St Jean to Sorel & the St. Lawrence Seaway

A beautiful LONG day.  We left about 9:30a in a 2 knot current pushing us up the Richelieu River.

Shows Current Rushing past Buoy 

By the time we left, the Bridges and Locks were opening on demand... earlier boaters had to wait on scheduled openings.  

Bridge Opening before First Lock on the Chambly Canal

The French know how to do it.. put a park by each lock with benches... we were definitely the morning's entertainment! Some spoke English and we had brief chats waiting at each lock for the water to level out with the next pool.  All wanted to know where we were from in America and where we were going....wishing us safe journeys. Darling French children melting my heart as they threw kisses and hugs when they heard their parents say I was missing my grand children!

The Chambly Canal was built beside the Richelieu River so that barges could get up river without going through the rapids. Today only recreational boats use it.

Bike & Walking Path beside the entire Length of the Canal

Some of the Rapids in the River

The speed limit in the Canal was only 5.4 knots.... bikers were passing us!   And even the runners!

  

The Last 6 Locks in the Chambly Canal are like the original ones... they are hand cranked!

Opening Flood Gates & Lock by Hand

We had a crowd at the last 3 locks that stair step down into the Chambly basin (lake).  We were the only boat locking through.

The First of Three Stair Step Locks going down to the Lake (hand cranked)

Mountains at North End of Lake

The Richelieu River continues pass this lake and our plan was to anchor out a short way up the river. However, the river was literally crowded with 100's of boats and the side channel we were going to anchor in was so congested we would have had a very hard time working our way in there.  So we decided to go on to Sorel... really a bit too far after we worked through TEN locks but it was such a pretty day.....

BOATS! Everywhere!!

We saw a older couple in a pontoon boat and he was signally us to come over....Many were just roaring passed them! So we turned and came back to them hoping they spoke English. They were Frech Canadians but did speak English. He was out of gas! He had just bought the boat and didn't know how much gas was in it. We had a small plastic can of gas for our dinghy motor and it was the kind they needed. Now how were we going to get it to them? I ended up hanging over the bow sprit and then dropped it into the man's hands. They were only one mile from home so it should have been enough gas to make that distance. We asked the Lord to bless them and we were back on course for Sorel.  

We entered the St. Lawrence Seaway about 7p filled with ships. I was amazed that I was not at all intiminated by them!  So maybe Mobile Bay won't be so bad after all.

 

We docked at our marina near Sorel at 730p.  Exhausted!  But so glad to be ahead of the rainy weather.  Our poor friends at Waterford, NY... the latest update on the Erie Canal opening is now another one to two weeks due to recent flooding and storm damage......AGAIN!  Some are even down below the Troy Lock because it is now also closed.