From Montreal to Ottawa

         We left the city on Saturday morning (June 17) at 0700, intending to get to the St. Lamberts Lock at 0800, an hour before our scheduled opening.  This is the first of two large commercial-size locks on the St. Lawrence as we make our way from Montreal to the St. Anne de Bellevue canal, the beginning of the river pathway to Ottawa.  These big locks give precedence to the large container ships that move to and from the great lakes, and it is not uncommon for pleasure craft to wait several hours beyond their lock-through time.  Both the St. Lamberts and the Ste. Catherine Locks have floating docks to tie up and wait.  It’s a pretty smooth operation - you make your reservation online the day before, you arrive an hour prior to your reservation time (they notify you at 0700 the day of your lockage), you tie up at the dock and call on the dedicated phone at the dock that you are there, and you wait.  They’ll announce  when they’re ready for you on the loudspeaker, and a large electronic sign board lets you know the approximate time of your lockage.  For us, it was 0945, not too bad of a wait.  We were one of four vessels in the lock, and there must have been room for twenty more.  Once through, we headed straight to the next lock, where a ship was exiting, and the lock was ready to receive the four of us.  

That done, our major worry of the day was over.  We headed on over to the town of St. Anne de Bellevue, which guards the entrance lock to the canal leading to the Ottawa River.  This is a cute little town.  The seawall before the lock is lined with restaurants and the downtown is just on the other side of them.  We tied up for the night, made friends with the lockmaster - all these locktenders are very friendly and welcoming - and set off to explore the town. 
            We happened upon a thrift store and set about combing through it for things we didn’t know we needed.  Dan has been planning to sew up a couple of flags, and he found some material that in a previous life were a bedspread and blouses, as well as remnants of someone else’s projects.  

        The next morning we walked the bridge across the river to the town on the other side and found a large grocery store, purchased what we could carry, and walked back to the boat to untie and lock through.  It was another drizzly day - the weather had been gray and showery since we left Montreal - and though we would rather all was sunny and warm, this weather is good help for the people fighting the forest fires in these provinces and it keeps the smoke down.  

We arrived at the Carillon Lock - Canada’s tallest lock - around mid-afternoon.  We debated locking through and hunkering down on the other end, but decided to stay put here.  The Canadian Coast Guard auxilliary were performing inspections and they politely asked if we would agree to one. While I chatted with two of them about everything from cats to cooking, the CO went through her checklist with Dan and he ran around showing her yes we had lifejackets, here are the flares, there is the floatation rope, the horn works, the lights work, etc.  The only thing we didn’t have was a throwable life ring, but despite its absence, we passed inspection and received a sticker and several souvenirs like a whistle and key chain.  They thanked us for the experience and the CO even gave us her phone number in case we had any questions.  So different from the US!  

On Monday morning, we entered the Carillon Lock.  This one has a guillotine door, and lifts you up 60 feet.  Again, the locktenders stood on the dock beside us the whole time, chatting away: telling us all about the marvels of the mechanics of the lock and asking lots of questions about our time on the boat and the Great Loop.  We really love the Canadians.  

The sun finally came out just after noon as we traveled the Ottawa River between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.  Dan put up the mast and I admired the scenery.  Lots of farmland here, everything is very peaceful and pastoral.  We anchored off the Clarence Islands late afternoon.  Ottawa tomorrow...  

Montreal

         We set out for Montreal on Thursday morning.  It wasn’t that far from our anchorage, but the current was strong and against us; most of the time we were making less than 5 knots, and as we approached the Jacques Cartier Bridge, our speed went down to 1.8 knots.  We passed the current port of Montreal before we got to the Old Port - miles of docking and cranes waiting for the big cargo ships to load or unload their freight.  We also passed the Olympic Village of 1976.  Dan has found memories of attending that Olympics with a couple buddies.  

