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![]() The big fiddle at Sydney Harbour. We are in the Sydney Harbour, officially getting ready for the crossing. We had our first casualty during the rough patch last week and are in the process of trying to replace our winch handle (for you lubbers, as Adam and Captain Aubrey would say, that is the handle that helps to turn the device that makes it easier to raise and set the sails). And we have various odds and ends to work out before we can leave. Sydney is not as bustling as we would have hoped and we are having trouble finding the items that we are looking for. Adam hasn’t been able to find any good pizza but he is managing not to let it get him too down. It looks like we will be leaving on Thursday or Friday if the weather is good . . . and the pizza continues to be bad.
![]() Us infront of a very interesting Cannon! _ The Magdalen Islands are really lovely and we are very impressed. Adam is especially thrilled to watch the fishing captains as they parallel park their big boats at top speeds in the fishing harbours. We landed at Cap Aux Meules and spend two nights there. We didn’t see much of the surrounding area because we were trying to get organized but we did see a lot of the town; we walked the same strip about 5 or 6 times trying to get our bearings. Daniel arrived on the 26th sans luggage but we were able to celebrate Adam’s birthday that night and Air Canada came through in the end and we got the luggage the next day. The water is crazy with jellyfish – they are literally everywhere. On the 27th we headed to Havre Aubert and the Dune Sandy Hook anchorage. It is a second island but is connected to Cap Aux Meules by two large sandbars, which have roads along them. Adam rowed us ashore and we explored the area; much to his delight we came across a collection of trebuchets that someone appears to be building on the island (I’ve posted a few pictures on the photo page for the Earl Haig students). Daniel and I explored the famed sandy dunes which were, as promised, very sandy and Adam managed to get our dinghy, the Tasha Yar, sailing. Tomorrow we head out for Cape Breton and hope to reach Sydney harbor in a day or two if the winds are light. We wanted to say thank you for all of the emails that we have been getting. And although we haven't not been great at responding we appreciate the updates and words of encouragement and we wanted to assure you that we got the message - you want to see more pictures of us doing interesting things and fewer marine animals and blurry landscape shots. We’ll try our best! ![]() Zenobia the laundry scow. _ For those of you who aren’t signed up for the mass email list – we hit some bad weather, well not really weather as much as really strong winds and very steep waves, which amounted to a really rought We spent about 36 hours awake and being rocked around during our passage from mainland Quebec to the Magdalen Islands. I was sea sick for about 34 of the 36 hours and Adam was pretty ill as well; we shared a bucket as we lay on the floor of the cabin unable to sail in the direction that we wanted to go and the motored not enough to get over the waves. We bounced around between an island and the freighter channel very nervous but too sick to do much of anything. Many of the items that we thought had been “stowed”, and many of the items that we weren’t able to get to before the wind came up were all around us. Adam mentioned afterward that he was glad that he purchased the pelican case for the computer because he found himself stepping on it more than once throughout the ordeal. Adam was great and in between rescuing an escaping sail from the sea and passing out beside be on the floor, he tried his best to get us going . . . anywhere. In the end we made it to the Magdalen Islands on the evening of the 25th, much to our surprise and relief. We slept for 12 hours and spent the next several days doing laundry and generally trying to get things back to normal. Adam went up the mast to survey some of the damage but only found a couple of issues. We are currently working on a list of things to do before the big passage and have definitely decided that we have to go to Sydney NS, in order to get some supplies that we can’t find here. ![]() the water is constantly glassy The *#$&@* wind is working against us. We sailed overnight from Rimouski and barely made any progress as we spent the night bobbing around on the waves – the wind was nowhere to be found. We had two hour shifts but it was difficult to get any sleep as the sails flapped and the boom smashed around as the waves pushed us back and forth. We wouldn’t have made any progress except that a slight current was in our favour and we were able to slide sideways through the water. We wind came back around 6 am and we made great time until it died again around 1 pm. We bounced and bobbed around for a few hours and decided that it didn’t make sense to spend another night in the same way. We looked at the guide book and decided to head for Mont-Louis to anchor for the night. It is a small village in a valley between a series of mountains. As we got closer huge gusts of wind came as us from different directions as they swept over the mountains and through the valley. Adam thought he saw a 22 on the windex and the mast started vibrating from the force of the wind. Unfortunately when we left this morning the wind was howling in Mont-Louis and nowhere else. We have been desperately trying to maintain a mere 2 knots and although the forecast as been calling for south west winds 15 to 20 knots we don’t seem to be getting any where. ![]() We have been mostly traveling east, I say mostly because the wind has not been cooperating as much as we might like and we’ve been bouncing around quite a bit especially at night when the wind dies out. The days are still cool but the sun has been shinning so the ice has melted from Adam’s beard – okay there was no ice but he was wearing his touque. Did we mention that it has been really cold? Although the sun has been out there is a misty haze covering the coastline and our pictures have not been able to capture the green mountain sides very well. We catch cool breezes throughout the day coming down the mountains and bringing the smell of spruce trees. Some of the mountain side is surprisingly steep and dotted with a few houses and cabins. And there are windmills are far as the eye can see! We are hugging the south shore and we can no longer see the north. Even the freighter channel seems far away. We have daily whale sightings and some sort of small dolphin that is abundant in the area. We have no idea what they are but they aren’t as friendly as their larger cousins and tend to stay a safe distance from us. A man in Rimouski told us that knocking on the boat can attach whales because they are interested by the sound – a hoax? We aren’t sure but we’ve knocked the whales don’t seem to come running. Here are two pictures from yesterday that aren't great but show a bit of the pod. The first picture shows the windvane on the stern but below it you can see the outline of the beluga swimming behind us. It really just looks like yellow water in this picture I guess, but it was a beluga! The second is a picture of two or three of them surfacing off our beam. We are currently in Rimouski, QC where John and Lorna Pitcher kindly took us out for a provisioning expedition and we said goodbye to Nikki's sisters who have been with us since Quebec City. We will leave this afternoon and head toward Matane and hope to leave teh Gaspe Peninsula in the next two days.
![]() Even the fleece pants aren't working Well we don’t know when it happened exactly but somewhere outside of Quebec City we left Summer and hit Winter head on. It’s been cold during the day and colder at night. We have taken out the foul weather gear just to stay warm and Nikki has been sporting a minimum of four layers while on deck. The whales don’t seem to mind the cold though and we have been seeing them daily. Yesterday we sailed for about half an hour with a pod of belugas. They swam all around us, close enough to reach out and touch. At one point Adam called out because we weren’t paying attention and we were suddenly in very shallow water. We panicked for a second and then realized that the belugas were swimming under the boat. It was amazing and we got some great videos but they are too large to upload – how do you edit video? If you are interested you’ll have to wait until we get back to see the full show. We are still having a great time and hope to be warm in the future. ![]() Today we are in the lovely Tadoussac, which has an amazing abundance of marine life. On our way into the harbour we saw a pod of beluga whales, a herd of seals, and at least a dozen unidentified whales, and many jellyfish. We spent the morning slowly making our way into the harbour to see as much as possible but not enough to appear to be "seeking out" the whales as this is strictly illegal and is only permitted by tour boats. This afternoon we went for a great hike around the harbour and saw some sea urchins and sea snails in the tidal pools. Unfortunately although we have sworn to be "camera people" from now, our skill level has not caught up to our aspirations and this was the best photo that we could come up with. You can sort of see a black spot on the water - that is a seal! |
AuthorsAdam and Nikki Archives
August 2015
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