Downbound and Outbound

Our journey downbound (or outbound) on the St Lawrence River continued as we ventured into unfamiliar waters. Leaving the comfort of the Thousand Islands, with their many safe anchorages, we found ourselves pouring over cruising guides, reading notes in our Navionics app, and soliciting local knowledge whenever possible.

Prior to the start of our trip, I had been meeting with a group of women on a weekly Zoom call exchanging details of our respective trips on the St Lawrence. The destinations for each of the five boats were different but the exchange of ideas was valuable. As some of the boats (like Vitae) were on a faster schedule for their downbound journey, we started getting tips from them along the route.

We also had SV Komeekha join on the calls as they had done the trip last year. They shared the knowledge they gained and their experiences along their outbound trip. Perhaps the biggest takeaway was learning that the weather played a significant role in whether your trek through a lock was going to be stress free or a white-knuckle experience.

Anchoring is Possible

As we puttered our way along the seaway, we found there were places to anchor. Some were peaceful and others were less than ideal. One of the peaceful anchorages was Talbots Point in the Croil Islands where we tucked into US waters about 100 yards from the Canadian border. We were so close that some Canadian officials came by in the morning to make sure we had dropped our anchor on the right side of the line!

Our next anchorage was less than pleasant – along the south side of Regis Island. It was pretty but the local traffic took great pleasure in zooming by us through the afternoon. At one point a party boat roared through between us and the shore!

More Locks

Most of the locks along the Seaway are Canadian except for two – the Eisenhower and Snell locks. Both of these locks are huge, each dropping 65 feet. These were the two locks that had me worried about the turbulence within the locks. The locks also had a weird bollard tie-up that is unique to these two locks.

We picked a day that was dead calm for our downbound drop. With our reservation complete, we approached the lock at the scheduled time and found the lock open and ready for us to cruise right in. Snagging the re-designed bollard was easy in the complete calm. We shared a pleasant ride down with a small fishing boat.

The Snell lock was a repeat with me at the helm and Dan snagging the bollard. The ride down was so smooth that we hardly needed to use our trusty 2×2’s to fend off.

Third Time’s a Charm

We arrived in Sallebery-de-Valleyfield, our first stop in the Province of Quebec and our first encounter with Quebecois French. Fortunately those who deal with the tourists are bi-lingual and switch back and forth between English and French in a blink of an eye. We learned they have a trick when they great you – they say “Bonjour-Hi” and if you respond with “Hi”, they immediately start speaking English.

We dropped anchor in the large, protected bay as far back into the harbor as we thought prudent. Needing some shore time, we launched the dinghy and buzzed ashore to do some exploring. We found that there was a big music festival starting that night. After enjoying some preliminary music while the various singers did their soundchecks, we returned to the boat for dinner.

Shortly after our arrival back at the boat, an official boat came by and informed us we needed to move as the center of the bay had to be cleared out for the evenings firework display. So we hauled up the anchor and headed even further back into the bay, where the officials assured us we would be okay.

About the time we were going to sit down and enjoy the grilled pork chops that Dan had made, the same official boat came by again. Apparently the wind had shifted and they were now asking everyone to leave the inner bay and head further out! So the anchor was hauled up once again, and once again with a huge pile of weeds!

The fireworks were great but our final location was too far away to enjoy any of the music at the bandshell.

Beauharnois Locks

We departed Valleyfield before 0700 for our date with the next set of downbound locks – the two Beauharnois locks. We were the first ones to the lock but were joined by numerous other sailboats and powerboats, including one sailboat that roared in at the last minute!

As before we picked a dead calm day and I motored in with Dan forward – he has better reach for pushing off the walls, if needed. We both were wearing grundgy gloves to protect our hands from the slimy lock walls and slivers from our trusty 2x2s.

Expecting to raft, we were pleasantly surprised that all of the power boats rafted but each sailboat got its own set of lines. With these locks, the lock masters drop down two floating lines – one for the bow and one for the stern.

Another easy, downbound float!

The Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club

Our membership with the Thousand Island Yacht Club got us a free night at the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club. The weather was deteriorating so we knew we were going to spend a couple of nights. A couple of nights turned into five as we had to tackle major head repairs.

In our quest to solve the problem with our one and only head, we essentially dismantled every section of the hoses and completely rebuilt the head pump. Of course, this was under the guidance of of Mike Gozzard, who repeatedly reminded us that the entire system was under pressure and we could expect a messy explosion at any time! He had just too much fun terrorizing us as to our pending doom!

For my part, I sent him sound bites from Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen along with Head Games by Foreigner!

Happy to report that we resolved the issue and the head works better than it ever!

As for the Yacht Club – we were very thankful that it was a very friendly, casual place and their dining room was open till 9PM, which was when we were usually calling it a day after wrestling with the plumping hoses.

Last of the Downbound Locks

Our next stop was Montreal but we had to go through a series of bridges and locks. As before the day was calm and locks were easy. We had quite a few boats going through the series of downbound obstacles, both power and sail. Some of the power boats decided to race ahead, cutting between us and another trawler and kicking up huge wakes. Not sure why as they had to wait for the bridge openings which wouldn’t happen until all the boats had arrived.

We arrived in Longueuil around 7:30pm and realized our assigned slip was too short for us. We ended up parking at the fuel dock for the night and then moved to the Old Port in downtown Montreal the next day. While the trip was only 3 nautical miles, we had to beat into a 5-knot current for part of the journey. What should’ve taken 30 minutes took 1.5 hours!

July 1, 2023 234 Nautical Miles 45°30.346’N  073°32.997’W