Mon, July 3 -St. Jean sur Richelieu to Chambly Basin

Mon, July 3 -St. Jean sur Richelieu to Chambly Basin    The day started out with a plan - complete the Chambly Canal and enjoy the scenic trip.  We went thru our first bridge at 10 am and directly into our first lock.  These locks are small - 100 ft long and 22 feet wide.  For two boats of 44 and 43 ft long and each about 15 ft wide it is a balancing act to get into the lock together, tie and secure the boats, ride the lock down and carefully exit back into the narrow channel.  The canal is 19 km long - which is about 12 miles, 12 bridges, many of which needed to be opened, 9 locks, all while traveling in a single file line at a speed of about 6 mph.  There is a bike path the full length of the canal and all of the bikers were riding faster than us - even the children.  8 out of the 9 locks are also closed and opened by hand, by cranking a lever and the values are also opened manually.  The whole idea of the Chambly canal sounds very romantic - and overall it is a wonderful experience.  Our experience had additional challenges.  About half way thru the canal, Greeks Folly had slowed, waiting to go thru a bridge.  When Captain Tom put the boat in gear, it did not move.  He tried reverse on the port engine, it went backwards and remained in reverse gear.  Tom ran down into the engine room trying to find the problem as Short Vacation is yelling "go forward, go forward".  We backed into the shore  which is lined with rocks, and Tom immediately turned off the engines as we drifted onto the rocks.  We threw Short vacation a line and they towed us to a public dock right before bridge 7.  Tom and John immediately analyzed the problem that our gear shift cable was broken, stuck in reverse.  John had a spare cable on board so he and Tom put in the new cable in record time.  John is our hero!!! Spare parts - yea!!!  We carefully left the dock and continued on our journey.   Altho the sunny was shining brightly, the wind also had increased.   We continued thru 7 more bridges and 8 more locks.  Each time Short Vacation went into the lock first on the starboard side and Greeks Folly entered slowly on the port side, fighting the wind and the small space.  Many times the stern of the boat was within 2 feet of the lock wall or Colletta had to push off the other boat to protect it and themselves.  The locks are interesting - 2 sets of 3 right upon each other.  It was a tedious and tiring trip for only going 12 miles.  The positive thing about the trip was the lock-hands.  They are Canadian students, very friendly, all speaking English and French and very helpful and knowledgeable.  They helped us arrive safely.  We were happy to finally finish the canal and arrive in Chambly Basin.  We immediately found a place to anchor for the night, settled in, and let the tension be released from our bodies.

Bridge # 12 on the Chambly Canal ( they are in descending
order)

Lock #9 with Imagine (Mike and Kathy) in tight

The beautiful scenic Chambly

The transmission cable snapped leaving Greek's Folly stuck in
reverse gear on the port engine. After shutting the engines down,
having the wind push us aground on the rocks along the canal,
we thru a long line to Short Vacation so John can expertly maneuver
us to the dock before the next bridge

Imagine and crew leading the way at this point. Short vacation
is behind us

 

One of the few spare parts I don't have is a spare cable.
Luckily John had a 30 ft cable which was longer then we
needed but we made her fit and were back on the water in less
then 2 hours. Great team work by all. I also made a note
to buy a spare cable at the next marine store we
found

the rapids on the Chambly River that necessitated the canal
and locks

This is how close our stern came to the lock door with both
Short Vacation and Greek's Folly in these small locks. At one point I had to push
our boat off the lock door because we were being pushed against
it by the incoming water

Hand operated lock controls. This one opens the gate
in the lock door to let water into the lock

Notice how close the next lock is? There was very little time
to relax between locks.

I told you we were close together

This lock hand is manually cranking open the lock doors
so we could proceed to the next lock

Finally, the last set of 3 locks at the end of the Chambly Canal.
They are called a flight of locks because as you exit one lock
you are pulling into the next lock. An exhausting day because of
the wind and the broken cable. 6.5 hours, 9 locks, 12 miles traveled

Opening our last lock. the Chambly Basin is in the background
where we plan to anchor for the night

Exiting our last lock. If you look at the left door, at the bottom
you can see the gate that the lockmasters open up to flood or
drain the lock.( John and I took this picture from the dinghy
the next morning when we explored around the harbor)

Short Vacation at anchor in Chambly Basin. I went for  swim this morning
to straighten the starboard prop that hit some rocks when
we were pushed into the shore when the transmission cable
snapped. all in all not much damage and no big vibration
when we took off this morning. The good Lord was watching over us
as he does every day of our travels.

Chambly Basin and Mount Hilaire in the background