Slogging Back Up the River / Man Overboard (not Bob!)

Sea Change and Sandcastle in the Port D'Escale Marina in Old Montreal. As the weekend wore on, the marina filled up and became a hot bed of activity. What with the music all around, concerts/parties (somewhere unseen), the streets above thick with people, the partying on docks and boats, I felt that when we went to bed (after watching the Saturday night fireworks), it was like we were trying to sleep in the middle of the CNE!

 Still - a great location and a unique experience.

Along with Karen and Warren we went for lunch at Montreal Poutine. 

It was the first time that any of us tried Poutine. It was pretty tasty.

We left Montreal on Sunday morning and flew down the river with the current carrying us - 10 minutes to cover the distance we had struggled up on Friday afternoon. Monday night we stayed in Dorval - at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club - where we had stayed earlier. The cruising Monday hadn't been so bad - about 4 knots as an average but today was a real grind. It took us all day to get from Dorval to Valleyfield - a distance we covered in half a day 2 weeks earlier. As before, we had two locks and two bridges to get through and under - but we also had a 2 knot current against us and wind that gusted to 20 knots directly on our nose. We spent much of the day traveling at less than 4 knots - sometimes our speed fell below 3!

 Crew from the boats rafted to us came aboard to help push off.

On Sunday and Monday, we transited 2 locks each day on the Canadian side. In these locks, boats are asked to raft up even though the locks may not be full - I'm not sure why. Largest boats go inside on the wall - sailboats rafted to sailboats and power boats rafted to power boats. In the locks we've gone through, we've been the largest sailboat. On Monday, Sandcastle rafted to us and then a third smaller boat was on the outside - which meant that it was our fenders (and boat) potentially grinding against the wall. However, crew from the other boats came onto Sea Change to help push off - so really there was no problem except for some excitement in the second lock ----

See the guy at the far end, a few minutes later he was in the water.

In the 2 locks we went through on Monday morning, a very nice couple (Pierre Mark and his wife)  from the boat rafted on the outside came aboard to help Bob, Warren, Karen and I fend off and manage the lines. We all had our boat hooks to help us push off. It was much easier than the day before as the boat didn't seem to be pushed against the wall so much. However, at one point, Pierre Mark was pushing hard against the wall and the boat hook slid down the wall  and he slid down with it - right into the water between the wall and our boat. He disappeared under the water for a few seconds, reappeared and then pouf - his inflatable life jacket puffed out - the first time we had seen one of those life jackets "in action". All the while, we made sure to keep our boat out from the wall to give Pierre Mark a safe space. He swam to the back of our boat and handed up his boat hook (he still had it!). The dinghy hanging from davits on the back of our boat blocked his way to get to the step on our transom so he swam over to his own boat to climb aboard.  His wife was on board standing beside me and seemed remarkably cool about the whole episode.  Regardless those were a scary few moments for all of us!

Here we are on Wednesday - I'm looking from our boat to the 4 boats rafted to us - it was way too many. 

On Wednesday, we had four boats rafted to us - the outside boat in our raft of 5 boats was instructed to keep the engine on and we were to call for him to go forward or reverse so as to keep first our bow off the wall, and then the stern. (We were on the inside next to the wall again.) Going into the second lock, in a series of 2 locks, you are supposed to maintain the same order but the 2 outside boats told the lock master that they felt there were too many boats all rafted together in our case - so  they went to another place on the wall and we ended up with just 2 attached to us - much less stressful for the captain and much easier to manage.

Wednesday was a long long day. We started out at 7 in the morning and we finally anchored in the dark at about 10 p.m. just inside the breakwater at the Chrysler Park Marina. Earlier in the day we were doing so well that we decided to keep going and get the almost last 2 locks done (one easy one left farther on). We arrived at the locks at 3 in the afternoon and waited until 5 to get in as 2 freighters were going through. This time there were 15 boats waiting to go through the lock. (Going down river, there were far fewer boats transiting the locks.) What with all the slow process of rafting up and then breaking up the rafts and moving out, it took us three hours to get through the 2 locks meaning that we emerged at 8 pm to cruise the remaining miles against stiff current and winds on our nose (again).  Looking back we are glad to have gone those extra miles - slow as it was.

At dinner tonight with the Goodyears tonight we all agreed - we'd never do this return trip again. If we were to go down the St. Lawrence again - we'd just keep going - to the Saguenay and beyond. Going down the river with the current is one thing - but coming back has been a hard slow grind.