Made it to Kingston

Made it to Kingston. 15 days, 7 locks, 4 lift bridges, 975 NM (multiply by 1.9 for km), belugas, whales, seals, thousands of Islands and 3 overnights, 3 days stationary in marinas, 4 provinces, 448 L of diesel (aarrghh wind why didn't you cooperate more), 5 marina slips, 2 countries (you pass through US waters) and 4 bars of Laura Secord chocolate!

Almost There

We anchored last night near Prescott, ontarioo between two islands just as the sun went down last night. Had a peaceful but short sleep as we were underway by 6:15am this morning. Now we are but 10NM from Collins Bay Marina, our berth for the summer. Old Fort Henry is visible as are the buildings of downtown Kingston in the distance.
I must admit to mixed feelings. I am happy we are close to the end of jouney and to be getting settled in a new city. But I am sad our trip is coming to an end. I do so love travelling on the boat.
Today has been warm and sunny with a breeze all day. For the last two hours it has beee 30 to 35 knots on our nose so not quite as pleasant. Yet, a good day to end our trip all in all. The Thousand Islands are beautiful and I look forward to exploring more of them. One adventure ends and another begins....
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On the Seaway

Today has been an easier day on the water so far. It is almost 5pm and we have managed to put almost another 50 nautical mikes under our keel. We pulled up the anchor and left Salsberry de valleyfield around 6:20am.
I took the wheel for the first hour while Jay made blueberry muffins and coffee. Then I took my muffin and coffee to the bow office. I had a two hour conference call for work at 8am. Neat way to work I must say, watching the world go by through the porthole.
I have managed to get a lot of work done this trip, but wish we had been able to take more time to sightsee. We have been on the water for 15 days including today with only 3 days spent not moving. Two of those days were in Montreal. Unfortunately I was only able to explore the city in the evenings but what a fabulous place, le Vieux Port. We did visit Notre Dame Basilica and also took in Amaluna by Cirque de Soleil. My first Cirque show. It was amazing.
We also met another sailboat heading downriver and exchanged information and charts. It is always helpful to make those connections.
Yesterday we did a lot of waiting at locks. Today we have hardly waited at the two locks we have passed through. The current has varied, but mostly has only been one knot against us. We have passed through the two US locks and are heading towards the final lock we need to transit before entering the Thousand Islands.
We are now back in Canada after a few hours in US waters and in Ontario. We passed Chrysler's Farm and Upper Canada Village not long ago. The sun is shining brightly, unlike yesterday when it rained constantly. It is bouncing off the surface of the water and glittering like a thousand diamonds. It is hard to believe our trip is nearing an end. Tonight we intend to anchor again and then make the final run to Kingston tomorrow.
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Through the St Lawrence Seaway

After three days in Montreal, we left yesterday morning from the marina in Old Montreal. The marina is a little more than a mile past the entrance to the seaway so we had to backtrack a little bit. Unlike our arrival, the currents were behind us and we made up to 10 knots over the short distance.

After we turned into the canal that starts the seaway, we could see the first lock only a couple of miles off. The seaway is controled by the St Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, and they put out a booklet entitled "The St Lawrence Seaway Pleasure Craft Guide". We had downloaded a copy from their web site before leaving home. The book details all the procedures to follow in the seaway.

As we entered the canal a large container ship was just leaving the first lock so we had to move well over to the side while he passed. Just before each lock there is a small floating dock. Pleasure craft are to tie up to this dock and wait for clearance. Priority is always given to commercial shipping through the seaway, so small craft usually have to wait.

At these docks, there is a ticket dispenser where you can buy a lock ticket and a phone with a direct line to the lockmaster. At $25 per lock, they are not cheap. So we bought our ticket and called, and were told the wait would be about 15 mins.

Also at the lock were a couple headng back to Ottawa after a year on their boat in the Carribean. We had a bit of a chat with them since they were quite used to passing through the seaway locks.

Once we got the green light to enter, we followed the other boat into the locks. Once you get to the head of the lock, the staff drop long lines down to you that are tied off at the top of the lock. As the water level rises, you keep tightening the line on your end to hold yourself as stationary as possible. The lock is huge and it rises very quickly - probably 5 mins for millions of gallons of water to move in. The water gets turbulent and buffets the boat a bit. Although we had 5 fenders out, we still had to push away from the wall sometimes because we would twist in the water.

Once we rose to the top, we just handed them our ticket and the line, and away we went.

