July 16 thru 18, Chambly through Sorel

 

July 14 from St. Jeanne through to Lock 3, in Chambly sur Richelieu, Quebec Chambly Canal)

Beginning at St. Jeanne through to Chambly is the Chambly Canal. It was created to bypass rapids on the Richelieu River. The canal, for most of the way, is pretty narrow. Parks Canada controls the flow of boats – those folks talk to each other! They knew we were stuck in St. Jeanne and they knew when we got the engines going! I can’t say enough how pleasant and helpful those folks were. They all spoke English very well, which was very helpful!

When we were ready to leave, there had arrived a smaller boat who also wanted to transit, but they had no VHF radio. That meant we were communicating for both boats. No problem – the Parks Canada folks took it in stride.

Starting at the swing bridge in St. Jeanne, there was one lock, then about one and a half hours later, there were 5 locks – one right after another. Dan would drive the boat slowly into the lock, float to the front, where a Parks Canada employee would pass me a line that was fixed to the lock wall. Dan would scurry down to the aft of the boat and take a second line. The locks are manually operated. Once the boats were secured inside the lock, two employees turned cranks which opened the sluice gates at the bottom of the lock. The boats went down with the water. Then the employees moved the cranks to another spot that opened the gates. Cool! Then, it was start the engines and move to the next lock and repeat. It was a very hot day (as they have all been lately), and we were exhausted at this point. Gratefully, we were able to secure a spot on the wall just before the last swing bridge and locks on the Chambly Canal. Best of all, electricity was available (A/C!).

Side note: we have purchased a Parks Canada season pass for all their locks and also for moorage on the lock walls. Nice to have that covered for our entire season! We will be transiting the Chambly Canal (check!), the Rideau Canal (from Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario), and the Trent-Severn Canal (from Lake Ontario through to the Georgian Bay). Hundreds of miles, LOTS of locks, and lovely countryside, little towns, and friendly people.

Back to the narrative… The town of Chambly was charming. There was a grocery store not 100 yards from the boat. There were bars, restaurants, and ice cream stores just a short walk away. We were able to stroll around, do some people watching, have good food, all easy to get to. The last part of the Chambly Canal started right after our parking spot, three locks, all connected one to the next. We are allowed to stay 2 nights at each lock wall, so we took advantage of the 2^nd night. There was a pretty hard thunderstorm one night. I took advantage of the full day in one place and found a salon where I got a much needed haircut! We also walked from our dinner restaurant to the Chambly Basin where the canal’s locks end, then walk up the locks we would transit the next day. Nice to be able to see them and take pictures – we’re pretty busy while going through!

Our people watching was enjoyable – not the same as in Key West! Very active people, a two lane bike path went through the entire town and all along the canal. I noted that most of the bike riders we saw were just on regular bikes – not many e-bikes. Also, I didn’t see young people sitting around staring at a screen...pretty refreshing to see them walking, riding, enjoying being outside. While on my mile or so walk to get my haircut, there were three groups of bike riders, a pretty wide range of ages, utilizing the bike path. In the park, there was a small pavilion with a piano there for anyone to use. There were a couple of folks who did just that. I had heard that Quebec folks are intolerant of people who cannot speak French – haven’t found that to be true. I make full use of my wide French vocabulary (probably a dozen words or so), and I have gotten along very well. A cheerful “bon jour” or “bon soiree”, “excusez moi”, “merci” or “merci beaucoup” seems to be appreciated.

While we were there at the lock wall, we were joined by a sailboat, Dragonfly, from Minnesota, also “Loopers”. We went through the three consecutive locks with them. The locks were small, a bit of a tight fit, but we made it work. Even though we travel very slowly, about 8.5 mph, we didn’t see the sailboat for very long! They had a different travel plan than us, anyway.

The Richelieu River was easy to travel. Beautiful countryside, lovely homes with docks on the river all along the way. Not many boats on the day we were there. One thing I enjoyed seeing was quite a few beautiful churches with ornate and unusual steeples. Pictures were taken!

The Richelieu River opens to the St. Lawrence Seaway - HUGE boats use this extremely busy waterway, one of the busiest in the world.  Our stop was at the Marina de Sorel, a small town there at the mouth of the river.  Not much to see there, but we made good use of our time.  I did a load of laundry.  Dan had a very productive call with Garmin, who not only helped him update our files for the Garmin chart plotter, but first had to upgrade his operating system and fix some registry issues he's been dealing with!  Now, that's SERVICE.  And, they did it all for Dan, by taking over his computer and having their team do the work.  Phew! 

