The Seaway

The Seaway

Leaving Ste Anne early we wound our way through Lac St. Louis where rocks are waiting to snare boats that stray from the channel.  We enjoyed clear weather and reached the main St Lawrence Seaway channel in good time with a favorable current.  This stretch of the seaway provides safe and deep passage around the Lachine Rapids off the island of Montreal which were a hazard for early ships using this route to Lake Ontario.  There are two locks which provide the water depth essential for the large freighters that regularly pass this way. Sadly they also have priority at the locks which we learned the hard way.  

Our arrival at the first lock – along with two Grand Banks we met previously on the Hudson River back in May – was perfectly timed to enter the lock.  From there we moved on sedately to St Lambert lock….. only to wait almost 3 hours to begin locking through! Since there wasn't room for any of us to dock we circled for three hours – all the announcements were in French but also we couldn't hear them from the boat. Finally the lock opened and all of ONE pleasure boat exited and they began loading the 11 or 12 boats waiting. Evidently the worker bees take an extended lunch on Sunday! 

The drop was quick after that and we proceeded down the end of the canal into the St Lawrence River proper and around Saint Helene Island back up to Montreal’s old port. This short two miles upriver were interesting since the current under the bridge at the narrowest point was indeed running about 6 knots against us – remember we usually only run at 7 so Steve stepped up the gerbils and negotiated the whirlpools and tour boat wakes to get us safely into the Port de’ Escale marina for a week off in Old Montreal.