Positive Change
Groceries are on the to-do list the next day so the marina staff offer us the loaner bikes but rain is threatening and we expect to have some heavy (cans and bottles) groceries to carry back. But we make the trek to the IGA up an enormous hill in great heat. We call a taxi to return us to the marina and arrive just as the skies open so we wait it out in the little picnic shelter and share a beer and some chips for lunch. 😜
Tomorrow we must depart early so preparations take up much of the afternoon after we load the groceries and take stock of what we have still onboard, which involves almost emptying and resorting the aft cabin.
After dinner we remember to try the new chart plotter only to find the card will not show any charts. The instructions say the card has to be activated so we try but it’s not possible on the iPad. The girls at the dock kiosk try to help but need a password they don’t have access to. They suggest I try in the office first thing in the morning. I am ready to cry.
The office manager arrives early and tries to help but the computer is so old it won’t take the USB card. I guess we’re back to charting the old way and following along on the Navionics on the iPad. We can manage and depart the dock under hazy skies at 8:30 for our 72 nautical mile day. A long one.
At the western tip of I’le d’Orleans we spot Montmorency Falls. Hoping to have cruised past but it’s not the recommended route so we stay in the main channel.
By 10:30 we are still motoring with 3 knots of wind off the stern. We activate the auto helm and settle in for the long ride. The river is much wider now and markers are few.
It is sunny and warm when we decide to call our friend at Neptune Marine to ask about the chart plotter. He is quick to explain it does not require activation. So we try again to insert the card and we immediately have active charts. Great relief! I thank him and tell him he has a place to stay if he wants to come to Oktoberfest in Kitchener. (He’s been to Munich and we used this as point of reference for where we live)
We raise the foresail and now enjoy favourable wind and a nice current putting us at 10 knots as we pass the ski hills at Mont Sainte Anne and Le Massif. Much of the day we exchange the lead with Jolene Madame as many ships pass. We motor sail with jib, quite certain any boats we see now going down river will be heading to the same destination: Cap a L’Aigle, called a “refuge” for good reason.
New sailing friend, Dany, told us “paradise begins at Cap a L’aigle”.
