Monday 17th

We are taking Em’s boat, Om, a Tanzer 26 from Quebec city to Vaudreuil sure le Lac, a journey of around 300 km.

We are scheduled to go in the water at 11! The cradle has wheels, a tractor pulls the cradle, let it go down a ramp in the water, when the boat starts to float we start the engine let go of the cradle and go moor the boat on a dock.

To the super market for some serious food shopping and load it on the boat.

Tuesday 18th

As the second hand motor we bought has a smaller foot than the one required for this boat, we have to do some alterations so it will perform ok, not perfect but acceptable in forward motion around 4.5knots/hour, as for reverse: no good. A nuisance because reverse is used as brakes, boats don’t have those. But it will do, we will just be careful and won’t go fast in precarious situation.

Wednesday 19th

6:44AM We leave the shelter of the marina and start our journey west. The tide was at its lowest at 6:33, so it will start to come back up and help us the right way up. The sky is clear 10 to 15 knots wind in our face, we use the motor, its cold, we almost wear all our winter clothes.

We arrive in front of the marina in Neuville, where we want to stop and the motor stalls… the petrol tank is empty, ouf… we fill it up and enter the marina, 12:30. First leg finished.

We moor  Om, the office is closed until 5pm. We take a walk through the town, very pretty houses, very quiet, the trees are starting to change color, very scenic.

The marina opens we pay our dues get a key for the showers have dinner and bed.

Thursday 20th

10:15 departure. Great weather, but wind still on the nose. Easy motor journey to Portneuf.

We find a spot in the marina, an old bloke comes to say hello and tell us we are in his spot, but his boat is out for the winter and we can stay here. Very friendly, he volunteers for the marina office, we tell him that we might leave at midnight: no charges. We take a walk, the town is close to the marina. It seems to be big pick up area, most of the vehicles we see are very large with monster wheels and roaring engines. Also a lot of Harley Davidson.

Friday 21st

Midnight: departure. The tide is as it lowest, which means that as is comes up, it will increase our speed. This particular tide, because it is a much bigger tide than the previous or the next. A bit scary for me to be moving at night, there is no moon so we follow the flashing buoys: red on the right and green on the left. It seems easy, but as the way is not straight, at times I can see up to five green and five reds or even more, all flashing everywhere, and impossible to know which is the closest or the furthers, that when the chart and its reader is most important.

We arrive in Batiscan (our next port of call) around 5AM, as they don’t have lighted buoys to guide us in, we moor outside the entrance of the marina. We take a well deserved rest, but with the risk of dragging anchor (between the tide and the current, the waves created by the big ships), up every  15min, then 30 to check that we have not moved. Don’t want to be sleeping in the way of those big monsters.

As the sun comes up we enter the marina and moor. We go for a walk and the guy from the office tells us that if we stay, we will not be able to leave at low tide. We did not want to stay here for long, nothing around the marina. Sleep will be for later, off we go.

Around Becancour we can finally hoist the sails.

So far they was either no wind or it was straight on the nose. So great to finally stop the engine and glide away silently. We even barbecue a few sausages on the way.

Arrival in Trois Rivieres, it’s a big marina, and directed like a military camp. A bit of a chock after the friendliness of smaller places.

Saturday 22nd

We take all our empty petrol containers and go to the pump to fill them up. It’s a 2 stroke engine, so have to add 2%oil.

We take a walk through Ile St Quentin, cross 2 bridges and wait for the No 7 bus which is going to take us to the shopping center: groceries, bits and pieces. We seem to see lots of people that are not quite there and wonder about interbreeding…

My friend Celine comes to pick us up and drives us back to the boat. We sit in the cockpit for a nice chat, then drive to Trois Rivieres for a Mexican dinner, quite nice.

Trois Rivieres, meaning three rivers, is a city of around 60 thousand, the main industry is paper paste making, which confers the city a very particular and not so nice smell. It is an old city, with historic buildings and has a street full of restaurants.

Sunday 23rd

Leisure day. We check out the weather with the coast guards. Emmanuelle changes one of the music speakers.  I wash the inside of the cockpit, it still has dust from Quebec marina.

