Today’s five-hour run to Gaspé started hazy, but it was the first warm day in a while so we didn’t care.
It was flybridge-in-short-sleeves kind of warm. Oscar even dragged up his too-small cat-sized bed to catch some rays through the haze.
The warmth was nice, but mostly the cruise was like traveling through a National Geographic photo shoot.
For example, we passed the famous Cap-de-Rosiers lighthouse, not surprisingly located on Cap-de-Rosiers. At 34 meters—which is someplace between 10 feet and 500 feet depending on the exchange rate—this is Canada’s tallest lighthouse. It’s also apparently falling apart, much to the dismay of the locals. But for now it’s way cool.
Then along the amazing thousand-foot cliffs of Forillon National Park. If only it wasn’t too windy to drone.
High atop one of those thousand-foot cliffs sits the Cap Gaspé Lighthouse. We’ve seen roughly a gazillion lighthouses since starting the Loop, but none more scenic than this beauty.
But wouldn’t you know, where there’s beauty comes RVers.
Not to be gross, but where does all their poop go? No way they’re all dragging those suckers to a pumpout station.
Around the peninsula we took the straight line into Gaspé. We docked, ate nachos too awesome even for Mallory’s old roommate Paige to disrespect, and walked into town.
Yup, this’ll be a great place to hang around for a few days. Loopers traveling through Ontario quickly learn to find the local LCBO. Same deal in Quebec, except it’s the SAQ that dispenses the necessary provisions. We found the one here.
We’ve also found a joint that looked kind of familiar but we couldn’t quite place it, what with the maple leaf and all.
Supposedly some strong winds blow through here on the outside dock where we’re tied up, but we’ve deployed extra lines and fenders and feel pretty snug. Plus the wind generally will hit us on the nose, and the sailboat behind us also is tied up securely, which may help if we bust loose.
Right after Doug finished hosing off the boat and Dana and Oscar finished napping, a crew of dressed-up revelers stopped on the dock for a non-Nat Geo photo shoot.
That’s right. Our third wedding. This’s getting weird. We allow for the possibility that since we’re cruising around picturesque spots on summer weekends it’s all coincidental, but it seems more likely that these couples are stalking us and trying to synchronize their special day with our arrival. But that’s ok. We don’t mind.
Our plan is to rent a car and drive around for the next couple of days. Lots to see. Plus lots of history. Gaspé is considered “The Birthplace of Canada,” because it’s where in 1534 Jacques Cartier claimed the land, to the presumed chagrin of the natives. But he claimed it for France, not Canada, so the whole “birthplace” thing seems fishy.
This statue is not of Jacques Cartier. This is William Wakeham, a Gaspé doctor who, in 1887, claimed Labrador and Newfoundland and the entire arctic archipelago for Canada, which really should put him a rung or two above the guy who answered to King Francis I. Anyway, we looked it up. It seems at least some of this whole “Our guy claimed it first” thing remains disputed, but it’s so damn cold up there that nobody is interested in really arguing about it.
Hopefully we’ll find some more good stuff before we leave.