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Rivière-Madeline Current Location: Rivière-Madeline (La Capitainerie) Date: June 18 Mile: 791 Locate: Ramble On Locate: Finnish Line 2.0 |
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| Tall shoreline with regular river valleys |
The shoreline here is a continuation of what we've seen on the previous days; high cliffs and shores punctuated by river valleys cut down to sea level forming dramatic views deeper into the interior. Again, the scale of the geography here takes getting used to. You need to look at the individual trees to realize that cliff tops are hundreds of feet high.
Also typical, these river valleys are magnets for small settlements and more often than not, a quaint church. These towns show no signs of stores or other conveniences, but tend to be rustic and picturesque.
On one of the many radio calls between Finnish Line and Ramble On, Bob reported that we had the "Bluenose II" as one of our AIS targets and we were on course to intercept!!! This is pretty exciting stuff. We have seen freighters non-stop, but have probably only passed a dozen other sailboats on the whole trip so far. So, to cross paths with a Canadian icon was a little exciting. We both altered course to ensure a close sailpast. 
They were flying only partial sails, really only riding sails, and were clearly under power (sails were mostly luffing). They ended up altering course for both of us though that was not intended. Bob radioed them to indicate that we would happily keep clear, but oddly, they didn't seem to be listening. They, and other tall ships, are heading to the Great Lakes for various tall ship rendezvous. Turns out we would see another in the days to come.
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| Blue arrow = most northerly point in trip |
This leg marked the most northerly point in our entire trip. We have hopes, perhaps not realistic, that we will experience some warmer weather going forward. The sailing/boating season has barely started in most of the places we've stopped with docks being assembled, freshwater being connected, and other services just barely operational.
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| One of only a few navaids, old lantern atop a new'ish concrete tower |
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| Gannets start to appear. These are the most graceful of sea birds. |
We arrived at Riviere-Madeline to find a tiny harbour with one of the cutest little villages we have seen in the entire trip.
The only mark to guide us into the small breakwall protected harbour (RM1) was, as we found out once ashore, lying on the ground by a shed yet to be installed for the season. My electronic charts had zero detail about entering this small basin. Our cruising guides noted a rock at the entrance that should have been marked (well, that mark wasn't installed either). Fortunately for the high tide, we didn't "encounter" the rock (but we did see it clearly on the way out the next day).
We were greeted by a handful of very helpful locals to catch us at the dock, as well as a few Canadian Customs agents. They were just touring the various harbors, and they promised they weren't there for us!
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| Whales playing right next to the harbour |
After dinning at the only place in town (La Capitainerie), where we had some quite simple fair made with local seafood (and some questionable poutine), we were treated to the most spectacular sunset behind the adjacent lighthouse To make things even more perfect, whales were frolicking in the bay and we could both see them and hear them spouting.
The pictures are beautiful and I am enjoying the blog very much .
ReplyDeleteKeep it coming.