I wasn't idle either.  The weather has cooled (Praise GOD!), so I got in a good walk.  I then did some reading and research, and our next few stops are planned!  Dan's daughter, Michelle, is joining us in Montreal and flying out of Ottawa eight days later.  She's visited us once before on the boat, but we were just sitting in the marina in Key West.  This time, she'll get to go through not only Montreal and Ottawa with us, but go with us on the three days it takes from Montreal to Ottawa - including two HUGE locks on the St. Lawrence!  

July 11 through July 14 - Rouse's Point, Canadian Customs, and St. Jeanne sur Richelieu

 

July 12, 2024

Rouse’s Point is the northernmost point of Lake Champlain, and also the last U.S. port! There are two marinas here, one a Safe Harbor marina and the other an independently run marina. We prefer to support the few remaining independent marinas, so our choice was easy, Barcomb Marina.

We had an opportunity to get the boat washed in Burlington before we departed, so that took most of the morning – totally worth it! It was so refreshing to have a very clean boat to continue our journey!

I called the Barcomb Marina where we had a reservation to give them our arrival ETA, around 6:00 p.m. At the end of our 4+ hours cruise, we were nearing the marina. The approach was somewhat confusing, so we tried to contact the marina for some guidance. No answer on the radio or the office phone. The recording on the office phone supplied the cell phone of the owner – no response to our two calls – sheesh! So, we found our way in, picked the easiest slip, and tied up. It was not a very impressive place – tiny gas dock shack, no other building except for a restaurant/bar about 100 yards away. After we tidied up, we walked to the restaurant – they only had bar snacks to serve, so we walked the 10 minutes or so into town to a restaurant called “Frencheez”. We had a decent meal, then stopped at the Dollar store for some milk. Bar was closed when we got back, so we had a quiet night on the boat.

Next morning, Dan went to meet the owner and pay our bill – we had thought about staying two nights, but there was really no reason to stay there! The owner said his cell phone never rang last night (??), but that he was sitting in the bar watching us come in. He saw us walking up to the bar, and drove away. So much for supporting independent marinas…

That morning, we heard from the folks on Clementine, Brian and Dawn, that we had met back at Ft. Edwards. We have been one stop behind them ever since! They had spent one night at Barcombs (the horrible marina), and moved to the Safe Harbor. They left before us and we planned to see them at our next stop, St. Jeanne.

First stop, just one tenth of a mile or so away, was Canadian Customs. The Captain went in the building, and was out in about 5 minutes! Easy peasy. We put the Canadian flag in the place of honor on the starboard flag mast, on the bow of the boat. We were now officially on our Canadian adventure, finally, after three years of wanting to go!

The Garmin GPS system that Dan relies on, along with our paper charts, is not working properly. The marina owner suggested we might stop at Gosselin Marina, just a few miles up the river, for some assistance, as they are Garmin dealers. We did stop there, spent some money and time. The problem with the Garmin display is that our data ended at the Canadian border – we needed an update. They sold us a new SIM card, but, unfortunately, our older system would not accept it. What we can do, once we have come good internet connection, is download an update from the Garmin website….to be continued!

Next stop, St. Jeanne Sur Richelieu, to continue our journey on the Richelieu River. Right after St. Jeanne, the Chambly Canal begins, which was created to get boats past some rapids on the river. We paid Parks Canada for the season pass to pay for all the locks on the canals we will traverse. We arrived later than usual, but Brian and Dawn were waiting for us – we parked just ahead of their boat. We had a nice dinner with them, then walked around the town a bit. The recurring theme is HEAT! So hot. And, unfortunately, our generator has chosen this time not to work – so, we couldn’t even start the A/C to cool down the boat. Fortunately, it cooled down enough for us to sleep well.

Next morning, we were to pass under the swing bridge there at St. Jeanne, and start on the locks on the Chambly Canal. Brian and Dawn pulled out, expecting us to follow shortly. We couldn’t start the engines….! Yikes. The chief engineer, Dan, started to work the issue – in checking the batteries, he found one had run dry. Assuming the issue was the batteries, we started to try and get someone to come and give us a ‘jump’. Finally, after 2.5 hours, the truck came, but, his battery jump kit didn’t do the trick. In the meantime, Dan had scouted around and found an electrical outlet in the nearby park. We loaded the nearly new battery for the dinghy in our wagon, and started charging it. My job was to ‘babysit’ the battery and wagon so no one messed with it. Sadly, after waiting for hours, the fully charged battery didn’t do the trick either. By now, Dan had been crawling around the engines and batteries all the hot day, and we both were exhausted. So, time to give it a rest and get some dinner! We had a lovely dinner, and strolled back to the boat. On the way, we came upon a ballroom dance class in the park. Totally charming! We came back to the boat for an early night – absolutely no electricity on the boat – no water pump, no toilet flush, very little lights. Tomorrow’s a new day!

