The morning of Friday May 25 and at our marina master mechanic Dave P finishes the last few details on the boat, enabling us to start up the engines at 10:10.
The plan for the 3 month summer voyage consists of several sections: down the St Lawrence river from Loyalist Cove to Montreal to Sorel, then a diversion southwards on the Richelieu River and Chambly Canal. Here we would enter the States and Lake Champlain, moving south perhaps as far as Fort Ticonderoga, anchoring a lot, then back north again to Canada and down the Richelieu and Chambly again to rejoin the St Lawrence at Sorel. That would be about 600 miles to that point.
Heading down river (NE) again, Quebec City is another 120 miles away, where we will pause for a while. If we decide to attempt the trip to Tadoussac and The Saguenay, that will be another 380 miles there and back to Quebec City, including a week in the fjord. Weather and tides will be the deciders here since the waters of the Atlantic come up river as far as Trois Rivieres, affecting navigation greatly.
Then the return from Quebec City to Montreal to the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal from Ottawa to Kingston. In all, the trip would be 1500 or so miles.
Since every journey starts with a single step, ours starts on Day One with a 30 mile cruise from Loyalist Cove to the Thousand Islands, where we dock – rather messily, I’m afraid, what with it being the first time this year, and with the wind and all – at McDonald Island, one of the Parks Canada islands. It’s good to be back in these beautiful, familiar waters, and arriving so early in the season, with that late start due to April weather, means the islands are virtually empty, which is good for us.
We move to Gananoque Marina for a stop to provision in town, filling a taxi with food, drink and assorted items.
Continue reading “A thousand small islands and one big river”