Ray and Deb's Great Loop Cruise: Week 14, Sept. 9-13

The previous post we were leaving Ottawa. There are two locks on the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Montreal. Here we are arriving at the second lock, St. Anne de Bellevue. From here we are about 10 miles west of the heart of Montreal. This is where the Ottawa River meets the St. Lawrence River. On the other side of this lock, the St. Lawrence River is about a mile and a half wide and very shallow. It's actually called Lake St. Louis. From this lock, there are two ways to get to the heart of Montreal, which is called Old Montreal. For small boats, you can take the Lachine Canal which has a height restriction of 8 feet. Larger boats must zig-zag back and forth through shallow Lake St. Louis following an extensive buoy route to the shipping channel of the St. Lawrence River. Once in the shipping channel, you must lock through two large shipping channel locks, St. Catherine and Lambert, that take you to Old Montreal. Even though it's only 10 miles from here to the heart of Montreal, we traveled 25 miles and it took us all day to get there.

We spotted this freighter in the shipping channel while we were maneuvering through Lake St. Louis. We caught up to it and followed it to the St. Catherine Lock. We had heard it can take as much as four hours to lock through the commercial shipping locks on the St. Lawrence because of commercial traffic.

I pulled up to the pleasure boat dock at the St. Catherine Lock as the freighter was pulling into the lock. We had to tie up here, get off the boat and check in via intercom phone to get our locking instructions. I thought they might put us in with him, saving us time. As the freighter past, 75 feet to our left, his prop sucked water from around us and pulled us into the dock popping the fenders up onto the dock, putting several deep scratches in the hull. Lessen learned- stay away from freighters. No they didn't let us lock with him. We had to wait an hour and a half.

Entering the St. Catherine Lock.

Leaving the St. Catherine Lock.

This is what the shipping channel looks like. It arcs around the southern side of Montreal. Next stop the Lambert Lock.

Lambert Lock.

If you look close, you can see four red lights on the tower. The red lights mean "Stop - Do Not Enter." Next, there are four amber lights. They count down in one minute increments. Amber light #4 will flash for one minute, go out and amber light #3 starts flashing, and so on. When the green light comes on, they are ready for you to enter.

To the left in this picture is a 40 foot SeaRay that is tied at the pleasure boat dock waiting to lock through.

This is the Montreal skyline and where the St. Lawrence shipping channel meets the main St. Lawrence River.

When we turned left to head upstream to Old Montreal, there was a very fast current, 6 to 7 knots. I was operating the boat at a normal 10 knot cruise speed and going 3 knots.

To the far right, you can see the still water out of the current. The marina where we stayed Port D-Escale, is up this calm water about a mile.

This is the same boat we saw at Burritts Rapids on the Rideau Canal.

This is Port D-Escale where we stayed.

Had to mount my satellite dish on the hardtop to get the signal over the wall for reception.

This marina, Port D-Escale, was once a commercial shipping dock that has been converted to a marina.

Across the street from the marina is Old Montreal.

One street over is this street with old cobblestone.

Many shops and restaurants on this street.

While we were in Montreal, we rented a car and drove 100 miles north to a lumbermill, Eco-Cedre at St. Donat, Quebec. They specialize in northeastern white cedar. I am looking for a source for clear boards (no knots) to build a lapstrake dinghy. Had a nice conversation with the owner, Paul Foster. He has turned down other requests, but he said he would supply me because we had made the effort to visit the sawmill.