We check out very closely the charts for the journey to come. Have to go under a big bridge in town (le Pont La Violette), then through Lac St Pierre, a very big lake, but no water!!! So we have to follow a fairly narrow channel. And as the tide becomes smaller and smaller the current becomes bigger: up to 2 knots! We follow the same “Road” as the big boats like container ships, petrol tankers and big cruisers. At night it’s a real nightmare to be so close, and they give a very big wake that shakes us like a little nutshell. When we are moving. Emmanuelle is often inside on the chart and GPS, to make sure we are keeping our course right, and I am on the helm. At one point my cap is straight on the moon which is 2 days from being full. It s breathtaking. Lots of stars and a few shooting stars. It makes up for all the stress of keeping the right cap, checking the water depth and checking for huge ships.

Monday 24th

As the sun starts to come up it is great, the visibility becomes so much better and the stress level goes down. I love that time of the day, unfortunately I don’t see it that often…

We finish crossing the lake and enter an area with lot of islands and little bits of the river, quite pretty, everything is always so green here as well.

A lot of bird crying, I look up: thousands of wild gooses migrating south, what an incredible sight, they are in some sort of formation, they know exactly what they are doing and where they are going: south for the winter, smart birds!

We hear a lot of gun shooting, I think they are duck shooters, and I see a little motor boat disguised as a bush, with the guy inside dressed in full camouflage regalia, so funny.

Arrival in Sorel at 9:15. Not much water at the entrance of the marina, the keel touches the bottom, luckily its mud. We take petrol and empty the human waste tank. Register at the marina and go moor the boat in the given spot. Even if it is the end of the season, this marina is full: the marina next door has even less water, so some of the boats from there have moved here.

We take a walk to town to look for an Internet café  (they want too much money at the marina for the use of the wireless), and end up at the public library, where they have machines dating a long time ago. They are real nice and it is free, we check e-mails and have a little search on bigger boats for sale.

Sorel is a quiet little city, it seems with a lot of housing for the third age. 

 Tuesday 25th

Alarm at 5AM, the wind is too strong, and South West, exactly the way we are going. We go back to sleep.

We borrow 2 bikes from the marina and ride to the public library to use internet. Do a little bit of grocery, back for a leisurely lunch in the cockpit, the wind is strong but the sun is shining, it is quite hot, upper 20’s.

Did you know that here they decorate the houses for Halloween, its something:

It is so sad, because of the lack of water, some of the boats cannot get out the marina. Whilst we were having breakfast, we saw a sailboat, a little bigger than ours, try to go out for a sail and have to back up, because he could not get out of the marina. The season is so short here already, because of the cold and the ice, all boats have to be out of the water before the end of October and cannot return to the water until May!

Wednesday 26th

We are woken up by a storm and rain: up to close all openings and back to sleep. We wake up to a strong 30 knots WSW wind. Between the current, the wind and our small motor, if we try to go where we want to, we will stay in the same spot or even go backwards.  So we stay put and I catch up with my journal.

We make more use of the bikes and go to the local marine shop to purchase a hand held VHF (marine radio), the one on board does not work properly, probably because the antenna which is at the top of the mast has been broken in an encounter with another boat (not recently). We realised it s working in the marina but not when we tried to call from outside. The “bended” antenna must reduce the radio range. Radio is used to listen to the marine weather forecast (very useful even vital on a sailboat, communicate with marinas and other ship, also used in case of emergency to call for help), always better to have one that works!

A little bit of rain today, but temp still in the upper 20C, quite humid as well. There is still a small craft warning in our area, so we decide to leave tomorrow morning early.

Thursday  27th

We leave Sorel around 8AM, very overcast. On the little channel after the exit of the marina, the one that connects the marina to the “voie maritime” = the big boats passage, that we have to take due to the lack of water, the depth sounder starts to go down 5 feet, 4, 3, 2 … stop! Even in the channel, between the buoys we have touched the bottom. It is mud, but we are stuck. Motor in reverse, as it is not the best it takes us ages to come unstuck, but we finally get there and we are on our way. The wind is not on the nose we hoist sails. Great, gliding noiselessly through the water, that is the way. Short lived, the rain starts pouring and the visibility becomes very poor, not very nice at all. We can just barely see one buoy at a time, very scary. The rain clears and we relax.

