Since the last blog posting, we have experienced 3 days of highs and lows. All I can say is thank goodness we did not have the Internet available yesterday as the tone of this blog would be a lot different!

In Ramouski we said goodbye to our friends, restocked our groceries, Bruce got a much needed haircut and I did a bit of shopping at a real mall! We left Ramouski on Thursday morning and headed to Matane. This was probably one of our best sailing days yet. By the time we got anchored in the main harbor the wind had started to pick up and it continued to blow all night long. The next day we determined that it was far too windy to start out and decided to stay put. We dropped the dinghy in the water and decided to row to shore as it wasn't too far away. We walked into town and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a lot larger town than it looked. They even had a Walmart store. There was a great fresh seafood store along the route so we bought some fish, shrimp and scallops and headed back to the boat for a late lunch. The wind was still howling and we were glad we had decided to stay. We loaded our stuff in the dinghy and thought that the boat looked a lot further from shore than it looked when you were on the boat looking to the shore. We knew we were going to have a hard time rowing the dinghy back to the boat as we had to row directly into the wind! It seemed to take forever and we were afraid to stop rowing as we would immediately be pushed back or sideways by the wind. We did eventually make it but we will not be doing that again any time soon! We had a great lunch and dinner of fresh seafood.

The next day was again quite windy but we foolishly decided to start out and when it got too bad we would stop. We were hoping to make it to Ste. Anne des Monts but after about 25 miles we realized that it again was just getting too ruff. We decided to go into Les Mechins and stay for the night. We thought that we could anchor just outside the harbor but the anchor kept dragging. I think that the bottom was really rocky and hard. There was a pier that was empty so pulled up the anchor and decided to try the pier. It was low tide,the pier was really high and there was no one around to catch a line so we had to try to grasp hold of a tire that was hanging over the edge . We made one approach but I missed the tire. The second attempt was successful and we managed to secure the boat, however the barbecue that was hanging over the aft rail kind of collided with the cement pier and we almost lost the barbecue lid over the side! I managed to grasp it at the last minute, but when Bruce tried to fix it, he dropped a piece from the bottom of the barbecue overboard so now we can't attach it to the mount on the boat. We will have to wait till we can get to a marine store again to try to fix it. We were stuck here for another night and we were afraid to go for a walk as we weren't too sure how our fenders and lines would work as the tides went up and down. Neither of us slept much that night as we kept getting up to check on the boat. This whole trip Bruce had been wishing for more wind so that we could get more sailing in and now we had 3 days of so much wind we couldn't go out in it! By this time I am now getting homesick and am starting to wonder what we are doing here anyway, so far away from our family and friends so I have a good cry and can't even call anyone as we haven't had cell phone coverage for 3 days. I do know that these feelings will pass and there will be better days ahead. We haven't made much progress in 3 days and this alone is frustrating.

Today, we woke up to rain and wind again, but decided to try to make it another 22 miles to Ste. Anne des Monts. The weather picked up as the morning progressed and we actually lost most of the wind and had to motor the last half of the trip. The sun is now shining but the wind has picked up again but we are at a dock and have made reservations to eat out tonight. I think Bruce is trying to pick up my spirits. This place is lovely and it is the last larger town we will come to before Gaspe and we do not plan on going into the Bay, so we again stocked up on some groceries and went for a long walk. We were able to call home, but as it is a long weekend could not reach everyone that we wanted to.

We hope to leave very early tomorrow and do 90 miles, if possible, to try to make up for some lost time as we would really like to be in New Brunswick by next weekend so that we can fly home from Moncton for a few days. I hope the weather starts to turn and we will have better travelling days. We have almost turned the corner and will start heading South again so that is a good thing! We will also be coming home for a break in 9 days! Things are looking up again.