This past week we spent 4 days exploring the Saguenay Fjord and then made our turn back. It's now hard to avoid the fact we're officially on the way home, heading up-river. But there's still weeks of sailing and exploring ahead, and while in one sense we are retracing our steps, time only moves in one direction so we're always moving forward. Or to use another metaphor, you can't step (or sail) in the same river twice.

Saturday July 8 Anse aux Petites Îles

While waiting for low tide we visited the Marine Mammal Interpretation Centre in Tadoussac and saw and touched skeletons of all sorts of whales. Today I learned: whales evolved from four-legged land creatures and have vestigial bones where the hips were. These small bones were floating in mid-air below the ceiling-suspended complete skeleton of a beluga whale. I suppose all bones of a skeleton are suspended in mid-air without the body's soft tissues, but these bones near former hind legs seemed particularly unconnected to anything.

We set off and successfully navigated the ferries crossing the fjord between Baie St Catherine and Tadoussac. They leave every 20 minutes, and take 10 minutes to cross, which doesn't leave a lot of free time for us. Once past the ferries we raised the sails, but it took longer than we expected for the rising tide to make a difference and for a while we were sailing but not actually making any ground. Then the wind got better and better, it was sunny, and we had great vistas of the fjord cliffs and mountains.

Photo: Sailing up the fjord - beautiful

Anchoring is a real challenge in the Saguenay fjord, because it's very deep except in a few spots close to shore. The on-the-fly calculations we need to make are surprisingly complex: what time is it and where is that in today's tide cycle for the published location nearest us; given this, how much more is the water going to rise or fall; will we have enough water under the keel at low tide; how much scope can we let out so the anchor holds at high tide; too much scope and we'll swing into shore at low tide. To make it worse, tide tables are in meters and our depth sounder is in feet so there's a lot of multiplying and dividing by 3.

The anchorage in Anse aux Petites Îles was lovely but small and as there was already one other boat there we couldn't let out much scope. We didn't launch the dinghy in case we had to take quick action if the anchor dragged, so we enjoyed the evening from the boat.

Photo: Neighbor boat in Anse aux Petites Îles anchorage

Photo: Me in the fjord - according to my sister there aren't enough photos of me in this newsletter.

Sunday July 8 Baie Éternité

This was in a sense the pinnacle of our trip as it was the farthest we would go up the Saguenay before turning around, and the Saguenay was the farthest we would go down the St Lawrence before turning around. And what a fitting pinnacle it is. The bay is truly awe-inspiring, as you round the corner between two caps (capes), Cap Eternité and Cap Trinité and enter a deep gorge with mountains all around.

Here's a 1-minute video I took as we were sailing into Baie Eternité (link).

We were pleasantly surprised to be alone the first night. Another sailboat joined us the second night.

Photo: Reading after dinner

Monday July 9 Baie Éternité hike

Today we hiked up along Cap Trinité for great views back down the bay, and eventually reached the religious statue Notre Dame du Saguenay that watches over sailors from her perch on the lower bump of the 3-bumped Cap Trinité. She was erected in the 1880s by a merchant in thanks for surviving his fall through the ice while transporting goods in winter. She looks a bit worn out up close, but shines like a white beacon when viewed from the water level.

Photo: Trail sign

Photo: Riviere Eternité empties into the bay. Spot Heartbeat far below.

Photo: Notre Dame du Saguenay

The end of the bay is accessible by road and has a campground but due to a landslide last month the road was washed out and is still closed. Unfortunately 2 people lost their lives in this disaster. We walked around the shuttered visitor center and saw cars left behind by people who were evacuated by helicopter when the road became impassable. It was eerily quiet, like a zombie apocalypse, or like the early days of lock down during the pandemic.

Tuesday July 10 L'Anse Saint-Étienne

It rained so much in the night. The creeks and waterfalls along the steep mountainsides were swollen and noisy in the morning. Where we saw no waterfalls the previous day, there were now white ribbons of water running down cliffs and bursting out the bottom of gullies.

Photo: After the rain, waterfalls come out to play

We left Baie Eternité and had a lovely sail punctuated by an intense squall, and anchored in Anse St Etienne.

Photo: Drying out life jackets, beach of Anse St Etienne in background

Wednesday July 11 Tadoussac

We sailed out of the fjord, another fun sail in the sunshine. We saw a beluga briefly, long and white. We picked up a mooring ball in Tadoussac, as Andy was getting tired of up-anchoring our new heavy anchor from deep waters. Added to the boat project list: installing a windlass for mechanical help pulling up the anchor.

From the shore at Tadoussac we saw our first non-beluga, probably a minke whale.

Photo: Whale watching from the rocks at Pointe d'Islet, Tadoussac

Thursday July 12 Cap à l'Aigle

Big northeast winds today, 15-25 knots, blowing in the right direction for a downwind run to Cap à L'Aigle. Heartbeat was surfing down the waves and it was a thrilling ride.

There was morning fog out of Tadoussac but it soon burned off. The navigation buoys have bells on them - how sensible!

Photo: Buoy with bell that rings in the current and waves, very cool

We had our last beluga sighting, as I was looking at the whitecaps and saying 'gee, the whitecaps look like belugas' then realizing they actually were belugas in this case!

It was so nice to sail this stretch of the river without the fog we'd had on our way down.

Photo: Cap-au-Saumon lighthouse. And waves, we had a rock-and-roll sail.

Friday July 13 La Malbaie

We stayed two nights at Cap à L'Aigle because the wind was forecast to be south-west, and then switch back to north-east the next day - worth waiting for.

We took a short taxi ride into La Malbaie (named by Samuel de Champlain because it is a mal (bad) bay for anchoring as it is a giant mudflat at low tide) and walked all along the waterfront path to Pointe au Pic. The area is known for being the summer home of US President Taft in the early 20th century. We had views all the way across to the south shore, again gratifying because we'd seen nothing on the way down.

Photo: Murray Bay Protestant Church

Photo: Gazebo at the end of the jetty in Pointe-au-Pic

Photo: Roadside path and scenic vista in La Malbaie

Saturday July 14 St-Jean-Port-Joli

We had another exciting and good sail today. It's a good day when you turn off the motor as soon as you've left the harbor, and sail for hours (and hours) to your destination and there's no rain, and you can enjoy the scenery when it's not your turn at the helm.

Photo: Water and mountains, sailing with a tailwind.

We took a different route than on the way down, along the south shore instead of hugging the north shore, and added a stop in St-Jean-Port-Joli. We enjoyed our evening in this village and treated ourselves to dinner out at La Coureuse des Grèves.

We had to time our arrival in St-Jean-Port-Joli to be at high tide because the marina approach is only navigable then. In the clubhouse I noticed a whiteboard updated regularly with that day's window of opportunity to go in and out.

Photo: Heartbeat in St Jean Port Joli marina with the famous south shore sunset.

We're now heading to Quebec and looking forward to a few days of rest and relaxation there.

Love to all, from Danielle