I typed this about three days ago and lost it when the internet went down, so lesson learned. I will save it after every paragraph.
We started seeing large ocean going ships on a regular basis. The first one had to come around a bend and we felt like we would run out of room in the chaneel well at least I (Linda) thought we would but needless to say there was more than enough room. Another first.
We arrived at the Eisenhower lock and it was a little different, first they want you to go this little dock space to check in which gave you very little room to manouver around with the threat of one foot of waer on the other side of the buoys and the current pushing against you. Well we check in and proceed to the lock. They had a different system which I liked better, you hand them a line they put it around a ballard that goes the height of the lock and then you secure your line on the boat. The water receeds and you gently go down with your boat in place. We went down 45 feet. A very large coast guard vessel accompany us through these locks as you will see. The same procedure with the next lock, the Snell lock which dropped another 45 feet.
45 foot drop
He was behind us in the lock
Then we are back in Canadian waters and we go to the next two locks the upper and lower Beauharnois locks before we could get to the locks we had to go under two lift bridges. Well we waited a while for the first one and as we approached the bridge it was almost at the top more than enough for us and the girl either yelled at us or wished us a safe trip. I am taking the latter as she spoke in french and we are still not sure. The next lock was same procedure they drop you a line that you put around a cleat and you loosen it off as the water is drained out. Takes a little more watching the boat doesn't inch forward. This last lock was done after sundown.
So we didn't get all slimmy for the locks and they look like they were using new lines. So we went through 5 locks and at the end it was dark coming out into Lac St. Louise which is the start of our Montreal trek. There were so many lights it was hard to pick up the buoy lights and there were several channels so we found an area about 300 yards off the shipping channel that was about 20 feet deep and dropped the anchor and tried to get some sleep. We got an early start the next morning, Friday, and went to the Royal St. Laurent Yacht Club. We wanted to spend a day in Montreal, but unfortunately Chris's time was running out and was not able to go to Quebec City with us, so we stayed at the RStLYC. It was a little difficult to get to the yacht club but well worth the stay and we did get a reciprical for one night and paid for the second. They had nice slips, swimming pool, tennis courts and a great bar and everyone spoke english with internet. One of the members, Michel, drove the three of us to a boat store, then to the bus terminal and took our stuff back to the boat so we could go into Old Montreal where we took in the sites with our tour guide Chris, had lunch and washed it down with a couple of beverages. On Saturday we did some boat chores and chilled out because Chris was fling back to Toronto at 1600. We'll miss having Chris on board and we hope that he'll be able to join us for other parts of it.
Jack having free coffee in the morning at the yacht club.
On Sunday morning we left RStLYC and headed for the last two locks on the Seaway. At the first one we were delayed for two hours waiting for commercial shipping to go through. We were in the locks with two American flagged boats that we doing the same trip as us. After locking through, it was getting late and windy, so we stayed at a marina in Longueuil, where we got to know Don and Lois from Que Sera Sera, and Dave and Lisa from Ke 'Ola Kai.
Signing off for now Jack and Linda
