Gaspe, Quebec

Friday, August 15, 2008

048-49.680 N
064-28.680 W

Bonjour from Gaspe, Quebec!

I think that I've done a good job of throwing the authorities off of our track. If they've been reading my logs, they think that we're in Riviere Renard, as that's where I said that we would be in yesterday's log. But they didn't know that Sue would wake up and ask if we could make it all of the way to Gaspe. I looked at the charts and decided that we could make the 75 mile jump, so at 7 AM we headed out of the marina towards Gaspe. It was a long day, but we made it here just fine.

Yesterday contained a lot of events. First of, it was CLEAR! It wasn't completely clear, but for the majority of the day the sky primarily contained blue. We haven't had a day like that since we were in NY, which was 3 weeks ago. It was wonderful!!! We also passed our furthest point north, which was 48 degrees 15 minutes. And finally, we left the St. Lawrence River and entered the St. Lawrence Bay. We've lost the huge tides, which are now much more normal at about 5 feet.

As I said multiple times yesterday, it's amazing what a sunny day can do to improve your spirit. Add to that beautiful scenery and you get one of those days when you feel really happy to be alive. It was the type of day where Sue would say that she didn't want to go below for fear that she'd miss something cool. It was a day full of Minke whales, seals and dolphins. The 1000' Appalachian mountains gave way to smaller mountains and then to foot hills and then to the toes which finally disappeared under the water at the tip of the Gaspe peninsula

Whoever sculpted the northern side of the Appalachian mountains was much kinder to the southern side. As you run along the NE side of the Gaspe peninsula you have high steep peaks and as you approach the tip, it becomes even more dramatic with sheer rock walls descending straight into the ocean. When you round the point, you are presented with gradually sloping hills that flatten even more as you move down the bay.

The city of Gaspe as situated at the end of the bay, which is about 17 miles from the point. There's lots to see and do around here which would be difficult to do via boat, so we're going to rent a car today and explore the area. I hope to get a lot of good photos and images to share. Speaking of images, I've finally completed the photo album and video which covers the area from Quebec City to Gaspe. Personally I think that the photos are better as it's much easier to shoot and post-process still images and make them look interesting than it is to shoot video of cloudy subjects from a bouncing boat and turn that into something viewable.

Have a great day! It's sunny, so I think that we will.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 1265