Sorel to Montreal

We didn't leave until the hunt was over... the hunt for the Canadian paper charts!  We feel sure we brought those DVDs on board planning to print up each one as needed. We could only go to next port without them and you do NOT want to trust just the Garmin Chart Plotter.   If it goes out for any reason you will not know where you are.... we looked in every drawer and cuboard... nothing.  So finally Walter went in the marina office and bought their charts.  We were just glad they had them.

Before we left and before I had my camera handy a big ship passed by with a bow wave as wide as our boat is long!  Still we were anxious to move on up the river to Montreal... actually the plan was to anchor out somewhere before this City but we just didn't trust the anchorage...the current here is so strong.  At one point we were going 7.7 knots with a 6 knot current against us...forward speed was 1.5 MPH!!   Most of the time the water was not rough but the speed boats were constantly waking us so we were rolling and rocking.  None of them were concerned about the ships which were all around us at times... they just ran up close to them.

The Captain moved out of the Shipping Lane for this Big Guy to pass us!

There was not a whole lot to see as we cruised along... here is a beautiful old church on the Waterway.

Before entering the Harbor we cruised by miles and miles of container wharfs! Where ships load & unload their cargo.

Container Wharf

We entered the Montreal Harbor passing under this bridge.

This is a memorial on the waterfront to Sailors.

At our Marina a huge crowd gathered to meet us! JK

Our Marina

Can you see the crowd in the picture above  along the seawall? Turns out that the entire Town of Montreal is here... a live concert is going on outside and the crowd is wild with excitement! WE ARE IN CANADA ON CANADA DAY! This is just the biggest holiday they have celebrating their beginning as a country under Bristish rule.

Concert

Sitting up on the bridge of our boat we had front row seats to the concert....they sang many songs in English! Then at 1015p we climbed out on the sundeck roof, looked the other way, and had best seats for the fireworks.  We will sign off leaving you with a few photos.  Happy Canada Day everyone!