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June 30-July 2  to Trois Rivieres and Pontneuf

      We did a lot of reading about the upcoming legs of the trip - to Quebec City and beyond.  All our guidebooks contained dire warnings about the increasing current, tides, and prevailing winds.  “Time your departures so you arrive at the correct moment of the tide” we read.  Since one of our guidebooks is in French, this involved some deductions to make sure we were actually understanding the advice.  We knew ‘heure’ was hour, and ‘haute’ was high, and ‘maree’ must have something to do with the sea (it means tide) but what was ‘barrage’?  Or ‘batture’?    Fortunately, we also brought along the book French for Cruisers (we also have Spanish for Cruisers) and learned not just about weirs and shoals but also the word for anchorage - ‘mouillage.’  We discovered there are very few mouillages between here and New Brunswick.  Apparently as tides play an increasing factor, the banks of the river tend to become mud flats.  It’s either travel the main shipping channel or find a marina.  

     We left Montreal about nine am, passing mile after mile of wharf where large ships loaded and unloaded cargo. 

We hadn’t planned on going all the way to Trois-Rivieres (about sixty miles from Montreal) and found a pretty little mouillage among the bird sanctuary islands of Lac St. Pierre, about half that distance.  That was the goal until we found we were moving along pretty swiftly thanks to the strong downstream current.  We anchored in that town off the recommended Western end of Ile St. Quinton, near a park with a beach.  Tuesday night was the eve of the national holiday - Canada’s Independence Day is July 1 - and the partiers were out in force, on their motor boats, pontoon boats, and jetskis, and a waterfront stage provided live music well into the night.  Dan and I soaked up the atmosphere from our cockpit until sunset.

     Wednesday dawned overcast, threatening thunderstorms and wind.  It had rained some in the night and rained on and off much of the day, but we have a pilot house! so we could stay inside.  We continued our way to Quebec, intent on a not-quite-on-the-chart mouillage about thirty miles from Quebec.  We were just about the only vessel on the river. With good reason, we thought, as the current picked up, the winds were steady at 20 knots, and we cruised at least six knots faster than usual. 

      Should we stop at the marina in Portneuf or try for the unmarked anchorage just beyond it?  If we missed the anchorage (or found it wasn’t suitable), could we turn back?  Not turning back meant another thirty miles to Quebec.  It was already late afternoon.  We did the prudent thing.  We went directly to the marina at Portneuf.

     Completely surrounded by breakwater, this marina is a welcome respite from the river’s swift flow.  We were welcomed by Sara and directed to a slip.  The wind never abated all night, though it finally stopped raining, and in the morning it was as strong as ever.  We decided to spend another day here, and take advantage of marina facilities - showers, flush toilets, laundry, ice, water, electricity, wi-fi- and we took a short walk through town, picking up a small basket of fresh strawberries.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a down day.  Dan found some small projects, we caught up with correspondences and other online mundane things, and met some friendly folks with a Willard 40 - a very luxurious version of our boat.  I made pizza with the leftover spaghetti sauce from last night.  We’re looking forward to a couple of nights in Quebec - the forecast sounds good for us to leave tomorrow.