After about a 20 minute wait, we go through Carillon with 5 Policemen driving Personal Watercraft (Jet Skis). Along the way, we have been in locks with canoers, kayakers and now we add jet skiers to our list of lock mates. Unlike the Rideau locks where you hang on to cables with lines from your boat, here you tie up to a floating dock inside the lock chamber and then descend an amazing 65 feet.
Waiting to enter the Carillon Lock
Formation for tieing up to their floating dock
Three across, tied to a floating dock - biggest drop and easiest lock
You can get a perspective about the depth of this lock from the sailboat
We travel about 25 miles to the St. Anne du Bellevue lock where the lift/descent is listed at 3 feet but it would seem to be half that. It is here we meet our traveling companions for the rest of the day. They are headed to Montreal and we will follow them to the next set of locks which are the huge seaway locks. We are heartened that they take the exact obscure channels we had plotted out the night before.
We arrive at St. Catherine's lock fully expecting to wait. We have been warned that commercial vessels (huge tankers and freighters) get full priority. We are pleasantly surprised that we can go straight through.
St Catherine St Lawrence Seaway Lock
As enormous as these seaway locks are (776 x 80 feet) the lock master has the boats raft up, three across. From his standpoint, we are a more manageable group when cluster. He does not need to monitor a long length of wall were we in single file formation. We descend 32 feet. In this lock the boat at the wall must hold lines dropped from the top. I marvel at the young woman who must keep her 40 foot boat and two others against the wall. Bert tells me the lock hold 24 million gallons of water. No ducks in this one.
Our timeline luck runs out at St. Lambert lock. (as an aside, I think after some 70 plus locks and 21 days "at sea" there should be a St. Margaret lock.). We must wait on two westbound freighters to lock through. Each takes close to an hour.
Ship number one
Ship number one headed south
Second ship
Stacked into the huge St Lambert Seaway Lock
Finally, we arrive in Montreal after hitting extreme unfavorable currents as we try to get to the Old Port marina in downtown Montreal. There are tourists everywhere in a very festive and party-like atmosphere. We have a nice but pricey dinner at Pilote restaurant and then stand to watch the different street performers. Captain and I get pulled out by the entertainer at one point but that's a story for another entry. Tomorrow is Montreal sightseeing.
Old Port Marina, Montreal
Click on any of the photos above to enlarge them.
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