Sunday June 18 Departure

We're off! It's Father's Day and exactly 2 years to the day when we left Parry Sound on our Great Lakes trip to move Heartbeat to Prescott. Father's Day also means guaranteed phone calls from Eric and Kevan which is always a pleasure.

The wind was light but we were able to sail lazily downstream, tacking back and forth into the north-east wind. The current has a real effect on the boat, in a real-life illustration of the vector arithmetic I learned in high school physics. If you point, say, well clear of a buoy you want to pass upstream of, you will soon find you are in fact going to pass it downstream.

We anchored off Toussaint Island just above the Iroquois lock. When I googled Toussaint Island I found an amusing story about an event in the war of 1812. Americans were hiding on the island, waiting to ambush a party of British officers and their families headed upstream. The little bateaux tried to row to the opposite shore but ran aground and had to wade. In the retelling by a young man who was there it becomes comic although there were injuries so it wasn't a complete laughing matter. The memoir mentions a farmhouse where they took shelter, and sure enough, on the shore there was an old stone farmhouse. I have no idea if it is the same one but it's fun to imagine.

Photo: Down-bound freighter emerging from behind Toussaint Island

Monday June 19 Iroquois Lock

To get downriver past Montreal we will go through a total of 6 locks. Today was the first, the Iroquois lock. We'd booked and paid online the night before, but the transit time is not published until 7:30am. The earliest time is 9:30, and you're supposed to arrive an hour ahead, so we had to be ready to go at 8am just in case. In the end our time turned out to be 11am so we went back to our tea and reading for a while. There were two other sailboats in the anchorage and everyone came to life at the same time and motored over to the pleasure craft waiting dock at the lock for 10am.

Because the commercial freighters have priority, in the end we had to wait until noon. We spent the time chatting with the other boats - one from Cleveland and one from Toronto. Both were heading to Halifax.

Photo: Chatting with other boaters waiting for Iroquois lock

Once through the lock we were able to start sailing. We had one reef in the main because the winds were strong - and still from the north-east so we did a LOT of tacking. But it was lovely, blue skies and nice scenery.

We anchored off Morrison Island, in the Long Sault chain of islands that were partly created during the flooding and construction of the seaway in the 1950s. The anchorage seemed secure at the time (!) and we had a pleasant evening including a row around the bay.

Tuesday June 20 Hard Aground

Yikes, today was our misadventure day. In the morning Andy went out for a row and returned at 7am. I helped him aboard and we hoisted Boatex (our dinghy) onto the deck and were about to start tying it on when we both realized that Heartbeat was moving.

We dashed back to the cockpit and started the engine. It was too late and we drifted onto a rocky ledge and were soon stuck fast. We tried hard forward, nothing. Hard reverse, nothing. Behind us was even more shallows and riffling rapids. We saw that the anchor was resting downstream of us - maybe it wasn't fully set, or somehow the current increased, but for whatever reason it started dragging.

Photo: Stuck on a rock looking at the downstream rapids

We called the Coast Guard. Are you in immediate danger? No. Are you taking on water? No. Do you have drinking water? Yes! Do you have life jackets on board? Yes. Are you wearing them? No, but we'll put them on right now. And so on. Initially they said it would be up to 4 hours, but called back and said an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) boat would be there in 40 minutes. They arrived, 2 men on a small boat with a big engine. They tied a tow rope onto the bow and pulled hard. Eventually we tilted and swiveled and were off, hurray. Next problem was retrieving the anchor which was downstream and in water too shallow for us to go to. They helped with that too.

Photo: OPP to the rescue

Photo: OPP wrestling with the rode

We were so lucky no damage was done. What if Andy had rowed for 20 more minutes and I'd been alone on the boat when this happened? Sigh.

It took a while to calm down after that, but the rest of the day went as planned. We went through the two US locks, Eisenhower and Snell. You don't clear customs, and don't have to show a passport required, but you are in US waters. They take payment in cash, $60 US or $60 CDN - a rare deal for us Canadians. In these locks you tie up to a bollard that floats up or down in a recession in the lock wall. We are used to having lines thrown to us at the bow and stern but this system with one tie in the centre of the boat worked fine.

