July 18 – MONTREAL!!!
We left Sorel on Thursday, July 18, and proceeded up (against the current) the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. It was so windy, that Dan immediately decided that we would navigate from the pilot house. We expected the St. Lawrence to be very busy, and that we would be avoiding big ocean-going ships the entire way. As it turned out, we saw very little traffic at all! We did burn extra fuel, in order to travel at the speed we normally do, about 8.5 mph.
Note: although the Garmin tech worked on Dan’s laptop all day on Wednesday, we still are without any electronic Garmin charts. We do have a laptop with an updated operating system, issues with many registries resolved, and the Microsoft Security Suite installed (which covers 5 of our devices). Turns out the SDI card we have for the Garmin is old and does not have the space needed for the new files. My ‘friend’ Google helped me find a Canadian company that has a compatible SDI card for our system with all the charts for the US and Canada that we’ll ever need. We didn’t want to order from a US company, which would have required the package to go through Customs – who knows how long that could delay the shipment! Dan ordered the cards, which should reach us before we leave Montreal (fingers crossed). This has become even more important since Dan just realized that the paper charts we have only get us part way to Ottawa – we cannot continue without any charts!
OK, back to our Montreal time. The last few miles of this journey on the St. Lawrence was a bit tricky. I did mention it was very windy. At Montreal, the current picks up speed, to about 6 knots. We were churning our engines at much higher RPMs to only go about 3 knots! As we approached the Yacht Club of Montreal, we could not see a way to get in! We called the marina, and they assured us. As we approached, we could see the entrance through the seawall – phew! We were assigned a spot along the end of a dock. Two dock hands and a neighboring boater were helping, since the wind was fighting us. We did get safely tied up, with some difficulty.
The marina is right downtown in the old part of Montreal. Just a few blocks away is a park with lots of people and attractions, including a giant Ferris wheel. Also close by is an area with several streets all pedestrian only. Lots of shops, restaurants, bars, street performers, and lots of people! The first night, our first agenda item was dinner. We strolled along, checking out some menus. We encountered a lovely young woman outside one restaurant, who pointed out their menu, which had one price for a soup or salad, entree, dessert, and coffee – only $35 Canadian! I had a lobster salad, which came with ½ a large lobster, shells and all! Dan had a delicious seafood fettucine. Just as we were finishing our meal, I looked up at the people walking by and saw Anne and Steve Parks who used to go to our church and live just a mile or so from our house! Pretty amazing. We chatted for a few minutes, and I gave them our card with contact information. They invited us to join them later. We were just too tired from our travels, and went right back to the boat. We were in bed by 9:00!
Day two in Montreal. First stop was the tourist information office – in my travels, this has proved to be especially helpful. This was no exception. Maps, other printed information, and advice – I needed breakfast that was more than just pastries. We found a restaurant, Eggspectation, and had a delicious breakfast. Just strolling around after breakfast, Dan got a hankering for a chocolate milkshake. As we were sitting and chatting while he had his milkshake, who should I see across the street, but Steve and Anne again!! Hugs, and exclamations of amazement later, they joined us at the table. We visited for a while – they were curious about our journeys on our boat. We got caught up on their three offspring. All in all, a very enjoyable time. This was their last full day in Montreal before boarding the train for home.
On our stroll back to the boat, I saw a coat in a window that was stunning. Turns out it cost $2,400! Rich taste! But, this sales woman was good – she showed me a shawl-type short jacket more in my price range, and still lovely. So, I talked myself into buying it. We continued down the street to go back to the boat. There is a huge building with a silver dome near the boat called Marche de Bonsecours – a huge indoor market. Knowing Dan was tired and had no real interest in shopping, I suggested he continue to the boat and I would come along later. I thoroughly enjoyed looking around – shop after shop with clothes, jewelry, souvenirs. Once again, a window display stopped me. The top was a lovely color, and was very unusual – it drapes in several different ways. The only one they had was the one on the mannequin! It was by a local designer. She had other things there too – I bought the one, and hurriedly left the store so as not to be tempted any further!
That afternoon, there was a nap (Dan), some relaxing and reading (Gena), and some work on a boat project. We had dinner on the boat. About 7:00, we left and walked to the park. The park has all sorts of vendors, ponds with pedal boats, play areas for children. We went on the giant Ferris wheel. Very cool – great views of the area just before sunset. We walked along the waterfront for a while. Next, a trip back downtown for ice cream! The city was all lit up, with LOTS of people everywhere. We walked back to the boat – exhausted! We walked 10,000 steps that day!
Day 3 – For our travels that day, we first visited the Chapel de Notre Dame, which is a very short distance from the marina. So lovely! They also have a museum there, about the first teacher in Montreal. We skipped the museum for now. Next, we stopped off at the Tourist Information Office to inquire about the use of the Metro (subway). We bought our tickets there, got maps that covered more of the city than just Old Montreal. I really wanted to go to Little Italy. I thought it would be fun to be able to trot out my Italian, see what I might remember! It’s possible to walk, but it’s a fair distance away….thus, the Metro!
