26 Jun 15

We were up early for the off to Salaberry-de-Valleyfield via the two American locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway; we cast off from Crysler Park Marina at 08:00. The weather was clear, cool and nearly calm, with a light E 4 wind. With the current behind us, we made it the 11 N-m to the Eisenhower Lock by 09:30, but had to wait for an hour for a down-bound freighter - “Elevit” - to lock through ahead of us. While we were waiting, I waxed the forward 7 feet of the starboard side of “c’est le bon”. Although it is required that boats tie up to the starboard wall in the lock, the pleasure craft dock is behind the port side protective wall above the lock; never fear, the small floating dock is starboard-side tie, but it is not obvious as you approach the lock. After “Elevit” locked-through, we were given the green light and moved on into the lock, which promptly dropped us 40 feet to the level of the Wiley-Dondero Canal. Motoring on to the Snell Lock, we had to wait a few minutes outside for “Elevit” to finish locking through. After we got in and tied up to the lock’s floating bit, we were informed that we had to wait for a stink-potter, which was just then locking through Eisenhower!! After another 40 minutes delay, we finally got through and headed out into Lac St. Francis. The weather continued to be good, so we decided to push on through to Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, QC. We have now left the USA and Ontario behind us, the former for 3 months and the latter for wha kens how long. Arriving at Salaberry, we stopped into the Marina Valleyfield for fuel (26 gallons; and the last opportunity until after Montreal) and a quick pump-out and then moved onto the Baie Valleyfield to anchor (at about 18:00) for the night. It is a pretty little town, surrounding a beautiful bay, which includes a Geneva-like fountain, and there are about 50 boats anchored in the middle or tied up to the municipal dock for the evening, plus a number of power boats zipping about with complete disregard for their fellow-boaters. Dinner aboard and treated to a lovely sunset.

45-15.623’N, 074-08.250’W

27 Jun 15

Yet another glorious day in paradise; sorry to be redundant. We awoke to a clear, cool dawn. The bay was still full of pleasure boats anchored in the bay. After breakfast in the solarium, I applied a bit more wax to the port side of the boat; more than half way through now. Then, we rowed into town and, after a long, circuitous walk round town, finally found the Metro-Plus, which was only about a block away from the dinghy dock. With our groceries in hand, we walked back to the dinghy and rowed back out to the boat. After a quick lunch, we rowed back into town, had some cappuccino at the local chocolaterie, enjoyed their free WiFi, and then, glorious day, found the liquor store - in Quebec, the SAQ. There are about 20 boats anchored in the bay and at least that many tied up at the municipal docks; it seems to be the norm round here to pull out of the marina, motor the half-mile to the middle of the bay or the dock, then hang out for the weekend. Nearly all of the boats at the dock have their lawn chairs and tables out on the dock or surrounding green space having picnics. We saw several of these boats send their tenders zipping back to the marina (to get something they left in the car or buy more beer?), some more than once. At the end of the weekend, they motor the half-mile back to the marina. We rowed back to the boat again, which raised quite a few Gallic eyebrows in this arena of power boats, and then, to show them all, I got out the sailing rig and sailed around the bay in “Swallow”. It was a good sail, but I was nearly run down about 4 times by power boats, who seem either 1) totally ignorant of rules of the road, 2) blind, 3) blind drunk, or 4) some combination of all three. We decided against rowing back into town for dinner (and risking rowing back in the dark), and had a lovely alfresco dinner aboard: filet mignon, corn on the cob and salad. Having said that, the cigarette boats and jet-skis seem to have shut down much earlier tonight than they did last night.