Thanks for watching and the comment. I'm hoping more sailors search the topic and see my experience, and consider that before setting upriver on their sailboat.
Did your trip back in 95 no GPS etc back then, charts and radar. The Saguenay river being very cold running into the saint Lawrence being extremely deep , creates its own weather patterns in the area. We went through the beginning of August,we had hail storms, then heavy fog etc etc. yes the current changed on us , we had to wait till the next day. Then massive Freightliners in the channel,eso😅 when you get in the narrow. It is extremely dangerous trying to get into the narrow openings through the break walls into a marina, especially with 5 knots of current. The wind's tides funnel through the channel. I'm surprised you don't have a life jacket on your cat. We had two cats , one hated sailing at any point he could jump ship he tried, the other was nicknamed , Popeye, he was a daredevil, he'd walk the tie rail, bowsprit in gale force winds. . It's a sin not to stop in Quebec City, we spent a week, absolutely fantastic. Under the Jacque Cartier bridge my throttle leaver wasn't able to go over 1200 rpms not realizing after a 1/2 hour we were sitting at the same spot as the current raced by us, giving us the impression we were just cruising forward. Until we noticed nothing was changing much on land.
Thanks for sharing! That was a hell of a challenging trip for us even being glued to my chartplotter screen. Moosely does scare us sometimes. But a vast majority or the time he stays low and safe.
Bravo to both of you! and thanks for not sugar coating the vids, i want to take my Catalina 400 that way and i really appreciated an honest account of day to day moving up the river!
Excellent episode, really conveyed the challenge. You both handled them admirably. Cool cucumbers, at least on video. I love Morgans economy of words. Well don and I hope the anniversary was subsequently celebrated properly. Best from the Antipodes
You are reaching some great speeds there for sure! The winds are crazy man. I have drove over that bridge at least once in the past. A hell of a trip but, at least you made it. Not a trip that we would take on for sure. Happy Anniversary! You guys are troopers for taking that route...
Thanks, I wouldn't mind driving over that bridge to see more. I wish we could have stopped in Quebec, but we were on a time crunch for picking up crew. All I can say is if you have patience and no schedule the st. Lawrence wouldn't be a bad trip to do, especially if you want to test your skills sailing and mech. Cause it was definitely beautiful and there is a lot to see.
Frank dye , who sailed to Iceland on a wayfarer said in his book, the one sailing from Florida to the great lakes, that the at Lawrence was the toughest piece of water he ever sailed. Good on you guys. Fair winds. We are on Georgian Bay , hope you make it to the north channel this season.
Check your fuel pickup tube. Some boat manufacturers put a screen on the end of the tube that has a tendency to get clogged up. I have had a situation where the tube was clogged at the top of the tank where it made a 90 deg. angle to the fuel line. Also clean your tanks...
I fixed the issue after we got to montral. Not %100 sure what fixed it because I did 3 things. I heard a hiss from a bolt on my injection pump, so i tightened it. Morgan noticed a shine on the bottom of the Racor, so I serviced it, and for good measure I took the advice from a friend who is a diesel tech and installed a low pressure electric fuel pump in line near my tank. No issues after that. (Except I rewired the pump to separate it from my voltage gauge. Because it made the gauge erratic)
Thanks 4 the "heads up' of the conditions .Ive had many conversations with fellow sailors out of Toronto and they all agree on these brutal conditions.IF goingsouth the ICW is the best.Whats the deal with brigging the cat along?..respectfully.
Is your engine the original Perkins 4.108? I know some diesels can be finicky when on a heel as far as air getting in the fuel line. Also working in a seaway, stirring sludge from the bottom of the fuel tank, can get sucked into the fuel line.
It's a 1985 perkins 4.108. It's old but not quite as old as the boat. I hear you about sludge stirring. That's what I thought it was on that first day. Hence the filter change. But I did polish the fuel before departure from Maine (for what that is worth). In montreal Morgan noticed a bit on shine on our racor. So I took it apart and greesed all the rubber and made sure all bolts were tight. Then added a low pressure fuel pump in line right after the tank pick up. No more issues for the rest of the voyage.
@@practicaldreams6377 I haven't opened up my fuel tank, but I have opened up my water tank in my G40 this past winter. I think the fuel tank is a mirror image of the water tank, just on the port side. At the aft end, the tank is very deep, and settles to the bottom of the hull, with that v-shape. In my water tank, because of the v-shape at the bottom, there was some goo collected down there which I cleaned out. You mighta already cleaned that if you did a fuel polish, if you opened the inspection port. But if the fuel polish just was redoing the hose connections through the polish system at the tank top, there might still be some stuff down there in that v-groove. Come to think of it, I should do this myself this off-season. When I took delivery of my boat, we did run the engine with the main up, at about 20+ degrees of heel in some chop, we were pitching a fair bit. The headsail that came with the boat was terrible, and I didn't want to roll it out upwind in breeze or else we woulda sailed. The engine sputtered, and I turned it off immediately. Checked the oil, was low. That's another thing I've heard about the 4.108s, that when heeled, the oil level doesn't do well as it settles in a low spot and can lose oil pressure. Long story short, we ran the engine gingerly, and refueled. About 4 hours of running on fresh fuel, and it has been running fine for the last 4 seasons. Oh one other thing I learned when opening my water tank.. the stainless steel draw tube goes all the way into that v groove at the bottom of the tank. I didn't pull that out before I started to twist open the tank top plate, and bent that tube. So make sure that tube is pulled before turning that cap- you might already have done this and know this, but dummy me... figured I'd mention it just in case so you don't bend the tube. Good video, thanks for posting. When my wife retires, we were considering going north and trying the St.L. seaway... we might reconsider! Possibly go through the canals to the lakes that way, but still would like to do the Canadian east areas, looks enticing.