We stayed two nights at the Marina Port D-Escale du Vieux.  It’s a small marina in a little man-made basin between two very long docks.  The people are very friendly, the place is secure, and we were steps away from the restaurants, shops, and parks that make up the Old Port.  We docked just after noon on Thursday and were finding our way around town within the hour.  What an incredible city!  There are stone buildings dating from the 1700s mixing in with art deco buildings from the 1920s and much more modern buildings. 

The people are equally diverse.  A lot of shops and art galleries are devoted the First Nations cultures and China Town hosts a variety of Southeast Asian foods and boutiques.  We got a kick out of the restaurant called Chez Chili. Chez is French, Chili hints at Mexican food, but it specializes in Szechuan and Hunan dishes.  We walked and walked, poking our noses into many places, getting a feel for everything.  We stopped in a small Mexican restaurant just for drinks, returned to the boat to feed Tommie, and then set out again for a meal in China Town at Maison VIP.  It was excellent.  We spent the remainder of the evening checking out the various art galleries. 

Friday (June 16) we set off to visit the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History.  This is a multi-building museum, all connected through underground tunnels, and gives a terrific history of this city.  It incorporates actual building foundations in the underground tunnels as part of the exhibit - showing parts of older walls and sewers along with many artifacts.  The entire history of Montreal is done exceptionally well.  We highly recommend this museum just for this aspect, but they also have temporary exhibits. Currently there is a great one about the culture of Egypt.  It’s not so much about mummies and pharaohs, but about the societies themselves.  Also very well done.  We spent several hours there. 

 Afterwards, we walked to a nearby Portuguese restaurant and had a late lunch.  It was an odd time of day, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and our waiter couldn’t have been nicer.  The food was very good. 

We walked around some more, and stumbled upon an open rehearsal of a quintet in one of the oldest churches in the city.  The woman had a beautiful voice. 

We had an ice cream supper and watched the sunset.  The picture doesn’t do it justice - it was a very fiery-red ball, due the wildfire smoke that has been wafting over this area today.

 

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

Canada! And the Chambly Canal

         The first thing we did on Sunday morning, was call the Canadian number for Nexus travelers to check in to Canada.  We had found out the ArriveCan app (which was to have replaced CanPass) is no longer usable for marine entry, and Nexus card holders were urged to report entry between thirty minutes and four hours of entry.  (It would take about two hours to cruise from Nichols Point to the border.) We had expected to be told where to go and in case no one showed up, an entry number to post in the window would be issued.  This has been the case for us other times we’ve entered Canada by boat, although last summer it was all done through their phone app.  But this time we spoke with a young man who seemed completely baffled about why we were calling, even though his first question was whether or not we had Nexus cards.  He didn’t understand where we were, what we wanted, and what we expected of him.  He kept asking what marina did we plan on checking into?  Dan started researching both through their website and on Navionics possible marinas.  The first one we asked about was Quai Richilieu, which on Navionics states is the Canadian Customs Dock.  He had never heard of it, asked for a spelling, and eventually told us “That is not an official point of entry.”  He could not verify any official points of entry, and the one on the Canadian Customs website listed a marina in the Chambly Basin, over fifty miles from the border.  As we all grew a little frustrated, the young man finally told us to just show up at a dock and ask for entry.  

Border Buoy, Lake Champlain/Richilieu River

We decided to check out Quai Richilieu, situated just over the Canadian border.  This is nothing but an official point of entry.  You tie up at the dock, take your passport and boat document up to the little building at the head of the ramp, answer the standard questions of the purpose and length of your state and whether or not you have firearms, alcohol, or cannabis aboard, and they welcome you into the country.  The whole procedure took less than five minutes, and that included tying and untying from the dock.  It couldn’t have been simpler or easier. 

