Eisenhower and Snell Locks 

Up early again, continuing our journey down the St Lawrence River we are going with the current and it pulls us along sometimes giving us up to 2 extra knots of speed. 

Check out this image there are thousands upon thousands of shipwrecks in these lakes and rivers not so much in recent times but in the olden days ships sunk all the time.  

So you can imagine we are sticking very closely to the designated shipping channel.   The scenery reverted back to industrial as we moved down the river.  

We thought this was rather interesting 

So many bridges

The Irqunois lock appeared before us very quickly, we had been moseying along taking in the scenery when oops there was the lock in front of us well not the lock that was off to the side but a very low bridge was blocking our path, not that we bumped into it but we could see it before it registered with us what we were looking at.  We were using a booklet issued by the St Lawrence Seaway Authority the same as we used for the Welland canal but we found this lock a little bit harder to work out after a quick circle to suss it our we worked out we had to tie up to a tiny dock and climb some metal stairs to the communication telephone to contact the dockmaster and advise him we were waiting.

Some bridges we could get under but some we had to wait for them to be raised 

we could just see the phone box and the steps 

 And of course our credit card would not work for payment !! We had to search the boat for coins to make up the amount needed to pay.  Paying as you go through involves the guy on shore using a box on a very long pole leaning over and I had to place the money in the box, he tried to give us a receipt but it blew away.  We had about a half hour wait so we made a cup of tea.  Once we got the go ahead we entered slowly we had to use our ropes this time (the other locks supplied the ropes) the attendant looped it around and we descended holding Adriana off the wall.  This first lock was only a short drop.  

Out we went back into the river and on our way downstream between the 3 locks we had to go through the scenery felt more like a canal it was quite narrow with low land on either side there were still houses and motor boats but not nearly as many. 

The second lock again we had the information book but we could not work out where to tie up eventually we cottoned on that it was a tiny dock off to the side we headed over there but a sign caught our attention “water depth 6 feet or less” we reversed out and did a few circles calling the dockmaster on the radio he assured us we would be fine but if we wanted we could drop the anchor a bit further back and off to the side, we had to go back up the channel we had just come down, we dropped the anchor and had some lunch when 4 power boats exited coming the other way about half an hour later we knew it was time to get ready to go through the Eisenhower Lock this Lock and the next one Snell Lock are American operated all the others have been Canadian.  

We slowly entered the lock this time it was up to us to hook our rope over a bollard recessed into the wall.  The operator asked us if we wanted to tie up one rope or two, we chose two which didn’t really work with this type of bollard/descent.  

Being tied up with two lines one on the bow and one on the stern didn’t work like the other locks so we had to stand with the boat hook and bills walking stick and physically hold Adriana away from the wall, I had to push with all my strength a few times as she started veering in a bit too close to that wall!! 

The Snell canal used the same recessed bollard system we used a centre line and it worked perfectly with no dramas.  Whew we were through all 3 locks for today.  

We anchored behind a small island ( Pilon Island ) just off the main channel close to a pretty little town called Ile Saint - Regis.  

We were just relaxing with a cold beer when we were visited by some very friendly locals who had come out to see us when they saw the Australian flag I think it was also a good excuse to jump in their motor boat and take it out for a spin.  They asked us if we needed anything but we were fine they offered ice and did we need anything from the shops?  how nice was that?  

On Active Captain the app we use for navigation and finding anchorages we had seen another place close by - but the reviews said it was a meeting place for drug runners and unfriendly locals so we gave that one a miss but looking around us we could not imagine that would be the case, probably a local writing that to keep the area quiet and to themselves.

Coming out of the Snell lock we saw a family of deer and we had watched a baby eagle on a high post when we were waiting to go through the Eisenhower.