Canada - Quebec Province - July 2006
Beinvenue a Canada!
We entered French Canada (Quebec Province) on July 12. Since we arrived, we have started almost every conversation with 'Bonjour, Parlez-vous anglais? Je ne parle pas francais.' (Hello - do you speak English? I don't speak French.) Most of the time that netted us a smile and a response of 'Yes, of course - how may I help you?' A few times, we got the response of 'Non' followed by a long stretch of French in which we could usually pick out a few words. Even in those cases, folks were very friendly and we were able to patch together enough to understand each other between their broken English and our very broken French. I confess that in those cases, I usually rely on Jeremy - since he's the one that at least took French in high school!
The border control (customs) office was about 1.5 miles north of Point Rouse marina. This is the 'Frontiere' sign indicating that we were crossing the border.
When we left the marina, we put up our yellow Q (Quarantine) flag - as is customary when entering a new country before clearing customs. We tied up at the Customs dock and quickly cleared customs - after which we changed our Q flag for the Canadian courtesy flag.
We were now 'free to roam about Canada' - to borrow the phrase from a popular airline.
Shortly after entering Canada, we came to the Chambly canal. In Canada, you can purchase an annual pass which covers the lock fees for all locks operated by Parks Canada. This includes all but two locks that we would pass through during our stay in Canada. In addition, we purchased an annual pass which allows us to dock at any Parks Canada dock - which includes areas on the lock walls before and after many of the locks.
We purchased our passes from the lockmaster at the first lock. With all of his gadgets for logging us in and collecting our money (they take VISA!) - we dubbed him the 'wired man of the lock'.
The Chambly is one of the oldest canals in Canada. The speed limit on the canal is 10 Kilometers per hour (approximately 6 MPH). The canal has a trail alongside and we were constantly being passed by bikers, joggers, people walking and old men on walkers. We were going VERY slow... This is a picture of the canal speed sign. The second picture shows the trail beside the canal and the river to the right of both the canal and the trail.
The Chambly canal has 9 locks and several bridges, most of which are hand operated. The lock operator at each lock calls ahead to the next lock or bridge tender to let them know when you left the previous lock or bridge. Since they know how fast you are traveling, the locks and bridges seemed to magically open at just the right time as we approached.
This is a picture of Tardis in one of the locks on the Chambly canal. In this lock we were about to be lowered down about 8 feet to the next level.
The canals work by way of sluice gates, which are located on the bottom of each lock gate. In order for you boat to be lowered to the next level, the lock operators crank up the sluice gate on the lock gates in front of the boat. This lets the water flow out of the lock into the lower level and lowers your boat down to that level.
Once you have reached the lowest level, the lock operators crank open the doors and off you go to your next lock.
There are two lock tenders at each lock, and they work together to crank either the sluice gates or the lock gates on either side of the lock. In this picture, they are cranking the sluice gates open so that we will be lowered in the lock to the next level.
Unlike the locks in New York which had slimy lines hanging down in the lock walls that you had to grab for yourself, the Canadians have nice clean lines that they position for you based on the size of your boat and then hand you as you come into the lock. Very civilized!
Each of the locks has a 'lockmasters' cottage next to the lock. This is a picture of one of them with the top of Tardis reflected in the windows.
We spent our first night in Canada tied to the lock wall in the town of Chambly above the last three locks on the Chambly canal. We found a 'museum of beer' in town, which included beer bottles from around the world. The museum also had a brewery, so we had to sample some of their beers while we were there. 'Biere' is the French word for beer - pronounced the same way. Very convienient!
This is a picture of the last three locks of the Chambly canal. It's a 'flight of 3' locks, which each lock leading into the next one. The locks take you out of the Chambly canal and into the lake, which eventually leads to the Richelieu river.
This picture shows an open sluice gate at the bottom of one of the lock gates on the 'flight of 3' locks.
This is a backwards look at the 'flight of 3' locks as we were leaving the Chambly canal.
There are many lovely villages and towns along the Richelieu river. Many with beautiful chuches built along the waterfront.
Similar to our experience of leaving the Dismal Swamp and finding ourselves in the middle of a very busy seaway in Norfolk Virginia, entering the St. Lawrence seaway at Sorel is an eye-opening experience. You leave the quite of the Richelieu, and are unceremoniously dumped into a very busy commercial boating area.
We saw this tractor tug on top of a barge docked on the side of the Richelieu river in Sorel. I have never seen the underside of a tractor tug - usually we see them in the water and we are working to avoid them. They can go in any direction with relative ease due to the swiveling props that are mounted under the boat.
Sorel marks the northernmost point of our trip. From here, we turn southwest and head down the St. Lawrence seaway toward Montreal. We stopped in the small town of Contrecoeur before getting to Montreal. There is a little marina there, and we were fortunate that they were able to find a spot for us for the night. We wandered around town and found this statue on the main street of town. We also found an ice cream shop and a great park along the waterfront in which to enjoy our treat.
