July 16 - 23 -- Snow Island to Orr's Cove, Two Miles (And a Car Trip to Quebec City)

More cleaning in the morning before and after the two mile motor to The Geat Island Boat Yard to have them install the 1140 pound lead slab cast by Mars Metal of Canada to the bottom of our keel. The heads, the emptying of the refrigerator and freezer and the cleaning of their interiors, vacuuming, the distribution of the perishables, the emptying of the water tanks which were starting to smell foul, and then by car to Waterville, only one hour of the five to Quebec City.
Our crew did not really like hotel living. It was traumatic for them and caused them anxiety. They found strange little hidden places to hide in each hotel room and did not eat very much, which for Witty is quite a change. They were very happy to get back to the boat at the end of the adventure, and slept off the afternoon in the aft cabin. Lene got beauty treatments while I explored what Waterville had to offer. A six foot wide steel suspension bridge called "Two Cent Bridge" for the toll that used to be charged for workers to walk to work from the residential side of the Kennebac River. It was built in 1901, 14 years after the much bigger Brooklyn Bridge.

The college art museum was closed. I bought hand tools for the boat at Harbor Freight.
The drive to Quebec City was marked by torrential rainstorms that caused us to pull over to the side and wait. After the bridge across the St. Lawrence River, we proceeded east an the Grand Allee, which changes its name to Rue Saint Louis, and ends at the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, the iconic landmark of this old walled city, seen here from the only higher ground, The Citadelle.

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The construction along the Grand Allee was all new since my first and only prior visit to this city which was in about 1985. Then the hotel was the skyline but now has several neighbors. Hotel at left, taken from the excursion boat.

Our B &B

was on Rue St. Louis in the walled city, about half way between the Frontenac and the Citadel. We watched the Changing of the Guard  ceremony in the Citadel. The red coated soldiers of the off-going 24 hour shift, the on-coming shift and in the band all marched in and out under their bearskin hats, looking very British but marching to orders barked in French.

The Regimental macot, a billy goat with his horns painted gold, played his part too. They made it into a hour of pomp that perhaps Mr. Trump would have enjoyed. A bit silly but fun. I returned for the tour of the fortress

and the museum the next day.






 I also visited the Museum of Civilization, which was a bit disappointing, due to lack of focus, though it had a model boat!

The highlights of our time here were with Manu and Michelle who not only joined us but, for example, brought along five other friends, most of who also know Greg and Wanda of Halifax. This was at dinner at the Quebec YC

which has slips for 300 boats at docks protected from the forces of the St. Laurence by massive seawalls.

I spent most of that evening talking with Yves, whose 39 foot French sloop is currently in Grenada. Subject to all of the vissicitudes that make sailing plans tentative, I was invited to sail with him and Manu from Bermuda to Halifax next July. If this comes off, Lene will fly to Bermuda with me a few days earlier and thence to Halifax where she will hang with Greg and Wanda while we are at sea.
The next night we were invited by another of the group, Bernard, to his house in the woods, overlooking a very long stretch of the babbling Montmorency River, for a home cooked dinner including meat grilled over a wood fire in the yard. If Bernard sends me the photo he promised, I will add it to this post in lieu of this sentence. The view is truly majestic. From his house, which he built from wood he sawed from logs, no sign of mankind infringes into the view: no home, road, path or powerline.
We also walked on the Plains of Abraham, on which the decisive battle was fought in which the British took Canada from the French, before our Revolutionary War and to the garden dedicated to Jean d'Arc located there

Manu, Lene and Michelle

before an excellent French lunch in a restaurant revolving atop an office tower. M and M also had lunch with us at another French restaurant they knew where I had my Poutine (one dose per Canadian trip). This time the fries came with duck confit and cheese curds.








Speaking of the Montmorency River, it terminates at the Falls of the same name which tumble a greater distance than the height of Niagara Falls though with less width or volume of flow, into the St. Lawrence.. We saw the Falls twice, first from an excursion boat that took us up and down the St. Lawrence, and the photo was shot from under the bridge seen in the background ogf the next photo. Then later we visited the falls more close up, by car.

Our last three nights away from our boat were in a hotel in Freeport Maine, a town that Lene loves because it is the home of L.L. Bean as well as about 80 other outlet stores. We shopped and Lene got more stuff for me than for herself. We also took in a regional theater group's program of six one act plays. Amusing, but Lene's WEDREPCO group is so much more professional.

And one day of touring Portland, though it was a nasty rainy day, our first such day of this cruise, a good day to be ashore. We stopped at Portland Yacht Services and the moorings had indeed been removed, but no docks have been built yet. We also saw, for the first time, the Portland Head Light that we pass each time we enter or leave Casco Bay.

One of our previous visits here we walked to the Victoria Mansion, built as a lavish home by wealthy people in 1858 and with original furnishings, only to find it was closed that warm sunny day. This time it was open and duly magnificent though not like the Breakers at Newport.  And we also took in a movie, "Leave no Trace" which is small but excellent.
Finally we returned to the boat, and provisioned her with $275 of mostly perishable food, paid the yard, returned the car, watered the boat and spent the night at their dock. Great Island Boat Yard finished the job on time and a bit under budget. The folks here are quite a pleasure to deal with. Here are views of the keel before and after.

It should make a difference to her sailing performance. We will find out tomorrow.