Saint Anne de Bellevue

Saint Anne de Bellevue

Our last stop before transiting the St Lawrence Seaway up to Montreal old town was the village of Saint Anne De Bellevue.  The last lock on the Ottawa is also here but at only 16 inches (due to high water) it was a speedy transit.  That, however, was after a bit of violent weather that overtook us just short of the blue line.  We could see the clouds behind us and were hoping to get tied up before it arrived.  The rain and wind did not cooperate, closing down just as we entered the twisty and narrow approach to the lock. Steve calmly kept us in the channel in spite of the wind and zero viz – fortunately – since the area outside the channel is strewn with prop destroying rocks. The markers gradually appeared just far enough ahead to keep us in a safe channel, and we finally reached the wall where we found our friends Bridget and Jacob on L’ Escargot wisely weathering the storm safely tied up.  Just a lesson in how quickly the weather can change even on a relatively narrow body of water.

On the wall at Carillon we met Folie II – with Louise – the mechanical engineer professor who bonded with Steve over discussions of oil changes, generator calibration and other esoteric “technical” subjects.  We passed them shortly after leaving the dock and were glad to see them again after the storm arrive safely in St Anne.

In Ste Anne, we also met the crew on Emily once again and they supplied us with their Montreal guide and maps to help us prepare for the days ahead. So in the same spirit, I passed along my info on Ottawa, Kingston and Picton with places in between to Linda and Ralph on Mazel Tug, a fellow looper boat heading up river – helping me as much as them. (Somehow the paper we collect expands on contact with the boat just like the cat hair and dust!)

St Anne – the most western community on the island of Montreal – was a charming reward for the bumpy weather. This tiny town seems to have more restaurants than homes, and also a great grocery store and a well-stocked ship chandler. (Oh, yes, there are plenty of cute shops too!) Ste Anne provides an easy place to catch our breath before the seaway and lots of interesting people watching this last weekend of the annual Quebec construction holiday. 

Ottawa River way-points

Ottawa River way-points

As we worked our way down the Ottawa River, we made a stop at Hawkesbury on the Ontario side where the city maintains a free dock on Confederation Island. This island was created in the 1960s by the construction of the Carillon dam about 12 miles further downstream. Most of the old town of Hawkesbury was flooded by this dam. Earlier we met several fellow loopers who stopped here on a busy weekend and being unable to find a space on the dock anchored in the bay where they “encountered” rocks. They were still undergoing repairs to their props when we met them, but fortunately our visit held no unpleasant granite objects.  Instead we met friendly people in the main street shops and enjoyed a quiet night on the dock. 

From Hawkesbury we moved on to Carillon and the 65 foot lock with a guillotine gate. On the Erie Canal Lock 17 there is a 25 foot guillotine gate, but the Carillon is massive in comparison. However, the transit is made easier by the expert attendants who assist the boaters tying off our boats to a floating dock anchored inside the lock.  This dock and the attendants float up or, as in our case, down. Nevertheless, it was impressive to fall into this deep cavern with the guillotine hanging over our heads. To exit we passed beneath the hanging gate to dock for the night on the lock gray line. Next to the lock is a park with the Toll Collector’s Cottage – from the days of the earliest canal here built in the 1830s. Two of the old canal locks are also preserved. They were part of three canals with multiple locks that were all replaced by the new Carillon lock and dam.  A short walk into the village of Carillon brought us to the Regional Museum in the barracks built for the fortification of this strategic area. One of the most interesting displays was titled “Monday Blues” – a tribute to the evolution of the humble laundry day. Clearly some progress has been made in the technology of wash day. Although the building was military in its birth, it evolved into a hotel and other commercial uses before being preserved as a museum of the region in the late 1930s – a tribute to the quality of construction in the 19^th century. 

The only bridge across the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Montreal is at Hawkesbury. As a result, we met ferries regularly  and as luck would have it – waited for them to cross in front of us.

Views from the river: