Sun-Mon July 16-17 Montreal to St. Anne de Bellevue
It is time for us to continue on to the more rural part of our travels. This heads us down the St. Lawrence Seaway, thru 2 large locks ( St. Lambert and St. Catherine locks) , used by ocean cargo ships , thru the Lac Saint Louis and towards Ottawa and the Rideau Canal. First the locks. The ocean going freighters have priority in the locks so once we got to the lock we waited about 2 1/2 hours to get thru cause a ship was coming in behind us. Then it was our turn. By "our" turn, I mean 13 pleasure craft. In Canada, the pleasure craft raft off of each other rather than both sides of the lock wall as in the US. As we were the biggest boats, we went into the lock first and prepared for our new experience. The lock master directs traffic and tells which boat to go where. Short Vacation went in against the port wall and we were told to shoulder moor against him - that means we were to tie off to Short Vacation. Very carefully Captain Tom pulled along side, with fenders and lines ready and we secured ourselves to them. We were then followed by 11 other boats who also tied to the lock wall and shoulder moored, sometimes 4 deep. That puts a lot of stress on the first boat in; everyone has to work together and cooperate to make it a safe and successful lock-thru. The second lock was much the same with the big boats first, followed by the others. Coming out of that lock, all bets are off. The boats take off, all 11 of them creating wakes and passing our slow trawler. We continued along our route following the channel markers, zig zagging thru Lac Saint Louis to find the deeper water. We arrived at St. Anne de Bellevue just as the rain started, along with the sunshine, and enjoyed a rainbow which always gives "promise and hope". As the evening progressed boats left the next lock wall which made space for us to moor overnight. With the help of a new Canadian boating friend 'Warren", we tied up and were settled.
No comments:
Post a Comment