Today we left Quebec City at 7:00 a.m. and motored down the Saint Lawrence towards Tadoussac, some 110 nautical miles (nm) downstream. The goal in part was to use the outgoing tide to boost our speed downstream in order to get to Tadoussac faster than normal. If Brio cruises at 2300 rpm and "drinks' 36 gallons of fuel an hour to run 22 mph, what could we do if we found favorable currents over the next several hours? How quickly could we get to Tadoussac if we had to cover the 110 nm? Well, Brio's passage is a great story.
Shortly after leaving Quebec City, we passed by Montmorency Falls, which you can see below. It was foggy, but you can still get a sense of just how magnificent this is. These falls are maybe a hundred metres higher than Niagara Falls. For a sense of scale, you can see a pickup truck driving in the lower right of the picture, about halfway between Brio and the Falls.
There is a wire-bound book of the hourly tidal states between Quebec City and Tadoussac. Here is a picture of one part of the River between Cap aux Oiles and Sault-au-Cochon for an hour of one hour before high tide to high tide at a tidal station, Pointe-au-Pere.
The different colored arrows and different sized arrows indicate the strength or weakness of the tidal flow. Look at the north side of the River, between the coast and Ile aux Coudres. The orange arrows indicate expected tidal speeds of 4 to 5 knots. The red are speeds over 5 knots up to 7 knots.
This is just the area we aimed for as we were "zooming" down the River.
In fact we hit this area and Brio's speed over ground (SOG") reached just over 30 knots with no increase in engine speed or fuel consumption!
In fact, Brio was able to average speeds of about 3 knots over her cruising speed, thus cutting 10 to 20% off of her travel time to Tadoussac from Quebec.
But not all was as planned. As we approached Tadoussac, we had to cut our speed in half since we were in an "Ecological Reserve" where we might find whales. Then as we approached the mouth of Tadoussac, we encountered tides that started to flow against us. The sea state became chaotic.
The coast was now defined by steep-sided mountains that added to the drama the developed.
These tides brought much colder water to us (Quebec's water temperature had been 70 F. This water was in the very low 50F range. This meant that thick fog developed.
We put on our radar, turned on the fog horn and watched for other boats.
You can see how the seas built up.
and
Here is a video clip.
Finally, the fog became so thick that we slowed to about 5 knots, enough to give steerage in the heavy seas.
Suddenly, we saw two masts perhaps a quarter of a mile off our port beam. The schooner was motoring and was pitching heavily in the rough water, trying to go upwind into the heavy waves.
We were very fortunate we missed the schooner! There was no sign of her on the radar, probably because she was wooden. But she also didn't have AIS, the electronic signature transmitted to all other ships of your presence.
Once we crept into the outer harbor and past the thick fog, visibility improved dramatically. We went to our marina and docked Brio after filling her fuel tanks. In another hour or so, the schooner came in and docked near us.
We spoke with the captain, who had no idea we were nearby! He had radar, but he must not have had it turned on! We told him he had to have radar reflectors on his masts as well as AIS going forward. He seemed shaken by his experience in the thick fog. Hopefully shaken enough to take measures for making his vessel safer!
Cheers,
Brio
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