God Bless Quebec

The Richelieu River,
N 45 09.486 W 073 15.476

We passed through the Chambly Canal today. It is a very charming and historic canal and a point of Canadian pride.

The day started out when the lock master came down to the wall where we and other boats were waiting. He collected the fees It was $85 for Tarwathie including an overnight stay on the wall plus a one-way transit of the Chambly Canal. He also assessed the size and beam of each boat and made a plan for which boats to take in which order to achieve maximum packing density. These locks are very small. He told me that he could fit all 5 of the boats waiting. He was wrong, when we got in the lock
the 5th boat stuck out 6 feet and it had to back away and wait for the next batch. That left us with two motor boats and two sail boats that would pass as a group through all 9 locks and 3-6 bridges. Tarwathie held up the rear in position number IV.

All but one of the locks in the canal are still hand operated and therefore have multiple lock attendants. They passed lines down for us to hold on to, then they closed the doors and opened the valves. When locking is complete, they help you push off and wish you a nice trip. We were the only English speakers around so much of the chatter between boats and with the attendants we couldn't follow.

The first three locks are a tandem compound single unit. The upstream doors for lock 1 are the downstream doors for lock 2 and so on. Therefore, we initially passed through locks 1, 2, and 3 in one continuous operation. It was impressively efficient for 19th century norms, but it was pretty slow. Even though we got up and ready by 7 AM, by 10 AM we had only moved 500 feet southward and 30 feet upward. Locks 4, through 8 were similar but they did have short canal passages between them. By 11:45
we were past lock 8 and about 1 mile from our starting point.

After that we passed through the canal proper. The canal it interesting. It is contained by dikes raising it above the elevation of a hillside that slopes down to the river. At one point, I could see white water rapids in the river 500 feet to the east and 50 feet below us. It was a unique sight.

The 4 boats were supposed to travel in a group so that we all arrive at draw bridges at the same time. The speed limit was 10 km/h and they expected everyone to travel that speed. The best we do with Tarwathie at 2,000 RPM was 9 km/hr. That meant that the slower boats had to stop and wait for us to catch up at each bridge. Too bad. I don't like cruising at more than 2,000 RPM.

Around 14:00 we passed lock 9 and rejoined the Richelieu River. It was only 18 miles to go to Rouses Point on Lake Champlain. However, halfway down the sky appeared threatening a severe thunderstorm. In addition, the river on the lower half is only 6 feet deep in the center of the channel and the channel is very narrow, and anchoring is impossible. I didn't want to risk getting hit by a thunderstorm that might blind us and blow us to the side in such treacherous waters, so we anchored here for
the night in the last deep (16 feet) water before the border.

By the way, I forgot to mention the Saint Ours Lock that we passed yesterday. When we entered that lock I was surprised to see a floating wooden dock inside the lock. The boats tie up to the dock and the dock floats up and down with the lock operation. But that's not the best part. They also had two of the foxiest lock attendants imaginable there to collect the fees, to help us tie up and to flirt with the captains as they rode up and down with us on the dock. God bless Quebec. Who else would
have provided so lovely and charming lock attendants? I sailed away singing the words to The Girl from Ipanema.

p.s. Libby gives me explicit permission to look and appreciate other females as long as I don't touch. That's one of the
many reasons I love her. I wonder if she would have thought twice about giving that permission if we lived in Quebec at the time.