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Today was for stocking up and looking ahead. We started by stocking up. On our last leg we did a good job of eating through nearly everything, so Fred, Martha, and I Ubered up to the nearest supermarket to get all the food we would need for the next couple of weeks. I still find this process a mixture of enjoyable and stressful. It's quite enjoyable to go around with two or three shopping carts getting bushels of whatever food you'd like, but it's stressful to see just how th

There were three big tasks for today: go to the hardware store, say goodbye to Nathan, and greet Fred and Martha. The first task was the hardware store. Nathan's parents had driven up to Quebec, which meant that for the morning we had access to a car. What we needed from the hardware store was somewhat grim: a poop bucket. The Great Lakes are very strict about how blackwater (human waste) is treated, and Pelagic is not up to the standards. With the time we have left, we neede

Today there wasn't much on the agenda. I had a few personal goals, such as sending my film in to get developed and seeing a bit of the city, but the boat work was minimal. Sadly, Chuck and Tor were leaving today, which was sure to have an effect on the boat's chemistry which had been so great for the last couple weeks. They also played a large role in encouraging many of the fun things we've done in the last weeks and providing the competence that allowed all those fun thing

Today we set off around 7:00 in order to make it to a marina 10 miles south of Quebec that was supposed to be helpful for timing the tides. Setting off took a bit long than usual though because after the day prior's sloppy docking job, I asked Chuck and Tor if they'd coach me some more on backing onto the dock. It took a handful of tries, but eventually I got a docking I was satisfied with and we set off. Again, we found ourselves battling the currents toward Quebec, but this

We set off from the Saguenay Fjord at dawn this morning. Chuck and Tor fly out of Quebec on the 25th and we were still 100 miles down river and downwind of the prevailing winds. Making our way out of the fjord went smoothly, the sun was just casting long shadows on the cliff faces as we made our way back onto the St. Lawrence. The wind was light, but the current was 1-2 knots against us in the broader sections and 3-4 knots in the more narrow sections, making progress very sl

This morning, happily, we were still anchored in the fjord. Everyone was feeling much better after a full night's sleep, and now that we weren't so exhausted, everyone was very excited to head up the fjord to do some hiking and exploring. The area that offered the best exploring had no sure anchorages, so we were hoping to get there early and test the waters untill we found somewhere solid. As we got closer though we had another idea. The walls of the fjord were sheer rock, a

We had a pretty but breif sunrise this morning as the sun crossed the gap between the horizon and cloudy sky. By the time the sun was behind the clouds we were only a few hours from our destination, the Saguenay Fjord. The Saguenay Fjord is a calving ground for beluga whales, which Nathan and Katie desperately wanted to see, so as we got within 10 miles, they both went to go sit on deck and look for them. We had to wait all of 30 seconds before Katie started pointing and call

This morning was uneventful. The wind was moderate and the sky was an unthreatening grey. A welcome respite as we were all tired by yesterday's events and a night of watches. By noon the wind settled to around 8 knots, at which point I got off watch and went to go nap. I was woken up by Tor an hour into my nap when he came to tell me we were setting the spinnaker. The spinnaker is rarely ever used on this boat because it is so massive that the window of wind that it's safe to

We left our anchorage at Rocher à la Poire with the sunrise. Our breaths lay stagnate in the air as we set out only to be whipped away as the wind built and the sun rose. The wind had been forecasted at 20 knots, but in our experience, the forecasts usually overestimated by 5–10 knots so we were expecting a moderately sailing day. The good news was that we could now sail southwest down the St. Lawrence, and the wind was coming from slightly north of west, so for once we weren

Today our engine behaved, and we got to sail for the most part anyways. The morning had some bigger waves, but they eventually flattened out and the sailing was quick and comfortable. We sailed under the lee of Anticosti Island to get out of the waves further, which unintentionally made us the perfect refuge for a few small land birds who were blown out to sea. There were a couple throughout the morning that landed and took off again, but one stayed with us: a small green bir

We left our anchorage at 5 am this morning as our next stop was 30 hours away and we wanted to reach it stop before dark. Tentatively we started the motor and it seemed to be behaving, so we got underway. However, after a couple hours, the cabin suddenly filled with steam and the smell of coolant. In our checking of all the seawater hoses last night, a hose got repositioned to where it was sitting up against a coolant line, eventually causing the coolant line to rip in half.

