Pierre Harel

A brief stop in Bermuda to re-provision, re-fuel and add some fresh crew members. We welcomed Pierre, Simon and Adam to our salty crew to make seven. We set sail from Bermuda with high hopes, fresh winds and choppy seas. Some needed a bit of time to get their sea legs. Funny thing about sailing, you pick a destination then sail in any other direction. That’s what we did for a few days then the winds faded and we did a whole lot of motoring. We weren’t making much progress but the fishing was good. Days went by without even seeing another boat. We were totally cut off from the world…well, except for Starlink. We still had wi-fi (except when the dish fell over) The crew dug right into Celestial Navigation and pretty soon everyone was talking about LHA, Declinations and a bunch of other words we had probably never spoken before. Finally, we passed by Anguilla in the night. The islands started passing by quickly and soon we would reach our destination. We were treated to a spectacular experience when a pod of dolphins swam with the boat for about 25 minutes. It was amazing! But, we had burned through most of our 600 litres of fuel, so we pulled into Guadaloupe to get enough diesel to make our destination. We sailed into Le Marin under sunny skies with a great sense of accomplishment. Great work everyone!

Set sail from Rimouski with fair winds but not for long. We motored around the Gaspé Peninsula and sailed south to Percé Rock. Very light winds so we motored to the Northumberland Strait and under the Confederation Bridge at 4 am. Fair winds out of the strait and into the Canso Strait. Passed through the lock at 4 am. Winds picked up coming out of the strait. Following winds at 20-25 knots and 1-3 metre waves ended the trip with some great sailing.

Motored under the Pont de Québec at 3:30 am with full crew on deck. Sails up with 20-25 knots of following wind. Broad reach with a preventer making 10 knots. Sailed through the night arriving in Rimouski in the morning for fuel, provisions, shower and sail repairs.

Beautiful day! Underway at 4 am, 4 degrees outside. Motored for a bit but sails up before daylight. Good winds and currents most of the day, top speed of 11.5 knots through Richelieu Rapids. Beautiful sunshine all day. Cheerful crew settling into the tasks.