Chandler and Percé, Quebec

Sunday, August 17, 2008

048-49.680 N
064-28.500 W

Bonjour from the Chandler, Quebec!

I'm happy to say that this should be the last report starting with "bonjour" as tomorrow we'll be headed to New Brunswick, which is English speaking. I must admit that I've never thought of Canada as a foreign country, but after spending the last several weeks in French speaking Quebec, there have been times when it sure felt like we were in Europe. This is not to say that the language issue has been a problem, but it's been a struggle at points. Almost everywhere that we've been we've found people who speak some English, so between our extremely limited French and their limited English, we've been able to communicate. It amazes me that Quebec clings so strongly to the French language when the rest of the country speaks English.

Anyhow, as I said in my last report we rented a car so that we could explore the coastline of Gaspe and visit Percé. The guide books all talk about how beautiful this section of of the Gaspe peninsula is and I would have to agree. It's spectacular with high red rock cliffs and sweeping views of the bays. Percé is about an hour S of Gaspe by car (well, with me driving and stopping all of the time to take pictures, it was a lot longer...) and it's primary claim to fame is Roucher Rock, which is a huge red chunk of land that is now detached from the mainland. It stands several hundred feet high and has a huge hole worn through it at the waterline. It's really quite stunning. According to the guide books, you can walk out to the rock at low tide and explore it. It appears that they no longer allow self guided tours, so we paid our $7 to the park service to take us out there. Well, all that we did was to walk along the beach to a point across from the rock and then the guide gave a presentation in French only, which surprised us as he spoke English and there were multiple English speaking groups. After all, this is the national park service.

After that we wanted to go out to Bonaventure Island, which is a large island a couple of miles off of the coast with a large Gannebird colonies. However, it was getting close to lunchtime, so we decided to continue driving down the coast line looking for a place to have lunch and checking out marinas for our next stop. That part of the plan worked well, but as we ate lunch we watched a huge thunderhead form and turn into an area soaking hours-long downpour. So much for the Gannet colonies.

If you remember my rantings about the consistent NE wind and the lack of the normal SW winds, I said that just when we turned S, that the SW winds were going to return. I couldn't have called it more precisely as our next legs are heading SW and the forecast was a high winds warning with winds out of the SW at 20-25 kts. The forecast called for light winds in the morning and it picking up at around noon. As a result we left at about 5:15 AM for Chandler, which was about 52 miles away. For once their forecast was spot on, as at noon the winds started picking up and we were happily tucked away by 1 PM.

Tomorrow we'll have one of our more challenging passages as we need to make an 82 mile hop with no place to stop in between. We'll cross Chaluer Bay and end up at Portage Island in Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick. To do this we'll leave at about 04:30 and we should be to the anchorage before it gets dark. Let's hope that the forecasts are correct and we'll be able to sail.

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

We pulled into Chandler marina after looking at the other possible alternatives which basically involved tieing up to fixed walls or fish boats. Chandler has limited space (maybe 4 slips), so make a reservation. We had one, but ended up on the fuel dock. You don't want to be side-tied at the end of the main dock in SW winds as it has limited protection. Dockage is $1/ft. Sue says the showers need cleaning and repairs. The staff is very nice.

Log ID: 1267