Tadoussac, Quebec

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

048-8.340 N
069-42.960 W

Bonjour from Tadoussac, Quebec!

Tadoussac is a small town located at the mouth of the Saguenay river/fjord and is a major destination for those wanting to go whale watching. At the confluence of the Seguenay and St. Lawrence rivers the depth plunges to approximately 1000 feet and the water is very cold (45-50 degrees). Due to this and an abundance of plankton, this is the summer feeding area for many species of whales. There are easily a dozen types of whales that are regularly seen around here and there are also probably a dozen tour companies that ferry people out to see the whales. It's big business.

The guidebook said that we needed to leave La Malbaie 4 hours after low tide at Pointe-au-Pere, but I decided to give us an extra hour just in case we ran into strong head winds. The forecast was for 10-15 out of the NE and instead we had 20-25 kts out of the NE. Now how can they get this so wrong? Due to the NE winds and the water temperature, it's cold in the cockpit. When you're standing in 30 kts (35 mph) of apparent wind that's in the low 50s, it's COLD. I was well bundled up, but still got chilled. Sue had a much more pleasant seat in the sun and out of the wind. One thing that I found amazing/interesting, is that there were times when it was blowing over 25 kts, and the water surface was relatively flat, despite having a current of up to 4 kts going against it. Normally that would have generated nasty waves. I certainly can't explain it. Despite the strong winds, we made it to Tadoussac in 4 hours so we had an hour to look for whales. We saw quite a few, but none very close.

Tadoussac is clearly a tourist town, with tons of shops and restaurants. We took a nice walk and explored some quaint sections of the town. The marina is very tightly packed with little spacing between the docks. They have to spin the boat around using your bow line in order to get you onto the dock. But it's the only game in town, so you make it work.

This morning I came to the realization that we're going to have to cut Newfoundland from the itinerary. Right now we have to travel 30 miles each and every day in order to make it home by mid-October. There's no provision for lay days due to weather, equipment failure, or just needing a day off. Moving 30 miles a day on a sailboat takes 5-6 hours, and that's just too much. This was a hard decision, as I really wanted to get to Newfoundland, but I think that it's the right decision as it shaves 350-400 miles and 2 weeks off of the trip.

Instead of heading to Newfoundland, I think that we'll head into the Saguenay fjord, which is located right here. That'll be a 2-3 day trip and I'll get to see some similar terrain.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 1254