We saw this church along the St. Lawrence on our way from Contrecoeur to Montreal.
Coming up to Montreal from the north, one of the first things you notice is this weird looking tower leaning over a dome. It turns out, this was left from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The tower has many cables extending down and supporting the top of the dome.
There is also a huge amusement park on an island on the left hand side as you come up toward the city.
The current near the bridge that you pass under on the way to Montreal is fierce. We saw a loss of 5 knots as we passed under the bridge. The good news is that you get that as a boost when you leave. The bad news is that you are running pretty much full throttle coming in and not going very fast. This is a picture of one of the buoys in the channel as we went past.
There is a large clock tower on the right hand side just before the Jacques-Cartier basin and the old port area in Montreal.
We tied up at the marina in the old port and headed out to explore Montreal. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Friday so we were only able to get dockage for one night. The good news was that we had arrived relatively early in the day - so we took advantage of the time we had and went exploring. We found an excellent roof-top restaurant ('terrasse' in French) near the marina and had a wonderful meal as well as a fantastic view of the port area. You can just about make Tardis out in the center of the second dock.
After lunch, we went for a wander into the city. We were VERY happy to find a marine chandlery nearby that had charts and cruising guides for the Ottawa and Rideau rivers - where we were headed next. We have electronic charts for the area, but we like to have paper charts as well. We've both spent too many years spent in the computer industry to rely completely on electronic charts! We were also able to get some really good cruising guides for the area including 'Ports' guides as well as 'Skipper Bob' books.
Shopping accomplished, we wandered up through town to the Place d'Armes and the Notre Dame Basilica.
I saw this interesting face above the doorway on the corner of a nearby building. We took a break in the Place d'Armes so that Jeremy could study the map.
A bit farther along we came to the Hotel de Ville (or City Hall) of Montreal.
This is the Edifice Lucien-Saulnier.
Heading back down toward the waterfront is the pedestrians-only Rue Saint-Vincent. Many great looking sidewalk cafes and vendors. It reminded both of us a lot of Paris.
A picture of one of the side streets in Old Montreal.
Across the looking east across the water from the old port in Montreal, there is a huge dome. We think this was left from the Expo in Montreal in 1967. Nearby looking south we saw some interesting looking condos. This is the Habitat '67, also built for the 1967 Expo.
Leaving Montreal we headed back into the St. Lawrence seaway and the first of the two really large locks we would pass though during our trip. The is the St. Lamberts lock with a lift of 18 feet. The second lock, St. Catherine's, has a lift of 32 feet. We were extremely lucky when we approached St. Lamberts lock, as the lock lights were green and they were loading pleasure craft into the lock. These locks are designed for big commercial ships, which take priority over pleasure boats. This means that if there are any ships that need to go through, you wait. And you wait - sometimes for several hours. To be able to arrive at one of these locks just as they were ready to let you in was an unexpected treat.
This is a picture of inside the St. Lambert lock. We were 'on the wall' - so the lockmaster tossed down a couple of very long lines for us to hold on to. We had one small boat rafted up to us - or 'on the shoulder', as they call it. It took me a minute to figure out what the lock master meant when he kept pointing to his shoulder, then to the smaller boat, then to us.
The boat directly in front of us had 3 smaller boats rafted off onto him - for a chain of 4 boats that he had to control. When the chain is that long, the outermost boat needs to keep his engine running so that he can help the string maintain position in the lock. The is especially important for locking up when the locks can get very turbulent.
After we exited St. Lamberts lock, we saw this large ship coming toward us in the channel. We were warned not to tie up to the lock wall in front of the big shipping locks, since these guys can sometimes slide along the wall in order to reduce speed when needed. From the looks of the side of this ship, he's done that before. Guess these guys don't need to bother with fenders.
This is a picture of the lock wall before St. Catherine's lock - looks like a few ships have used it as a brake over the years.
St. Catherine's lock is the second large shipping lock that we had to pass through on the St. Lawrence seaway. We were fortunate to tie off to a larger boat in this lock and not be 'on the wall'. The lock is much higher (32 feet). The skipper on the boat that we were tied up to asked us to come on his boat and help to control the lines. We managed the stern while he used his engine to control the boat and his wife handled the bow. He had been through the lock before and clearly knew what he was doing, so we felt pretty fortunate to be tied to him.
We spent the night at the town of Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue tied to a wall just before the lock there. This is another lovely town with a really nice promenade along the waterfront. We saw lots of people dressed up in square dance outfits. Turns out there was a square dance convention in town while we were there.
The first locks at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue were built in 1843. The lock was replaced in 1964, but the original lock walls are still visible and are still part of the channel as you come into the town from the east.
This is a picture of a lovely old Cris Craft in the current Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue lock. It's one of the easiest to use, as there is a floating dock inside the lock that you tie up to. The dock then floats up and down as the water in the lock is raised or lowered.
Updated July 17, 2006