Adventures in Quebec

Riviere Saint-Jean
N 45 52.019 W 073 16.262

It was a long day devoid of entertaining events like the attack of the jet ski.

We intended to make it all the way to Sorel today. That meant 68 miles of traveling plus two locks to traverse. We're short of our goal.

The main reason we failed is that we got stuck in Canal de la Rive Sud behind the CP railroad bridge. That location is just across the river from Montreal. We were also behind Notre Dame Island where Expo 67, the Worlds Fair, was held in 1967.

We approached the draw bridge, and called on the radio, but got no answer. We tooted our horn, we waved our arms. For two hours we failed to do anything to get the bridge to lift for us. Finally, we saw a truck with the Saint Lawrence Seaway logo on the door driving by the canal. We flagged down the truck and Libby shouted to the driver, "HOW DO WE GET THAT BRIDGE TO OPEN?" The driver said that the bridge tender was supposed to see us coming and open the bridge on his own. He did us a favor
and called the seaway head office and asked them to call the bridge. Then he came back and shouted, "NOW HE KNOWS YOU'RE HERE." We thanked him and approached the bridge again waving our arms and tooting the horn. This time, a door opened in the tender's house and a big fat man poked his head out. 15 minutes after that, the bridge opened. The light stayed red though, but after waiting 60 seconds, I moved on through. Looking back after we passed, I saw that the light never did turn green.
Our opinion of bridge tenders in Quebec is very low (lock tenders though are competent and friendly.)

After the two hours at the bridge we had to wait an hour each at the two remaining locks. By the time we passed the last lock, it was 15:00 and we still had 38 miles to go. On the plus side, we had a current of 5 knots with us in Montreal gradually diminishing to 2 knots as we headed north.

We are anchored out in the middle of the river, 1/4 mile outside the shipping channel. I declined the nearby well sheltered and current-free anchorage at Contrecouer. We have two guide books that say that we can get in there via a narrow 6 foot deep channel, but we also have two charts that say that the water is only 3 feet deep entering that channel. I did not want to run aground in a place where a two knot cross current might hold us against a shoal. We're still 12 miles short of Sorel.

I should mention why we passed right through the world class city of Montreal without stopping. Montreal is familiar to Libby and I. We've been there numerous times for both business and pleasure. In fact, one of those times was when we attended the World's Fair there in 1967. I used to cite San Francisco, Copenhagen, and Montreal as our three favorite cities. But we're retired now and the elegant hotels and fancy restaurants are not our thing. Plus that, we have an aversion to berthing Tarwathie
in any large city.