Things turned in our favor when we reached the lake. There, at the Valleyfield end, The St. Lawrence splits into three branches. The minor one that we had just been bucking goes through Valleyfield via Baie St. Francois. Another passes north. We turned downwind and took the third along the Beauharnois Canal. With wind and current now in our favor, we had no problem getting to the bridge with fifteen minutes to spare.
From there, the scheduling of the bridge lifts and lockages were just about as tight as Begonia can manage on one engine when allowing for a little help from the current. We were the first of three boats through the first bridge (one sail and one power), just barely made it to the second before it closed, and were last into Beauharnois Lock 4. Since payment and reservations are now done online, we didn't need to delay to go ashore and buy tickets, like in the old days, so we all waited in the lock for our turn at the 1100 emptying.
After dropping 12.5 meters, we all transited a short canal and then dropped the next 12.5 meters to Lac Saint-Louis. This 20x7km lake is the water playground for the residents of the Montreal area, which was apparent on this bright Saturday afternoon. With only a four-and-a-half knot requirement to get between Beauharnois Lock 3 and the next lock at Cote-Sainte-Catherine, minus the current, we had time to join in with about three hours of slow sailing past islands covered in trees bursting with new, Spring growth.
By the time we got to the entrance to the Canal de la Rive-Sud, which bypasses the Lachine rapids to meet back up with the St. Lawrence River via the Cote-Sainte Catherine and St. Lambert Locks, I was getting pretty weary of being constantly waked by jet skis and power boats with overly loud sound systems that seemed to only play crap. The canal is 18km of pure function, with hardly anything along the lines of scenery.
Alas, we would not be spared. What to us was hours of droning along in the day's heat was to the jet skiers a perfect, long, flat stretch of water for a few minutes to go all out, Bro. Disregarding the speed limits, several of them did it several times, using us as a pylon to reverse direction. Ugh! I really don't want to dread weekends.
A day of locks and bridges as we approach the end of the St Lawrence Seaway
At the next lock, Cote-Ste. Catherine, we arrived to find one other power boat waiting. At first we thought it was the one that had gone through the Beauharnois Locks with us earlier, but on closer inspection, we realized it was definitely not.
You know that thing where you're feeling a little cynical about the future, and then you meet a batch of new Harvard grads and realize how incredibly smart, thoughtful, and prepared to tackle the world's problems they are, and it gives you a renewed sense of hope for humanity? This was the exact opposite of that. Granted, I was a hundred feet away and I never talked to them, but, based on what I could see (couldn't help but see), these were the three worst twenty-something's on Earth. It was as if they had all gone to the D-Bag Store, loudly announced to everyone in attendance that they were loaded and were here for the full make-over, and then cleaned out the place. The guy in the gift shop Captain's hat was drinking, vaping, and chewing tobacco, all at the same time. As a human, it was embarrassing to think some unsuspecting alien might inadvertently lump us in with them.
Just as we were about to leave the lock, one of the line handlers told us an up-bound ship was heading for the next one, St. Lambert, so we needed to proceed without delay if we wanted to beat it. We went as fast as we could, but still only shaved thirty minutes off the two allotted hours between the locks. This was apparently not enough. When we arrived, the lock was empty in preparation for the approaching ship on the other end. We saw the lock staff having a conversation with the power boaters. When we approached with Begonia to listen in to the news, they all made a point of snubbing us by leaving in the middle of Maryanne's greeting. We took it they were all blaming Begonia's low speed for the new, one-hour delay.
Once we had finally made the last drop, the lock doors opened. The other boat roared its engines to life, cranked up the music to overcome the noise (known as “tune-age”), and charged out of the lock, zigzagging away to a thumping bass track. I honestly hope I never see those people again in my life, ever. They are the ones that are going to ruin it for the rest of us all.
After the last three-mile stretch of canal, we re-joined the St. Lawrence River and officially exited the St. Lawrence Seaway. We were now at just 9.1 meters above sea level, which we will lose naturally in the course of the next four hundred miles.
We pulled out of the channel and anchored off the town of Longueuil, which was founded by a man who got rich in the vowel business. The anchorage at Longueuil is not a particularly pretty one, with most of the scenery being the giant wharves across the way, but it's the closest available to downtown Montreal. We took a rest day there in the bustling St. Lawrence before heading into the city.
Anchored in time for sunset at Longueuil (just across the river from the industrial part of Montreal, and near La Ronde fun park on St. Helen's Island)
Anchorage location >> On google maps. We had no intention of going ashore so we anchored well outside the mooring field. However if you do go ashore here, we understand that there is not only a regular ferry, but also now a subway station in Longueuil - all with regular trips into Montreal. Also of note, the Navionics charts do not show currents for this area, but the excellent data is available via the St Lawrence Global Observatory (OGSL) web site
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