Whitecap's Cruising Log

Date: Sept 20,1999

Departure point: Summerside, P.E.I. Time: 0600hrs

Arrival Point: Riviere Renard, Quebec Time: 1310hrs

Travel time: 33hr 10min

Weather: Strong south easterly 15-20+ Wind: 15-20+ Visibility: good

Distance Traveled: 185 miles Average Speed: 6.9 Fuel: 10gal

Notes and Remarks:

Departure from Summerside at 6am Many friends and family on the dock... Thanks to everyone for all the help over the last few months. Double Exposure and Glory Days sailed out with us, half way to Cape Egmont, hopefully taking lots of pictures.

Rounded Cape Egmont at around 0830 hours. Trying all kinds of adjustments to rigging and learning to figure out the nexus instruments, wind is complicated.

Rounded the groaner off West Point at approximately 12:30hr and the mouth of Miramichi Bay at 17:30hr.

Reefed the main and rolled in to half jib for the night without reducing speed overall. SOG 7kts to 8.4kts, average 6.9 winds SE 20+.

Talked to fishing vessel off Shippegan, on our course, Passed Miscou north Point light at midnight.

Weather started out sunny, turns to misty rainy by noon, Arrived Percé Basin at 08:30hrs, circled the harbour and took pictures of Percé Rock, crossed La Malbaie between Pte. St Pierre and Ile Platte in 70 ft water and across Gaspé Bay. Rounded Cape Gaspé Parc de Florillon at 12:30 hrs and started up the river. Arrived at Riviere aux Renard at 15:00 hrs. "Hester", our self steerer, did a wonderful job most of the night and all day until our batteries got down to 9V, so we started the motor to recharge.

Celebrated our arrival in Riviere aux Renard, that night with dinner at L',Auberge Caribou. Dick twisted his ankle and skinned a knee walking back to boat (was the curb, not the wine). Spent the day increasing the local economy, and gorging ourselves on the local fresh shrimp ($6.30lb). We even have shrimp in the raw water filter, and when we flush the toilet. Nick and Shelly on Gypsy Soul brought us 3 lbs of shrimp, say they bought a garbage bag full for $25.00 and had too many. They have been here for the last 30 days replacing their old Volvo engine with a new Yanmar ($9000US.). Frank Lyman, from Quo Vadis, a 39 ft catamaran traded us his charts and cruising guides for the river to Lake Ontario, a nice saving for us, as our electronic charts run out about 100 miles up river from here, and our paper ones at Quebec City., we gave them our charts for NB and PEI.

Next day, Wednesday, was an aborted attempt to continue on to Matane, but developed fuel / water / air problems, Returned to Riviere Renard and installed an electric fuel pump to make bleeding the injectors easier (hope we never have to use it!!!) Corrected all the engine fuel water and air problems, We hope), but found a broken vacuum line to the governor, had it welded and replaced. Engine should be working fine from here on... the alternative is another $9000US.

Thursday Sept 23. Rain and high winds. Back to eating shrimp,, we had shrimp cocktail for lunch and now we are having shrimp rolls for our afternoon snack, while watching "The Dirty Dozen" on the TV. Wonder what the rich people are doing? Waiting for the winds to abate, still 25kts+ on the nose.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Day started at 05:00, the rains have ended. Skipper up on dock checking winds, which have now shifted to the beam, decided to go. Called Riviere aux Renard Coast Guard Radio, gave a sail plan, powered out until Mercedes stalled (again!!!), set sail, reefed jib , full main gave 6.5kt. Frank woke at about 07:00 and informed the skipper the engine fuel pump was set to the new electric one, which we installed yesterday. Flicked the switch and Mercedes again sounded like normal...

At sunrise, Riviere Renard was 5 miles astern. Contacted RARenard Coast Guard Radio filed a sail plan to Sainte-Anne des-Monts.

Winds steadily increased by mid-morning, and ... shifted to the nose, started engine, rolled in jib, tightened main and motor-sailed attempting to reach at least Grande Vallee, to make a days run of 25 miles. Weather and winds got steadily worst culminating at 35kts, seas increased to 6-8 ft, SOG (speed over ground) 0.5kt. Tried various courses, had choice of 6 miles forward to Grand Vallee or 5 miles back to Cloredorme, discretion was the best part of valor so we decided to turn back. Arrived Cloredorme 12:30hr, nice little wharf no facilities and no electricity to charge our batteries, alternator still not charging, decided to take it off and have it checked locally, mechanic says no problem works fine on his bench, determine the problem has to be somewhere in our wiring. Back to the think tank!!

