Quest on the Loop

Port d'Escale, Montreal,QC - 6/23/12

Since we have spent the past 2 days on the canal without a WiFi connection, I had to type the blog into a word document and cut and past it into the blog. 6/21 & 6/22 have been posted individually before this one.

Since we had 60 miles to go to reach Montreal, we pulled off the wall below the lock at 7 a.m. and followed the canal for 12 miles before reaching the St. Lawrence River.

St. Lawrence River

The river was wide but not as deep as I would have thought since it did have a lot of shipping. Most of it in the channel was less than 50 feet deep but it did have a stiff current which knocked about 3 mph off our speed in the beginning.

Island of Birds

We cut into a small craft channel about 6 miles into the river portion which did not have as bad a current.

Montreal

Back into the River

We had to cut back into the river a few miles north of the city and again experienced a very stiff current. This time I was pushing 2,000 rpms and moving at 5 mph or less. This is a holiday weekend in this province and there are a lot of boats out. We have found that there are folks who own boats and those who are boaters and their wakes made the water very rough and I thought our rub rail was under a couple of times. Ricki was on the front deck and could not get back into the boat until we got to the marina.

Across the River

Rough Water

Water Front Park

After we docked and got settled, we joined Marc & Michele and walked into Old Town Montreal which was a treat. We looked for an information booth to see what we could get into.

Cirque du Soleil

We discovered that Cirque du Soleil was having a world premier performance at 4 p.m. so we went. This was the most awesome show we have ever seen. Every performer did stuff that blew our minds.

This was the only picture Ricki got until they told her ... "no pictures"

Downtown

After the show (2 1/2 hours) we walked the streets to find somewhere to eat. The town is pretty much bi-lingual so the menus are in both languages unlike the last two places we stopped.

Downtown

Dinner

There is no way to describe the neat stuff and places we have seen. Each place is different and we always say .. best place so far. Montreal is at the top of that list.

Basilique Note-Dame de Montreal

We found the church a few blocks away and are planning to attend one of the three masses (9:30) in the morning with Marc & Michelle. This picture does not translate the beauty of the place. It gives a real presence of the spirit.

Our Marina - Quest & Marc's Ark

We were told that on a normal weekend this place will rock until the wee hours and we expected the same since this is a holiday weekend but if it did, we didn't hear it since we were dead tired.

Tomorrow after church we plan to take a historical tour of the city.

N 45 30.354 W 073 33.098

Saint-Ours, QC - 6/22/12

6/22/12

The locks on the canal operate from 8:30 until 7 p.m. starting today for the season so we were prepared to leave at 8:30 when they opened. In Canada you indicate that passage is wanted by tying up on the blue line painted on the lock wall if it is not open. You are allowed to moor there overnight if you want the first opening next morning which we did. This was a flight of 3 locks that drop a total of 35 feet with each down stream lock door be the opening lock door on the next one. Pretty clever but don’t forget, they are manually operated so each lock had 4 or 5 folks either throwing ropes to us or operating the doors. As with the other locks in the past two days, Marc’s Ark tied port and Quest tied starboard because we barely fit inside.

Marc & Michele did not fill their water tank before starting the canal so they have been running low and watching their consumption. After the 3^rd lock there was a marina so they took advantage of water and a pump out before continuing on further. Now it was decision time … travel through the next and last lock on the canal which was about 2 hours or try to make it all the way to Montreal which would be six or seven hours. We elected to pass through lock 12 then stay on the lock wall and hit Montreal Saturday & Sunday. Our friends from Quebec, Gilles & Nancy had told us back in Fort Edward about a very tricky spot at mile 33 where you had to go through a very tight passage with lots of current and you only had one chance to get it right. We had to line up our entry and power through at over 10 mph to maintain steering, but we made it. The rest of the trip today was very nice except that one of two cable ferries we encountered pulled out between us and we had to stop until the cable was on the bottom of the canal.

Lock 12 had a floating dock inside to tie to and was much larger. A 3^rd boat showed up at the lock with us and all 3 boats went down together.

Dinner was prepared on Marc’s Ark and consumed on Quest. We were entertained by some playful critters in the park next to us while Marc grilled our dinners.

We all retired at 8:30 to our respective boats to watch movies in bed. Another day in paradise after 31 easy miles!

N 45 51.982 W 073 08.855

Leaving the Lock Wall

Manual Lock

Tight

Leaving the First Lock

Leaving the Third Lock

Looking Back at #3

All Three

Water & Pump Out

Volcano Formed Mountain

Looks Small

Is Small & Fast

Cable Ferry

Inside #12

Leaving #12

Grillin'

Critters

Chambly Lock, Chambly, QC - 6/21/12

6/21/12

We left Gaines marina at 8:10 a.m. and headed for the Canadian Border and clearing custom. Quest followed Marc’s Ark past the US Customs facility and into Canada.

The customs station is not very far inside Canada and the channel to it is marked by a sign indicating the need to stop. Marc’s Ark cleared first and then Quest, one boat at a time at their dock. It was very simple just answering questions about the boat … name, size, who was on board and how long we planned on being in the country. Of course I had to produce boat documentation and our passports. Nothing about any liquor, guns or anything else. We needed to fly our quarantine flag until clearing and then replace it with the Canadian courtesy flag. During the customs clearing only the captain of the boat is permitted off. All this only took 8 minutes.

At the first lock of the day we purchased our seasonal locking and mooring pass ($744) which covers all the Canadian locks except those on the St. Lawrence River and gives us permission to dock at any lock or National Park without further costs. The break even point of pay as you go or purchase the passes are 11 days which we should exceed easily. This lock only opens twice a day at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Since we got here at 11:15 we tied to the floating dock and went ashore to a cafe and had lunch while we waited.

The speed limit on the canal is 6 mph and we got passed by folks on bicycles on the 9 mile path beside the canal.

After 7 locks, 36 miles over 8 hours we are in Chambly, QC a very neat little town docked at the flight of 3 locks that we will go through in the morning at 8:30 when they open. Each lock or swing bridge we encountered all day was either open for us or opened as we approached. The lockmasters had to leap frog the locks and we saw the same ones all day long. We are 100 miles from Montreal by boat but only 20 minutes by car. We still haven’t figured out why more loopers don’t do this route because it is just gorgeous. We walked into town after a pot roast dinner on Quest that cooked all day in the crock pot and enjoyed ice cream and checked out our locks for tomorrow.

Another sunset and off to bed about 9:30

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