Ottawa

June 21-June 23, 2010

We read about Casino du Lac-Leamy in Hull/Gatineau (in Quebec) offering a free stay in their marina.  After spending a silly amount at the Le Chateau Montebello, we figured we'd even out the travel kitty with a stay at the casino.  There are direction signs sticking right out of the Ottawa River, signaling the way through a marked Gatineau River.  A quick left turn takes you through this mini channel to the gate keeper who directs you through this even skinnier channel no more than 50' wide.  Lac Leamy is  marked but the buoys take you around this lagoon type water until you need to go under two low bridges into an old rock quarry they filled in with water.  Pete was sweating bullets since he's using his new forward-looking sonar -now he can see the rocks in the quarry as structures on both sides with a little space in the middle.  Anyway, we arrived safe and sound to a super clean, safe place to spend the night.  We stayed an extra night since no one else was there.  What a deal! 

We toured Parliament Hill.which is the heart of Canada's government.  They are very proud of these buildings and we were fortunate to catch a tour of the Senate, Library of Parliament and House of Commons.  Since Ottawa is the capital of Canada, it is a clean well run city.  

Right next to where we tied up for the night, we witnessed a protest by Chinese/Canadian students to pressure Canadian government to not tolerate the Chinese government's lack of acceptance of Falan Gong's religious beliefs.  They were noisy but orderly and broke up when about 50 police cars arrived at 7PM.

 

There's a Jazz Festival going on tonight and we can hear it from the boat.  We went to a Rib Festival for dinner tonight with every booth boasting they had the best ribs and they have won every contest ever held for ribs- (they were good!).  But the most exciting part of today was going through the Ottawa Flight Locks.  It's a series of eight locks connected together, raising you and your boat from 134' at the Ottawa River to 213' on the Rideau Canal.  Amazingly, it was completed in 1832, providing a secure water route for troops and supplies from Montreal to reach the settlements of Upper Canada and Kingston.  We have another first going through them...at Lock 7, Canada had a 5.0 EARTHQUAKE!  Pete felt it as did the parks people - they evacuated the park but kept locking us through.  What would have happened if the locks got damaged while we were in them...don't even want to think about it...we're none the worse for it but a lot to think about!

Richelieu to Ile Dube

June 16 to June 20, 2010

The Richelieu River banks are filled with well-kept homes and flat farmland.  (The liquid fertilizer smell that greeted us in the morning reminded us of how rich the soil is!) It is more eye candy. Cable powered ferries are all over this section of the river-hard to believe this mode of transportation is still in use in the year 2010 but they are!  We locked through St. Our Lock, the last of the locks on the river.  The Canadian Parks make it very easy by having a floating dock inside the lock. The lock keepers tie our lines to the dock and the boat floats up as water is released. The easiest lock yet!  From there we leave this rural beauty and arrive at Sorel, an industrial city on the St. Lawrence. 

 Our party is over as we now  have to look forward and behind us for those million ton freighters that can run us over.  We need to stay in the shipping channel  because even though this part of the St. Lawrence looks deep enough, there are many shallow sections.  Again the towns along the shore are very picturesque, each boasting its own steeple-helpful when navigating these Canadian charts.We stayed in a marina in a small village called Contrecoeur where we were able to pick up a few provisions at a local butcher/deli shop-very French Canadian!

The St. Lawrence has two government locks - the St. Lambert and the St. Catherine and we heard that we could wait up to six hours to lock through if commercial ships were locking through. We motor up, saw  the green light and then became confused because this was too easy.  Hearing French directions didn't help us until they finally realized we didn't understand a word of what they were saying and broke into their English rendition of "Get your ass in here now!"  They throw down their lines and you have to hold them on at the bow and stern while the water pours in and the boat rises-quite a feat!

 We follow the Canal De La Rive Sud (it feels like forever)-there's bird sanctuaries all around us with  Lac Saint Louis and its rapids on the other side of the right bank of the channel.  We finally zig-zag our way to St Anne de Bellevue where we find a space at their town dock and tie up for the night.  This is a very popular destination spot for boaters and day trippers.  There are many restaurants, shops and bars with a promenade along the dock all night long!  We awoke expecting the weekly farmer's market but instead found a custom car show- cars from the all eras- all decked out.  Of course there's a lock connected to St. Anne and we lock through without a hitch. 

