July 17 and 18th

So travelling has been good and the other fleet members have made good time down the Ottawa River, so the decision was to head to Montreal a day earlier and stay for Wednesday and Thursday night.

Therefore we decided to depart Valleyfield a little earlier to get to the Beauharnois Locks. Unfortunately what happened is we got caught between the Valleyfield  and St.Louis lift bridges for the night and had to take the mooring field for the night. There was a steady 2 knot current in 30 feet of water so we put our 120 ft of chain and it was straight out the bow all night.

At least we were able to get the first 9:00 am lift of the St.Louis Bridge and made the locks in good time, however we are in a busier stretch of the river now and many boats are locking together which slows things down.

Once in Lac St. Louis we were finally able to put her up on plane for a stretch after 4 days of slow speed. It was time to blow her out or blow her up, but she ran well. In the Lake we met the Seaquest, a 120 footer making good time and her wake buried our bow.

Finally met up with the rest of the fleet at the Ste.Catherines lock. Now there are even more boats locking together and there are long waits for the locks with the ships  of course having priority.

With all the delays and the busy St.Lambert lock we finally entered the St.Lawrence around 4:30 and enjoyed a wild ride up into the Old Port through the current and standing waves.

It was a long day and with a little rest we all made it out for a nice dinner on the Place Jacques-Carter.

Thursday is a tourist day in Montreal.