Up and away early again !! 

its actually a sunset but very pretty 

Today we had to conquer another 3 locks Beuharnois, Cote Ste Catherine and St Lambert.  The day started badly -  When we pull up the anchor Craig stands at the bow giving me hand signals – run the engine or idle, move forward or reverse, and also whether to steer right or left.  He does this so we move directly over the anchor and he uses the windlass and pulls it up, this morning I missed seeing one of his hand signals and kept the boat in reverse a bit too long... After righting my mistake we managed to get underway motoring along canal like rivers, again passing huge freighters motor boats and more river cruise ships.  

The next disaster was Valleyfield Bridge we had to radio through to the bridge master but we had no response so we decided to tie up to a convenient dock we turned around then realised our fenders were not low enough and a quick scramble to lower them still wasn’t quite enough.. we managed to tie up without wrecking Adriana but we did burst a fender on the wire mesh covering the deck, we were only tied up for a minute or two then the bridge started its  lifting process. 

We reached the Beauharnois  lock and we were the only boat waiting - we could see on AIS there was a freighter ship about to enter the other end so we knew we only had a 15- 20 minute wait so we decided to hover in the water - we stopped the motor and drifted towards the lock then we started it up again went back upstream and did it again we did this a few times I think we were traumatised after the anchor and docking incidents.   
We made it through this lock without incident, we were back to two lines just like the Welland Locks and using our boat hook and Bills stick to hold her off the wall.

The walls 

Keeping Adriana off the wall as we descend 

On approaching Cote Ste Catherine we actually had a green light as we were approaching and we were happy with that until we got in there and the lock was full of pleasure craft. 

We nearly turned back when we saw all the other boats waiting for us we thought the other locks where we were on our own or with another one boat had been stressful this was a whole new experience 

There were about 8 boats in front of us rafted in three lots.  We had to raft up to another yacht, so we quickly had to lift the wooden boards away so that it was just our fenders touching the other boat. 

You can see all the other boats around us 

We have two thick planks of wood, one for each side, that are used on the outside of the fenders to protect them from the walls rough surface. 

This was when we really started noticing we were getting into Quebec territory the people around us were all speaking French.  
The yacht we were tied up to was slightly smaller than Adriana which was a bit unfair that they were against the wall, Craig went onboard and helped keep their boat away from the wall.  
Things were reversed at St lamberts and we were on the inside with the other yacht rafted to the outside and the man from the other yacht jumped on board with us to help.  
The couple spoke French with only a little English and the man in the boat in front was the same.

The scenery started to look more French somehow!!

Once through we motored on until we reached Montreal around 7pm, oh we had to traverse down the canal type waterway again as the open waterway had rapids dropping into Montreal and causing huge currents. 

The guy from the yacht we were rafted to suggested we go to an anchorage outside of a marina closer to the old city than the one we had chosen… BIG MISTAKE the current was so strong we could not get across the river and we were running out of daylight.  Eventually we gave up  and headed back the way we came, we found all these yachts on mooring balls outside of a yacht club, so we thought it was as good a place as any to stop.  It was getting darker and darker and we didn’t like the spot we had dropped the anchor so we brought it up and moved forward away from the other boats. Once down the anchor held us secure the yacht club was off to the side slightly and well out of the huge current.  By this time it was about 9pm we had salt and vinegar chips for dinner a shot of tequila and a beer before we collapsed exhausted into bed.  We had started our day at 6am and finished at 9pm we had passed through 4 locks and 2 lift bridges and travelled 61 nm a huge stressful day.

Back into civilisation the approach to Montreal 

Our night time view 

Montreal

From where we were anchored, we could see the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the Olympic Stadium it was a really cool spot a bit industrial but close to the Old City.  Our plan was to spend a day at anchor and visit the Old City to have a look around.  I worked out we could dingy across to the Marina that is where we had originally planned to stay, that was until we decided just to anchor.  One of the kids working said it was ok to leave the dingy tied up for the day and to make things even better this was right next door to where the ferry departed -that would take us over to the Old City.  

On the ferry

The Old Port of Montreal is a beautiful old city very European with cobbled streets and a huge French influence, there is even a replica of the Church of Notre Dame that was built in 1824.  

We had a wander round the streets found a nice little café for baguettes and coffee.  The streets were very busy it is the middle of the Canadian Summer holidays and about 30c. 
All the street signs are in French everyone speaks French, we have been told the trick is to try and speak in French then because it sounds so bad the French speaking person will reply in English. 


It was way over 30c and were too hot to do any more walking we caught the ferry back to the suburban side of the river, checking Adriana as we went past. 

We needed to buy a snorkel so Craig could dive under the boat and check our propeller.  Coming down the river on the "stressful day" the engine had been revving really high and the oil pressure was up.  We had grasses wrapped around the propeller Craig put the boat into hard reverse a couple of times this seemed to get rid of it but he wanted to visually check it as well.  
We also needed a couple of bits and pieces and some groceries.  Google maps told us it was an hours walk to the closest Canadian Tire store but after about 10 minutes of walking in the heat we called an Uber it was way too hot for walking along highways. 
Canadian Tire and SuperC done and an Uber back to where the dingy is tied up.  I cant believe Google said it was an hours walk it seemed to take so long to drive there.  Dinner back on board and I think we were in bed asleep before 9pm again.

Up early and motoring away from Montreal we thought we should put up our Fleur De Lis flag now that we were in French speaking territory. 

The Captain putting up our Fleur De Lis flag 

On our way down the ST Lawrence Seaway after Montreal it is very industrial we are now passing huge international freighters loaded with shipping containers with home ports of Panama and Hong Kong.  All the made in china stuff landing in Canada  there was one terminals with 3 winches working unloading these huge ships.  

Its a sugar refinery 

So many shipping containers 

The river opened out but we still had to stick to the red and green markers showing the deep channel.   
Our excitement for the day was when were overtaken by a Lake Freighter we knew she was behind us doing 16 knots and we were doing around 6 - Craig was busy playing with google translate and forgot it was behind us until the pilot sounded its very loud horn warning us to get out of its way as it was quickly coming up behind us.  “oh shit” says Craig and we had to speed up and get out of the deeper channel off to the side to let it pass.
We pulled into an off shoot of the St Lawrence up a little channel  close to Isle La Pierre and close to Sorel.  We were surrounded by empty cottages and it was the most beautiful spot !! 

There were huge fish jumping out of the water all around us, I'm thinking they were trout and if you were a fisherman who used flies you would have caught yourself a beauty.  We just sat memsmerised waiting  to catch glimpses of them as they jumped.

One of the prettiest locations just off the main river