MONTREAL

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Yesterday, we continued our trip down the Ottawa River, with no tankers – much better weather and sea conditions.

Last night we stayed at a charming little village called Ste-Anne de-Bellevue. As we exited the last lock on the Ontario River, we pulled up to a long concrete wall, lined with a boardwalk, flower gardens and restaurants. I wish more towns in the US looked like this! The downside? NOISE. Live music at the restaurants; loud parties on the other boats. And a lot of dog hatred: no dogs allowed on the boardwalk or in the restaurants! YIKES!

Anyway, after getting very little sleep, we set out at 7:15 for Montreal. Today is the day we had to pass through the Commercial Locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, which meant we would probably be locking through with huge tankers or freighters. And you must pay for and reserve your transit time in advance! So we calculated our travel time; reserved our passage time; and set out.

And we timed it perfectly. More good news: we traveled through two sets of locks with three other powerboats – no tankers – although we did pass some coming the other way. The camera simply cannot capture the size of these monsters – Over 500 feet long, and just about as wide as the lock itself. I am SOOO glad we didn’t have to lock in with one of them!

This one was 503 feet long and 55 feet wide. She was coming out of the lock as we were entering! (you can look these things up on line!)

So now we’re tied up at Port D’escale du Vieux Port de Montreal, with a city view from our stern and a river view off our bow. We’ll be here for 4-5 nights. Looking forward to it!