Dan had been thinking about our issue over night, and knew what he needed to do – there had to be a loose wire somewhere. I was standing on the sidewalk talking to the Parks Canada young man, and I heard the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard – our two powerful Hino engines started! It was indeed a loose wire, and that was all it took. After allowing the engines to run for an hour or so, we were off to the first lock!

July 10, 2024 Lake Champlain!

 

July 10, 2024

We left Whitehall and headed north on Lake Champlain – so lovely! Almost no wind – the water was like a mirror. You can see the trees, mountains, and even clouds twice! We enjoy seeing the homes along the way, watching the birds as they fly across the lake. The first few miles of the lake are more like a canal or a river, rather than a lake. We proceeded up the lake to Otter Creek, which was the detour to Vergennes that was recommended. The opening to the creek was a bit hard to see at first, plus the depth at the opening had silted in a bit. But, we got through and spent an hour at very low speeds going down the twisty turny creek, past campgrounds, some homes. Finally, we came to the town. It had been advertised that the town provided docks with free electricity. The only electrical outlet we found was actually across a driveway in the park! Dan, knowing his bride was desperate for some A/C = it was very hot and humid, ran our 50 foot cable plus an extension across that driveway! He pulled two trash barrels from the little park to sit on the cables, hoping that anyone who came along wouldn’t run over our very expensive 50 amp cables. Bless him – I had air conditioning, and that was all I cared about!

The view from our dock was of the waterfalls in the town, from the damn located there. Very lovely. The town wasn’t very far, but we were toast after a long day’s travel and the heat. Discovery of the charms of the town will have to wait until we are by this way again!

Next day, Tuesday, July 9, we left Vergennes to make the relatively short cruise to Burlington, Vermont. For the first time since we left Brewerton, NY, we will be in a marina. We will stay two nights, allowing us to catch our breath, get some laundry done, relax a bit. The Burlington harbor is lovely, protected by a long break wall from the lake. The view across the lake is of the mountains that rise in different shaded distances. Still really hot, we were disinclined to walk the long hill into the downtown of Burlington. So, we had a nice dinner on the harbor and enjoyed a stroll along the water front. Next morning, we were at it pretty early after breakfast – washed all our dirty clothes plus the bed linens! Our next task was to take the one e-bike back to the local Costco store via Uber. Long story short, we had tried to return this via Costco’s on-line customer service. Got no response, then yesterday I was told it wasn’t going to be approved. We just boldly packed the bike in an Uber, walked up to the returns desk, and without any questions at all were given a full refund! Yippee! Unfortunately, they didn’t have e-bikes in the store, so we are still down to only one working bike. At least, we aren’t having to store the useless bike in our cockpit, constantly in the way.

It started raining hard as we returned from Costco, so we had a cozy evening on the boat.

Interesting note about the last Uber driver, who was from Kenya. He said he has been here six years, before that in Boston, and before that Kenya. I asked if he had family still in Kenya. “Yes,” he said, “my wife and children.” I asked when he last saw them – last July. I felt so bad for him! I asked him how he came to be in Burlington. He said his wife had gotten a visa to be here. “OK, I’m confused!”, I said, “I thought your wife is in Kenya.” Then he said, “I have two wives!” Plus, he told us he plans to obtain two more wives!! I told him he gets the award for the most interesting person we’ve met today!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will proceed to a marina at Rouses Point, the last stopping point before Canada!!

July 7, 2024 - start of the Champlain Canal, connector to Lake Champlain

 

July 7, 2024

Here we sit at the end of the Champlain Canal, still in New York. The Champlain Canal is very similar to the Erie. We left Shady Harbor Marina, where we spent time with new friends, and backtracked to the start of the Erie Canal and started the trek north. The locks are really routine now….We put our ‘marriage savers’ on (headsets that allow us to talk to each other in a normal tone). The gates open, Dan drives the boat in, tells me which rope or pipe he wants me to grab. We ride the lock up or down, reverse the process – each lock takes about 15 minutes on average.

One great thing about these canals is that we can usually find a free wall to spend the night, most times with electricity – really important if it’s hot like it has been! I need air conditioning! First night on the Champlain, we had gone through 3 locks, and stopped at Mechanicsville. Day two, we went through 4 locks, and stopped at Ft. Edwards. We met a younger couple there who are doing the loop, so we traveled the next day with them for 4 locks. We said goodbye, since they were going further than we wanted. Tonight, 7/7, we stopped at Lock 12, the last lock on the Champlain Canal, in a town called Whitehall.

