A Whale of a Good Time
12 July 2014 | Saguenay, Quebec
Louise
Another early departure (4AM) into 2.5 knots of opposing current and we were on our way to Tadoussac. When the tide changed after a couple of hours, the current was in our favour and it gave us a speed boost of up to 5.5 knots, and we were surfing along at 11 knots. As a reference our normal boat speed is 6 knots. We arrived at Tadoussac at 11:30 to pick up our crew. My neice Kim is joining us for the trip east and is keen to learn all aspects of the seafaring lifestyle.
Tadoussac is a qauint town at the mouth of the Saguenay River that is popular with whale watchers. There is a constant stream of boats ferrying people out to thr St Lawrence to see the whales. Andy, on the other hand was none too pleased when a pod of belugas decided to cross our path as we arrived at Tadoussac. Environmental law requires that boats must stop within 1300 feet of the endangered belugas to allow them to pass. So there we sat for about 20 minutes while they frolicked around us.
From Tadoussac we headed into the Saguenay Fijord and the only word to describe it is 'spectacular'! The water depths were off the chart, literally...the deepest depth on the chart was 900 feet and the heights of the rock faces matched this. We motored to Baie Éternité which is the premiere viewscape of the Saguenay and were disappointed that there were only 4 of the advertised 11 mooring balls available. And those 4 were occupied.... So we motored back to L'Anse St Jean to anchor. A very tranquil evening....