Jan 30, 2016 | Flotsam
With less than two months until spring, it’s time to start preparing for the upcoming boating season….never too early.
We paid a brief visit to R.E.D. to make sure there wasn’t too much snow accumulating on her tarp. All was good.
Then we stopped to pick up our Atlas of Tidal Currents, a publication that will help us in navigating the challenging waters of the Saint-Lawrence River.
Also necessary and in Canada, mandatory to have onboard, paper charts for the areas we will visit.
Our plan for this year is travel from our home port in Montreal down the Saint-Lawrence Seaway to eventually reach Gaspé. If all goes well we may even venture farther, to complete what’s known as the
‘Down East Loop’.
Route Plan Summer 2016
There is much to do between now and spring launch. We have an ever-growing to do list, including modifications to complete and purchases to make so our life on the water is as safe as possible. Some additions will also help to give us more autonomy while away from home.
I’ll be keeping up to date on our progress with a blog post here and there so check back with us from time to time or to make it even easier, why not subscribe by email and little R.E.D. tidbits will be delivered directly to your inbox.
Next up, Rhode trip…
Jun 14, 2015 | Flotsam
DAY ONE of our summer adventure…
We left our boat home at the crack of 09:15
not quite as early as we had hoped, but…
…a super sweet sail on a broad reach, 5 knots SOG…
…brought us to the first of 3 locks
at Saint-Anne de Bellevue…
…our first time on this part of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway
gave us a great view of downtown Montreal
and Mont Royal…
Once we reached the South Shore Channel we had to furl the sails…
…on the charts the first bridge gave us more than enough clearance…
the next…not sure…12 metres (which translates to 39′)
and with our VHF antenna our air draft is 37′.
Turned off the VHF just in case and slipped through with a foot or two to spare.
Our first locking through of the Seaway was at Saint-Catherine…
$30 paid in advance by credit card…
…a 30 minute wait,
…a 14 metre drop in water level…
…the first of our 2 Seaway locks exited without incident…
…passed under the Champlain Bridge.
Montreal is a series of islands connected by many bridges.
The next lock in our journey was at Saint- Lambert,
an hour motor ride at 6 knots.
This was the first BFB we saw.
Translation: Big Fluvial Boat…
Do you like how I cleaned up our usual term for these giant vessels?
This lock required raising two bridges,
stopping road, foot and rail traffic.
We decided that the best part of this lock,
was that for $30 we had the pleasure of pissing off a lot of people.
…next came the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
…past the Big ‘O’,
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
…and some of the crazy rides at La Ronde.
All in all it was a great, albeit long, first day.
The weather was superb.
We travelled 35.8 nm.
We dined.
We slept….in that dive-deep-sleeping-with-the-angels kind of sleep.
Tomorrow we unfurl the sails
and head out of the city on the next leg of our journey.
