Aug 1 -3

Today we departed Plattsburgh for our return voyage down the Richelieu. The wind has been strong from the South West for the past two days and it was a bit of a lumpy ride getting back out on the lake, but improved once we turned north to the start of the Richelieu. First of course was the mandatory stop at Canadian Customs to check back into Canada. A fairly easy exercise other than the docking at their tiny floating dock in this strong wind. We continued on our trip past ile-aux-Noix and finally stopping for the night at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu where we took the town docks for the night. Dinner was in a nice pizzeria for our first pizza dinner of the cruise. Certainly need to get all the food groups in. Arranged with Parks Canada to be the first through the bridge first thing in the morning for the upcoming Chambly Locks.

After a good nights sleep we were ready; for the long day of locking. Same as last time, I Docked'R and Holidaze went together first and we teamed up with two smaller boats in the next lock down behind them. Going down was certainly a lot easier than the up bound voyage with little strain of the ropes they use for staying on the wall. All in all it was about a 5 hour run through the 9 locks and we were back cruising along the Richelieu. Being a long day we made that nights stop in Beloeil at a nice marina and with a short walk to a very fine restaurant with a view of Mont-Saint-Hilaire as our backdrop.

We were now on the last stretch of the Richelieu with only the St.Ours lock to go before Sorel and the St. Lawrence.

Once through everybody started thinking what our next stop would be. As we had made arrangements to go to Montreal and have Veronica and Shawn aboard for the upcoming long weekend we decided since it was a long trip to Montreal against the current we would get a head start and continue on to an anchorage somewhere closer to Montreal. The rest of the fleet decided they would stop in Sorel for the night.

As we continued down the St. Lawrence we took the small craft route and found a nice anchorage just off ile Bouchard for the night and settled in for a good nights sleep.