There are three pedestals for electricity at this lock, but, unfortunately, all three were being used. So, we went for a walk. There is a marina just on the other side of the lock, so we walked there in the heat. Nice guy, actually offered us a cold drink and some good conversation. He even fed us some left over lamb chops from last night! We planned to go back to the boat and come to his marina, but, when we returned to the boat, some of the other boats had left. Some very friendly Canadians helped us move out boat into position to hook up full power! Yay! It has been so hot lately, that we spend a few hours cruising and then collapse in a coma when we get the AC running!

We spent a few hours this evening talking with the three Canadian couples – very nice and fun people. We were told we MUST make a detour as we head to Burlington, Vt. To Vergenes, Vt. So, anytime we get that strong of an endorsement, we take it to heart! Tomorrow, Vergennes, it is!

One job we needed to complete was to estimate, to the best of our abilities, when we might arrive in Montreal. Dan’s daughter, Michelle, who lives in Seattle, wants to meet us there and spend a few days in Montreal, travel to Ottawa, tour there, and fly home from Ottawa. This was not an easy chore – these waters are unfamiliar, but we’ve done our best, adding in some slack time for weather or anything else we might want to do on the way. Fingers crossed we can coordinate our arrival close to when she gets there!

June 29, 2024 - we finally pushed away from the dock, retracing our steps to the eastern end of the Erie Canal

 

June 29, 2024 We finally pushed away from the dock!

After spending two days in a hotel waiting for Kittiwake to be splashed, then 8 days working on her, making provisioning runs, relearning how to live on a boat – we are finally off! First day was beautiful, nice and cool, sunny, a little breezy. We got a late start, having waited around to get this year’s Coast Guard’s safety inspection. We pushed away from the dock around 1:00 on Friday, June 28. The marina is right on the Erie Canal, about half way across, near Oneida Lake.

We cruised about 31 miles, across Oneida Lake and through two locks, before picking a spot after Lock 20. Nice and quiet, beautiful, birds providing a cacophony of song. We turned in early, and during the night a huge rain storm came in. We left during a lull in the rain, on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, our second day of cruising was even shorter than the first day – it’s very tiring cruising along with limited visibility, and having to be very vigilant for floating logs which could do some real damage. After 18 miles and one lock in the rain, we pulled off once again on a lock wall for the rest of the day and night. Tomorrow may be a cruising day – we’ll decide that when we get up in the morning.

On Sunday, we decided to continue on. From Lock 20, where we spent the night, we proceeded through 19, 18, and 17 uneventfully. After lock 17, we had to wait quite a while to get into lock 16. While waiting, Dan took the boat around, backed up, forward, and on one of those maneuvers, we ended up on a mud bank. Yikes. We were able to get off by gunning the engines, but after going through Lock 16, we got alarms from the port engine and the exhaust system. We were able to tie up on the wall at Lock 16, where they even had power we could use! Nothing much we could do that evening, since the engine room was very hot. Plus, we were both exhausted!

Next morning, we took out the strainer for the port engine. It was completely packed with black fine-grained mud. What a mess. We cleaned it out, replaced the impeller. Off we went, hoping the mud bank problem was behind us. Unfortunately, we right away got the port engine and exhaust alarms again. Dan was sure, then that the mud had gotten past the strainer, meaning we were now talking about some fairly major disassembling of the engine to resolve the issue. It was work that Dan felt he could do, but it wasn’t going to be quick or easy. We decided to proceed to Schenectady Yacht club where we had friends who might be able to help. Going through six locks with only one engine was not fun. But we stopped at Amsterdam, NY, where there was a city dock with electricity.

Best news of the day – when Dan next went into the engine room to start the dreaded job, he saw that he had forgotten to open the sea cock after changing the impeller. Wow! No cooling water can go to the engine with that closed – so, that was the only fix needed. What a relief!! We changed the impeller again (I had inadvertently handed him an old impeller and it came apart). We ran the engines for a bit, saw that more mud came out with the water – and, the port engine ran fine! So, off we went with lighter hearts at our near miss!

We went through locks 10, 9, 8, and 7, and found another free wall just before lock 6 for the night. Also docked there was another boat, with Liz and Steve Kemper, who we had met in the past. We enjoyed the evening with them, and then traveled together the next day.

We decided to alter our plans somewhat in order to spend the 4^th of July with the Kempers. Instead of turning north on the Hudson after the eastern end of the Erie at Waterford, we turned south and cruised the 20 miles to the Shady Harbor Marina. There, we enjoyed a nice dinner at the restaurant, and then a small Independence Day celebration with them. Hot dogs, potato salad, slaw, and all the fixin’s!

Next, we resume our plans and turn around to go north on the Hudson to Lake Champlain!