Officially in Canada, we headed to the small riverside town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richilieu and tied up at the floating dock just before the bascule bridge that leads to Lock 9, the southern end of the Chambly canal.  We could have entered the canal that afternoon, but since we’d already been traveling for about five hours and the Chambly canal takes at least another three, we decided to stay overnight here and enter the canal in the morning.  This gave us a chance to buy a season pass for the Canada canals - lockages and moorings - and have a good walk through town.  We were told that during the week they only open this lock twice - once at 9 am and once at 1 pm, and that the 9 am slot was already reserved by the Canadian coast guard vessel Île St. Ours, which was docked nearby.  The locks are too small to fit any other boat in with the Coast Guard vessel, so we would have to wait until the 1pm locking.  We didn’t really understand why they couldn’t lock us both through (CCG first and then us in a second locking) but we didn’t question it.  

Going through the bascule before the lock

Entering the lock.

In the morning we followed the Île St. Ours through the bascule bridge, and then docked next to the lock and went up to watch the CCG lock through.  The locks on the Chambly are all hand operated - people crank the doors closed and crank the water lever out. 
        

Île St. Ours in the lock.

Cranking the doors closed on the lock.

        The lock tenders are all very friendly, and they had many questions about the Great Loop and Maine and what the English words were for the front and back ends of the boat.  We learned the French words - prou (bow) and poupe (stern).  We locked through at 1 pm and began the three hour transit through the Chambly canal.  Once in the canal, you must keep going through to the end.  No one is allowed to spend the night in the canal, and stopping to sightsee is discouraged. There are a total of 9 locks and several bridges that need to be opened.  The locktenders leap frog their way along to prepare for you.  We passed one southbound sailboat in one specific area, otherwise were were alone in the canal.  It’s very narrow, and much of it doesn’t allow for passing. 

See how narrow!

            I imagine when the season really gets busy (they said peak season is end of June through end of August) these people are very busy scheduling boats through - telling some of the cruisers where to pull over to one of the docks on the side to wait for their turn to lock or for someone to pass.  Certainly no more than two vessels can fit in those locks!  

Flight of three locks.

At the north end of the canal are two ‘flights’ of three locks each.  Each lock leads directly into the next lock as you drop down to the level of the Chambly basin.  Over the course of nine locks you drop down about 80 feet, but much of it seems to be happening in the last two flights of locks.  And just like that, we were out of the Chambly Canal and into the Chambly Basin.  

Tonight we are anchored near Fort Chambly, which was built to defend the French settlers against the Iroquois Nation in the mid 1700s, and overlooks the Richilieu Rapids.  (The Chambly Canal was built to bypass the rapids and allow for commerce between Montreal and Lake Champlain.)  We were hoping for a good sunset, but the sky is clouding over as the much needed rain comes in, hopefully helping to put out those wildfires.  

Fort Chambly

Burlington VT

         From Converse Bay we cruised over to Burlington.  This is a great college town right on the Lake, with many restaurants, shops, and artisans.  We took a slip at the Ferry Landing Marina because they honored a discount for AGLCA members.  We’re so glad we chose them - they had lots of friendly, helpful staff, the nicest laundry and shower facilities we’ve ever seen, and were situated just a short walk away from everything.  

Burlington Harbor Breakwater

We were immediately greeted by Bob of the Monk Loon, an unofficial harbor host offered his services for rides and local knowledge.  After scoping out the facilities we took a walk to the famous Church street where many of the shops and restaurants are located.  We just happened to be in town for their annual Jazz Festival and came upon a very talented high school jazz band entertaining a small crowd at the beginning of Church street.  The main stage is set up on the waterfront about a mile from our marina, but there were many mini stages on or near Church street showcasing lots of talent.  We had a good time listening as we browsed some unique little shops. 

We had dinner at Spot on the Dock, the restaurant in our marina, treating ourselves to a night out before making use of the showers and laundry.  I ran into Ellen and John from the trawler Salud -  they’d also greeted us right after we’d come in - and we exchanged boat tours.  They are still deciding whether to do the Great Loop or the Down East Circle.  We spent about an hour with them, reminiscing about our adventure cruising the Down East Circle.  I think maybe we helped them decide...

