Author: stephen

June 25. Day 32. While we could theoretically make the 140/45 miles from Chambly to Quebec City for our target date of July 3 in only 3 or 4 days, it would take having the appropriate weather on all consecutive days (light winds, i.e. 10 knots or less, from the Southwest and with no thunderstorms), stopping further down the Richelieu near Sorel, and at Trois Rivieres and Portneuf.

But if we left today, we would likely be running into contrary weather by the time we were crossing Lac St-Pierre, and one doesn’t want to do that. It is extremely shallow outside of the channel, and is subject to rough waters appearing very suddenly if the wind shifts, and there are threats of thunderstorms about. Besides, there is a nice spa/resort/restaurant/marina not too far downriver at St.-Marc-sur-Richelieu, and Michel fancies a massage and pedicure. Perhaps two nights there?

So we do a slow shuffle down river so we can spend Canada Day weekend in the city of Trois Rivieres, third largest in Quebec. We leave Chambly on a very windy Monday, the breeze giving us extreme challenges in the three locks which step down to the river, but we survive that. Shortly thereafter, we are tying up at the Auberge Handfield, just beyond Beloiel, as the wind keeps on shifting around us.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Cities, a Lake, and The Van Doos.”

Monday June 18 is Day 25 and we are at the marina in Malletts Bay, Vermont, with the intention firstly of avoiding a series of thunderstorms, and then perhaps have the attentions of a mechanic for an hour during the stay. The former we had in spades, with the skies opening up around us, torrential rain, and rolling thunder most of the day and well into the night. It felt good to be tied to a dock in such a storm and not be at anchor with all that lighting around.

As we were drying out the next day, Will the mechanic arrived first thing and we sorted a mysterious oil leak – a small oil line to the pressure gauge – and some other small stuff.

Continue reading “Peace, Love & Ice Cream, a wet Saint, and a decorated artist”

Sunday evening (June 10) and we dine at a funky bistro in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu and enjoy a pleasant walk back to the boat as the evening draws in.

Continue reading “Some forbidden fruit and a weekend when the fish should be afraid. Very afraid.”

Day 7, Thursday May 31, and we dock at Port de Plaisance Lachine, an exceedingly pretty and pleasing marina, protected and surrounded by parks and inlets. The twin-spired church clock rang charmingly and frequently, but thankfully their the batteries seemed to run out overnight. We stayed for three nights to stock up (and pump out) and have Stephan and Diane over for smoked trout and goats cheese, red onion, capers and lemon, fresh baguette and white wine, all of which saw us through Saturday afternoon.

Continue reading “A Fleur-de-Lys, some Black Pudding and beaucoup de saints”

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”

After a winter which brought two trips to the UK for Stephen (one in November to see family and one in February to attend Auntie Jean’s funeral and see family) and a month in Costa Rica for us both, the Canadian winter decided to overstay its welcome, small as that was to begin with.

Continue reading “Spring was cancelled this year”

After two nights at Loyalist Cove Marina at the end of the three month Summer Cruise (we still hadn’t been home yet), we head out again on the first day of September. We have booked a slip for the last month of the season at the Gananoque Municipal Marina, in the Thousand Islands, where we will leave the boat and go back to Toronto. Then, after getting our landlubber legs back, we will revisit our old cruising waters in a couple of short visits back to True North III, and Stephen will host his buddies for a weekend, too.

On Friday, September 1, we wake up to a cold morning. Very cold – it’s 6 degrees C, and feels more like 3. As during the rest of the summer, the weather has gone mad. But it is bright and clear, and we make the trip to Gananoque (38 miles) in good calm weather, and have a mini-cruise of some of the islands before we tie up at the marina.

Continue reading “That September in the Rain. And the Sun. And the Heat. And the Fog.”

Sunday August 27, Day 73: The weather is holding, and while exceptionally cool – in fact cold – at night, the days are clear and with light breezes. This is good for our last three days on the Trent River over the 52 miles and 18 locks it will take to get to Trenton Port Marina on the Bay of Quinte. Each day we will go through 6 locks, many of which are in quick succession.

We start her up, and immediately go into our first lock, at Hastings itself, and, on exiting, commence our day by the captain making an alarming error: he had left the port engine in reverse when it was turned off, and on restarting this meant a mad scramble to prevent us proceeding backwards to the gates of the lock and damaging the dinghy in the process. Fortunately, no other boats were in the lock with us. A close call, and it somewhat flavoured the rest of the day.

Continue reading “Where the buoys are”

Day 66 – Sunday August 20 – we wake early to depart Bobcaygeon – not as early as all the fishermen, but early enough to catch the first lockage at 09:00, and, with an eagle eye on the engine gauges, we cruise to Buckhorn and on to our destination: Lovesick Lake and its delightful Lock 30, a distance of 23 miles plus two locks (each of which will take between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on traffic) .

On the way, we see cottage country at its most playful, with lots of speed boats and water toys, and after we stop at Buckhorn Yacht harbour for a pump out and fresh drinking water, we move into the crowded Buckhorn Lock.

Continue reading “Luvverly Lovesick Lake Lock and onwards”

We leave Georgian Bay early on Monday, August 14th with benign weather: little wind, and no threat of rain, and we need it so we can tackle Lock 45, which is notorious for its bridge and its currents. When we passed through it on the way up, the torrents from the dam were intimidating, but now, two months later, they have abated somewhat. Still, we want to be there in time for the first lockage, to get it over with, and then move on as far as Lock 43 at Swift Current, tackling the Big Chute Railway in between.

Continue reading “Of locks, loons and luck both good and bad”