July 19, Wednesday, from Gatineau a few miles from Ottawa to the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.

The electrical issue was top priority today so I made some calls and we traveled to a nearby marina (Kitchissippi)  that called their marina electrician to come in and check on our electrical problem. Bob was a great guy and he determined that the problem is in a breaker, but the local marine store didn’t have the parts we needed. The marina manager gave us another name to call for boat mechanic, and since he is closer to Ottawa we decided to finally get to Ottawa and then work on the electrical challenge. Again, people went out of they way for us and we are so grateful.

As we headed toward the Rideau Canal basin where we would be going up eight stair step locks in a row (!) we saw some impressive sites including the falls and the back-side of the Parliament building.

We tied up along a wall at the  beginning of the locks along with another 5 boats to wait the estimated hour and a half before we could start the lift up to the Rideau Canal from the Ottawa River. During that time we walked up to the top of the locks and along the canal, checking for a tie up spot once we made to the top. It looked like there might be space and then we saw a familiar boat – Happy Happy – belonging to Terry and Pat who we’d met in New Jersey, saw again on the Hudson River, and again in Whitehall NY before the Champlain Canal. I sent Terry a text message and hoped to see them later. (Which we did!)

Back to the boat, the trip up 8 stairway locks began. The routine here is to move into a lock, use a gaffe pole (boat hook) to grab specific mooring cables attached at the top and bottom of the lock, then put forward and stern lines (ropes) around the cables tight enough to keep the boat in position but loose enough so it slips up as the locks fills with water. Once you are done with one lock, boats move to the next one, one at a time in a specific order, and do it all again. Eight times! It took awhile, about 2 1/2 hours,  but we enjoyed talking to spectators watching along the sides of the canal.

Here the building at the top of the locks, and the locks as they looked at night as we made our way to Parliament to see a spectacular light show given every night a 10pm.

July 18, Montebello to Gantineau, Quebec (across the river from Ottawa)

All was going well. We ate breakfast and I took a few more photos of the marina area. I was smiling as I walked by the beautiful new looking boats watching many owners  washing and polishing them as if they weren’t already looking fabulous.

And then Dirk went to start the engines – nothing! No battery power. Hmmm. It. made no sense and was very inconvenient as we had planned to get to Ottawa by 2 pm and now had to wait until the generator charged up the batteries so the boat would start.   The waiting worked, the batteries & generator started the engines, and off we went on another beautiful day. (But why no battery power earlier?)

I looked at the guide books of the Ottawa area and found place to dock at a restaurant/marina in Gatineau.  Dirk called his cousin Hillary and husband Dominick to let them know where to find us later.  When we came in there was no one from the marina to help at the dock but two boat owners came running and helped us dock in the blowing wind – it was a little tricky. Again very impressed by all the nice, helpful people we’ve met and we always learn a little from each one. Today we learned how to create an attractive and practical dock rope chain pattern!

After the boat was docked Dirk looked around to see if he could determine the cause of the low batteries this morning and discovered he hear something running, even though “everything” was off. After lifting a number of floor boards and putting our ears to the mechanics down below, I pointed to where I though it was coming from, and it turned out to be a blower to air out the bilge. Dirk flipped the switch up on the fly bridge and the sound went away. One problem solved! (Then of course it was the question of “who flipped that switch anyway?”. It could have been either one of us but it was probably me.)

But there’s a new issue – now we can’t get electrical power to work on the boat anymore. It seemed to start being an issue as we entered Canada and we wondered if it could be related to different standards of power, but now we are thinking it is either a boat system issue or our power cords. Dirk is asking the AGLCA Great Looper forum for ideas and we may be seeking help from pros soon. The biggest challenge without electricity is refrigeration. The refrigerator  can now only be safely run when the generator or engines are on – so not at night or during short days like tomorrow. Fortunately I got a some ice yesterday and that will help keep the little meat we have cold enough using the refrigerator as an ice box.  Good thing we don’t focus too much on food that spoils!

