Old Port, Montreal

Sunday, June 14, 2015

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.

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.

Lunch

At lunch Mark and Donna to have coffee with friends way out in the 'burbs so we headed for the subway. Then another subway ride to the XXXX market where we stocked up on cheese and bakery and other essentials.

At the market

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Its pouring rain again today!

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

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield anchorage

Friday June 12, 2015

It was raining steadily when got up this AM. The rain seemed to ease off as we raised the anchor. Then it returned and has never stopped – all day – light and steady – with the clouds around our ears. It’s raining now at 9 PM as I write these notes.

So there was not much else to do but proceed. We passed thru three locks – all quite efficient and no delay (and all cost $C30 each!) although not much fun in the rain. The current was still on our side and we averaged 8 knots plus most of the day and covered 65 miles. We had selected an anchorage in the bay in front of this small Quebec town. We are now well ahead of schedule and so tomorrow morning (weather permitting) plan to launch a dinghy and go into town for crepes and French toast.

Galop Island Anchorage

Thursday June 11, 2015

The forecast for today was decent – some sun and some rain. We dropped the lines at 8 AM and headed into the 1000 Island area. This part of the St Lawrence provides several “routes” thru the islands, and because of our starting point we chose the Canadian “small boat” route. We had also met a Canadian “ex DeFever” family and they wanted us to parade past their house on the water. The area really is quite spectacular – hundreds of tree covered, rocky islands. Some of them hosting attractive houses (and even “chateaus”).

Running in the small boat canal navigation required constant attention and after a dozen or so miles of winding around islands and rocky reefs we made a bee line to the main channel. It was impressive country, but we needed to get some miles under our belts. As the river started to “compress” the current sped up and we were soon making 8 and sometimes 9 knots. Light speed for Tide Hiker.

Some ships

Build the house to suite the island?

Good anchorages are not that frequent in the St Lawrence. The current is a constant and the bottom is rocky. Using “Active Captain” we selected a picked a harbor like spot behind an island that had been created by the building of the Seaway. The entrance was very narrow – maybe 25’ or 30’ – but apparently deep enough, and we held our collective breaths as we slipped thru. All was well, great anchorage.

During the evening we were visited by a US Coast Guard cutter. They were “out for sunset cruise” and came over for a chat. “How in hell did you guys squeeze in here?” was their first question.

The entrance to our anchorage

Ships passing on the other side of the bank

Kingston (Marina)

Tuesday June 10, 2015

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We planned to leave at 8 AM but conditions were a bit foggy so we decided to delay departure an hour. We headed out at 9 AM and soon found ourselves in pea soup fog. Conditions were very calm, we only had about 12 miles to go and there was virtually no other traffic, so my opinion was that it would be good practice for the fog we can expect on the Atlantic Coast. The chart plotter tracked our course and the radar showed other boats so it seemed pretty safe.

Deidre - there is Cavara!!!!

We had been into Kingston before so Tide Hiker led the way in. The entrance thru the rock breakwater is only about 50’ wide and visibility was only about 100’. Fortunately the chart plotter was “dead nuts on” and we were exactly where we needed to be when the opening in the breakwater emerged from the fog. We headed for the “free wall” in the harbor that was available when we were here two years ago – but as we approached we saw a series of “no docking” signs. So we had no choice but to take a slip in the official marina.

On the way over the lake on Sunday Tide Hiker was besieged by small “May flies”. The same happened on the way to Kingston and by the time we tied up in the marina the whole boat was covered with millions of the silly things. We complained to the Marina staff – their response was - “You should have been here last week – the flies turned white boats black!”

Apparently this part of the world is plagued with these insects for 2 or 3 weeks a year. The poor things only live about an hour. Tide Hiker is already covered with their dead bodies, with more dying every second. I wonder how Charles Darwin explained that?

May flies.

