Early cold morning, we left the dock at Tadussac. I'm not sure what happens at Tadussac wind wise, but there always seemed to be very strong winds coming off the land and through the marina. We were pretty nervous leaving the dock, I think we are both out of practice and the wind was whistling. However as we got away from shore the wind was completely calm, hardly enough to sail on. We motored out of the channel, but came upon a pod of belugas, so we slowed and then put it in neutral waiting for them to continue on. They decided to come to us though, so we turned off the engine and drifted. The pod came near and then started to leave. We then drifted through a pod of seals and then more belugas came by, with a couple swimming right under our boat. Pretty crazy.
Also some other larger whales feeding closer to shore. Probably minke whales, but hard to say at the distance we were. We didn't get a chance to spot them through the binoculars which is unfortunate.
After all the whales and seals passed by and were well clear, we turned the engine back on and motored on a bit. We crossed the shipping channel and then there was just enough wind to be useful. We put up full sails, and then rigged the spinnaker, and got going a little more quickly. Had a beautiful downwind run for a couple of hours under spinnaker, and then put it away as the winds started to build. Back to full sails, then put a double reef in the main. We were flying along double reefed and then we had a pretty sudden pickup in the wind and were getting overpowered. So we dropped the main, and then furled up the genoa and were running at hull speed with just a bit of genoa.
The waves had built at this point, and it was getting pretty choppy. A bit of current against us which probably wasn't helping the sea state. Even Aria couldn't stay down below, which means you know the sea state is bad. We rolled on for an hour and the wind started to diminish a bit, and it was just nice when we came into Rimouski. Easily got tied up to the dock with a bit of help. We ended up in the big boat section again, which maybe is just because most boats our here are bigger? Again though, a lot of nice looking well rigged and actively used boats. Just walking up and down the dock looking at boats is fun.
Really nice marina and docks in Rimouski too, certainly a place to stop coming through this area. We hiked it up to the Canadian Tire to get engine oil, and to the Maxi beside it for some provisions and hiked them back to the boat. Completed that oil change finally, and then we all worked together on some nice pizza's for a good well deserved dinner, and got to bed early after a long day of sailing.