Hilary and Dominick found the marina and us, and we had a great time catching up during dinner. Later they drove us to a grocery store as we were getting low on a number of items like veggies for me and seltzer for Dirk.  I realized after they left that I forgot to take their photo – darn!  Maybe they’ll send me one later for the blog.

July 17, Monday, from Carillion to Montebello, Quebec

Today it was our turn to travel up the 70 foot high lock. We tied up to another boat and chatted during the rise, but I made sure to take more photos. How many tons of water flowed into the large lock so we could rise up 70 feet?

And the we reached the top and were on our way.

We traveled up the Ottawa river heading west, first under clouds, then a little rain for a while and finally the sun came out. Summer again! We headed to Montebello, Quebec, a historical area as it was the home of Louis Joseph Papineau, a leader of  Lower Canada (Quebec) Patriots protests against Britain in the 1830s and 40s. He is a hero in this area and there is a town nearby named for him. His beautiful estate (grey buildings and chapel) is connected to the Chateau Montebello Hotel and Marina grounds where we stayed for one night.

Chateau Montebello was built as an exclusive club around 1930 and is reputed to be the largest log cabin building in the world. It has a massive main lobby connected to additional log buildings and serves hundreds of visitors. It is impressive to see inside and outside.

Guests at the marina can share the comforts of the hotel (owned by Fairmont now) and so we swam in the pool, used the hot tub, and enjoyed the grounds. The showers were the best ever! It was an expensive stay ($3.50/foot I think (Canadian)) but worth it for a very special treat.

July 16, Sunday, From St. Anne de Bellevue to Carillion, Quebec

Before we left St. Anne’s I took some photos of its water front and crazy crowded canal leading to the lock.  I was tempted to stay and explore, but on the other hand we wanted to move on, so into the lock we went, crowded with many other boats tied up together.

We followed the boat leaders for a little while, but were soon left far behind all the Canadian boaters. It was explained to us by some new friends that they need fast boats because they need to squeeze in all the water time they can in the short Canadian  summer. The Lake of Two Mountains was large and beautiful, and later we entered the Ottawa River which also seemed like a lake to me.

We arrived at the channel to the Carillion Lock  in the afternoon, and it was a surprise to see, even after reading that it was the tallest lock we’d encounter (70 feet!) and includes a hydroelectric dam.

Tomorrow we will be lifted up, but today we climbed to the top as the lock was loaded to capacity with boaters heading home on Sunday and watched them lower the boats into a deep hole until the huge doors opened and let them out.

I took a before and after of the boats in the canal – you can see our boat on the left and the boats leaving the lock after being lowered 70′.

We walked to the only eatery in town, a walk up order and eat outside diner that specialized in poutine, a French-Canadian specialty with French fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. We ordered plain French fries and chicken nuggets instead and walked back to the boat via a beautiful park area with historical information about previous versions of the canals and locks in Carillion. We talked to the interesting Canadian boaters along our dock wall and are now done for the day.

July 15, Saturday, North of Montreal to St. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec

We set out under cloudy weather from our anchorage after drying off the fly bridge seats from yesterday’s storm. As we approached Montreal we saw that it is significant seaport with container ships and cargo containers piled high on the banks.

We approach Montreal still under clouds, and that is the closest we got to it the city since we had plans to meet up with Dirk’s cousin Herb and wife Linda in St.Anne d Bellevue at the end of the day’s travels. As I we passed an area south of Montreal we thought of our son Wesley – it looks like a huge amusement park with a number of large roller coasters – just up his alley.

Cruising around Montreal requires traveling in a large canal to bypass the rapids part of the St. Lawrence.  This meant going through two very large and high locks on the Seaway; St. Lambert and St. Catherine, which raised up the boat 15 feet and then 30 feet! Each of the Seaway locks are 750’+ long and 80′ wide and there are huge cargo ships going through that barely fit. Lock masters ask pleasure crafts to raft up together near locks, and to wait until a break in commercial traffic. We waited about 1 1/2 hours for the first lock, but only 20 minutes for the second. And then it takes about 20-30 minutes to get tied up, for the water to rise and to exit these big locks.  Once in the lock we chat with our boat neighbors.