Kingston is a busy and attractive town. Not so much today as the weather was horrible. But first job was to arrange Canadian phones and data services, rain or shine. This time we were relatively successful – it’s expensive but now we have a Canadian phone number (613 483 2552 - for emergencies only! ) and we have some data for the iPad. That night we visited a pub for a beer then upstairs for “a curry”.

Wednesday June 10, 2015

Bath Ontario "Loyalist Bay Marina"

Monday June 8, 2015

44 10.959 N

76 45.799 W

The wild weather lasted until the wee hours. Deidre went to bed at about 11 PM after the Tonys, I stayed for a couple of hours more just to convince myself that the anchor was doing the job. At about 3 AM a line of thunder storms rolled thru to add to the fun. After that the wind seemed to settle down to a steady 20/25 knots and we both slept.

The morning dawned gray and windy. It seemed too stormy to approach the marina so we decided to hold off till about noon when the Canadian weather people said the winds would abate. Soon after 11 there seemed to be a break in the weather and we decided to haul up the anchor and head to the marina. All went well and we were secure by Noon. Cavara followed us in 15 minutes later. It was nice to be on terra firma.

We were both flying the yellow flag and so first thing was to call customs and clear into Canada. The appeal of Bath is that there are no Customs agents present, one clears-in on the phone, and that only took about 15 minutes. The rest of the day we attended to boat duties - putting up the mast and radio aerials, washing the decks, loading water, changing fuel filters, sorting out the wifi etc etc. Don and Barb visited Tide Hiker for champagne dinner.

Loyalist Cove - Bath Ontario - yellow flag

Power at the dock was only 15 amps (at 110 V). In the USA we are used to 50 amps (at 220 V). We will need to get used to this idea in Canada. We kept blowing the breaker on the dock. To use the toaster I needed to shut down the battery charger and the freezer!

Kerr Bay (Anchorage)

Sunday June 7, 2015

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Today I called AT&T and received a "reminder" that we were going to Canada – a miserable “emergency” 200 mg monthly data plan for Canada cost $60.00! Our allowance in the USA is 15 gig and we have to ration our use to stay within that ceiling. When we were in Canada two years ago we were not even allowed to buy a local cell phone (or sim card) because we were foreigners.

It was a last minute decision to leave Oswego today. The forecast for Monday was not good and so we would be waiting until Tuesday if we did not leave NOW! At about 10:30 AM we decided to leave at Noon for the 48 NM run across Lake Ontario. Deidre, Don and I made a quick trip to Walmart and then returned the car while Barb was at the laundromat. I radioed the last lock and asked for a Noon opening and we both made it.

We have a reservation at a marina in Bath, Ontario for Monday, but we were not sure if they could take us today (it is a small place) especially as we would be arriving late. So we had a good looking anchorage as a back-up. A front was expected in the area over night with 25 kt winds.

The lake was pretty calm and we made a good start. The lake is very deep – over 600 feet and too deep for our depth sounders. We had planned a 7 hour run, but an hour or so after departure Cavara reported an oil leak and they had to shut down an engine while Don attempted repairs. Amazingly Cavara was able to manage 6 knots on one engine, so we did not lose too much progress. A couple of hours later the hose was replaced and we resumed our normal pace.

We were had anchors down by 7:30 PM with two hours of daylight remaining. The anchorage offered good protection from all points south, which is exactly what we needed. We were expecting bad weather from the South and South West so I laid out just about every inch of the 225' feet of chain in the locker, The anchor seemed to set pretty well. Soon after we arrived a couple of loons paid us a visit. I should have taken a photo - they are elegant birds. As they dived, the water was so clear (with no sun) that we could see them swimming under the water.

By 10 PM (as we watched the “Tonys” on TV), the wind really got up significantly. I went up on the bridge to check the wind speed (our gauge is up there) and immediately lost my hat overboard in the dark. It was blowing about 35 MPH and over the next few hours it gusted way above that. I abandoned the next trip up to the bridge after the wind blew my glasses off my face - I was lucky to rescue them before they went over board. Probably the most wind we have anchored in our 3 plus years on the water.