Quebec City!

After leaving Portneuf on a beautiful, calm morning we enjoyed breakfast en route in the cockpit and around noon, we saw the promontory of Quebec City rising on the north shore, with ramparts of the old city lining the hill and the crown jewel, Chateau Frontenac, sitting at the top, gazing out across the St. Lawrence.  Upon arriving at the Port of Quebec Marina, we had to go through a set of locks that control the height of the water at the marina, before being allowed in!  The marina is situated on the southeast side of the old city of Quebec and is HUGE!!!....450 spots!  More importantly, it had a pool, which we took advantage of almost immediately!!!  We spent three days at the marina in total, and every day was very hot and humid, although fortunately there was always a strong west wind blowing which blew right through our cockpit and in to our boat, so kept things relatively cool!!  We discovered a great farmer's market right beside the marina where we were able to restock some of our provisions, and we got the rest from the local metro.  A bit of a walk, but we have been on the boat for a while, so the exercise did us good!!  Followed by a rewarding dip in the pool!!  We decided to relax on the boat our first night, so had appetizers and champagne given to us before we left to celebrate the double celebration of the birth of Chris and Anne's brand new baby boy and our first milestone of reaching Quebec City!

leaving Portneuf at 0700

Pont de Quebec

Chateau Frontenac

The next day we walked through the Lower Town of Quebec, enjoying the 'twisty-turny', narrow streets; reminiscent of old European cities.  Quebec City really does have a european feel to it!  We had a wonderful lunch in the lower town, right under the ramparts, on the aptly named Sous le Fort street!  We then tackled the hill and made our way up to the Upper Town and Place D'Armes, the Chateau Frontenac and it's wonderful boardwalk and commanding views of the St. Lawrence and the Isle D'Orleans.  We then followed the ramparts (still fortified with cannons every twenty feet!), and made our way back down the hill, passing the Quebec Seminary on our way.  It is a huge building, commanding a big portion of the city skyline!  We finished off our tour by wandering along Sous le Cap, and then back to the marina....and a swim!!

square in lower town

view from restaurant

part of boardwalk in front of  Chateau Frontenac

oldest house in Quebec city; built 1635?

Quebec Seminary.....huge!!!!

After much consideration, we decided to leave the next day, not at 0700, as we had first planned, but rather at 5:00pm, to coincide with the ebbing of the tide, and aim to get to Cap a L'Aigle around 0200 in the morning.  There are currents and tides to contend with in a couple of places en route to Cap a L'Aigle, mostly where the channel narrows at Ile aux Coudres, so it is important to try to do most of your trip on the ebb tide, which means you must start at the end of the flood.  So we decided to plan a night steam and then spend the next day at Cap a L'Aigle.  It is a long stretch, with next to no anchorages or harbours that can be entered.  We left Quebec City with 20-25 knot winds on our quarter, and had a beautiful evening sail around Ile D'Orleans.  It probably ate in to some of our projected travel time, but we were enjoying it so much, we didn't mind.  What it meant, though, was we ended up entering the narrows at Ile aux Coudres at flood tide, so it slowed us down considerably and we didn't get to Cap a L'Aigle until 0500 in the morrning!!  A projected 8 - 9 hour sail had been extended to 12 hours!!  Otherwise it was actually quite enjoyable, and other than meeting three freighters out there, relatively uneventful, however we did arrived tired!!  We went straight to bed and slept until noon, and then spent a welcome, quiet day at Cap a L'Aigle.....especially after the busy, noisy harbour at Quebec City!! 

leaving Quebec City in our wake

night steam to Cap a L'Aigle