Riviere de Madeleine is a quaint commercial fishing village. This morning we dinghied ashore, walked the village and purchased some lobster and mussels from the local seafood outlet.
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| Returning from the seafood outlet |
There was a sailing flotilla in harbour, which was sailing from France to Quebec City for the 400th anniversary celebrations, and the returning home.
After returning to our boats, we watched the flotilla depart, and were glad we weren’t with them since conditions offshore were less than ideal. We weighed anchor and followed the flotilla out of the harbour. Our destination was Perce Rock.
Today is a special day. We are travelling to Perce Rock, one of Canada's most photographed land marks. It is time for Susann to get a check mark on on her “bucket list” – to see Perce Rock up close and personal!
We toured both the front and back side of this awe inspiring hunk of rock located just offshore from the town of Perce. In fact, one can walk out to the rock from the beach at low tide. It is the size of several large city blocks.
After viewing Perce Rock, we circumnavigated Ile de Bonneventure, a nesting sanctuary for the white northern gannets, located just offshore from the town of Perce. Mid July means that many of the chicks have hatched and are being protected in the nests by the female birds, while the male birds are busy searching the sea for seaweed or fish to feed the family. Once the male returns with a beak full of food, the colony bursts into a loud uproar.
One can visit the island by ferry and take a two-mile to the gannet nesting site. The gannet nesting site is well staffed with park rangers who supply information and make sure that the close human/bird interaction is not stressful to the birds. It is amazing how little fear the birds have of humans, who are seen as a non-threatening presence. The sea at the eastern edge of the Gaspe Peninsula is a whale-rich environment, where the land drifts off to a substantial open ocean. In fact, the word Gaspe comes from the language of the local Amerindian tribe, the Micmacs. Their word "gespeg" meant "land's end." We did not encounter any whales today, but one of our buddy boats spotted a "basking shark" on the water
“Kaos” & “Lionheart” opted to spend the night at anchor in the Chandler Harbor. Once inside, it was quite rolly, but we hoped that as the evening progressed the wind and swell would subside. Susann was cooking up the two lobsters purchased that morning, and since it can be a messy meal, we decided to dine up on the fly bridge where we could enjoy the view and fresh air. The rolling continued and every so often, we would have to grab our wine glasses and hold on to them, which made it more difficult to crack the lobsters and certainly made dining a lot less enjoyable. It was the last straw as Alan’s wine glass toppled, throwing white wine all over him; he hoisted the anchor and tried to move closer to the breakwater without success, so we headed into the marina. Once docked, we learned that you cannot anchor in the harbor on Saturday evenings since a large cruise ship arrives at about 10:00pm. With that information, we called “Lionheart” and they too moved into the marina. It is a nice marina, reasonably priced at $1.00 per foot. There is 30 amp power at some docks and others with 15 amps. There is also a seafood restaurant on site.
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