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 2nd 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!
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