Skip to main content

Day 119. Aug 13. On to Ste Anne de Bellevue. 22.6 Nm. Total 2299

 Woke to a heavy fog at the lock, so we laid back down for an hour until it cleared.  Alfred helping a fellow boater use our generator power to make coffee, we said Adieu to Pierre and Marie and headed north.





After three miles the river widened into Lac de Deux Montages- Lake of the Two Mountains. The shore is filled with homes and farms, even cattle and horses as we thread our way through the islands on the south end of the lake.





Small towns are scattered along the shore- Ste Placide, Hudson, Oka and Point Aux Anglais.  A ferry connects the the towns of Hudson and Oka.



We turn towards the lock at Ste Anne de Bellevue and go under the bridge connecting Ile Montreal and Ste Anne de Bellevue and the city of Vaudreuill and tie up to the blue line and wait our turn to lock through.



Locking through with seven other boats took awhile- the efficiency of the Rideau lock staff does not seem to apply to the locks in Quebec.  After 90 minutes, we completed our three foot drop to the level of the St Lawrence River.  bill gave a tour of the boat and a Great Loop explanation to. Very appreciative young Quebecan couple during the wait.  We made them promise to make the trip.









Once settled, we took off to explore the small town of Ste Anne de Bellevue.  The small town has many waterfront restaurants and older homes which were converted to shops.  Outside of town is a large campus of Mc Gill a university. one of the original buildings was gifted  by John A Macdonald, Canada’s First Prime Minister.

We enjoyed a late lunch and ice cream and of course talking with the town people.  Bill found a boat supply store and purchased a fender and other supplies.  We were quite a sight carting all these boat supplies back to the boat.


When we returned to the boat every space available was taken up by boats on the walls.  This town was hopping with people walking the waterside parks and eating at the restaurants.

Popular posts from this 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...