The sun came out during the early afternoon and the canal and later the lake were beautiful.

The lake to the west of Montreal is shallow and we needed to zig zag and follow somewhat confusing buoys to stay in the deeper waters although it looks just like one big deep lake.  When we finally arrived at the town of  St. Anne de Bellevue all the dock walls we had planned to tie up to were already full. It was the first sunny Saturday in what turned out to be a big tourist town and it was packed!

Dirk found a spot to anchor across the small bay and then we lowered the dinghy, Dirk put on the motor, and we putt-putted back to town and tied up to a wall on the town’s boardwalk along with other dinghies. We were concerned that Herb and Linda would have been looking for us for a long time, but since they had a challenge finding parking, we were all an hour late and it worked out.  We had a lovely evening catching up while we dined the outside deck, and were the last customers in the restaurant.

July 14, Friday, Day 95, St.Ours Quebec almost to Montreal on the St. Lawrence Seaway

With help and advice from neighboring trawler owners, we easily removed our boat from a tight spot on the dock and  headed to the great seaway. The St. Lawrence Seaway is wide and impressive and we were fortunate the river was calm. We are traveling upstream to Montreal, so we have the current pushing against us. Fellow loopers told us about a small craft channel we could use which has less current and that helped us move along.

As usual there were some nice homes to see along the river, but only with binoculars, (which I dropped awhile back so only the right eye works!). As we approach a low island in the river we notice a strong smell – the island is home to many hundreds of seagulls, floating, flying, swirling around and screeching.

As you may notice from the photos the skies darkened  as we went along, and it started to rain a few hours earlier than predicted. Dirk noticed  an anchored sailboat nearby and we decided that was the best place to be versus traveling another 5 miles in the rain to get closer to Montreal.  It started to rain, but just as we got everything inside including us there was lightening and loud thunder. Now the rain has stopped and we’ll continue on toward Montreal tomorrow.

July 13, Thursday, St.Ours Quebec still on Richelieu River

It was about 55 degrees this morning, cloudy and a little rainy but we knew we needed to get moving. Dirk had a Canadian map SD card for the Garmin sent to marina in St.  Ours and we needed to arrive before they closed the office. We got ready and headed across the Chambly Basin back to the the northern section of the Richelieu River.

There were a many nice homes and even farms along the river today, and small and larger marinas as well. One thing that stands out here is that all the pontoon party boats, such as those very popular on Lake Boon, all are fully covered for rain and wind protection. Not a surprise given the temperature today!

We had a little excitement coming up to a railroad bridge – it was low and we didn’t see an opening, and then it turned out to be narrow with a fast current. A little rush for us!

We also saw many churches right along the river, some right across the river from each other. I was thinking this is a rural area but given the size of these churches we may just not see enough from the river to appreciate the size of the towns we are passing.

We arrived at the marina and got settled with only a bit of a challenge fitting into a too small space for our boat, but no boat was injured in the docking. Also the weather had improved and the fleece came off! The marina is called a “campground marina” because it has a large vacation trailer park above the water with trailers that look permanent, and lots of families. There is also a nice restaurant which we enjoyed while we had fun trying to make ourselves understood. Dirk’s Parisian French doesn’t work  that well here but no matter, some English speakers came around to help when needed.

July 12, Wednesday, Chambly, Quebec, heading to the St Lawrence River

We are now in Chambly Quebec, the temperature has been around 66 degrees today, and we have been seeing many families and friends picnicking in various parks in town. I think these are hardy people! We had our fleeces on and they are in shirt sleeves.  I’m impressed.

The trip on the Chambly Canal was pretty special. We went through lock #9 right away, after waiting for a pedestrian & bicycle bridge to be raised. There were 4-5 more very low bridges but the lock keepers had told us how fast to go, and as long as we kept to that speed the bridges were raised pretty soon after we arrived.  The Canal is narrow with a bike path on one side and roads or houses on the other. The Richelieu river can be seen on our right as well.