Next, we walked to the Basilica de Notre Dame – nothing short of awesome. We spent some time there, just amazed at the beautiful place, all the features. I took loads of pictures. Every day except for Sundays, there is a light show in the Basilica called Aura. I can’t imagine the interior of the Basilica to be even more spectacular, but we’re going to find out! We bought tickets for Monday night, so that we can take Michelle. Across the street from the Basilica is a lovely park, with buskers, and a large monument depicting the various people or groups who were founders of the city.
Next up, we managed to find the closest Metro stop, and got off at the right stop, Jean Talon. By the way, not speaking many words of French,we found the pronunciations of the various stations over the speakers incomprehensible! Good thing the names of the stations also appeared on a screen! Leaving the Metro stop, we came upon a barber shop – in we went! Dan’s barber took a long time with him, and the cut was good. Further down the street was the Jean Talon market. WOW! Everything from fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, hot food. It was huge – reminded me very much of Eastern Market in Detroit. We each had a lobster roll. Wanting to see what Little Italy was like, we continued on. Not sure if Little Italy has evolved into more of just another Montreal neighborhood – I did see lots of gardens, on the ground, and hanging from balconies, some restaurants, but nothing that made me want to stay and walk around more. I didn’t hear one word spoken in Italian. We stopped back by the market, bought some vegetables, and headed back to the Metro. We were beat! We somehow missed our stop, had to get off and go around to the other side to get back to our stop. By now, our mid-seventies selves were really feeling tired. We managed to walk back to the street nearest our boat before stopping for a cold beverage. Dan ordered a sandwich, and I ate half. Once back at the boat we collapsed into a near coma! We had walked another 10,000 steps that day!
We did manage to stay upright until 10:00 when the fireworks started. We had a front row seat from the back of our boat! Beautiful display. We really enjoyed it. When it was done, all the cars around blew their horns in celebration. Time for bed!
Day 4 - Dan really wanted to get some boat chores done, so we decided that Sunday was the day for that. I wanted to do some neatening and cleaning to prepare for Michelle’s arrival on Monday.
First up, Dan wanted to spend some time with the charts to review the trip from here to Ottawa. There are two huge Canadian locks right after we leave Montreal. You must make reservations and pay ahead for these – I took care of that while Dan struggled with the tricky parts of the cruise. Unfortunately, he found that the book of paper charts we had bought only takes us about 20 miles from Montreal – after that, nothing! There are no marine stores in Montreal, a fact that I find amazing. Assuming we get the Garmin SDI cards we ordered, we will be fine. We hope they arrive on Tuesday. If they don’t, we’ll just have to delay our departure…. Without them or any paper charts, all we have for navigation aids is a program on my tablet called Aquamaps. It is very good, but it’s hard to see at the helm.
Day 5 – Michelle arrived! She’ll be staying with us for 8 days, 2 more days in Montreal, 3 days journey to Ottawa, 3 days in Ottawa. She flies home from Ottawa on Tuesday.
We walked around some of Old Montreal, then stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant, Jardin Nelson. The restaurant has a front wall on one street, but there’s no entrance there. The entrance is off the pedestrian mall. That front wall is just a wall – no roof anymore. Inside there are plants and flowers everywhere, umbrellas that cover each table or area, a keyboard and cello duo playing, and great food. After more strolling around, we went back to the boat to rest up. We had tickets for Aura, the light show at the Basilica, at 6:00.
The light show was pretty fabulous, but I must say, I enjoyed Dan and my visit during the day. Then, we had time to really absorb the beauty and the many aspects of the place. After the light show, we were up for dinner. I had found a place very close to the Basilica, Mignon Steak Vieux-Montreal. We found it, but there was so much street construction that it was a bit of a challenge to enter! I asked the young waitress if we got a prize for managing to get in. She thought for a minute, then said, “Yes, the ambience, the friendly wait staff, and the wonderful food!” Clever girl! The place is very small, and we enjoyed a quiet dinner, Dan and I had steaks, Michelle had a burger. It was about 1.2 kilometers back to the boat – we were done in (Dan and I).
Next day, we had decided to tour the Museum of Archaeology and History. Dan begged off – his legs and hips were feeling all the extra steps lately. So, Michelle and I went. Very interesting, very large place. There are actually 7 areas, all connected. It was probably good that Dan didn’t join us – lots of walking, steps, standing. They did a great job of using some animation and other unusual ways of presenting information. For me, the coolest portion was a tunnel. It started out as a trench to funnel waste down the hill into the river (yech!). Over the years, they bricked the trench, then put a cover over it. In the museum, you traverse the tunnel going to an area and then back again. Beautiful changing lights make it magical. At the end, there is a painting in lights. Hard to describe, but there are a few paintings that appear, then slowly drop to the bottom of the wall as a new painting emerges. So beautiful. Another unforgettable part, for me, was a very large wall – possibly 45 feet or more – displaying a living picture. It was so wide, I had to keep moving my head from side to side to see it all. Just as I thought it was just a scene with no characters, a settler appeared carrying a string of fish, then a native appears at the other side. There is no sound. Both are startled and concerned at first, then drew closer and closer – finally, they exchange some communication about the fish and the furs on the native. Another scene showed some geese floating peacefully on a lake, then, suddenly, they all took flight. I could have stood there all day!
