We had to get up early to make the bridges and locks. The bridges and locks in this part of the St Lawrence Seaway cater to the enormous cargo and container ships – pleasure craft are an afterthought and are accommodated only at specific times of day.
Leaving Valleyfield at 8am, we were hoping to get to the Valleyfield Lift Bridge at its appointed 9am opening (it won’t open between the 6 to 9am rush hour). As we proceeded up the Beauharnois canal entrance, something unexpected happened. The boat depowered and stopped – an alarm started screaming that the starboard engine was stuck in gear. We shut the engines down, started the engines up again, then an alarm screamed that the port engine was stuck in gear. Sigh. So we shut everything down again (as we drifted in the current), then started up slowly and everything seemed fine. That was Salty’s protest of the day – and given the 10-hour day ahead of us, I don’t blame her one bit for getting fussy at 8am.
The Valleyfield Lift Bridge (vertical clearance of 10 feet) opened at 9am promptly allowing us and about 3 other powerboats and a sailboat pass through. Then we proceeded another few miles down the canal to the St. Louis Lift Bridge – which didn’t open until the sailboat arrived.
Valleyfield and St. Louis Lift Bridges
After another 10 miles we arrived at the Upper Beauharnois Lock (42 foot drop) – and were told that the wait would be about 45 minutes, which turned into an hour, waiting for a cargo ship coming the other way to finish locking upstream. They have docks there that you can tie up to, and of course another 10 boats arrived and ended up all rafted to each other waiting. Finally, an enormous ship from Malta emerged – these boat are a mere couple of feet narrower than the width of the canal (78 feet wide) and by necessity have to move extraordinarily slowly to push against all the water that has nowhere to go as it enters and leaves the lock channel.
Upper Beauharnois Lock. Maltese ship that kept us waiting.
In fact last winter one of the cargo ships froze in the locks and it took considerable effort to get it unstuck because during the frigid Canadian winters, the walls of the channel get covered in ice as to the hulls of the vessels. Brrrrr.. (http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news05/ship-finally-freed-after-several-days-stuck-in-ice-near-snell-lock-20180107)
Once we were through, the Lower Beauharnois Lock (45 foot drop) was ready for all of us pleasure craft and that went fairly quickly. The lock tenders only put down lines for two vessels – the remaining ones have to raft onto (tie up to) those against the lock chamber wall (and all of today Salty and her crew were against the wall paying out the ropes to let us all down). Once out of the Lower Beauharnois Lock, we entered Lac St. Louis and got our first glimpse of Montréal in the distance.
Lower Beauharnois Lock. Montreal from the exit of the Beauharnois Canal into Lac St. Louis.
Because of the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, it was a bit of a rolling ride to the South Shore Canal (Canal de la Rive Sud). The South Shore Canal is another dozen or so miles long with two locks at the end – the St. Catherine and St. Lambert Locks (24 and 30 feet drops, respectively) – for each of which we had to wait another hour or so for two enormous ships to pass through in the opposite direction at each lock.
South Side Canal (Canal de la Rive Sud). Companions on the South Shore Canal. St. Catherine Lock.
Ship emerging from St. Catherine Lock. St. Lambert Lock. Ship emerging from St. Lambert Lock before we can enter.
The Pont Jacques-Cartier passes over the South Short Canal, and appears to be yielding soon to a new incarnation being built next to it.
Pont Jacques-Cartier over South Side Canal; Unfinished span and supports for new bridge parallel to the Jacques-Carter Bridge.
Once out of the St. Lambert Lock, we headed downstream past the tip of Île Sainte-Hélène and reversed direction heading up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal against what appeared to be a 6 knot current. Luckly Salty was up to the task and brought us past the Quai de l’Horloge (Montreal Yacht Club) to the Port d’Escale Marina in the Old Port/Vieux Port area just below the Quai Jacques-Cartier. June 25 is the Monday holiday following the National Holiday (which fell on a Sunday) – and thus, the entire marina was surrounded by crowds and music – giving us the impression we arrived at a party in progress. Long day for Salty and her crew!
Quai de l'Horloge and the Montreal Yacht Club. The Old Port/Vieux Port housing the Port d'Escale Marina upon arrival at 6pm.