Woke up early and maneuvered our boat out of the tight space we had on the wall and headed through Lac St Louis toward Montreal. The channel takes us between Ile Montreal nd Ile Perrot.
The further we go, the closer we get to joining the main shipping channel on the St Lawrence Seaway. After a zig zag in the channel the red and green markers switch sides as we enter the Seaway. We notice the current changes also. A four knot current will push us along as we head to Montreal. We were moving at 8.8 knots with the engines just barely above idle.
A bit further on we entered the Canal Sud and pass Ile Tekawitha and the Kahnawake Indian Reservation. Canal Sud was built to allow boat traffic to negotiate the two sections of rapids on the St Lawrence. The earthen dams and dams at the two locks allow the freighters with up to 25 feet of draft to traverse the St Lawrence north to Montreal and Quebec City and eventually to the Atlantic. The two locks in this section of the St Lawrence are St Catherine’s and St Lambert. For pleasure boaters to navigate through these locks, they must make reservations online one day ahead and pay the locking fee. The day you are to lock through you call or check online to find out when the locks are available for pleasure boats. Our time was noon and 1:30. Had hoped for earlier times, but it was out of our hands.
Closer to the first lock there was a freighter loading area. Sand, gravel and semi trailers and crates were all lined up to be uploaded. We watched two freighters at the dock being filled. One ship was the freighter Rosare a Desagagnes-138 feet long, 61feet wide and depth of 21.3 feet.
As we approached the first lock, St Catherine’s, we pulled up to the floating dock to wait our turn. We were joined by another US boater and a sailboat. St Catherine’s lock is 766 feet long, 80 feet wide and 30 feet deep. Each locking moves 18 million gallons of water. We dropped 32 feet in the lock. This lock took us an hour earlier than scheduled, so that was a nice surprise.
Leaving the lock, we continued up Canal Sud another 7 miles to the lock at St Lambert. Here we dropped another 18 feet. Along the way we passed two freighters going south. They are quite impressive in size. The pleasure boats all slowed down and moved to the edge of the channel so the freighters could pass.
We tied up at St Lambert dock and waited for two freighters to lock up, so we missed our 1:30 locking as freighters take priority. Our turn came as the second freighter left, so we entered the lock at 2:00.
Finishing our locking we traveled about three miles further in the Canal Sud where the canal empties into the St Lawrence proper. As we were staying at a marina in Montreal, we had to head south two miles against the current. Had to use some power to move us against that 4 knots of current. We managed but it was not a smooth ride as we also had to negotiate the many tour boats and ferries in and out of Montreal.
This last picture is of the remains of Fort de Ile Ste Helene, was built in the 1820s by the British to protect the St Lawrence River trade routes.
We got tied up at the dock and water and electric connected and I started the laundry. We changed and then headed into the old city of Montreal. Had dinner and enjoyed the old stone buildings as we walked about the streets and plazas filled with people and street performers. Montreal is on an island and is named for Mount Royal which is in the center of the island.