Then repeated the process three more times. At the second lock, when we arrived the green light ws already on. According to the book we had to stop and buy a ticket, so we did so. But the other boat just went straight in. While we were buying our ticket, they started the raising process so we missed our chance and had to wait over an hour. When we finally got through we asked the staff and they told us they also accept cash directly at the lock. So we would have saved orselves over an hour if we had gone into the lock.

We also had to deal with a three lift bridges yesterday. Unlike the bridges in the Maritimes, we didn't have call to request an opening - they open them automatically for you when they see you coming. The one delay we had was at St Louis, were we arrived at 5:15 pm. I guess they don't open the bridge during rush hour, so we had to wait until 6, when they finally opened for us.

Just after the third bridge, we came to Salaberry de Valleyfield, about a half hour off the main channel. We pulled in there and anchored in the harbour for the night. As we were going around the harbour to find a good spot to anchor, the depth was varying wildly, going from 15 feet down to 5 feet in seconds. The next morning I realized why - there are lot of weeds all over the bottom giving false readings. Our anchor was so caked with mud and weeds, it took almost a half hour to clean it off.

Today we will go through at least two more locks, and hopefully the remaining three locks in the seaway if all goes well.
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Planning the Trip From Quebec City to Montreal

We've now arrived in Montreal after a 2-day trip from Quebec City.

In an earlier post, I summarized how we planned our trip from Rimouski to Quebec.  With very few adjustments, it all went as planned, and if anything, the currents actually were a bit more friendly than I was expecting. 

When we were planning this trip, I did some internet searches around sailing up the St Lawrence.  I didn't have much luck.  I knew that currents were a big issue, and that they had to be taken into account in planning the trip, but I was hoping for more detailed information.  I was able to find some information for going down river, but not much for making the trip in the reverse direction, against the prevailing current.  Thanks to the couple that we ran into in Rimouski (as I mentioned in the earlier post), I was able to get much better information on planning the trip.  I hope that my previous post, as well as the information below, are of use to anyone else planning this trip.

First off, there is a publication put out by Fisheries and Oceans Canada called Atlas of Tidal Currents (St. Lawrence Estuary from Cap de Bon-Désir to Trois-Rivières).  This publication shows the expected direction and strength of currents in 20-minute intervals through most of the river.  It is all based on the times of high and low tide in the area, so using this book along with the tide tables book can show exactly what tides to expect at different times of the day.

We decided to try do the trip from Quebec City to Montreal in two days, with a stop in Trois-Rivières.  We had anchored in Quebec City, just a couple of miles downstream from the city on the south side of Isle d'Orleans.  Quebec City has a very strong tidal influence, with tides of about 18 feet, so it is critical to time the currents properly.

On July 23, the tidal tables said that high tide in Quebec City was at 0927.  According to the tidal tables, the current switches three hours before that, so we pulled up anchor at 0630.  Coming through Quebec City was a blast, and we hit up to 11 knots under the bridge (our normal top speed is about 7 knots).  We had two plans for the day.  The first was to make it as far as Portneuf, about 30 miles away, which we thought we would reach by 1130.  At that time, the currents are starting to change.  We actually made it there shortly after 1030, so we continued on to Trois-Rivières.  We were going against the current at the end of the day, but it wasn't too bad, and we reached here at around 1800.  For the last hour of the day, we were going against about a 1 knot current.

At Trois-Rivières, we're almost out of the tidal area of the river.  According to the current book, it is impossible to avoid adverse currents, but if you leave within the hour after low water, you can minimize the currents for the first little while. We timed our departure at 0600 the next morning, and caught some favourable currents for the first couple of hours.  However, where Quebec City has an 18 foot tide, Trois-Rivières only has a foot or two, and the tidal currents are very weak.  So, for almost all of the day until we hit Montreal, we were going against the currents, although they were almost always no more than about 1 knot, sometimes 2 knots.  That let us cruise along at between 5.5 and 6 knots for the day.

Along the river after we passed Quebec City, we travelled in the shipping channel, dodging the occasional cargo ship.  Just a few miles upstream of Sorel-Tracy, there is a secondary, pleasure craft channel.  This runs for 18 miles before it merges again with the main channel, has lots of depth and clearance, has less downstream current, and is a much more pleasant trip.  We then merged again with the main channel about 12 miles from our berth in Montreal, and remained in that channel the rest of the way.  There is another length of pleasure craft channel for about three miles that we decided to pass on - there are lots of rocks if you stray out of the channel according to the chart.