Photo: Leaving the Snell lock

We anchored just east of Cornwall, opposite a residential suburb called Glen Walter. We noticed the anchor rode (line) was doing funny things in the current. Normally the rode is stretched out in front of the boat as the anchor is holding you in place. But the winds were from downstream and slightly stronger than the current, so it seemed like the boat was hovering in the water with the rode swirling around loosely below in apparent violation of the laws of physics. Very strange. Andy brought a homemade device called an anchor kellet that he had planned to use when we get into tidal waters further downstream, but we had to get it out now and start using it. It is anything heavy - in our case we are using an old winch drum - and you tie it on to the anchor rode at the right distance and it sinks down to the bottom and keeps the rode from swirling and wrapping around the boat's keel or rudder. It's working well.

Wednesday June 21 Salaberry de Valleyfield

We sailed all day today and it was lovely. We tacked repeatedly up Lac St Francois. It is a shallow lake with a deep marked channel for the seaway vessels and our Navionics track shows a pretty yellow zigzag all the way up this channel. (Navionics is the navigation software we use on the tablet.) We saw a metal-roofed church on the shore at Saint Anicet, silver and glinting in the sun from afar. There were other boats out for day sails, very cheerful.

We motored up a rather long approach into Salaberry de Valleyfield but were rewarded with an easy row to shore and nice walk in the summer heat to the scenic Old Beauharnois canal and waterfront parks of the town. We ate a delicious dinner at Tot ou Tard and a more ordinary but still delicious dessert at Dairy Queen.

Photo: Sailing in the sunshine

Photo: Footbridge over Vieux Canal de Beauharnois

Thursday June 22 Beauharnois Lock

It was hot and sunny again today. We left early to catch the 9am first opening of the first lift bridge and make our morning lockage time through the Beauharnois lock. There was a strong current above the bridge and a bit of a struggle to make sure we didn't end up plastered against the bridge before it actually lifted up. We later spoke to a sailor at the Pointe Claire Yacht club who said he always has his anchor at the ready above this lift bridge, just in case the motor fails at the wrong time.

Photo: Second lift bridge

There was one other sailboat locking through with us - skippered by a man who runs a sailing school in Sacketts Harbour NY, and owned by its one passenger, an Acadian in his 70s from New Brunswick who recently bought the boat and is moving it to the Dominican Republic where there is cheap labour for fixing up the boat. The owner was paraplegic and his wheelchair was strapped on the deck. He sat in the cockpit and laughingly called he and his boat 'old cripples'.

Once through the lock, we were on Lac St Louis. We tried sailing but the wind died and so we motored into Pointe Claire - carefully, as the lake is shallow and full of shoals.

We booked 3 nights at the Pointe Claire Yacht Club to get maximum time with Eric, Alicia, and our 9-month-old granddaughter Adeline. PCYC turned out to be a wonderful place to stay, charming and friendly. The club was established in the late 1800s and they told us the wooden clubhouse is one of the oldest remaining in North America. It was a busy place Thursday evening which was racing night. In fact the entire weekend was busy as it was the St Jean Baptiste Day long weekend with various special events - an open-mic night on Friday and the annual lobster dinner on Saturday.

We met Eric, Alicia, Adeline and Bailey in the park next to the yacht club and had a picnic by the lake and then went to Wild Willy's for ice cream. It was a perfect evening.

Photo: Andy with Adeline by the lake

Photo: Group selfie in the park

Photo: Evening walk, PCYC from Edgewater Park

Friday June 23 Another Fun Day with Adeline

Eric picked us up and we spent the day playing with Adeline. In the backyard Bailey managed to dig a hole in his dog-proof paddling pool. We played a new board game/word game called Tapple.

Saturday June 24 Dîner de Homard

We spent the day at Eric's and babysat while he and Alicia went on a lunch date. I have fun just following Adeline around on my hands and knees and seeing what she is curious about. She likes to stand leaning against the back glass patio door and slap it, bang bang bang. At one point Bailey was outside looking in at her wagging his tail and she was smiling with delight.

We managed to get a seat for the sold-out annual lobster dinner at the yacht club, and I got to experience my first whole lobster. There was an option to have it partially cracked and shelled (which I took) or you could just take it whole (Andy's choice, as the lineup was shorter). Dessert was strawberries and cream, yum.

Photo: Heartbeat and PCYC clubhouse

Photo: Lobsters

Sunday June 25 Smog

The smoke from the forest fires rolled in this morning. We are off downriver. Until next time, fair winds to all.

Photo: Morning smoke+fog = smog