The Mohawk Marina

Saturday June 13, 2015

It was a beautiful morning - for about an hour or so. By the time Barb and Don picked us up in their dinghy at about 8:30 AM it had clouded over and there was a stiff wind out of the NW. It was a bit of a wet ride in the dinghy until we made it into the old canal that took us into town. After a couple of enquiries (starting in French and ending in English!) we located a breakfast restaurant. We were hoping for “quaint” but settled on clean and modern. Breakfast was excellent.

Underway at about noon. Getting the anchor up was a messy business – lots of grass and sloppy mud, plus the wind and some current (We eventually figured out that the town was on an island and that the “bay” we anchored in was part of the river.) The weather settled down, it did not rain, we actually had some sun. Today we passed thru two lift bridges and 3 locks. The Quebecious do not communicate as well as the Americanos. I will leave my thoughts at that.

We waited maybe an hour for this bridge, no apparent reason.

On the way across lake St. Louis a power boat carrying 4 guys pulled right alongside Tide Hiker and started a conversation that started with “Welcome to Quebec” and recommending a place to buy diesel in an Indian Reservation – “No tax”. I was a bit uncomfortable but played along and off they went. We could now see Montreal in the distance.

My camera has a great tele-photo

We picked an anchorage just before the St. Catherine lock and right next to the channel. The reviews talked about 8-10’ and plenty of room. It was late when we arrived – about 7 PM. Cavara pulled into the anchorage and just about ran aground immediately. We both poked our noses into the pool of water only to run out of depth way too quickly. It was a bust for sure. We had really left ourselves with no alternatives. We called a few marinas but it was after hours. I remembered seeing a small marina 5 miles back so we called them. They answered and said they had room.

Low and behold, it was the very same marina on the Indian Reservation. The same 4 guys were there to take our lines. But it was like the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary mooring at Half Moon Bay.

Kahnawake Marina