August 17. Day 123. On to the Richelieu River and start of the Chambly Canal. 53.2nm. Total 2409

Woke to a crisp 62 degrees this morning. Will warm up to 75 degrees today.

Pulling up our weedy anchor, we continued north behind the Ile de Contrecouer and its town nd returned to the main channel on the St Lawrence. Will travel 13 miles up the river to the northern most pint of our trip at Sorel Tracy, Quebec.

As we leave the many islands of the St Lawrence behind, the river narrows. The shore on both sides are filled with homes and towns. A little further and the homes thin out to forest and then a mooring basin for freighters.

Once past the mooring basin, the west shore is farmland and the east side is the industrial port of Sorel Tracy. Sorel Tracey is the third largest city in Quebec and is known for its synthetic textiles, steel and metallurgy and furniture production. The river makes a hard right turn, which brings the rest of the port into view.

We make another right hand turn and enter the Richelieu River and start our trip south. The Richelieu River is 68.6 miles longs and ends in Lake Champlain. The river has three sections- the first a natural river with one lock for 39 miles, the second is a 10 mile cut channel bypassing a series of rapids with 9 locks and the third section returns to natural river. As we travel, the industrial port is left behind and homes begin to line the river front , which then changes to mostly farmland with few towns.

We passed the town of St Ours and locked through being raised 5 feet. This part of the river continues farmland and fields. Lots of fields and lots of corn! Along the way there are small towns with names such as- St Denis, Domaine Lecours- with cable ferries connecting them; St Antoine, Place Stephane, and St Charles and Rosseau Blanchard (with ferries linking them) and the larger town of Mont St Hilaire. The further south we go the more homes, some very large, line the shore. Then we begin to have bridges crossing the river, so we must be getting closer to civilization!

The river continues through a basin appropriately called Bassin de Chambly as it is near the town of Chambly, which is our destination tonight. We tied up at the blue line at the lock to wait our turn. A much larger boat is in front of us, so after talking with the lock staff, we opted to just stay the night and not go through the lock as there was no space below the locks for us to tie up.

We have been practicing our French and our efforts have produced much laughter and even a few lessons. Oh, but we tried!

Went to a French restaurant for dinner and had a delicious salad and veal dish. Now I am stealing the libraries WiFi to get caught up on the blog.

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

Day 98. 2nd year. August 27. On to Manistee. Miles 25 Total miles. 3910.

We weighed anchor on a sunny 50 degree morning. So we put on our sweatshirts and drove from below as we left Frankfort. Going through Frankfort’s channel and breakwater we encountered a few intrepid fisherman and further along as we cleared the breakwater there must have been over a hundred fishing boats. Almost like playing bumper cars, but with boats. Had to negotiate a path between them as the fishing boats were all trolling fishing lines behind them. We were still seeing fishermen 4 miles south of Frankfort. These guys sure take their fishing tournaments seriously! The shoreline that we pass heading south are still sand dunes bluffs some as tall as 200 feet. As we travel, we pass the small town of Arcadia and Portage Lake, each situated on an inland lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a dredged channel. Interesting to note that the dredged channels were originally small rivers connecting the inland lakes to Lake Michigan. As we passe...

Crustacean Travels

Search This Blog