We got up early this morning to say goodbye to Tyler, Candy, and Marc as they had an early ferry ride out of Harrington. Their time on the boat was brief but very enjoyable, so they'll all be missed. After saying goodbye, we really didn't have much to do. The wind forecast for today was for strong wind from the direction we wanted to go, and good wind tomorrow, so made the most sense to wait to leave until tomorrow. However restlessness quickly kicked and as we all puttered a

We woke up to discover that our anchorage was beautiful, and so was the weather. We were anchored up near the end of the bay where a small bubbling brook joined the ocean. At the north of the bay were huge cliffs, with the northern cliff having a 60–70 foot high 45° overhang. We walked up the southern side of the bay to get a better look at the northern cliffs and to see out to sea. The wind still contained a chill, but the chill was lifted by the sun shining through the clou

Today it was raining when we started and raining when we stopped. Our plan was to leave the protected inland passageways for the open ocean as we made our way towards Harrington Harbour. As we nosed out of our quiet anchorage, we were greeted by driving rain and 20 knots of wind coming right over the bow. No sailing was to be done. In hopes of lifting spirts I optimistically promised that before the end of the day we'd be sailing at 8 knots. The first 10 miles of the day were

Today, in 9 hours of traveling, we didn't touch a sail once. Our trip today was traveling through 20 miles of inland waterways. The waterways are the width of rivers, but are connected directly to the ocean. Carved out by glaciers, they're deep for how wide they are and come together in a grid of straight, nearly perpendicular lines. We primarily traveled from east to west today, and for most of the day we had 20–30 knots on the nose. With the narrow channels sailing was impo

Today we only had 15 miles to cover, almost all through narrow inland passages. Katie made us a lovely breakfast and then we lifted anchor and got underway. The narrowest of the passages we encountered was a 90° turn five times as wide as the boat, but other than that nothing was too exciting. I figured we'd run aground at least once today, but we managed to avoid it. For the last couple miles of the passage we even tried sailing, but only made it work in the last mile. Enjoy

I got very little sleep before my 12 am watch. I had gotten attuned to the voices and speech patterns of the crew we had for the Labrador trip to the point where people talking really wouldn't keep me up. I am not there yet with this crew and spent most of the night wondering: is that a good ooh or a bad ooh? Should I go up and help? They said that ship was close; how close is their close? Eventually my watch rolled around and I pried myself out of my bunk. I could hear water

Today we woke up late with nothing to do. The forecast was for strong wind against us all day and all the normal tinkering we'd do to pass the time had been exhausted in St Anthony so today was a rare day with little to nothing to do. I spent my morning lounging around making calls I had previously been too busy or stressed to make and catching up on a little non boat work. Thus I was lounging around when Nathan came up to me around noon looking jittery to tell me that a weat

The plan for the next 16 days of the trip is to jump along the coast of Quebec until we reach Harrington Harbour, where Tyler, Marc, and Candy get off, and then beeline it for Quebec City where Chuck, Nathan, and Katie get off. The first stretch to Harington harbor should be more relaxed but we need to do one overnight to get to the nicer cruising grounds in Quebec and we were hoping that that would be today. We left on schedule at 8 am. It took some maneuvering to get out of

Today was a mix of a lot of things. Very excitingly, Chuck and Candy arrived in the morning and they, Marc, Katie, and Tyler all moved onto the boat, which returned a feeling of completeness to the boat. We then got to do the food provisioning; filling up shopping cart after shopping cart with anything we wanted to eat for the next month. With everyone on board and food stocked we were almost ready for the next leg of our journey. The last thing was to say goodbye to Helene.