The locks were built in the mid-1800’s and are still opened and closed by hand cranking various wheels. The lock doors are wood, 6-8 inches thick and beautiful. When we go through these locks I am up on the bow, grabbing the first rope from the lock tender and pulling the boat to the side of the lock. Once I’ve got my rope and we are far enough in, Dirk turns off the engines and grabs a stern rope. We wave at bystanders as we travel through the locks, many who are on bikes.

The last mile of the trip was amazing. There were 3 locks in a row with just a small area between them, and then around a corner, 3 more in a row in a staircase – exiting one lock put us into the next lock. Did I mention the locks were small? Maybe 18′ wide and 75 feet long? We are 40 feet and they also squeezed in a sailboat and small boat. With the wind blowing in the last 3 locks it was hard to pull ropes tight enough so that we wouldn’t bump the sailboat  Dirk had to help me at one point.

After getting settled at a Canada Parc dock right after the last lock (and buying a pass to stay on Canadian lock walls the rest of the summer (about $400 Canadian), we went for a walk and visited Fort Chambly where we learned about the French Canadian early history in the area. I had to be patient  and wait for my turn to hear some recordings in English since most visitors are speak French of course.   Fortunately most signage in the fort was in both languages. We spent more than an hour there, also looked at featured photos by local artists and then roamed the main thoroughfare of this lovely town. Although we thought about eating out we were too tired for that so went back to the boat and ate, read, and blogged.

July 11, Monday –  St. Jean, Quebec

Our nice anchorage in Lake Champlain didn’t want us to leave. The anchor winch was unable to pull up the anchor – it had become stuck on rocks or other exciting items on the bottom. Dirk backed up to pull it even harder but the anchor chain unraveled instead (it isn’t supposed to do that!) We had a few moments of concern and creative thinking on how we were going to deal with this challenge, but then Dirk spun the boat around and pulled from the opposite direction and we were freed. Whew!

We will soon enter Canada and the Richelieu River and canals that lead us to the mighty St. Lawrence River.

We traveled north to the end of Lake Champlain, the beginning of the Richelieu River, and came to the US/Canadian border. Dirk was happy to be back in Canada – his country.   The white building is the Canadian Custom Wharf. We also saw a 1812 fort just before we entered Canada – with a “for sale” sign on it!

And then a funny thing happened with our Garmin chart plotter that contains all the river and lake maps – it went blank above the border! The previous owner obviously never needed Canadian maps and it hadn’t occurred to us that they might not be there. We have chart plotter backup maps on the iPad, but we need them on our main navigation device. So instead of finding a free dock for the night we are in a marina, Le Nautique de St Jean, since we need power and internet to upgrade the Garmin before downloading Canadian charts. I ended up walking a few miles to get an SD card, called Garmin twice, and are still working on it.  Ah, technology!

The town of St. Jean is lovely and larger than I expected. I saw an impressive theater and a lot of two-story homes on the 12 or so blocks I walked, some with flowers and some right next to churches. So far my lack of French isn’t an issue as I can ask in French if they speak English. Everyone has been very nice and tried to find someone else that speaks it if they don’t.

Tomorrow we’ll go through nine locks on our way to the St. Lawrence River.  We are glad it is the middle of the week so we don’t need to contend with weekend traffic.

July 10, Monday, North of Plattsburg, NY

We called around last week to find a marina to fix one of our vacu-flush toilets (a type of boat toilet) that had stopped flushing but were unsuccessful. We contacted a number of marinas again this morning and weren’t getting a call-back from anyone. But since the closest marina (Shelburne Shipyard) is reputed to provide good service, we headed there for a pump out even though they were very busy.  I decided to get off the boat and went searching for the service manager.  As it turned out, after I described the issue badly to him (partially on purpose), he decided to see for himself what was going on, and a few hours later Van and Thaddeus had the system working again!

While waiting for the bill we wandered among the dry docked boats and were admiring  a nice cruiser when a couple came by (Renee and Lise) that were checking it out for purchase.  We started chatting and turns out we may visit them when  we travel on the Ottawa River.

We enjoyed the views of the mountains, shore and water for the next three+ hours and found a nice anchorage for the night. Note the birds on the front of our boat!