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!