July 7. Left
Brockville with some light rain and light winds so therefore ended motoring to
the first of seven locks on the St. Lawrence, the Iroquois Lock. After
transiting the lock around noon the skies began to clear and the rest of the
day was another sunny, hot and humid day.
Ended up stopping for the night at Chrysler Park Marina. No more free
docking.
July 8. A clear day, sunny and hot again. The winds were
from the NE at approx. 10kts and therefore had to motor into it.
Had a relatively short wait at the Eisenhower
Lock as the lockmaster was waiting for another boat which never cam.
After the lock we continued to motor.
This time we had a current push us as well
and averaged 8kts through Cornwall and 6.5 to 7.5 for the rest of the way.
An increase in wind allowed for some sailing for a few hours
prior to heading to Valleyfield.
Tried to call Valleyfield Marina but got no response. Figured that maybe no one was monitoring
their radio even though it was a Sunday with many boats racing in and out of
the marina. Once we arrived we noticed that there was a lot of conversation on
the radio, apparently they only answered calls that were in French. Although once moored the people in the marina
were friendly.
July 9. Again a hot
and sunny day with light winds to start the day. Motored to and passed through two bridges
with little delay, had to wait a half hour for a freighter. It was when we got to the locks that we had
our longest wait. Two and a half hours as several freighters went through.
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| Rafting party in the locks |
During that time several other boats joined us, four powerboats and four sailboats.
The sailboats were all travelling together.
They were from Kingston and were heading to Montreal. After some conversation they suggested that
we should try to go to the Royal Saint Laurent Y C instead of the Point Claire
Y C as it had more water and could be easily accessed. That was where they were heading. So I went down below and called the
club. Ended up being on hold for some time
because as I found out afterwards, they were talking to one of the people from
the other boats that were calling in for us and added us to their group.
Once in the lock all the boats ended up rafting with each
other.
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| Catherine's mother 'Mama" visiting |
By the time we exited the lock the wind had picked up that
we were able to sail close hauled with both main and genoa. We had such good speed that we remained ahead
of the group for the distance from the lock to outside the yacht club. There we waited for the others to pass us and
enter the club first as they had booked for us.
There we were met by Caroline and Mama. Caroline picked up Oliver to go back to their
house for Nicolas’ birthday celebration and Mama stayed behind for a while to
enjoy a glass of wine with me.
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July 10. Sunny and
hot again. Left later than planned as
Oliver arrived late from the party, but it made no difference as we arrived at
the last set of locks around noon only to find the boats that left earlier that
day still waiting to go through the locks.
By this time the wind had picked up and made docking by the lock difficult.
First time in a long time I had to try a couple of times to get to the last
little space that was available, next to a work barge in front of all the other
boats with strong winds and current.
After a two and a half hour wait we finally were let through.
Again we rafted with the sailboats from the previous day.
As we left the lock one of the members of their
group had engine trouble so they did not continue, all the other powerboats
raced on ahead. We puttered along at our average speed and again caught up to
the power boats as they were waiting to go through the last two locks.
This time the wait was only a half hour.
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| South Canal |
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| Saint Lambert Lock and Bridge, Good Bye St. Lawrence Seaway |
Once through the last lock and bridge we headed to Longueil
Marina for the night.
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| Longueil
Marina |
-->
 |
| Good-bye Montreal |
July 11. Waited for the marina to open so that we could get
the deposit back for the washroom key. Another sunny and hot day with little to
no wind. Fortunately the current averages 2kts, which really helped our
progress. Prior to Sorel we did get some
wind from behind us allowing us to fly the spinnaker for the first time.
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| 1966 original spinnaker |
At Sorel marina we bumped the bottom a couple of times as we
approached the fuel dock. After checking
in we were told that we could go to the other side of the marina for the night.
As we approached the dock we ended up getting stuck in the mud just 15 feet
from the dock. After standing around and
looking on, it finally occurred to one of the people on the dock that the
marina staff could pull us off the sand bar with their work barge. An hour later we were off the sand bar and
moved back to the other side.
The marina staff informed us that the water level has been dropping
rapidly due to the lack of rain and hot days.
Sorel had a Metro within walking distance where we were able
get some provisions i.e. Beer
 |
| Lac Saint Pierre |
July 12. 6:00am Decided
to get an early start as stronger winds were predicted that could make for
uncomfortable sailing on the shallow lake St. Pierre. Again we got stuck leaving the marina, though
Oliver was able to push the bow of the boat so that we were able to motor out.
As forecast, the winds did pick up and once we were near
Trois Rivieres we were able to sail without the engine running using only the
genoa.
The guidebook suggests that one should leave Trois Rivieres
several hours before low tide in Quebec City. Based on our boat speed that
would have been the time we were to be in Trois Rivieres and since it was early
in the day and everything was going so well we decided to continue on to Quebec
City. With 15kt winds and the current
and tidal flow we were able to do 10kts with only our genoa sail. We continued like this for half the way when
we started to fall behind the tide. At
that point we began to motor sail and maintained an average speed of 7 to 8
kts.
A couple of times along the way we encountered some
freighters that left such a large wake behind that we got soaked in the cockpit
as we crashed through their waves.
 |
| Quebec City YC |
By 8:30pm we arrived at Quebec City YC. We covered 98nm that
day, our longest run so far. There we
were able to negotiate some reciprocal privileges, one night free and $30 per
night for the rest.
The next day we went into the city where I said good-bye to
Oliver, who headed back to Montreal, and I did some shopping at the waterfront
Marché. After the trip into the city it
was pool time.
Because of the tide and the current in the next stretch, I
decided to wait a couple of days so that I would not have to got through the
night, but would be able to travel in day light. This allowed me to enjoy a
couple of the hot days by the pool of the club.
 |
| Race night @ QCYC, fleet races and tacks through the mooring field then heads accross the wake of a freighter and up river with the tide and then back against the tide, very entertaining. |
 |
| Good-bye Quebec City |
July 19. Left early again, 5:45. It gets light very early. QC has the same time zone throughout the province even though
it goes into the Long. as the provinces that in the Atlantic time zone.
Winds were again, light in the morning and then increasing to 10 to
15kts in the afternoon. Crossing the river was fine. The water was flat and the tide and current were in the same direction allowing me to motor sail with the genoa only at a speed of 8 to 10kts. Saw my first "sea monster" today. A seal kept peeking up to see what I was and where I was going. I arrived at Riviere de Loup an hour before low tide and the marina was totally dry. In the guide book it didn't say that the marina is totally dry at low tide. The service dock was the only place where there was enough water. Luckily I was able to convince both the harbour master and then the owner of the tour boat operation, which owns these docks, that I could stay there as I would be leaving there the next day before the tide was up again.
July 21. Ever since the engine backfired it continued to run fine. Today was mostly motoring and some motor sailing as the winds were light and from the west. Arrived outside of Matane just after noon but had to wait outside of the harbour for an hour until the tide was high enough to cross a sand bar in the entrance. As it was sunny, warm and the winds were light, at this time it was not a problem. Once in the harbour I was met at the dock by Catherine who had driven from Montreal that day to meet me. Catherine would be my ground support, interpreter and company for the trip.
