WEEK 13- Chambly, Quebec to St. Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec

This week we are heading upstream on the St. Lawrence River on our way to the Ottawa River, where we will eventually pick up the Rideau Canal and head south to Lake Ontario. Our stops this week were in Contrecouer (anchor), Montreal (marina), and St Anne-de-Bellevue (free dock). With the high water levels from spring floods, the current against us is stronger than usual, ranging from a knot and a half or so to over 5 knots in one area near Montreal. When you are in a boat that makes 7 or 8 knots, that can be a big deal.

With Mary Kay still with us, the first leg is through the last 3 locks on the Chambly canal and north to where the Chambly River meets the St. Lawrence in the city of Sorel. Here we go instantly from a rural little canal to one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world with huge oceangoing freighters traveling 24/7. The AIS system is nice to keep track of them all, but really it just boils down to keeping out of their way. This is easy to do, since they keep to the main shipping channel, and there is plenty of room and water depth outside the channel for us. Another big milestone today…..as we turned southwest onto the St. Lawrence, we reached our farthest north point on the loop, at 46 degrees, two minutes north. That puts us closer to the north pole than the equator!

BellaGatto and several other Looper boats
staged for the morning lock opening

Jayne and Mary Kaye
handling lines in the lock

Looking over BellaGatto's hardtop toward the other boats in the locker 

View from the front of the lock as the gates begin to open

About 15 miles up the St. Lawrence, we found a place to pull off the main river and drop anchor for the night at the village of Contrecouer, in time for a late lunch and a walk to the grocery store. That evening we had cocktail hour aboard the Confetti, a 39 Krogen that was headed all the way down the river to Nova Scotia. This far north at this time of year, it doesn’t get dark until about 9:30, so we had time for a long sunset dinghy ride through the wetlands buffering us from the St. Lawrence.

Typical church with a tin steeple
topped with a rooster weathervane

BellaGatto at anchor in Contrecouer

Scenery on the dinghy ride through the wetlands in Contrecouer

Ever since we decided to take this route we have been looking forward to visiting Montreal, so we left Contrecour early and pushed upriver the 30 or so miles to the Montreal Yacht Club, which has transient dockage in a first-class facility right on the old town waterfront for only about $1.50 US per foot per night, the deal of the century.  To get to the marina you have to buck a 5 knot current for a mile or so, which was more like 6 knots with the high water. We spent two days in the city and visited the markets, the botanical garden, and Chinatown as well as taking in the historical and architectural sights. I’m not a big city person, but I have had a great time in both New York and now Montreal.

Greeted by two tankers as we enter the main
shipping channel of the St. Lawrence

China town in Montreal 

BellaGatto at Montreal Yacht Club marina

The iconic clock tower in Old Town Montreal

Montreal Botanical Garden

MK in willow structure, Montreal Botanical Garden

Atwater market, Montreal

Atwater Market, Montreal

The Historic Center, Montreal

The next morning we got Mary Kaye off to the bus station for a ride back to Burlington, and we set off for one last leg upstream on the St. Lawrence and then cutting over to the Ottawa River. This was probably the trickiest navigation on the trip so far. We had to go through two major locks on the St. Lawrence. These locks aren’t like the cute little locks we have been in so far – they are huge structures built for giant oceangoing shipping and only grudgingly cater to recreational boats. Then you have to pick your way through shallow, reef strewn Lac St. Louis where the buoyage colors change sides right in the middle and channels intersect seemingly at random.

St. Lambert Federal lock

Close quarters on the St. Lawrence

Finally, we got to the (free) lock wall docking at St. Anne-de-Bellevue (it seems every place in Quebec is named Saint Somebody-de-Something). We got there just in time to get tied up before a violent rain squall blew through. This is really nice little town with lots of waterfront bars and restaurants and friendly people, so we decided to stay here an extra day. While some have said the French Canadians in Quebec are rude and don’t care for Americans, our experience has been the opposite. Everyone has been super friendly and helpful, and put up with my bizarre and comical attempts to speak French with amused tolerance.

Ste. Anne-de Bellevue

Saturday Market, Ste. Anne-de Bellevue

Saturday Market, Ste. Anne-de Bellevue

By next week, we should be in Ottawa and in anglophone Ontario, where we will meet our friends Steve and Debbie and cruise the Rideau Canal south to Kingston and Lake Ontario.