Lovely, lovely Montreal
30 July 2010 | Port d'Escale, Montreal, Quebec
Sylvia - Gorgeous weather
July 26, 2010
We cast off from Crysler Park Marina for Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. We had the two US locks to transverse. We were through the Eisenhower Lock by 1030 and through the Snell Lock by 1230. We went temporarily aground in the mud by the pleasure craft dock at the Eisenhower but managed to motor off although we did bump the dock and gave Eos a little "owie". After getting through both locks it was continue motoring down the channel to arrive at the Valleyfield area. This marina is a distance off the main channel with its own marked entrance channel that must be followed especially if you draw 7+ feet as we do. We had a report from the Great Lakes Cruising Club that indicated where the channel branched off but as it turned out there was a mistake in one of the buoys identified as the turning point. Anyway, we couldn't find the turn and couldn't see the channel.
But once again the Canadian Coast Guard were our guides. There was a Zodiac near there with three nice young individuals - one man and two women - who were out practicing boat handling by approaching a channel buoy from various directions. We went over to them and asked if they could point out the turning buoy. As it happened, Valleyfield is their home base and they were ready to go back in and offered to lead us. We thanked them and proceeded to follow them. When they found out our draft they said we were to follow them exactly since getting outside the channel would be a real problem for us. That made us glad that we had stopped and talked to them.
We followed them and the very curvy channel into Valleyfield and were anchored by 1750. We tidied things up and then wandered in to see the marina environs. It is a lovely place and the staff and other boaters were very friendly. It is quite obviously filled mostly with seasonal boaters and the amenities reflect that. There is a lovely small patio bistro with nice landscaping and an artificial bubbling pond. It was a very relaxing place to have a simple evening meal.
July 27, 2010
We were up and quietly away from Valleyfield by 0730 - all of the seasonal folks seemed to be sleeping in that day. The day was to be a busy one since we had 3 lift bridges and the last four locks to go through. We lucked out at both the Valleyfield and St. Louis bridges. When I called in requesting passage, they told us to keep coming and the bridges would be open when we arrived. That was great since the staff at Valleyfield had told us to plan a half hour for each bridge into our travel time. We were under Valleyfield at 0840 and under St. Louis about 15 minutes later.
We motored along and at 1130 we entered the Upper Beauharnois lock. We had stopped at the pleasure craft dock - with no issues this time - and acquired our ticket for both the Upper and Lower Beauharnois locks. We were there by 1000, the first time they had scheduled to take pleasure craft through. We thought we were going to be the only ones going through but by 1000 there were a couple of power boats waiting and as we entered the lock another sail boat came hurrying along. They had been just behind us at the St. Loius bridge but hadn't made it through after us and had been waiting for an hour for the bridge to let them through. She was a 36' with her mast unstepped and on deck and they were heading to Lake Champlain. They rafted up to us and went through the Upper lock with us. The fellows were French speaking with some English so we were able to understand each other. Two of them joined us on Eos and helped fend her off of the lock walls.
By 1215 we were exiting the Lower Beauharnois lock. The sail boat had locked through with one of the power boats this time so it was just Bill and I handling Eos. It was no problem. We had our wooden closet rods to fend off with and thanks to our friends Bill and Judy Rohde we were well prepared with good leather work gloves to keep from getting rope burns as we let the ropes out while being lowered in the locks.
We then had a long motor through the marked shipping channel of Lake Saint Louis. The lake is not a deep one and again it was necessary to stay in the shipping channel. It would have been lovely to sail on this big lake area in the river but its depth and the winds on our nose wouldn't allow that. So far we have been motoring only because of the necessity to stay in the channels. One of these days we will get to sail her again.
Anyway, we arrived at St. Catherine Lock and Eos got another little scratch as we tied up to the pleasure craft dock. There is a strong current there as the water is drawn into a small electrical plant right by the pleasure dock. We didn't realize it and had to do some maneuvering that ended up scratching her hull. The lock employee said that he would be seeing about putting up some signage that let boaters know about the unexpected current. There was a power boat already at the dock and they and the lock employee helped us get Eos situated better on the dock. Then when the other sail boat finally arrived we all warned them of the current and they rafted off the power boat. (After arriving in Montreal we found out from a woman that another woman had gone swimming off a boat at the dock and had been fatally sucked into the current and power intake this summer. A very nasty situation and it certainly put our scratch into perspective.)
There were 2 commercial vessels - one up-bound and one down-bound - that we had to wait for since commercial traffic naturally takes precedence over pleasure craft. This time we had to wait over 2 hours before we got the go ahead to enter the lock and we finally were through that one at 1640.
It was another hour of motoring up to the last of the locks, St. Lambert. When we got there the out-bound vessel that we had waited for at St. Catherine had still not passed through the lock. We never found out why but it was strange that she hadn't since she was way ahead of us and must have arrived quite some time before any of us pleasure craft got there and we had seen nothing coming up-bound. So again we had to wait. Only this time we just stayed out in the river gently motoring and floating about. We were tired of the hassles at the pleasure docks. Most of them can handle perhaps 3-4 medium size boats and weren't really set up for easy access by a boat our size and depth. Pretty soon the other sail boat came along and there were four of us just messing around in the river waiting to go through that last lock.
