Valleyfield Marina to Montreal

July 24, 2011,

We woke up this morning to very nice Wx with winds from the NE @ 5-10 kts.  It was worth the layover to have these conditions to transit the final four locks:  Upper Beauharnois (drops 49'), Lower Beauharnois (drops 49'), St Catherine (drops 49') and, finally, St Lambert (drops 18').  How joyful it is to be in Montreal.  We found a few Quebecois sailing from Valleyfield who were going our way and docking at Longueuil, QC which is on the West bank of Montreal.  This was a wonderful encounter since we didn't have to motor against a 6 kt current into old Montreal. 

We left Valleyfield at 0815 hrs and arrived in Longueuil at 2100 hrs just before total darkness.  The wonderful aspect of sailing is the chance encounters  one comes across.  Most boat people are helpful and accommodating: some are generous to a fault.  The other day at Valleyfield Marina, the wind was blowing strongly from SW @20-25.  I saw this beautiful motor yacht starting to dock in a berth next to us.  I ran out to help with his lines and safely got him moored.  Later, he spoke to Phyllis and offered us his slip in Dorval (about 25 km from Montreal) if we wanted it.  He was going West for a few days and didn't need it.  Fortunately, we didn't have to use it and were able to make Montreal in a single day.

In transiting the locks, we had another encounter with a Motor Yacht on which ther were two wonderful people that helped us arrange a berth at Longueuil and met us there to catch our lines.  They have a permanent berth there and offered to take us grocery shopping,  These French Canadians are most friendly.

What can we say about Montreal that hasn't been written about in thousands of guide books?  The old quarter is charming and, like any tourist place, loaded with everything to lighten the pocketbook.  Restaurants are not cheap here.  We're no longer plugged into the economical travellers "word of mouth" network so we have to just look around for reasonable places.

I was able to find a nautical chart store that stocked all the Canadian charts for the entire St Lawrence River.  Even though I have the charts on a MaxSea program on my computer, I'm uncomfortable without the actual paper charts. What if the computer crashes?  Therefore, the expense of paper charts is a necessity for me.

The St Lawrence River has had its' way for several hundred miles now.  We have locked down over 250' from Iroquois to St Lambert.  That gives some idea of the tumoultuous nature of the River and the Rapids that have to be bypassed.  Once we reach Tois Riviere, about 70 miles downstream of Montreal, the greater force of the Ocean and Tides starts to kick in and at Quebec ( 140 miles downstream of Montreal) there are 18' Tides.  All that means that we will now be calculating High and Low water to sail on the favorable Ebb Tide.  The wonderful thing about going East is the current: always there and pushing you along.  It tends to be windy here: 10 to 20 kts but being in the River, nothing to worry about.  Now that we're out of the locks, I don't have to hold position until we're tied up.  In the future, a strong East wind against an ebb tide with set up a vicious chop and short steep seas.  These conditions will necessitate a Wx delay.  We still have over 1200 miles to go before we reach Bar Harbor, ME

We're waiting on our mail and Medicine that was sent from the States last Wednesday and has not arrived here.  I'll give it two more days and then leave instructions to forward it someshere else.  We still have enough of everything to see us through for a few months.