Day 315: Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Port to Port: Saint Ours Lock to Iles Verte
Underway: 6:00 am Motor Off: 4:15 pm Miles Traveled: 43 Stayed At: Anchor
Mile 12 to Mile 0 and Mile 81 to Mile 50: After a very quiet night on the floating docks along the lock wall, we woke up early (as usual) and were off the dock by 6 am. We are going to meet Carina at an anchorage about 20+ miles upstream on the Saint Lawrence River. The last 12 miles of the Richelieu River/Chambly Canal flew by – we got a huge boost from the current and averaged over 7.5 mph. It was fun while it lasted.
We didn’t know what to expect when we turned the corner onto the big river. Big ships, fast currents, hidden rocks, big water, big waves, and every other worry you can think of was going through our minds. Like has happened many times on this trip when we are doing something new, our worries quickly faded into joy. We saw a couple of big ships but they were along way away. The current was stiff but better than most of the Hudson – we averaged over 4 mph for most of the trip up river – with just a little 8 hp motor. There are rocks but they are marked on the chart. The water is wide in parts but the weather is perfect for traveling – the river was dead calm. It was a thoroughly enjoyable cruise.
We made it to our initial chose for an anchorage before 12 pm – too early to stop on such a nice travel day. There was a town dock too so we could have explored a little before anchoring but we don’t really need anything right now. We couldn’t get Carina on the radio so we stopped at the dock to wait until we could contact them. I took advantage of the break to walk to the nearest gas station to fill one our jugs and, by the time I got back, Carina was pulling up to the dock too. We both had the same idea to keep traveling so we found another anchorage on the chart about 14 miles upstream and hit the road again.
For unknown reasons, this stretch was slower than this morning. At times we were going only 3.5 mph the current was so strong. But at least we were moving ever so slowly toward our goal – get off the St. Lawrence River. We pulled into our second anchor choice about 4:30 pm and, as soon as Carina was set, we pulled up next to them to raft up until after dinner. We made meat loaf patties and red potatoes to go along with their salad and brownies. Everything was amazing – the food, the setting and the company. Even Squirt (Carina’s guard dog) tolerated our presense.We sat in their cockpit, eating al fresco, as the sun went down in the west and the sky turned all different colors of red, orange, purple and gold. We are trying to enjoy every minute of this unexpected detour. I suspect that, in the end, this experience will be one of the highlights of our trip.
