Oh my! Matane - The Gaspe Peninsula

Oh my!    Matane – The Gaspe Peninsula

Matane is a 45 nautical mile trip from Rimouski.  We expected the waters to be noticeably different here as well,  due to the widening of the river and  its opening  into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  We certainly noticed the change  in water temperature  - each day it is getting increasingly colder – and the depths are getting far deeper.  The further north east we travel we can feel the effects of the colder waters moving down from the Labrador coast to hit the warmer water emptying into the Gulf from the St. Lawrence River. It really is amazing to feel and experience this phenomenon – I have read articles that explain the reactions that occur but to encounter  it and  use our abilities to adjust our sailing strategies  to make our journey comfortable really puts it all in perspective for us.  

There are 2 harbours in Matane.  One is commercial used primarily by the ferry to Baie Comeau , those involved in the fishing industry and container shipping vessels. The other is at the Matane Yacht Club.  We elected to enter the commercial harbour for a number of reasons.  The commercial harbour is accessible at any stage of the tide,  for one.  We are far more marina type folk than yacht club members for another and the fact that we were able to tie up to a fishing wharf at no cost also had a big impact on our decision.  However, the main reason was for the ease of addressing our issue with our foresail.

It is common practice for most sailing vessels to be motored out of harbours before their sails are raised.  As soon as we had motored far enough out of the Rimouski harbour that morning to position us well past the water chop at the harbour entrance,  we raised our foresail.   We had little wind so we had decided to continue motoring sailing, using our foresail to help us achieve  a few extra knots so as to make a hastier passage to Matane.   As usual, the plan was well executed but the logistics were not.  We headed into what wind we did have in order to furl the jib and that procedure went off perfectly.  It wasn`t until we were cleating off the sheet line that the plan fell apart and so did the sail.  Within seconds the sail began to flow ever so swiftly down the forestay (because of its weight) and into the water before we could get up to the bow to see what the heck had happened.  The Captain immediately instructed me to take the helm as he scrambled between the shrouds along the deck as the sail dipped over the side of the bow and into the sea.  As luck would have it, the sail remained attached at the roller furler on both pennants but as it raced down the forestay it had slid out of the slider allowing the main part of the sail to be free to fall slack. The little wind that was blowing was enough the pull it overboard.  Fortunately,  we were far enough out of the harbour for me to put the boat into neutral so as to limit the drag on the sail which was now filling with water.   As the captain hauled the sail back onto the deck, I was instructed to remain at the helm to steer the boat away from the rocky breakwater we had only moments before motored out of.   With the sail safely back on board and dragged into the cockpit,  the vessel back in gear eastward bound,  and our adrenalin flows subsided,  we were able to figure out what had happened.   The halyard, the line that is attached to the top of the sail snapped  cleanly in half thereby allowing the  upper  pennant  freedom to slip down,  ever faster with the weight of the sail attached to it.

 Another note to self and other like-minded sailors.  Never purchase line from Schooner Lines and Rigging in Lunenburg, NS.  We had purchased this line for our halyards brand spanking new and wrapped before we left NS.  It was incorporated into the new furling system we had had installed by a master shipwright at Waupoos before departing Lake Ontario.

So you see, we needed a harbour where we could work on the plan of attack for sail repair and the vessel itself since the remaining length of halyard had now dropped back down into the mast.  The Matane commercial harbour turned out to be just the ticket.

Marie and Ted had arrived in Trollop and they too tied up to the floating fishing wharf in front of us.  We chatted with the harbour master and gave him some indication (with my limited French language capabilities again) of our problem and he offered to provide us with free use of their harbour crane first thing in the morning if we needed to  go up the mast for repair.   Keith and I  were  overwhelmed by that kind gesture.

As an aside here, I must say that everyone in Quebec that we have encountered has been far more than hospitable, courteous and helpful and I have found the language issue much more of an issue for me than I expected.  I expected that I would be able to get by.  I never expected in any way how embarrassed I was to be that my skills are as poor as they are.  I live in a country with two official languages and I am only able to use one of them well.      Note to self—address that one!

Marie and Ted set out to explore and scout out any service spots that we all may need for provisioning and repairs. Bridlewilde`s captain was left on the boat deep in thought and I was off in search of WIFI access.    And by the time we three had returned to our respective vessels, Captain Bond had not only devised the solution to our foresail issue but had executed it as well. 

We have a myriad of pieces of miscellaneous equipment stowed away in nooks and crannies on board our boat  - just in case.  We think of these as our `kitchen junk drawer`` or `` McGiver Gear. ``  And they  come in very handy!  Keith used apiece of 30 inch long clear  plastic tubing that we had,   into  which he  inserted the end of  our topping lift line. This was to protect the line in case of tear or another break . The topping lift is a line that extends down from the head of the mast that is attached to the heel of the boom that allows support for the boom.  Our boom is quite long at 15 feet and so the captain had installed one  on our vessel.   His idea was to use that topping lift as our halyard for the foresail, protect the top of it with the hose, flip the topping lift line around to the front of the mast hoping that the tubing would catch on the upper pulley of the mast, thereby holding it in place to become the new halyard.  It worked and with the foresail struck again, our jib was back.    Keith adhered the boom with line and clamps to the backstay for the support it required due to the loss of the topping lift line and that worked as well.     And all I can say about it all is that the captain  never ceases to amaze me!

With all that out of the way a sense of relaxed relief made the evening much more comfortable and easier for sleeping soundly through the night.  When we awoke the following morning we spotted the huge container ship that was present in the harbour the night before and almost right next to us.  We hadn`t taken particular notice of it then as we were attending to  our own issue.  It had delivered tines for wind mills and the housing casements that receive the tines which were now being offloaded from the vessel.  There are many areas along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence where huge wind farms are erected especially on the higher mountainous areas heading easterly toward the Gulf.  They looked gigantic to me from the water even from such a long distance away.  But to actually see the tines up close on the dock right beside us brought the reality of their size into perspective.  I touched one of the tines to see what it might be made of and it seemed much heavier than I thought but felt very much like it may have been fiberglass. They really were enormous as you will note in the photo here.  Keith is standing beside one tine.