Cape Vincent to Brockville, ONT

July 19, 2011

Well, it's Tuesday and we sailed from Cape Vincent at 0845 this morning after fueling up and pumping out the holding tank.  I had to spend all day yesterday downloading the St Lawrence River charts into MaxSea.  This process was not as easy as I had counted on.  The Furuno Dealership has to be contacted and paid.  Then they contact the technical department which issues an UNLOCK CODE.  The charts are downloaded and the unlock code installs them into the MaxSea program.  Numerous phone calls at 0.49 cents a minute and, finally, at 1500 hrs they called and sent an email with the code.

Today has been a wonderful day of sailing the St Lawrence.  The scenery is beautiful and the Capitalist Magnates of the last century,y with aristocratic ambitions from their European ancestry, have built many castles along the River  the most famous are Boltd Castle and Singer Castle.  The area around these tourist spots is bustling with activity and power boats.

We arrived in Brockville, Ont at 1530 hrs.  Distance was about 40 nm.  We're going to spend an extra day here to get organized for the River locks.  Also, my present insurance policy is only good until Quebec so I have to make arrangements for another one or put a "rider" on the present policy.

So far the piloting is going well.  Phyllis is awe struck at the 1000' ships passing us.  The River is big enough to accommodate this kind of traffic and there is a VTC (vessel traffic control) for commercial shipping.  All I need is about 20' of the available channel.  Being on the commercial side for so long, I know how to run it so everyone is happy.

Great feeling running with a 3-4 kt current.  I guess the average is about 2 kts but the minute the River narrows there is a dramatic increase in current.  The first lock that we go through is called Iroquois and is there for the sole purpose of controlling current.  After that, the Eisenhower and Snell locks bypass the Long Sault Rapids running on the other side.  The current really starts to pick up from that point until Montreal.  To get into Montreal, you have to motor against a 6 kt current for about 2 miles!! 6 kt current coming down from the Lachine Rapids.

More as we move along.