Spent the afternoon resting and watching VCR/TV, terrible movie, not worthy of a name.

Skipper cooked evening dinner , boiled PEI potatoes, Caesar Salad, yellow beans and marinated mandarin orange chicken breasts, complemented with white wine. Finally respite from the shrimp!!!!

Repaired the alternator problem after dinner, now we think we have charging while under power hurrah. But it didn't work, back to the drawing board...

Time 21:00hrs Winds have abated, plan to leave here and continue on to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Left Cloredorme at 21:30, light winds and low sea state, only a 1 ft swell left over from the afternoon high winds. Decided to go with the night tide all night until we reached Ste Ann des Monts. Tide reversed at 03:00 or so and our SOG (speed over ground) dropped to 2kts

Frank took the first shift relieved by Dick at 01:00hrs, Bill took over at 04:00. Hester was doing a super job on the wheel until the batteries got down to 9.7v around 07:00, other instruments (wind speed-knotmeter) worked all the way, they must generate their own power.

Winds on the nose all night and all day, increased to 25+ by the time we arrived in Ste Ann

Passed Gross Morne raining, winds10k time03:30hrs

4:35 hrs- Large vessel passed us on the stbd side within 100ft going about 15kts.

Rain stopped before dawn, bright orange moon went down just before dawn

Steerer "Hester" quit at 8 volts- have to find out how to get the alternator charging properly at the next stop!!!

Arrived Ste Anne des Monts village marina, clean showers, washer and dryer. Frank did laundry, Bill worked on alternator and Dick Answered mail and wrote up log. Took on 15 gallons of diesel, now have a spare full 5 gal can..

250kilometres to Quebec City from here, and from here on the tides will really be a factor as the river starts to narrow at Cap Chat about 10 miles from here.

Appears we solved the alternator problem, the old one was a 2 wire system, and the new one only has one wire, Dick remembered that the alternator bracket was rubber mounted to the engine, a quick look confirmed and Bill made up a short wire to ground the alternator to the engine. Voila!!! we now have 13.5v when the engine is running...

Dick swabbed the deck with the yacht mop, and each time he dipped in the harbour, it came up with 100's of baby shrimp, which he diligently picked up and put back in the harbour.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

19:30 - Departed Saint Anne du Mont in calm seas and air. Full moon rising behind us made for a bright night.

21:26:20 abeam Cap Chat at, too bad it is dark on land, we cannot see the hundreds of windmills on the cape

23:19:24 abeam LesMechins SOG 5.1k

Only one casualty so far, a broken cup!!

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Woke up at 09:00, tide was low, visited the marina office/yacht club, about half the size of our old SYC lounge, have to back into the toilet,( you cannot turn around!!!) but there is one for ladies also. The bar is only a large closet with a Dutch split door. Charged us a full day even though we were only there 4 hours. Asked what time the tide was going to be low (it was already), told the gentleman we planned to leave for Rimouski, and he told us we couldn't. I said why not and his answer was "because you will not be afloat until 10:30". Low and behold he was right, as we still had trouble getting out at 11:30. Guess we should not begrudge the dock fee, they need it for dredging.

Found a cracked casing on the newest CAV fuel filter, probably from being tightened too much. Mercedes was still sucking some air. Took it off and deep-six'ed it after saving the glass bowl (for peanuts maybe??) and bronze fittings, gave it an appropriate farewell. Down to one primary filter, new Racor sounds good by Montreal...

Biggest problem with this AM delay is we lost the 2.5kts tide flow in our favor for more than 4 hours, darn!!!

15:00 hrs SOG 5.7 COG (course over ground)265 degrees. Boat speed 6.5kts, tide is beginning to turn against us.