Another hard bit, we are stopping in Pointe aux Trembles, we have to leave the safety of the channel (deep water) to follow a little private channel with much less water. All goes well and we arrive in a small marina. We are in the most eastern suburb of Montreal. Definitely not as nice as the country. A little hydroplane is moored with the boats, a funny sight.

Friday 28th

Still overcast, but not raining. We take the same little channel without problems and start on the big ”road” again. As we are in Montreal already we pass huge industries (grain, sugar and petrol) with big cargo ships loading. We feel very small.

A bit of sailing amongst all that, weird.

Next stop Longueil, very big marina, no water problems. Our little Om, is docked next to very motor boat.

For dinner, we barbeque a whole pink salmon, delicious.

On the dock we meet a couple who just purchased a 28 foot motor boat and are leaving tomorrow am for Lac Champlain. They have a super duper GPS with charts but no idea how to use it. They ask for our help. Never seen one of those instrument, but we figure it out and they are  so happy, they promise us coffee in the morning.

Saturday 29th

They were not bluffing, we get our coffee.

The sun is shining and the sky is bright blue. We see our friends leave, they managed to start the GPS again, they are happy. We leave the marina around 11 AM. The channel is getting narrower and narrower, we are in Montreal! Today we have 2 locks to go through. First one, there is a little dock for pleasure boats to wait their turn. We are the only ones, and in the lock, a big container ship that seems to take the whole width. He comes out and we go in. We are between 2 concrete walls higher than the mast. Two lock persons throw us each a rope from all the way up there. One at the front, that’s me, one at the back. The lock closes and the water level comes up so fast it feels like a lift, weird to come up so fast against that slimy concrete wall. Once all the way at the top, the door opens, the train bridge goes up, we restart the engine, give the ropes back and off we are.

We are now in a very small channel taken only by ‘big’ boats = over 6 meters, Om is 8 meters… the biggest are 250 metres, and we happen to cross one of those, very impressive and rather scary. Another lock, exactly the same procedure, but this one is even deeper, the walls are higher than the mast!!! Then comes another train bridge, this one is 12 metres above us, and we are around 12metres. We approach very slowly hoping to be seen by the operator. The light is red. We do a 360 degrees, still nothing. We have the wind in our face plus the current against us. Another 360, we get closer… finally, a big guy comes out of the control place, a long way up and whistle to us that we are low enough. Phew another scary bit. All that takes time, we don’t go very far very fast, our top speed is around 6 knots per hour = 10.8 kilometers/hour!!!

At the end of the Canal de la Rive Sud (that’s the name of the channel) we come out on Lac St Louis. Very big, very large but still no water. Some places not even 3 feet deep. We go down 3.7 feet! So we have to keep inside very strict markers, very restricting. All that is exhausting we stop at a very select Yacht club= Royal St Lawrence Yacht club. Beautiful and big sailboats, guess they never go out the marina, they would not have enough water to sail, what a waste…

Sunday 30th

We leave early and are following the channel to leave the marina when, bang!!! We hit a rock… Just as well we are going super slow, not a very nice feeling. I check anyway, no water is coming in the boat, either no damage or only minor damage.

We stop at the very small marina of St Annne, but it really is the end of the season: its closed, and once moored there, we cannot leave, we are locked in. Just a little bit further is the last lock we have to go through, and just before that you can moor on the side of the quay. Its Sunday, and we are in the middle of town. It seems that the thing to do here, is to come by boat (like they do in the streets on a Saturday night), cruise all the way up to the lock and come back.  On the quay, all the Sunday walkers are out as well, beautiful sunny, warm day; we are in the middle of it all.

St Anne is a small touristic town with restaurants lining the water. We have a very nice Indian lunch, then sit in the boat and watch the world go by.

We spend the night moored in a spot reserved for Annie’s restaurant. Nobody bothers us.

Monday 1st October

We go through the last lock and we are now in the Lac des Deux Montagnes.  We anchor in the bay de Cadieux, its almost Canadian Antilles: we have a swim and a sun bake on the deck and relax after this hard journey.

Tuesday 2nd

We leave under sail, and do the last bit of the journey with no motor. We arrive at Om’s new home after 13 days.