Caught in the path of a hurricane
‘Don’t worry, we don’t get hurricanes up here’. We were moored in Club Nautique Les Plaisanciers du Hâvre - Havre Aubert Yacht Club, on Îles de la Madeleine looking for a weather window to cross to Nova Scotia.
The Madeleines are a dozen islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence, interconnected by sand bars that enclose large shallow lagoons. The 36-mile long archipelago is shaped like a giant fishhook. Narrow entrance channels and dredged fairways allow access to the ports. They are part of Quebec Province therefore the residents are French-speaking, although many are bilingual with English as a second language.
The islands are particularly beautiful with green hills, red sandstone cliffs, white sandy beaches and blue waters – at least the waters look blue when the sun is shining! We’d made the 135-mile overnight passage from Gaspé to the Madeleines and landed at the pretty fishing port of L’Étang-du-Nord on the west coast of the islands.
The passage had gone well despite ‘lumpy’ seas in places and we’d averaged 6 knots with a 12-15 knot wind on our stern quarter. We’d heard that the islands were ‘not to be missed’ and reasoned that from there it would be a shorter hop to Cap Breton, Nova Scotia. L’Étang-du-Nord had not disappointed with its cluster of brightly coloured houses, fish market, restaurant, café, a couple of gift shops and a kite shop that advertises itself by flying a huge kite hung with coloured streamers high in the sky. We loved the place immediately and spent a few days enjoying the scenery.
Tropical Storm Erin
While we were there the
