Pics & text of Richeliu River, Chambly Canal, & entering Montreal

"The mate was a mighty sailing lass..."

Mon Aug 6:  We left Lake Champlain and headed for the St Lawrence.  We were told that no plants could enter Canada from the US.  Grace was not about to surrender Betsy or her herbs.  Pictured is Betsy incognito hiding from les Gendarmes.  An international border incident was narrowly averted.

Chambly Canal

One of the many bridges (lift & swing).

Unlike the US canals, Canadian canal workers handed you clean, dry lines as you came in.

However, these locks were very small. Picture our boat and one more power boat sharing the space in this lock.

The last 3 locks were right together.  This was the last one overlooking Chambly.

All the Chambly locks are hand operated.

Tues & Wed Aug 7 & 8:  Mt. St. Hillaire from Marina du Phare in Beloeil.  Run by a freindly couple.  She was fluent in English, he was not.

Vieux (Old) Beloeil.  Small town with a lot of great restaurants (menus in French).  With the help of the bilingual waitresses we were able to enjoy two of them.  Monteraleans drive here to eat and it's easy to see why.  The food is "magnifique"!

St Ours, the last lock before entering the St Lawrence and home to Grace's new best friend, Sebastian, one of the Canadian Park guys.  He  confirmed her river route and told her hundreds of sailboats make this trip every year.

Had to overnight at the St Ours lock because water levels in all marinas around Sorel (where the Richeliu River meets the St. Lawrence) were too low for us to get in. So we started early and made a 10 hour trip from here to Montreal.

Our first encounter with a Seaway ship.  Surprisingly, his wake was smaller than a lot of the powerboats.

Approaching Montreal traveling upriver.  Our first encounter with the current.  Could only make 4.5-5 knots most of the day.  The last 2 miles 2.5-3 knots max.  Luckily, the only other place we should encounter this is the bridge at Cornwall.

Aug. 9 & 10: Spending 2 nights in the Lachine Canal dock waiting for the weather to get better. Should be entering the seaway canals tomorrow with our mast still down as we continue to search for a marina with deep enough water that will step our mast.  Even the French ducks "cop a tude".