Finally we were through it and motoring up river under the Jack Cartier bridge in Montreal looking for the turning point to turn up to the Old Port of Montreal, Port d'Escale Marina. There is quite a counter current for about 1 ½ miles. We were going 8 knots through the water but only 3 knots over the bottom so we were bucking a 5 knot current. But once past the Pointe du Havre there was no current and we quietly motored into the marina and were all tied up by 1930. It had been a 12 hour day and we were tired. There were no more mishaps at the last two locks and Bill and I had no problems locking Eos through them. It wasn't the locks that caused up problems; it was those darn pleasure craft docks that were no pleasure for us.
July 28, 2010
The day was gray and cloudy and threatened rain the whole time although it never did rain. We decided that this was a good time to do laundry and take care of trying to find a cap for the diesel exhaust. It is on the hull and really must be capped while we are heeled under sail. And Bill sat wrong for too long while on the PC early in the morning and was in a world of hurt with his back.
We contacted his back surgeon's assistant in the States and they were ready to get a prescription to us for him to try since the steroid shot had worked so well. Trying to get a prescription from a US doctor filled in Canada turns out to be an impossibility. Great! Jane, Dr. Bartie's assistant suggested Bill try some Advil while we were trying to figure out what to do about the drugs. As it turned out, when I discovered what it was they were going to prescribe I realized that we had 2 of the Medrol Dose packs in our medical kit. Thank you, Dr. Reinschmidt!! In the mean time the Advil was taking care of the inflammation for Bill so Jane suggested he try that for 48 hours and if things didn't get better then go to the Medrol pack. Luckily, all he needed was the Advil or Aleve to take care of the problem. But now we know that we have what we need if necessary and when to use it.
Then it was get busy and try to find that exhaust cap. We called several Canadian Espar heater suppliers and were finally referred to Barry Lamont at Sea Tech Marine who turned out to be another sailor and one of the nicest and most helpful fellows we have ever met. Espar no longer has caps on the exhausts of the newer systems but Barry had a couple of caps and would send them to us through UPS overnight. Problem solved.
I finished the laundry, made calls to the marinas in Trois Rivieries and Quebec and we called it a day without having seen much of Montreal yet. But we did go up to the main square right here by the port and had a lovely evening al fresco dinner and watched the local street entertainment and then listened to a great little trio that took over the square later that evening. The man playing the pan pipe and the recorder was absolutely marvelous. It was a very relaxing evening and a wonderful introduction to Montreal.
July 29, 2010
This was the day for us to really get out and see Montreal. We had decided the afternoon before to take the Gray line hop-on and hop-off 2 hour tour of Montreal. Our guide was great and we thoroughly enjoyed both the sights and her talks about Montreal. Part way through we did hop-off and got some lunch and then went to see the huge under ground mall. It is absolutely amazing and as the tour guide said the people living in apartments with access to the mall need never go outside at all. The mall has everything they need including the psychiatrist they would need if they never went outside. Then it was back to the next hop-on sight and the finish of the tour and a quiet drink in the outside bistro near the marina. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable day.
We picked up the caps that had arrived and went back to get one of them installed. WRONG! There were 2 sizes of caps and these were the wrong ones. Neither Bill nor Barry knew there were 2 sizes. Barry told us to just ship the others back and that perhaps we could find the smaller, older ones we needed somewhere along the way. But he did put in a call to Espar - without much hope, by the way - to see if they knew where there might be some. Bill and I sat at supper on the boat trying to do some out of the box thinking on how to solve this one.
July 30, 2010
The first thing I found when I got on line this morning was an email from Barry. He had found someone in Toronto who had 15 or 16 of the size caps we needed. Hallelujah!! He is going to Toronto on Tuesday to pick up them and some other Espar parts and will then overnight them to the marina in Quebec where we will be next week. We simply can't say enough about how helpful he has been and what a joy he has been to work with.
Later in the morning we wondered over to a local marine store looking for some small things and then to the nearby UPS to ship the wrong caps back to Barry. Then picked up a baguette in a small market along the way back to the marina. Montreal is wonderful town to just wander through.
We then decided that we should find somewhere to refill the now empty one of our two propane tanks. We took a taxi ride through a whole different looking part of Montreal, got an immediate fill and then were back to the marina for a late lunch. Bill discovered that the bolts used to install our pushpit and seats were a little too long to make getting the propane tanks in and out easily so he has spent the time while I have been writing this to shorten them. We will be going out to dinner tonight - our last evening in Montreal. It has been wonderful, the weather couldn't have been better, the city is marvelous and the marina and staff here are by far some of the best we have encountered since we left Barker's.
Tomorrow we are of down river to Trois Rivieries marina and then Sunday we will be on our way to Quebec for several days as we wait for shipments of parts and mail and settle in to enjoy another fun and interesting Quebec city.
By the way, we have been taking pictures and hope to spend some time in Quebec getting them titled and onto this blog.