A thousand small islands and one big river

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.

Day 3 and we head downriver to West Grenadier Island – a favourite of ours – and nab a dock. The peace and serenity of the islands returns, and the sound of loons and the flypast of herons – all interrupted by an impressive downpour – are as beautiful as ever. But the water’s still cold, cold, cold.

Day 4 and we depart on the Saint Lawrence to go further downriver then we ever have before, with a lot of research having been done into what to expect to encounter in terms of the giant St Lawrence Seaway locks and the 600 foot ships that pass through them between here and Montreal, and the currents, which give us a good boost of 2 knots, sometimes more.

By 14:00 hours, we have had enough for the day, and explore the anchoring possibilities, with a good find near the Iroquois Lock, which we will tackle tomorrow morning – the first of 7 between here and Montreal.

Up at 07:00, we call the Iroquois Lock – while they operate 24 hours a day for commercial traffic, the hours for pleasure craft this time of year are 09:00 to 17:00. Albert tells us it’s all clear, no tankers or freighters in sight, so we up anchor at 10:00 and are through the lock by 10:30. The drop, controlled by this dam in response to the volume of water coming down from the Great Lakes, is a mere 2 feet, so it’s hardly noticeable, but it introduces us to the line handling expected of us in the Canadian locks to come.

Carrying on down river, we are headed for Crysler Park Marina east of Cornwall for the night.

At the almost empty marina, we get a nice dock, and break out the folding bikes for a ride to Upper Canada Village, a living museum of Loyalist-era Canada started in 1958. The various original 19th century buildings have been moved here over time, not recreated, and are staffed by artisans in period costume, working away at their crafts. It’s an amazing place, ranking very highly in North America in museums of its kind.

Next day we’re faced with another new challenge: the American locks, Eisenhower and then, 4 miles on, Snell, which have a friendly staff, a simple way of us tying to floating bollards which rise and fall with the water rather than holding on to long lines as in the Canadian locks, but which also have a terribly situated and poorly equipped, tiny dock to which we have to tie up and wait until the lock is ready. But we survived.

From Snell Lock, the channel moves back into the Canadian side of the river, and we head for Valleyfield, Quebec, where we take a slip at the marina, turn off the engines, replace the Ontario courtesy flag with the Fleur de Lys, and relax a little before going out for an excellent steak & frites and a stroll in the park.

Next day we’re off to Lachine, in the southwest quadrant of Montreal, where we will stay for 3 nights to reprovision, do the laundry, fill up with water, and have our friends Stephan and Diane on board for lunch on Saturday.

But first we have to get through two swing bridges and a two-basin lock, Beauharnois. We get to the first swing bridge a little before 09:00, after which it is supposed to open for us on demand. 09:00 comes and goes, but it does not open and is not responsive to our radio, so we have to wait in the current until we see why – a tanker approaches from behind us in the distance. The operator wants to swing the bridge only once. At last, as the tanker gets (somewhat alarmingly) close, he lets us through, and when  we are, we speed up (to a dizzying 14 mph!) to stay ahead of the ship for the next bridge, the St Louis.

The lock people are friendly and helpful, and we go through no problem, but are roasted in the glaring sun while we tend the lines. Then it’s across Lake St Louis towards Lachine, and we can see Montreal on the horizon.

It’s only been 7 days since we left Loyalist Cove marina, but a lot of water under the bridge(s).