THE SAINT JOHN RIVER above the Reversing Falls is one of the most extensive and interesting freshwater cruising areas anywhere. After the Bay of Fundy’s extreme tides, currents, and fogs, the Saint John River is a benevolent world with practically no fog, 20-inch tides, warm water, sandy spits, and unlimited gunkholing. The water is tinged brown and has the earthy smell of rich dirt and leaves. The wind is warm and carries the breath of conifers. The Saint John River branches out into three long arms—the Kennebecasis, Long Reach, and Belleisle Bay—and an interconnected network of lakes that includes Grand Lake, Maquapit Lake, Washademoak Lake, and French and Indian Lake.
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The Saint John River has always been a main thoroughfare, an artery through the heart of New Brunswick. Even the smallest cluster of farms still has its own wharf, left from the days when steamships were the main means of transportation to the markets of Saint John. Farmhouses face the river, cable ferries ply back and forth between the banks, and each crossroads has the feel of an isolated junction town, connected to others only by the ceaseless water flowing by.
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At its southern end near Saint John, the river cuts through bold hills and penetrates deep valleys to form Kennebecasis and Belleisle bays. Farther upriver, the steep hillsides and bluffs give way to rolling hills, where the river meanders through bottom lands and flat silt islands and spreads into broad shallow lakes. The head of navigation is at Fredericton, 60 miles from the Bay of Fundy.
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One of the oldest promoters of sailing this labyrinth is the Royal Kenebeccasis Yacht Club at the mouth of Kennebecasis Bay. It is the largest of several yacht and boat clubs in the area, and its active boating community is renowned for its hospitality to guests.
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The level of water in the navigable portions of the Saint John River is a balance between the water running through the hydroelectric dam at Mactaquac above Fredericton and the heights of the tides that back it up at the Reversing Falls in Saint John. During the periods of heavy spring meltdown or rain, known in river parlance as the freshet, the volume of water flowing down the river is greater than the volume of water that can pass through the falls during a tide cycle. The level of the river’s bays and lakes rises dramatically, flooding many of the low islands and wharves. In extreme cases in early spring, the level of the river exceeds the height of the high tide at the falls, and the falls don’t reverse themselves, so they become impassable to upriver-bound boats. The clubhouse at the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club is set atop high footings, yet the freshet has still lapped at its floor joists.
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During the summer cruising months, the water level returns to normal. At the Reversing Falls, low tides in the Bay of Fundy allow the river to run out twice a day, and the high tides back the river up twice a day. The result is a tidal cycle on the river that is identical to the cycle in the Bay of Fundy, a high and a low approximately every 12 hours and 40 minutes, but with a range that is only 2 feet in Kennebecasis Bay, 11 inches in Gagetown, and even less on Grand Lake. Though the tidal height is felt far upriver and salt water can reach all the way to Oak Point, the current runs ceaselessly downriver except at the Reversing Falls themselves. Free of dramatic tides, boats can moor with a stern anchor out and bow tied to trees, nudged onto sand spits, or pulled to shear rocks.
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The river itself presents few navigational obstacles, and the odd rock or shoal areas are clearly buoyed. In early summer, occasional fish and eel traps are staked just offshore, but they rarely occupy navigable water. The remains of old logging operations left from the days when logs were driven down the river and boomed in coves present more unique obstacles. Old cribbings and pilings from the booms still foul the mouths of some coves and render others useless as anchorages, but they are well charted. Waterlogged sticks and branches on the bottom can foul anchors, so triplines are a wise precaution.
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Less exact and more ubiquitous are deadheads—waterlogged logs which sank during the logging days and which now, years later, have become buoyant enough to lurk just at the surface. Areas particularly prone to deadheads are marked on the charts, but deadheads can surface anywhere, particularly near the banks of the river and in the eddies of the Reversing Falls, where they accumulate.
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References aboard should include the Canadian chart packets 4141 (which has two sheets) and 4142 (four sheets) as well as the current Sailing Directions for the Saint John River, publication ATL 107, available at local chart dealers or through Hydrographic Chart Distribution Office, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 1675 Russell Road, P.O. Box 8080, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1G 3H6; 800-668-5222. These charts should be corrected for river buoys that were overhauled in 1995. Note that the Canadian charts for the river system still give depths in feet, and that the charts are not oriented with north at the top but rather follow the direction of the river.
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Also of great interest is the Scotia/Fundy Marine Weather Guide, which diagrams some of the wind and current effects on the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River. It is available at many chart dealers or from General Weather Services, Atmospheric Environment Service, 1496 Bedford Highway, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada B4A 1E5.
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