We got our normal start today, around 8:00. The Richelieu River is emptying into the St Lawrence so we are getting a push from the current. When we get to the St Lawrence we will be fighting the current to Montreal.
The weather was initially clear when Candy went for her 1st walk but the clouds rolled in. You could see that it was clear some distance south of us but we were headed north. The Richelieu River in this section has many homes and cottages along the way. We stayed at the Lock in St Ours but that is only 12 miles to Sorel on the St. Lawrence. The wind was still out of the north but not too much of a factor. There were some fisherman on the river but it was an early Saturday morning for most folks and the sky was gray.
When we passed thru Sorel there were two Salties (ocean going ships) that were parked on the river. Although there was plenty of room to pass between them it looked a little intimidating with these huge ships on either side. When we turned left into the St Lawrence, there were 5 Salties anchored in the river. This part of the St. Lawrence that we traveled today was about 3 miles wide with lots of islands and several secondary channels besides the main shipping channel. For the most part we followed the shipping channel to Montreal. I stayed to the edge of the channel to try and minimize the impact of the current as much as possible. In the center portion of the channel the current was between 4 and 5 mph. The current was about 1.5 mph less at the edge of the channel.
There was a fair amount of traffic on the St Lawrence and it kept getting heavier as we got closer to Montreal. After about an hour and a half on the St Lawrence I looked at the charts and realized that we were only 4.5 miles from where we started the day even though we had traveled about 25 miles.
The boaters around the Montreal area are really crazy. I am not sure if they have a law here that says that while you are underway you cannot have people on the front deck. There were whole families on the front deck of 30’ cruisers and the waves were about 2’ and coming in a lot of different directions from the various boat wakes.
As we approached the marina we passed the cutoff for the locks that we will take in a few days. The current increased as we proceeded and at it maximum I showed our speed thru the water about 9 mph more that our ground speed. It was a challenge to control the boat and keep moving in a straight line.
The marina is pretty interesting because it is in the Port of Old Montreal. It is in an old Freighter Bay along the river bank. It is right next to the “Old Montreal section of the City. The old stone buildings are really something. Some of the old streets are still cobble stone and very uneven. We watched the cars on the streets and they do not need speed control on the old cobblestone, it is built in.
Lots of people and tour groups in Old Montreal. All of them are armed with cameras and all seem to be taking the same pictures. Lenore and I had dinner at a restaurant in Old Montreal and we were able to watch the people on the street.