Ever Heard of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue?
10 July 2015
Dede
From Dede's Perspective:
Once we exited the Ottawa Staircase Locks, we spent 2-days cruising the Ottawa River. The difficult, cascade filled route once taken by Samuel de Champlain is now a busy waterway through two provinces: Quebec on the north, and Ontario on the south. The Ottawa River has clearly marked channels, many mid-river islands, some shoal areas and two locks.
We, much to our dismay (and no apparent damage), discovered one of the many shoal areas!!!! The captain got us back on track, and as we saw a storm brewing on our radar, quickly found an anchorage for the night in the South Nation River, south of a place called Parker Island. We let out 100 feet of chain, prepared a second anchor "just in case" (the captain is ALWAYS safety conscious) and off we went to bed. The rain came down in torrents and the wind howled, and kept me up a good portion of the night. However, my trusty captain removed all his hearing devices and had a sound night's sleep!!
Off we went the next day, early, to continue up the Ottawa River through two more locks. A buoyed channel lead north to Papineaville, a small French Canadian village. Famous Le Chateau Montebello, the estate of Louis Joseph Papineau, a leading figure in Canada's history, lay just below. Papineau chose this area to build his manor house and set up his seigneury estate. The main theme is "log cabin" , but taken to new heights. The Log Chateau was built in 1930. It was sold to Canadian Pacific Railroad and used as a sportsmen's club. Needing additional space, the private club built additional space, and the structure is now recognized as the largest log cabin in the world!
We continued several more miles until we came to the Carillon Lock. It was built between 1960 and 1963. The lock itself drops vessels 65 vertical feet...the second greatest drop in North America. We tied up to a floating dock inside the lock chamber on the north wall. Once inside, the view from our boat was pretty formidable as we were lowered down and looked up!! (See photo above) The gate on the lower side of the lock is lifted over the entrance, and we pass under to exit the lock. The only other lock I have encountered where the gate is lifted is on the Erie Canal.
At Pointe Fortune (not sure regarding the origin of the name but the houses on the shore are monstrous!!), the province of Ontario ends and both banks lie in Quebec. The area is called the "Lake of Two Mountains" (again, not sure why...I did not see any mountains!!) and is a popular boating area. There is frequent ferry traffic all along this route.
Four miles down the lake we came to the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Lock. Again, a floating dock inside the lock made locking easier. What a wonderful little community by the same name. I would have never found it on the charts and/or in the cruising books...but so glad it is here! After locking, we tied up on the wall (abutting the promenade so everyone could talk to us about our cruise...lol) and stayed for the night. A lovely dinner at a restaurant along the wall (we do eat out a lot!!), and finished with ice cream at the local establishment!! This lovely little town offers restaurants, grocery hardware store as well as quaint tourist shops!!
During the latter part of this day of our journey, Jim and I both experienced the "fragrance" of diesel fuel!! Jim checked the engines prior to entering the Sainte- Anne-de-Bellevue Lock, and found fuel spilled into the starboard engine pan. We turned off the engine, and we "limped' into Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue village on the port engine!!!! Once the engine cooled off, Jim spent 2 ½ hours repairing/replacing a small leaking rubber fuel line from the fuel pump to the engine! Thank goodness Jim has a skill set to do such repairs while underway...and thank goodness Jim has outfitted our boat to be an extension of "West Marine" with all the necessary replacement parts. Isn't there a book called, "This Old Boat..."?