On Saturday, August 14th we left the wall at Ste-Anne de Bellevue and after a ten mile zigzag course across a shallow bay we rejoined the St. Lawrence Seaway. Shortly we entered the Canal de la River Sud for an additional twenty miles that took us through two locks to bypass the Rapids de Lachine at Montreal. At the end of the canal we stopped for the night at Longueuil Marina (pronounced Longeel). There is a picture in the photo gallery of our encounter with a large ship at one of the locks.

We had planned to take three days to go down the St. Lawrence River to Sorel, Quebec and transverse the Chambly Canal to Lake Champlain. The ongoing strike actions had closed down the Chambly Canal Saturday but it will be open on Sunday. We believed that we could only be delayed a day or two by the strike so we decided to press on and not return up river to redouble the Erie Canal. We also decided to try and reach the US border in two days instead of our original three day plan.

On Sunday, August 15th we did about forty miles down the St. Lawrence River to Sorel. There were no locks so we could cruise at just under 18 knots until we reached the entrance of the Richelieu River. It is interesting that boats are slower on plane in fresh water than in salt water. It was nice to open up after so many days at 6 knots in the historical canals. We proceeded down the Richelieu River and could make speed in some portions of the river. There were many small boats out fishing and enjoying the weekend so we were up and down in speed to keep our wake from being offensive. One lock and forty miles later we arrived at the town of Chambly and stopped at the town marina right beside the first lock of the Chambly Canal. There is picture of MYSTIC ROSE at the Chambly Marina in photo gallery.

On Monday, August 16th it was uncertain whether the locks would be open. We moved early in the morning to the blue line which is the part of the lock wall used by boats wanting to lock through. At 8:15AM I walked up to find that the locks would be open for the day. Good news. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way through the nine locks over nine miles. At lock two we began to lock through with another cruiser. You can see a picture above of our locking mate in the canal and a biker on the tow path that runs the length of the canal. With us at six knots all the bikers beat us easily.

We stopped at the end of lock nine at the town of Saint-Jean for a stretch and changed our Canadian money to U.S. dollars at a bank a block away from the town pier. After an hour we moved on for thirty more miles and crossed the border. We tied up at the Lighthouse Marina at Rouses Point, New York and checked through customs. Canada has provided us great memories and at the same time it is great to be back in the U.S. with almost two weeks of cruising Lake Champlain in front of us.

Today, Monday, August 17th was a maintenance day at the Lighthouse Marina washing the boat, fenders and doing laundry. Tomorrow we are off to Burton Island State Park in Vermont for a few days of chilling on Lake Champlain.