19:15hrs Stopped at Sainte Luce for fuel. First time sailboat had been there in 25 years, the whole village came down. Frank got drive to petrol station, took on 13 gal fuel $40. Think we finally found our fuel/air problem!!! When we tried to open the fuel deck fitting, she sucked in air, wondering why, we checked the tank vent fitting and found it was plugged!! Poor Mercedes was trying to suck the sides of the tank in, we are leaving the tank fill cover partially unscrewed to make sure. Looks like another problem sorted out. Touched rocks backing away from wharf. Heated up Jean's soup for supper, still have15 jars left. 19:45 - sunset/moonrise leaving Sainte Luce. Frank took watch until midnight. 22:30 Passed Rimouski, on port, can see both sides of the river quite clearly

27-Sep-1999 00:19:33 Abeam of Ile au Bic at midnight, seas flat calm, good decision to keep going!! Air temp is around 10F, water temp is 45degrees down from yesterdays 49F

27-Sep-1999 00:22:23 SOG 8.14 at about mid tide. Covered 68.26miles in 13 hours, so far this run, next 6 hours should be better, as we are now crossing over to the north side channel. Bill on watch, saw three whales on starboard but too dark to identify, should be seeing many more after dawn off Tadoussac. Starting to see ship traffic on all sides, most coming out the Saguenay river.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Frank and Dick walked to the Grand Hotel for breakfast, Bill still sleeping. Fine establishment, linen table cloths, real china, dining room filled up with whale watching tourists, just after our arrival. All sorts of people, big ones , little ones and many trying to squeeze into clothes they bought 10 years ago!!!

Took on 30 gallons fuel, filling main tank and three extra 5 gallon jugs, which we placed on fordeck.

09:00 hrs. Departed Tadoussac, to take advantage of next incoming tide, a 16 footer, which starts to flood at 10:50, this should give us a good push to Quebec City which is still 150 miles away.

Saw pod of beluga whales but too far from the boat to take pictures.

13:13:31 passed Cap du Tete du Chien, flat calm, SOG 6.8k, boat speed shows 6.3 starting to get effect of the tide.

18:45 - Passed buoy at Ile aux Coudres, still 2 hours before high tide in Quebec City, decided to "go for it"

Grounded on sand bank at corner of Ile d'Orleans, boat only heeled 10 deg, at finish of outgoing tide, lifted off two hours later, but unfortunately air locked engine trying to get off when intake was out of water. Engine overheated 10 minutes after getting away, moved over to shore and anchored in 35ft until daylight. Went to bed.

28-Sep-1999 Worked while sailing, trying to find why engine air locked, cleaned sand from intake filter, took off heat exchanger, cleaned and inspected everything, refilled water in heat exchanger and motored to Quebec city. 28-Sep-1999 11:02:12 secured and refueled. Fuel $47 at Old Port Marina, filled fresh water tank. Spent day looking for fittings to properly repair our hot water heater hoses, the new type clamps are not as good as the old type!!! Showered and did some laundry, Talked to Luc ?? Says he was on the delivery crew when the MacPhee's bought Arjuna the Corbin 39. Told him of our fuel problems and he immediately asked if we checked the vent line!!! he must have experienced the same problem at one time!! Noticed a lot of boats flying the Canadian flag, that's nice...

Cleaned up above and below, Whitecap was starting to look like there were 3 guys living aboard for 8 days.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

28-Sep-1999 16:04:44, cleared the lock and entered the main river, one hour before low tide. This is another 16 footer, which will give us a good push towards Montreal, Passed the "Norwegian Sea" the big cruise ship damaged at Tadoussac she was tied to a pier next to Quebec City Yacht Club, only 2 months old, bet the captain has his resume out, our grounding on the sand bank was insignificant compared to his... and ours cost nothing to fix...

Passed under "Pierre Laporte" and Levis Bridges, SOG 2.2 have not got the effect of tide yet.

19:20: course 272 M SOG 6.2 now we are starting to move along, Frank and Bill retired Dick takes watch until midnight, weather clear but not warm enough for shorts, just like driving down highway, buoys on each side, "Hester" working steady, steer by push button -1 or -10 for port, and +1 or +10 for starboard turns if you require 30 degrees, just push the appropriate 10 button 3 times and presto, "Hester" obeys your command!!

Passed the point where the couple raise the national flag and play the national anthem for each vessel that passes their house, they have been doing this for many years, but alas, they were gone to bed when we passed.

Doing a steady SOG of 7+ decided there is no need to stop overnight

Frank comes on deck, takes over watch, confirms my decision not to stop at Trois Rivières at all, and continue on to Montreal, where we have to pick up our 350 feet of 5/16 BBB anchor chain. That should put the bow down, (1lb+ per foot), but it will also bring the stern up, so she will still be down but closer to her lines.

There was a "Fisher" type sailboat on our tail all night, we have enough to watch out for up front, without having to look over our shoulder for him, so we let him pass and he promptly hits a buoy!!! Guess he was depending on us to show the way.

