of Montreal is across from this island. The Expo 67 site is now a large park and amusement area for the city and region. It is called La Ronde and it has lots of rides and other family-oriented things to do. La Ronde was one of Emily’s favorite things about Montreal when she was in Quebec on a French language exchange trip a couple of summers ago. We motored over towards the old city and once we were behind the breakwater the current disappeared. Boaters can come right up to docks at the waterfront for the old city. This is also an area where cruise ships and freighters tie up.
After touring around the waterfront (from the water) we headed back to our marina and prepared to make plans for our departure the next morning. We decided to go to a nearby grocery store and pick up a few more provisions. Chris and Joan were still feeling the effects of their Longuiel driving ordeal so we were all determined to pay very close attention to the local roads and our route. Well, we found our way to the shopping plaza with no difficulty at all—but wouldn’t you know it—we sure got lost on the way back—and we were only about 10 minutes away from the marina! This area has a series of one-way streets, dead end streets, and interchanges leading to the bridge across the river to Montreal and to the freeway along the river.
In all of this there was not one direction sign to the area we were trying to get to. I tried to get my BlackBerry AT&T Navigator to help us out but the silly thing was not able to lock on to enough GPS satellites to provide directions—and yes, Catherine, I know what you are thinking at this moment—you’re right again my dear!After almost an hour of driving around in circles, supplemented by bad (but well-intentioned) advice from several locals, we finally stopped and asked another driver for directions. Thankfully this person knew where the marina was and was also kind enough to agree to lead us to it. Chris offered a “reward” of “biere froide” (cold beer) once we reached our destination but the good Samaritan was content with our enthusiastic “merci beaucoup, monsieur!”. After two events of not being able to find our way to a destination that was less than a 10 minute drive, we were beginning to wonder if we could make it to Halifax! Have no fear, Tiki Navigator is here and we have lots of marine charts too!

 

Saturday, July 31

I was still in the Longuiel Marina and today was the day that Chris & Joan Cavanaugh were arriving from London to sail to Halifax with me. This is normally about a 7-8 hour drive by car. When they arrived they had some exciting stories to tell about their trip. They were on the Highway 401 close to Brockville, Ontario when a car passed them at over 120 km/hr, started weaving across both lanes and then veered off the shoulder of the road and down in to a deep ditch. The driver probably fell asleep with the cruise control on. The crash was gruesomely spectacular as the car rolled over sideways and end over end a few times before it finally came to a stop.

Fortunately the car did not hit anyone else on its way in to the ditch. Chris and Joan stopped immediately and Chris called e-911 while Joan and another motorist ran over to the car to try to help the occupants. Joan is an RN so she knew what to expect and that she could do something to help. It turned out that there was only one person in the car. Fortunately it landed upright, he was still in his seatbelt and there was no apparent danger of a fire. Within a few minutes the driver regained consciousness. Joan said he looked pretty beat up but not in major distress or bleeding excessively so she decided it was best not to move him and stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. That would be enough stress and excitement for anyone for one day—but the day was not over yet for Chris & Joan!

When they got to Longuiel and were only about 10 minutes away from the marina they encountered a series of freeway interchanges, one way and dead end streets. They could see where they wanted to go but they could not find the right road to take them there. They stopped several times for directions but most people either did not know how to get to the marina or the directions they gave were inaccurate.

As it turns out, the street they wanted does not have any signs pointing to it and you have to go on an off a couple of interchanges to get to the road. Anyway, they finally made it—tired and frustrated by their “ordeal” but very happy to have arrived. Two beers each later and all was forgotten and we were busy planning our next three weeks together.

Friday, July 30

We rose at 6:00am and Tony and Fred finished packing their belongings for the trip home. They were going to take a train from Montreal back to Cornwall, pick up Tony’s car and then head back to London. We arranged for a taxi to pick them up at the marina and then said our goodbyes. Thanks Tony & Fred for all your help. We had a very busy few days filled with lots of adventure and memories.
After Tony and Fred left, I spent some time straightening up the cabins and began the process of getting ready for my next set of victims, I mean crew J.  I was also looking forward to a day on the dock in Montreal—soaking up the amazing view across the river of a city that I have visited many times as a land lubber but never as a sailor.