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| Baie du Ha Ha shore (Bic Park) |
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| Finnish Line plowing through the swell |
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| Looking back at the Bic Islands |
The leg from our anchorage at Parc du Bic and Rimouski was relatively short. Just under 20 nm. The wind was light and the swell was quite large. We motor-sailed until the wind completely pooped out. The whole time we were trying to keep our footing as we plowed into long swells coming from the outer gulf somewhere.
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| Fishing boats in the harbour |
Rimouski is sheltered from the north-east by Île Saint-Barnabé (named by Champlain as he passed by here). The last of the islands of a chain of islands of similar geology (which include the islands in Parc du Bic, where we just were). They are particularly pretty to look at in the distance as they are quite distinct and fade away into the mist.
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| Misty, sunny morning |
The Rimouski harbour is a mix of recreational and commercial. The marina is quite large and has mooring for well over a hundred boats (again, many are still in the yard, and not launched yet (again, all on cradles with tires, and launched from a ramp) ). The rest of the harbour is used for fishing boats, ferry docks, and other commercial uses (Sunday morning, there is a small freighter moored in the harbour). To make it clear about the priority of this harbour, there are about 9 fifty foot standards sporting flood lights that shine down into the harbour so the fishing boats can see what their doing at all hours of the night. Most have left the harbour by morning when we get up and are back in by late afternoon.
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Linda admiring miniature harbour
by local hobbyist |
Rimouski is the home to the Latitude Marine store, the store where I had ordered a new muffler a week or so ago. The store is located immediately across from the marina and sure enough, my new muffler had arrived. Also required, one replacement fender for the one that sacrificed itself in Chicoutimi trying to hold us to the dock. The muffler was "almost" the exact size as the old one except for the inlet fitting was 3/4" lower that the original. This required some carving out of the hole through a bulkhead to make room, but otherwise replacement was straightforward. While the boat was already a workshop, I did a battery top up, and a oil top up as well (the older engine consumes oil at a steady rate).
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Museum build at the same angle at the
Empress of Ireland wreck |
During our lay day, we chose to explore the local museums, Canadian Tire, the recommended Poissonerie Gagnon, some provisioning and finish off with excellent dinner at La Reserve, a restaurant that specialized in regional foods. We were impressed by the calibre of the museums here. Located at Point-au-Pere were the light house, a decommissioned Canadian submarine (Onondaga), and top rate exhibit for the Empress of Ireland, a ship that sank just a few kilometers from here in 1914 taking about 1000 lives in the process. The second largest loss of life, after the Titanic just two years before. Unlike the 2 hours it took for the sinking of the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland went down in only 14 minutes!
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Don't think it really needs
the anchor |
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| Unique buttresses at base of lighthouse |
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| sculpture outside museum |
Today (Sunday), we are taking it slow as we are planning an overnight to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts (sailing past Matane). The winds and conditions look favourable and we will expect to set off this afternoon to catch the ebb tide current.
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