The Significant One Percent!

It is widely understood that sailing is ninety-nine percent boredom and one percent serious excitement. Today, we got the one percent.

After casting off from Cap de la Madelaine under fair skies and light winds, we spent the morning tacking into the NE winds. We were hoping for NW winds to prevail, but that's sailing. Dancing with freighters in an intricately choreographed series of tacks kept focused. The shore line is a mix of designer homes (some huge), industry with peirs and the odd small time old cottage. The chanel is often narrow and leaving it can bring you to shallows very quickly. Charts are worth every penny. Obvservations continued to be engaging throughout the morning.

We were encouraged by freshening winds and scattered cloud early in the afternoon. Shutting down the motor feels real good. Weather reports continue to declare light E winds and a chance of showers later in the afternoon. The number one sail and full main were moving us adequately. The one percent then occurred. Strong gusty winds and large waves appeared in a space of about 8 minutes and we had to move quickly to keep things under control. Very exciting sailing but the towering clouds approaching suggested that we should get the sails down and get out of Dodge City. A little port Called Deschaillons Sur St. Laurent provided the needed shelter as well as a beer and lunch at 1330. The speed of the weather developments have led us to want to question the VHF weather forcasts in the future. The computer will hopefully be a good second opinion in future. As the day ends we are still in port and planning to spend the night.

That's all for today. Tomorrow, we hope to make Quebec, but tides are becoming an issue from here on.

Don and John (well-rested) over and out for now.