This morning (Saturday) Dan and I walked to the Burlington Farmer’s Market.  Theres is probably the biggest one we’ve seen - rows and rows of tents set up selling everything from meats, veggies, and baked goods to maple everything, clothing, and pottery.  As we are going to Canada soon - maybe tomorrow - we didn’t buy as much as we normally would have, but it was great fun to walk around and look at everything.  John (from Salud) remarked that it was the first time he’d seen valet bicycle parking at a farmer’s market.  

We topped off the fuel and water at the marina and took off after lunch.  We’re in a pretty little cove called Nichols Point, about twenty miles from the Canadian border.  We’re hoping to enter the Chambly canal - en route to Montreal - on Monday.  

Sunset, Nichols Point

PS:  a note about the Canadian wildfires that have been plaguing much of the midAtlantic coast as well as places to the west of us…  we have been using the website firesmoke.ca which forecasts where the smoke is going to be, and how thick.  Fortunately for us so far, we seem to be avoiding most of it.  We went through New York City and the lower Hudson River before it got there, and much of Lake Champlain is in a microclimate that the smoke seems to be avoiding.  We’re hoping this continues as we cruise up into Canada! 

Lake Champlain

         We stayed in Fort Edward one night.  It’s a nice little town, but like so many of these canal towns, it features many empty buildings and very shabby-looking victorian houses.  It’s so sad to walk around and see the debris through the storefront windows and the peeling paint and rotten wood of the once elegant houses.  There was one restaurant open, and it was the grand opening, and nothing else beyond a corner gas station with a convenience store.  We decided to eat at the restaurant - great food, very friendly and welcoming staff (Dahlia’s on the Hudson, though it’s not on the river) - and we hope they make it as a business.  We explored the town on foot, and came across the older lock, behind some neighborhood houses, now a sort of park.  

Fort Edward, old Champlain canal lock.

From Fort Edward we continued through the Champlain Canal to Whitehall, NY, just before Lock 12, which is the last lock before Lake Champlain.  Whitehall has a beautiful free wall, with power and water, and nearby is a brand new building with restrooms and showers available for free on the second floor, which overlooks the canal.  There is a museum on the waterfront telling the history of the town, and the foundation and lumber of the USS Ticonderoga, and a magnificent mansion across the canal halfway up the mountain, but little else beyond the same empty downtown buildings and worn out-looking houses, and both the museum and mansion were closed.  The one restaurant we heard about was closed the night we were hoping for a meal.  We walked around this town on both sides of the canal the two days we spent there.  The views are gorgeous.

Skene Mansion - Whitehall was founded by Skene, originally called Skenesborough.

Whitehall, NY - almost all these buildings are empty.

Wednesday (June 7) we formally entered Lake Champlain.  We really had no idea how long and narrow it is in places.  The water is the border between Vermont and New York and we’ve been staying on the Vermont side as showers and smoke from the Canadian wildfires rumble over the Adirondacks.  (We’ve been lucky with regards to the smoke - the jet stream has been carrying it down from Canada to the west of use and then east to pool in New York City and spread down the east coast.  It’s a little hazy to the west of us, but the air is basically pretty clear where we are.)  Wednesday was drizzly and chilly much of the day.  We dropped anchor early in Button Bay, near the town of Rhode Island Corner in Vermont and just hunkered down thinking of things to bake in the oven to keep the salon warm.  (Biscuits, brownies, and muffins, if you’re wondering.)     

Today we traveled a few miles up the lake to temporarily drop anchor in a little cove where the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is located.  This is a free museum/campus with several small buildings dedicated to the Maritime history and local history of this area.  A lot of the outdoor exhibits are geared for kids - how a block and tackle work, how to build a lean-to, how winches work, etc - and the indoor exhibits take you through the various strategies of the Revolutionary War military and navy to keep the Lake out of the hands of the British, as well as showing off a large number of different kinds of watercraft from canoes to ice boats.  The campus has a working boatbuilding shed and a working blacksmith shop as well, and offers hands-on learning courses to high school students.  We spent a couple of hours walking around on a self-tour (the place is free) before heading back to the Willie Dawes to push on.  