04:12:38 position 46 15.848 N 72 39.721 W steering 281 M SOG 5.7kt. Now we only have the river flow to fight

06:34:12 we are in Lac St Pierre, Bill takes his watch, weather foggy, G.P.S. only receiving 2 satellites SOG up to 7.6kts, at this speed our ETA at Pont Jacques Cartier will be 13:26:25hr but sure something will slow us down.

12:20 - Noticed inverter had kicked out. 13:00 - Abeam Ile Bouchard Arrived Marina de La Ronde 18:00, not a soul around, real disappointment, my friend Pierre and Micheline picked us up and Bill and I went to dinner in Iberville, and toured their new home... Wow!!! Pierre's driver drove us back to the boat at 24:00hrs

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

10:00 - Departed Marina at Montreal. Late departure, weather not the best , waited for someone to come pick up our dock fees, never saw a soul, left but felt guilty... This marina has gone downhill since 1967 when it was known as Expo Marina

11:21:07 - Locked through St Lambert Lock first of the Seaway Locks giving us a rise of 20 feet, we are now in the La Canal de la Rive Sud, or LaChine Canal

12:08:04 winds to 41kts on the nose!!! in the LaChine canal, contacted Willem for our chain delivery, arranged for delivery at the Ste Catherine Lock south end.

12:09:14 headed for Ste Catherine Lock

13:00 - Locked through St Catherines Lock winds gusting to 49kts, not fun on the nose. Picked up chain and stowed in chain lockers, brought bow down and stern up, but Whitecap down overall about 3"

17:50:29 Dropped anchor at the bridge on the Chateauguay River. Rowed to shore and picked up some groceries, wine, bread, pizza, more wine and cheese, milk, paper towels and stuff. No fuel anywhere around, still have 2x5 gallon deck jugs.

We noticed purple spots all over the deck, like drops of blue ink, has to be from t6he "Purple Martins" which have been flying all around before dark...

Rain stopped finally and the wind is also down. Hope to get an early start tomorrow, across Lake St Louis to the Beauharnois Canal and then we will be at the Lake Ontario water level.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

01-Oct-1999 08:00 Left Chateauguay river, went aground twice leaving the river. Frank went ashore with the dink and spinnaker halyard, decided to take the middle of the river where there is 8 ft.

09:46:17 SOG 4kts 6.4 BOS (boat speed), we are loosing 2+kts to the river current, just like the river pilot book says. Beauharnois lock is 3miles away, at least no current in the lock.

Arrived Beauharnois Locks

11:22:43 entered lock lift 40 ft, the top of our 42 ft mast is not as high as the lock... lock almost the height of the Holmans building!!! and there is another one just 500 yards ahead... another 40 ft . We lifted 80 ft in 1 hour!!!

12:29:30 Gusts up to 41kts on the nose, coming up to St Louis lift bridge, plan to stop in Valleyfield for fuel.

15:17:58 stopped in Valleyfield for fuel,, took on 138 litres for a total of $90.00

Dock attendant says there is a small dock downtown for shopping, decided to stay awhile and shop for groceries waiting for the winds to abate.

Roast chicken and the last of our PEI potato for supper, running the engine to charge battery bank #2 the house batteries, can't seem to get them up over 11.75 unless we are on shore power. Bank #1, the engine batteries are showing 14.35V at all times, the only draw on them is the new electric fuel pump we installed at Riviere-aux-Renard.

20:00hrs, winds still at 25kts on the nose, decide to go back up to the marina and plug in for the night.

Plan for an early start in the morning, as it is easy to get out of here.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

02-Oct-1999 06:30 - Departed Valleyfield Marina- about 500 boats, breakwater only 3 ft out of water. Strayed slightly off channel and touched bottom several times-didn't stop us. "Red right returning" is very critical in these waters. Over on our port side we could see where we came through yesterday, two large galvanized barges one on either side of the channel one with red light one with green light, they are about 300' apart, and each had floating drums strung across all the way to either shore, about 2 miles away!!! Imagine trying to cut that short at night!!! have never seen this berm type thing before.

08:45 - Met first sailboat with sails up. Heading east. MANDALAY II. Gave him a wave.

08:45:53 Have entered Ontario on STBD side-Quebec is on port.

10:15:54 Clearing St Francis Lake, very disappointed, all this lake and really no water, it is just a giant swamp, that got flooded by the Seaway, and they cannot deepen the water because all the homes will be flooded.

