St. Ours Lock - from the Richilieu to the St. Lawrence

         Tuesday (June 13) we left the Chambly Basin and headed up the Richielieu River to St. Ours.  We took our time getting underway and had a nice easy cruise.  The St. Ours ‘canal’ is only one lock long.  It's a bigger lock, and was constructed for larger canal barges to bring materials all the way down the Richilieu, but since the Chambly canal was never updated, this canal wasn't much good for the bigger vessels and is mainly used for pleasure craft.  

    We were the only boat there and opted to tie up to the wall for the night instead of locking through.  The lock is situated between a small island and the mainland where the town of St. Ours is located. The Canadian park system runs a small ‘glamping’ campground on the island.  Structures that are half-tent, half cabin are grouped on one side of the island, which is criss-crossed with many paved pathways that take you from the lock on one side to a view of the dam on the other side.  You can walk the bridge over the dam to view the Jacob’s Ladder - a fish ladder built to help the fish spawn.  There is a large window there through which you can see the fish.  We walked all around the island (it’s very small so you can cover it in about fifteen minutes) and over to see the fish ladder.  We saw several of the same kind of fish, which an attendant informed us were tanche (tench), an invasive fish that is working its way into the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes.  

Jacobs Ladder

Tanche

        There is a small community building that houses bathrooms and showers (showers are $3.00 each) and a few small out buildings.  At one time this park/island was the headquarters of the lockmaster and his family and boasted stables, a pump house, and a barn.    (Their house is now the community building.)  The town of St. Ours, we were told, has nothing much more than a coffeeshop and we never went over there to explore.  

We locked through on Wednesday morning.  This lock, like many to come, has a floating wharf to tie to, which makes the lockage very smooth, as the entire wharf travels up or down, not just the boat, and we don’t have to tend lines or fend off during the maneuver.  The locktender stood on the wharf the entire time, talking with us and admiring Tommie through the doorway and we barely noticed the drop of about eight feet.  

St. Ours lock.  See the waterline as we drop.

Once out of the lock we headed through the Richielieu and into the St. Lawrence.  We’ve been in this seaway before, but we’d forgotten how big it is and how strong the current.  We are traveling west, now, to Montreal, so we have to travel against the current.  Fortunately, the forecast calls for some pretty calm days, so we don’t have to worry about the wind.  We are keeping an eye on the smoke forecast, and hoping the coming rain helps dampen that down.  We’ve been lucky so far - the air has been clean and looks to continue that way.  

Into the St. Lawrence

        We dropped anchor for the day in a small channel north of Iles de Vercheres, a few hours’ cruise from Montreal.  We’d thought about going farther, but this was such a pretty and quiet area, we thought we’d soak it up before getting into the hustle and bustle of a large city.

Sunset on the St. Lawrence