Only 20 miles and two locks today, and the marina did not want us before 1 PM, so and easy start. In this section of the St. Lawrence (where the Oswego River joins the StL) the shipping channel is essentially a man made canal on the east side of the river proper. Montreal is a pretty industrial town so the closer we got to town the less pretty it became. The canal rejoins the river about 2 miles downriver of old Montreal and our marina, and so we needed to cross the river and head upstream. This is a notorious part of the rive, very swift current and rough water. Tide Hiker has no trouble with the turbulence but really had the work against the current. At one point we saw 1.9 kts progress (over the ground). It took us almost an hour to do the two miles.
There was plenty to look at. On the East side was a giant amusement park. On the west side was initially moored ships but then the fun places - parks, marinas, hotels etc with lots of people milling around. Our marina was located in a huge shipping basin - it looked like it was built in WW2 to withstand heavy bombing. But it had been converted (like Docklands in Melbourne) to residential and entertainment. As we entered the noise from a rock concert was almost overwhelming. We had to wait between "songs" to use the radio. We went straight to the pump-out (phew, we made it!) and then to a slip. As we slipped the boat we must have had 100 + people watching from the parapet above us.
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| Looking down from the parapet |
It was Sunday and Montreal was hopping. Mark and Donna arrived after an hour or so. It was good to see them. They have French sailing friends (their boat is currently in Chile!) also visiting Montreal and shortly they joined us on Tide Hiker for snacks and drinks. Arrangements were made to meet for dinner at a "non-tourist" French restaurant. Fun!
Monday, June 15, 2015
Weather was cool but not raining. After 30 days of constant cruising in poor weather and thru 40 some locks Tide Hiker was a bit of a mess. We had guests on board and so we just had to clean up some. That took most of the morning. Seems like we have decided to eat our way thru Montreal and the sun was out so Barb and Don headed for the tour bus and we headed out for lunch with Mark and Donna. I tried the tacos at a French restaurant - interesting.
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| Lunch |
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| At the market |
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Its pouring rain again today!
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