 The next lock, however,the Carillon, we encounter another Lock keeper yelling at us in French until he realized we didn't understand a word he was saying,  Then he breaks out into, "Hey, lady with the yellow shirt, tell your captain to put it in neutral."  Now we understand what he wants us to do!"This height of this lock is 65'-quite a formidable sight- makes one feel small in the scope of things.

Onward to Chateau Montebello, the world's largest log chateau. It's a resort with all the amenities one could want-all we want are bathrooms and showers within walking distance and these they have.  The place is full of French Canadians having a weekend holiday-they do enjoy themselves!

As we continue on toward Ottawa, we overnight anchored behind Ile Dube.  It's a quiet part of the river and was calm and peaceful except for the deer flies.  They fly with their teeth in position for a taste of whatever warm meat is around and they had a feast!  We need to load up on anti -deer fly spray!

Richelieu River and Chamby Canal

June 14 &15, 2010 Monday and Tuesday


The 40% chance of showers (thank you, Weather Channel) Monday turned into an all-day soaker with the high temps around 60-chilly to the bone. We kept thinking the black clouds were lightening but we were wishfully thinking. We left the last stop in USA, Rouse Pt, NY, rounded Ft. Montgomery and entered Canadian waters. We found the Canadian customs building, pulled up to the custom's officer, answered two questions and he sent us off. He took our passports but never opened them and never checked Buddy’s papers. That was a whole lot easier than any airport check in!

We motored along the top of Lake Champlain into the Richelieu River. We were motoring along through some narrow channels when we noticed the important information on the GPS charts would run out soon. We scrambled through the other map chips that go with the GPS, but none seem to work. OH, NO, we have to use the paper charts! We limped our way to St. Jean sur Richelieu and decided to stay on their town wall for the night. After working for 3 hours trying to figure out the GPS, Pete called our guru, Bob Hogeman, Tony M’s previous owner. Bob’s knowledge is amazing and within twenty minutes Pete had the charts loaded that we needed for the Richelieu, St. Lawrence and Ottawa. Now the paper one’s are safe in Joanne’s hands. Again, thank you, Bob and Sue!

                                                    Tony M in St. Jean sur Richelieu


Tuesday morning brought the Canadian Parks person to our boat to sign us up for season mooring and locking passes for the parks- $651 later!. She was so accommodating. She would open a bridge and then travel in her car to the next lock, help open it and then on to the next bridge. These locks at this Chambly Canal are made of wood and all but one are hand operated. The lock master takes his crank handle and opens and closes these huge wooden doors and also empties the water out. The Canal runs 10 miles with 9 locks and 7 swing bridges. The tow path is now a bike path used by many (especially Baby Boomers) folks out enjoying this beautiful day.

Bridges to be opened

Leaving the lock                                                                                           Chambly towpath

We’re ending our day at St. Antoine sur Richelieu at their town dock where we’ll spend the night. There’s no power here but our generator gives us the boost we need. We should be comfortable.

St. Antoine sur Richelieu

Lake Champlain

June 9, 2010 Wednesday

After we exited Lock 12 in Whitehall, NY, we entered Lake Champlain. It was a definite improvement in scenery and water quality. The murky water of the canal was replaced with clean water and we could now see some rolling hills with picturesque Vermont farms. The lake is very narrow in the beginning but then widens to look like what you would expect a lake would look like. We decided to try to see Fort Ticonderoga-I say try because they don’t make it easy to dock your boat. But have no fear-Pete is here! We anchored Tony M about 200 feet from shore, threw Buddy in the dinghy and found a spot to put the dinghy on shore. We had to walk through a newly mowed field and up about 100 old wooden steps to the Fort only to discover we couldn’t get in because on their “No Dogs Allowed” rule. Somehow on our way back to the boat I lost my camera so pictures are limited until Saturday when Thyra will meet us in Burlington. Get our your Costco card, Thyra.

The winds started picking up and the forecast was for rain so we headed for Partridge Harbor, a small buttonhook cove nestled on the NY shore. We arrived just as it began to lightly rain and the first anchor went down perfectly -only Pete wanted to drop a second anchor off the stern. He dinghied the anchor to shore and wrestled (and I mean wrestled ) it onto shore. Now hopefully we(he) can sleep better knowing we won’t swing too close to the granite cliff.

