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June 26, 2012  Day 46                                 Total miles to date:  958.61

Bill handling an aft line at the floating dock
 at the St. Ours Lock

Raydiance following us through Sorel
 entering the St. Lawrence River

We untied from the Saint Ours lock wall at 8:30 this morning under cloudy skies and immediately locked through with Raydiance. This lock was so convenient with its floating dock inside!  The lock attendant was lovely and helped Joyce pronounce some of the towns whose names are in French.  We continued up the Richelieu River to the industrial port of Sorel where we entered the St. Lawrence River. By 11:30 we entered the small ship channel, although Bill wishes we had stayed in the big ship channel! We encountered some very shallow water at one point. But, we did not go aground and that was good! Raydiance decided to anchor out and we left them and continued onto Montreal.  We had quite a current against us today and had to run at 1950 rpm in the St. Lawrence River just to maintain our 7 knots!

Entering Montreal was interesting! A Coast Guard boat came racing up behind us and checked us out – then did an abrupt turnaround! Once we passed under the Jacques Cartier Bridge we had to go from a huge swirling current down to nothing when we entered our calm marina. Bill did a great job of getting us in and docked.  Joyce taught the two dockhands the English words, “stern line” – they knew it as back line!

Entering Montreal going under the
Jacques Cartier bridge

Shortly after we got to Montreal and headed out to gather sightseeing information, it started to rain. We eventually walked back to the boat and had dinner on board. We will be here until Friday morning and hope to see as much as we can. We are docked at the Yacht Club of Montreal under the Clock Tower near the Old Port of Montreal and many things are within walking distance.

Carried Away under the Clock Tower