Having transiting the Welland Canal we thought we knew what to expect going through the seven locks between Lake Ontario and Montreal. The biggest difference was that these locks do not need to be passed in a single day as there are marinas and anchorages along the way. Our plan was to transit the first three locks, two on the American side, across a long lake and into a marina situated at the entrance of the canal leading to the last four locks.

As we travel further east on the St. Lawrence River we hear more and more French speakers and fewer English speakers. The lock master in the American locks spent fifteen minutes with us as the last boats entered and got tied off. He told us scary stories about accidents in the locks, probably to see the terrified looks on our faces and we did not disappoint him. The tie off in these locks was challenging in the high winds and the captain took a nasty bark on his shin while protecting the outboard on the dinghy from being crushed. We would not be able to clean and ice the injury for 45 minutes when we were finally safely out in the channel.

It was a long day where we encountered quite a bit of commercial traffic in tight channels. Video We were happy to arrive in Valleyfield, take on fuel and tie up for the night. Don't let the English sounding name Valleyfield fool you, this is a French speaking town owing to its proximity to Montreal. There was always someone around to help with translating, but it was obvious that we were going to need to learn some essential French if we were going to safely navigate in Quebec.

Our plan the next day was to traverse the last four locks, several lift bridges and an upstream trip into Montreal. We were just getting ready to leave in the morning when we found out that the lift bridge operated on a two hour on the hour schedule and we needed to leave immediately! We backed out of our slip and got entwined in the weeds, unable to move either forward or backward. Luckily, Stephan, the slip holder next to us was helping us with our lines and Kurt expertly threw him a line and instructed him to leverage it against the cleat to "pull" us out of the slip. With no time to lose, we shouted our thanks to our neighbor and made for that first bridge.


Progress was very slow as the commercial traffic has precedence over "pleasure craft." I discovered a website where I could monitor all of the ships in the lock system, identify their current location and the time they would be arriving where we were, or wanted to be. This did not help all that much, but it did alert us to when we would be spending a long time waiting for a ship to pass, not much comfort. We did have a fortuitous meeting at one of the pleasure craft docks when we met a salty sea captain and his son Dan on a sailboat. The captain was returning from two months in the Thousand Islands solo and he seemed happy to talk to us. He was very familiar with the waters where we would be travelling over the next few days and eagerly shared his wisdom with us. He was very encouraging and the conversation helped ease our nerves a bit.

Next we encountered a lift bridge. We hailed them on the vhf radio, but they did not respond. The bridge went up, but not all the way and the green light we were waiting for never came on. Kurt hailed them again on the radio and this time they said something. I couldn't quite hear it, but Kurt said that the man said, "Don't wait for the green, go ahead under the bridge." And so we went. When we were about ten meters from the bridge we heard the VHF radio chatter "Vu le vu le vu le vu- Disist Disist Disist, which to me sounded like "stop." We kept going and did not hear another word from the radio as we closed on the bridge. I was sick to my stomach as I thought about what would happen if we hit that bridge with our mast. I watched sickeningly looking straight up at our mast top and the approaching bridge. When we passed underneath safely, I nearly collapsed. No time to dwell on it, we had to keep moving. I would not look next time we passed under a bridge.

As the day wore on, it looked like we might not make it through the locks by nightfall. I called the marina in Montreal to tell them we might be quite late, and they assured me they would be there all night. We arrived at the second to last lock and after not seeing another pleasure craft vessel for hours, were surprised to see another boat at the dock. What looked like two teenage girls were sunning themselves on the dock exactly where we were about to land. They both jumped up and grabbed our lines, assisting us in docking. When I got off the boat to secure the lines, I saw that in fact, the women were in their thirties and might be on holiday from their jobs as professional dancers.

We couldn't have been happier to see each other. They had been stranded there much of the day because their boyfriends did not understand the lock system and had been chased out after trying to get in with one of container ships. We laughed and talked switching from French to English and back. They got a huge kick out the fact my name was Pamela Anderson. They made the best of their time by drinking tequila and finishing the rest of their beer. While they offered us a shot, we declined, opting to keep the last of our wits about us. Not much later the two gals timidly approached Big Frisky to ask about a band aid. I directed the captain to our stores of bandages and antibacterial ointments and helped doctor up what turned out to be a body piercing that had worked its way out. I have no pictures of this but will leave that image, dear reader, to your imagination.

According to my new found website, the last big boat to come through the lock where we were docked would be 22:30. We made the executive decision at 22:00 that we would not depart the pleasure craft dock that night. We would leave in the morning just after the first ship of the day arrived at 05:00. We hoisted the dogs up a ladder on the side of the lock where there was a "grassy space" about three meters wide and 10 meters long. Business taken care of, we retired for the night to a hastily thrown together beet salad and a cold glass of wine. The captain fell asleep right away and I kept a watch till about midnight to see if anyone came to tell us to leave. Docking at the pleasure craft dock overnight is not permitted. Overwhelmed by exhaustion, I slept fitfully for a few hours, waking up only when I heard the ship passing by just a few meters away.

We watched the sun rise as the Captain made coffee for us both. One last trip up the ladder for a dog walk, and a call to the lock master to see when we could enter. We would be allowed to enter the lock at 06:30 am. We would have plenty more delays with bridges and the last lock, but we knew no matter what, we would arrive in Montreal today!