To get our sea legs back, we planned an easy 34 nautical mile sail from Gaspé to the little fishing town of Grande Rivière. The day was spectacular, warm and sunny with perfect winds that enabled us to sail a beam reach to our destination. The highlight of this trip was the close up view of Rocher Percé. Although we had seen the rock from land, seeing it majestically pop up in the water along a periwinkle blue sky was breathtaking.
We reached Grande Rivière, a picturesque fishing village, in the early afternoon. As usual, the people that greeted us were friendly and happy to chat with us about our adventure and about their port. It featured a well stocked cantina catering to local fisherman and their families. Dan and I had dinner here that night with our friends, Cheri and Jon, and the portions of food were astonishing. We felt like part of the fishing community. We ordered a family bag of pommes frites which was literally a very large brown paper grocery bag of freshly made fries that could feed a family of twenty. After dinner, we waddled to Cheri and Jon’s boat, African Queen IV, to watch the movie, Snatch. Then we waddled home and went to sleep knowing that the next day would be a doozy.
At dinner, we decided to do two long sailing days of about 80 nautical miles per day, moving us from the province of Québec to New Brunswick and finally to Prince Edward Island, which are in the Atlantic time zone (UTC – 4H). The challenge of this leg of the trip would be the first day when the waves were expected to be up to six feet and the wind up to 30 knots. However, since it would be a while until we had winds in the right direction again, we decided this would be the best weather window for the passage.
Well of all the days for the quirky weather forecast to be spot on, did it have to be this one? Although sunny and warm, the Gulf of St. Lawrence seemed angry and agitated. However, True North stepped up to the challenge, plowing through the waves at over 8 knots, and keeping us safe, although at times the motion and waves crashing over the bow tried our nerves. Our reward came a couple of hours before we anchored as the waves and wind settled down and we glided into Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick, an idyllic isolated beach and perfect anchor spot. Ahhh! Now comes Miller Time!
