Anchoring & Montreal

A night on anchor is always enticing as it conjours up images of Tom Sawyer. Idiling away the day on the river. And it is that. But there is also a bit of a nagging in your mind that the anchor may not hold and you will wind up on the rocks or in the swamp, or drifting in the path of a tanker. When there is a mooring ball, as we had here it does give you another layer of confidence.

Jim has tried to keep up with his swimming regime whenever possible. He is swimming up to another looper boat on one of the other of 4 mooring balls here. The tanker is on the main section the the St. Lawrence, we had taken a side channel and then scooted into a small cove. Surprising to see the huge vessels going by not all that far away. The water looked and felt amazingly clear and clean.

We have been surprised at how wide the St. Lawrence Seaway is. I had been thinking that we have traveled through NY harbor many times, it can’t get any more serious than that. As we approach Montreal it is obvious we are going into the city and a large port. The current coming in caused us to lose 3-4 mph.

This marina is right in the heart of the city. There are four other ‘Looper’ boats here and we exchange tips and war stories as usual. Jim and I went to Notre Dame Basilica for mass and at a separate time to the ‘Aura’ experience- an audio visual immersive experience. It is mind boggling trying to figure out how someone accomplishes this, the colors and movement happen within the lines of the pillars! (These pics are prior to the show). It is a beautiful church.

The old (quaint) part of the city has very few residents we are told. Not as cute as Old Quebec, but nice. We took a history walking tour, did groceries at IGA and a farmers market, shopped and had some good meals.

One interesting story from our tour- When ‘New France’ was being established they had a difficult time encouraging new settlers and very few women. From 1663-1673 King Louis the XIV sponsored a program that paid for a dowry and passage for young women to come, of which about 800 did participate. Many were orphans, very poor or from large families with little prospects. They became known as the ‘King’s Daughters’. Today the majority of French Canadians can trace their ancestry back to at least one ‘King’s Daughter’.