June 10, 2010 Thursday

After a good night’s sleep being rocked by the cove’s gentle waves, we motored across the lake to Mile Point where we explored Lake Champlain Maritime Museum which allowed Buddy to come with us. The place was crawling with kids on a field trip (can’t seem to have a June without being with kids on a field trip!) and I’d have to say they were very well behaved. The museum offered much info about the Revolutionary War and Benedict Arnold’s burning his ships along with his injured men, ship building and the canal boats during the1800’s going from the ST. Lawrence to NYC with all the manufactured goods of the day. From there we traveled down the Otter Creek (a 7 mile no wake zone narrow waterway that looks like a Louisiana bayou) to Vergennes, VT where we are docked for the night. This is another town that offers free dockage with power and water for boaters –how nice is that! We need to somehow let these folks know how much we appreciate their hospitality!

Beginning of rapids at Vergennes -view from Tony M

June 11-13, 2010 Friday to Sunday

Burlington was a jumping town with the large amount of college age kids and a jazz festival going on all over the city. By Saturday our good weather had disappeared, the rains came and Thyra rescued us with her patience and her car. We bought some more stuff for the boat (I didn’t think there was anything more we could buy for it!), my new camera (yeah!)and some fresh provisions. Left Burlington Sunday morning under sunny skies and flat water. We motored to Valcour Island where the colonists lost its first naval battle of the Revolutionary War. We anchored in Sloop Cove with many French Canadians. Where are the Americans? We hiked on the island on pine lined paths that smelled fantastic! We then motored north to Rouses Point, NY for tonight so tomorrow we can enter Quebec, Canada bright and early.

Burlingston Community Boathouse

 

Vancour Island

HAPPY DOG!

And We're Off!

Sunday's BonVoyage gathering was such a kick!  It was so great to have friends and family share some time with us before we left...it was important for us to see all of them.

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We successfully cast off from Stratford on Wednesday June 2, 2010 and went straight to our local pump out before beginning our first leg to Stamford-only 3 hours away but it was a good shake down for us. Erika, Charles and Lucie had reserved a slip in their marina so we were able to enjoy our last Connecticut meal with them.

Left by 6:15 AM Thursday because we knew it would be a long distance to Tarrytown and we needed to catch the tide at Hell’s Gate. About an hour out the engine began to run very hot and Pete began his bag of tricks until the problem healed itself. We were happy that we could continue but this delay made our run thru Hell’s Gate somewhat more challenging. The NYC skyline is always an awesome sight and this perfect weather day was no exception. Passing Reicker’s Island with it’s overflow barge, through Hell’s Gate and up the Harlem River with no other recreational boats made us think we’re the only ones enjoying our boat. After arriving in Tarrytown we met another “looper” who’s been doing this loop since March of 09!!! And then we saw a boat sink at the dock while going for its sea trial-talk about failing a sea trial! Major bummer! Sister Diane met us at the marina and treated us to a delicious meal at the Striped Bass Restaurant-Thanks, Sister!

Harlem River Cardboard Condos

Friday was another long day as we pushed to get to Kingston. West Point is always awesome to see, especially from the water. We got a slip at the Hideaway Marina in Kingston which probably had the worst facilities we had ever seen. We were able to get a tasty meal at an outdoor table with Buddy at our feet. Again we saw “looper” boats and are surprised at the number of people doing this trip. Most are from FL with others from Tennessee and Texas.

Saturday we left early to make it to Waterford where the Mohawk  River (the end of the Erie Canal) meets the Hudson River and the Champlain Waterway begins. They have a free dock(If it's free, it's for me!) where many people hold up for a couple of days before continuing their journey and that’s what we did while tornado warnings and heavy thunderstorms pelted the area.

Monday we began the Champlain Canal leg of our trip. It was fairly windy which caused Joanne to become anxious, thinking about her hand breaking on a similar windy day last September in Lock 11 but after she mastered securing the lock lines on the cleat everything was pretty uneventful. We ended our day in Fort Edwards where the good restaurants are closed on Monday – the only place open made the most overdone pork chops in NY state…food wasn’t even fit to bring back for Buddy! Temperature tonight is supposed to be in the low 40’s…hope the heater works!

Tuesday we completed the Champlain Canal, mostly the dug out section, leaving the Hudson River to veer to the west.  This section is monotonous, with only the growth on the shore and cows for wildlife to keep us entertained.  Arrived in Whitehall, NY, the birthplace of the US Navy.  They have an interesting looking museum but unfortunately, it doesn't open for the season until next week.