The Ultimate Pre-Marital Test
Arriving in Quebec City, where we spent four days prepping to sail to Newfoundland
We both sleep for two hours out of the last 24. It requires all hands on deck to make it through the night. After 110 miles we turn up the Saguenay River into a seven-knot ripping ebb tide. Don’t ask why, but we try it anyway. Two hours later we make it two miles up the river and tie up to a dock at the Tadousaac Marina which hasn’t even opened for the season yet. We rest. We will try again tomorrow. On our second attempt towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence we relearn that we are, in not fact, invincible. Without providing the detailed weather report, let’s just say… the mouth of the St. Lawrence seaway is chewing us up and spitting us out. More of a regurgitation than a spit. We are receiving neon rejection signs and starting to think we should read them. www.cruisingoutpost.com
pg 38-45 Jessie On The St. Lawrnece edited Redo.indd 7
The 20-knot predicted headwind is substituted with a Force 9 gale. It’s raining. It’s black. It’s building. The waves grow into hills. The hills push us back into the river. The wind becomes an impenetrable force. We tack back and forth. We cover no ground. The second reef The daily fog that is in main and stay-sail have born in the Gulf of Desirée pleasant to helm. St. Lawrence The wave chop treats us like a rocking horse. We are stationary, teetertottering on springs. We tack for a few hours with the engine on so we can point just a few degrees higher. The engine shuts off after it sucks in air instead of fuel on a starboard tack. Rookie mistake. I go down below to bleed fuel in a gale. Diesel is everywhere. She starts running. I start to feel sick. By 1:00 am we agree to turn around and run with the gale to the nearest safe harbor. Luke drops the main. We oscillate
Cruising Outpost 43
11/1/17 4:41 PM