Locking & Loopers

In order to head out of Montreal and continue up the St Lawrence River you must go through the St. Lambert Lock, just 20 minutes off our current dock in downtown. For this lock, which is very busy with both commercial and pleasure boats, you must schedule your lock time. When we went to bed Saturday night our time was 10am Sunday. Sunday morning around 7 I went out to get a good walk along the greenway when Jim calls me to say he checked the schedule again (which they tell you to do) and we are now on for 9a! I scurry back to Irish Eyes and we get off the dock before 8. They recommend you arrive up to an hour ahead to ‘line up’. While not an hour in advance, we are there in time to tie up on the wall adjacent to the lock and exchange tips on how to do this with those who have been through before. What is different at this lock is that in order to get as many boats into the lock as possible they have you ‘raft up’- which means tying your boat on to someone else’s. This makes every Captain nervous that the other boat may be a turkey and inadvertently inflict damage.

We locked through with Kevin & Ellen of Home Port, also Loopers. Lovely people, lovely boat, we spent much of the next 48 hours with them. As they were ‘on the wall’, they had to manage the lines on the bow and stern. We had to tie on to them and then stand around and chat with them. Lucky us! And the next lock was the same.

Both boats tied on to the wall in Sainte Anne de Bellevue for the night and walked through this cute , very touristy town and had a lovely dinner.

On Tuesday Home Port left early as they travel a bit slower, the first lock through was easy- we were the only boat in there. Later that morning as we are cruising on vast Lac Saint Louis with hardly any other boat around and we intersect with Here’s To Us a Looper couple who are on their 3rd go round and whom we have been following for 2.5 years on social media. What a coincidence! We have a nice little chat and then continue on our way.

The 2nd lock of the day is called the Carillon Lock and is noteworthy as it raises boats 65′! A two hundred ton lift gate is used to open and close the lock. It is known as a ‘guillotine’ gate. Very inspiring. A bit creepy. You are so far down in this vast chamber and water is pouring in, you can’t help but imagine all the possible things that could go wrong.

That night’s anchorage we spent together again on a wall in Hawkesbury. Easy, quick tie up, nothing very special here except for the fact that Parks Canada invests in these dockages for tourists to stop in – super convenient. While looking out of Irish Eyes the port side we have this lovely water view, on the starboard we are abutting a visitor center and highway. It is not all charming.

By lunch time time the next day both of us are tied up at the Fairmont Montebello Resort Marina. The Fairmont line is connected to the Frontenac in Old Quebec and the Fairmont Banff Springs- very large notable, unique hotels. This one is known as the world’s largest log cabin.

More Loopers here- Detour- whom Home Port had previously met up with in Vermont, the six of us enjoyed happy hour together. The next morning Collin & Wendy played golf with Jim and I. This had to have been the steepest course we have ever played on.

While here we got to use the usual resort facilities- pool, trails, restaurant… The third day we had a good bit of rain and several tornado warnings. Ugh.