Entering north end of 1000 Islands

11:20:56 Passing St Regis Island, coming up to Cornwall Island, this is where all the smuggling has been taking place, glad we are not here at night, these guys carry real guns, and shoot them too. Decided to take the passage through Cornwall, turns out to be a mistake, as the currents here are stronger.

12:53:29 Passed under the Peace Bridge, SOG dropped down to 1.9, going around into Polly's Gut and back into the Seaway. We are taking on water, looks like somewhere up front, have to pump every half hour or so. Find a crack in the hull under the cabin sole below the fwd captains chair, where the lead keel stops, at least we know where it is...

Decide we will try to lift out near Trenton, as we have to adjust the prop pitch anyway, our stern is black which means Mercedes is labouring too much, will change the prop pitch back to 6.9, and fix the hull problem at the same time, appears our "touching" in Valleyfield was worse than expected.. Damm...

13:20:19 Arrived at the Snell lock, on calling in we were told there would be a 5 hour wait, at 17:00 we are still here!!! 17:00 We called in again, and they tell us they are now locking a yacht down and we will be next to lock up. Snell lock raises us 47', 5 miles through the pool and the Eisenhower Lock raises us another 43' ( in 7 minutes) - they use VHF Ch12. Big ships have the priority on the Seaway.

22:58:06 Approaching Iroquois lock -called on VHF Ch11 weather rainy, no wind, black as pitch.

23:23:24 Tied up to pleasure boat dock and called on channel 11, seems each lock uses a different channel, but it does not show up in our charts or guide books, have to call "lock control" and ask each time.

23:53:25 "Hester" not able to steer in this south pool narrow channel, Frank steered all the way 3 hours

03-Oct-1999 00:12:09 Locked through Iroquois Lock - a height of only 1', still they charged us $10. We are now at Lake Ontario level, Dick takes watch until dawn, about 6.5 hours, "Hester" worked well. Hand steered through "The Brock Group" of islands, the channel is only 100 ft wide for about 7 miles, with small islands on either side and we met a big "laker" in there, we kept over to the red buoys, and he still blew his horn, must have scared the sh.t out of him!!!

03-Oct-1999 09:48:49 Talked to John Benson, on VHF, he has arranged a travel lift in Belleville for us on Monday, he is waiting at Kingston, and will sail to Belleville with us. he suggests we stop in Clayton NY for cheaper US fuel, we have been motoring hard for the last 29 hours, and have 14 gal left + our two deck cans. Diverted into into Clayton, but no one sells diesel only gas!!! Imagine, about 500 boats in a marina and all gas.

13:30 - Arrived at Kingston Yacht Club - Took on fuel $110.00 and John Benson, met Martine, very nice lady, picked up bread, milk Coke and rum, in that order.

13:44:48 departed Kingston for Ruth's (Currie) Smith's Cottage in Adolfus Reach, on our way.

19:30 - Arrived Ruth's Cottage, shower, wine and a beautiful barbequed pork steak supper with PEI potatoes

22:43:30 departed Ruth's Cottage Headed out for the last 8 miles, Batteries not charging again, voltage down to 8.7, all electronics kick out. Decide we are going to buy a small Honda generator TODAY, just for these times, and when we cannot plug in while at anchor. Once we find out why our alternator is not putting out 13.25 V things will be better.

04-Oct-1999 02:52:20 Arrived at Trenton Yacht Club, reverse polarity!!!, our system keeps tripping off breaker. Time to call it a day, have a "Mount Gay" rum and sack out.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Spent day doing repairs, purchased new Honda 1000i generator, which we plan to use on deck, when we are at anchor and cannot plug in to shore power. Neat little unit, should have bought one years ago. We will never have the voltage problems anymore. Also replaced the temporary wire grounding the alternator with a size "0" wire (pronounced ought), to see if that will make a difference to our charging problems, We will have to try an over night just using our house batteries to know for sure, worth a try, only cost $4.00.

Removed masts and "gallowed" them on deck, all tied down to our deck fittings, looks strange and she will stay like this for a week, until we haul out in Midland.

Cleaned up and went out to dinner at the Mess with John Benson and Martine, and Dawn and Mike Johnson.

Dawn Ruggles, at one time worked after school and weekends at our drugstore and was frequently crew on Whitecap, she met Mike who was crew on Jim and Sylvia Johnson's "Nauti Rowdy" over twenty years ago. It was nice seeing them and talking old times.