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

We are settled in Converse Bay, just south of Burlington, with a beautiful view of the Adirondacks to the west.  

Champlain Canal

         When we left Hyde Park, we traveled up river until Coxsackie, where we paused to stretch our legs and have a look around.  Coxsackie is in the process of utilizing a very large grant to upgrade their riverfront town.  Consequently everything was under construction and/or readying for their grand opening in just a few days.  We saw buildings being painted and windows being washed and people inside setting things up, but nothing was open Wednesday May 31st.  It was hot - the first day of a four day 90+ degree weather streak - and we retired to the boat to wait for the first day of the Coxsackie Farmer’s Market, which opened at 4:00pm.  Dan decided it was a good day to take down the mast, so that’s what we did. 

About 3:45 we wandered back to the riverfront park where the Farmer’s Market was setting up, and within ten minutes we returned with fresh peas, strawberries, some really tasty cheddar shortbread, and the only dozen eggs available.  We stashed our booty, untied from the dock and moved onto an anchorage farther up the Hudson River.

Thursday we got to Waterford, the staging place for both the Erie Canal and the Champlain Canal.  This is a great place to rest and reprovision.  Most places (laundromat, grocery store, pharmacy) are within easy walking distance, and anything else is a short Uber ride.  Dan even managed to get us an appointment at a nearby vet for Tommie to have her annual physical and updated vaccines.  Waterford is very welcoming to boaters and a very friendly town.  There were “Be Kind” signs in almost everyone’s yard or window.  Below is Dan’s account of someone we met at the laundromat.  We stayed two days.  

Friday night the heat wave broke and a light misty rain coated the air on Saturday morning when we took our departure.  Back into the Hudson River, this time to head north all the way to Lake Champlain and beyond, to Canada.  

The NY Canal system is experiencing some issues with the locks - a worker shortage means some lock masters have to roam from one lock to the next, and some of the locks have been experiencing mechanical issues, creating back-ups of transiting boats.  We arrived at the first lock in the Champlain Canal (C-1) and found they were only open on the odd hour, which meant we had to tie to the rock wall to wait for an hour.  

The lock master told also told us C-3, a few miles up river, was not operational, and gave advice on where we should spend the night.  Then he asked our height - was it 13 feet? - and Dan said something like “Sounds about right.”, not thinking too much of it.  Consequently, we had to wait forty-five minutes at lock C-2 for the lock master to draw down the water under the bridge after the lock to accommodate our need for 15’ 8”. 

He also told us C-3 had ordered a generator, but advised us to call ahead to find out their status.  Turned out C-3 was working, and we passed through it and on through C-4 before stopping for the night in a pretty little anchorage just out of the river channel, in Stillwater.  Navionics had billed this place as having “awesome sunsets”, but it was too cloudy for us to confirm this.  However, if this morning’s sunrise is comparable, sunset must be spectacular.  

We stopped this afternoon at the free wall of Fort Edward, just before Lock C-7.  We’re here with four other Great Loop boats, all of whom are going on to Montreal, so we’ll be seeing a lot of Tis Grand, Recess, and Sweet and Low.  

Dan’s account of the laundromat:

We went up early to the very nice coin operated laundry on Fourth Street.  We put the loads in to wash and went into town for breakfast.  When back to change from washers to driers, we exchanged greetings with a local lady from town.  Right off the bat she allowed that she had had been experiencing some stomach troubles lately, didn’t know what it was.  And that she had gone camping this last week and wished she hadn’t.  

Apparently things related to her stomach trouble came to a head and let’s just say things were exciting front and back.  She also mentioned she didn’t quite get to the facilities in time and had to “throw my clothes away and run back to the campsite naked!” 

After telling us that in much more graphic detail, she asked how long we’d be in town and said if we wanted, we could drop by her house for a while.  

The local people are just so thoughtful!