Michelle and I took our time walking back to the boat. First, lunch – we stopped at a place called Shnoopi. Turns out the name is the owner’s nickname as a boy. I had asked if they had gluten free bread. They didn’t, but in the time I’ve been in Canada, I have started to try having some regular bread. I have had zero problems with it! Conclusion: our flour in the U.S. has ingredients in it that are what cause the problem for me. So, I ordered a sandwich – the waiter said he was worried about me eating the regular bread. Very sweet! But, I assured him that I’m not allergic, just sensitive, and I believe the bread in Canada will not bother me.
We did some shopping on the stroll back to the boat. Dan had enjoyed his day, did some walking in the area but not as much as we did! AND, our package arrived from Garmin! Hallelujah! And, no problem installing the new software – we simply put the new SID card in, and voilla! New charts. Now we can navigate with confidence. Tomorrow, we depart Montreal!
First off, we had to go through two big locks, not run by Parks Canada but by the Canadian government. These locks are primarily for the huge commercial ocean-going ships. Our recreational boat gets the least priority. We had reservations for the first lock at 9:00 and the second at 11:00. We showed up at 8:00, because the instructions told us to do so. No one else was there, so we thought that perhaps we’d have the locks to ourselves! Nope. There were 3 other boats who came just in time. We ended up rafting with one other smaller boat. Those folks had never been through a lock before, so they were a bit nervous. He did fine – he pulled up next to us, we both had fenders at a good height, we tied them to us with two lines, and off we went! Both locks were uneventful.
Our first stop was at St. Anne du Bellevue, a lovely small town. No power at the wall, but we should be fine. We had help docking at the town dock from Blaine, who spoke English very well. Turns out he lived in the States for 25 years! He was a very chatty fellow, but very nice and helpful. We went to dinner at Annie’s, which was right on the water. While at dinner, there was a pretty heavy rain storm. Later, we walked to a convenience store, hoping to find milk and OJ – no luck. Michelle did some exploring on her own, and found a great little coffee shop/bakery for tomorrow’s breakfast. There is a lock at St. Anne that we will go through tomorrow morning.
Next morning, we had scones and coffee and returned to the boat ready to get going. Ummm, we were ready, but there was no power to start the boat. In fact, there was no power for anything, such as flushing toilets, lights, all that good stuff. Dan was perplexed – our house bank of batteries was completely dead, even though there was nothing that should have drained them over night. Running the engines the day before should have charged them completely. We made ready to spend another day and night there as Dan poked around, investigating the problem. Felt similar (to me) to the issue we had in St. Jean on the Chambly Canal. Then, Dan was checking out some big switches that have to do with what batteries are connected to each other and, suddenly, we had power! So, we were able to start the engines. Dan was concerned, however, because once inside a lock, you are required to cut off your engines, then restart to exit the lock. I volunteered to walk up to the lock to ask the tenders if we could have an exception to that rule – yes! So, off we went.
That turned out to be an exceptionally long day. Starting off with all the adrenaline, worried about our batteries, then going through the Carillon lock, and finally arriving at the Marina at Chateau Montebello at 6:30 p.m.
A few words about the Carillon lock. It is really old, pretty huge, lifting the boat 87 feet! I was at the bow, so I got a good view as the water poured in. There was an area just in front of the gates that was pretty big, maybe 300 sq feet. Anyway, it was completely dry. As we waited to rise, it occurred to me that that whole area had to be submerged in order to get us to the level of the lock gates! The lock folks were very kind, and allowed us to leave our engines running while in the lock – we were just not sure we’d be able to start them again!
A part of that cruise was a bit tricky, navigation wise. The spoils from digging the canal was dumped into Lac St. Louis, making the trip across that not small lake a bit twisty/turny. At one point, we got a radio call, “Kittiwake!! You are about to get into trouble, 3 feet depth. Stop! We (a sailboat who came up on our starboard side) will guide you through!” With that bit of help and paying attntion to the rest of the markers, we got through successfully. The St. Lawrence wasn’t very busy, but what traffic there was was recreational boats who like to run fast – regardless of other boats nearby. But, no damage done, just some rocky rolly times.
When we approached the marina, we couldn’t reach the marina staff for our slip assignment, so we just entered and took the first available spot that seemed to fit. By the time we got tied up, lovely Beatrice from the marina was there, all apologetic for not responding. We got ourselves cleaned up and went up to the Chateau for dinner. WOW! The Chateau is advertised as the largest log structure in the world – I believe it! Huge and beautiful. The grounds had some nice landscaping, and the property is on a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the St. Lawrence River. The next morning, we had breakfast on the boat, then took a walk all around the resort taking pictures. So beautiful.
Next stop, Ottawa!
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