Retracing our steps....

July 31 – August 3, 2018  Cruising away from Quebec and our last glimpse of Chateau Frontenac we had a tinge of sadness although our waist lines were cheering the end of yummy chocolate and almond croissants.  Even walking three to five miles a day doesn’t mitigate our extra calorie intake in both Montreal and Quebec City.

The exhilaration of cruising toward Quebec with a favorable 2-4 knot current was replaced on the return by pushing the current on our nose along with a 10-15 mph wind.  The day was lovely and sunny and on the trip back across the Richelieu Rapids, which at high tide, we barely noticed, we saw very few fellow travelers.  Eight hours after leaving Quebec, we were docked at Trois Rivieres Marina passing the tour boat and the Cathedral at Cap de la Madeleine, pictured at the end of our last blog entry, on the way into the marina entrance. 

Donna called the marina while we were underway to request our dock assignment.  The marina personnel spoke very little English to Donna’s non-existent French, so Donna was asked to send email.  She did so and was pleasantly surprised to receive an almost instant reply with the requested slip assignment. We later discovered the marina admin staff uses Google Translate to receive and send email in English.  Also, most marinas provide dockhands to guide you to your slip and assist with line handling.  Trois Rivieres does not, and the captain and crew are left to their own devices although almost always, other boaters jump in to assist. 

Once outside of the cities of Montreal and Quebec, few people speak English; an exception are the lock tenders on the Chambly Canal. 

Marina laundry rooms double as informal libraries.  Boaters leave books they have read behind and pick up a book or two that someone else has left in the “library.”  While in Kingston, we picked up “Coming Full Circle” by Bruce and Susan Armstrong.  The book is their Americas Great Loop voyage and very well written.  Although we have no interest in doing all the segments of the Loop, we have already done quite a few and thought it would be interesting to read someone else’s account of places we have been and learn about cruising to other destinations.  Like us, the Armstrong’s happily discovered Lake Champlain and the Chambly Canal because flooding kept them from travelling their planned route that season.  They provided us with a couple of interesting tidbits about Quebec Provence.  Many churches have a rooster, le coq, mounted on top of the steeple’s cross!  At a cathedral in Montreal, they asked a priest about this custom.  He told them it is a French symbol calling the people to awake to God’s message.  We had not noticed the roosters before reading this passage, but certainly took note thereafter and found quite a few.  Another interesting tidbit is the motto on Quebec’s license plate “Je me souviens” or “I remember."   Bruce Armstrong asked a local what it means and the reply was “That we are French, and they cannot take that away from us, ever!”  Quebec has had a sovereignty movement since 1867 and during the 1980’s and 90’s there were several referendums attempting to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada.  One such referendum was defeated by less than 1% of Quebecoise, comprised of a coalition of the minority English speakers, First Peoples and first generation immigrant Canadians.   Some French citizens are still quite militant in their desire to become a separate country.  To those of us outsiders, it seems that they already are in everything but name and the Provincial Government operates quite autonomously. 

The forecast next day was for a mix of sun, clouds and showers with the wind picking up in the afternoon.  The day turned out to be very quiet and subdued with hazy horizons and a little weak sun periodically peaking through overhead.  We encountered a few small open fishing boats and a couple of traveling sail boats motoring across Lac Saint-Pierre.  Absent were the commercial tugs and large freighters.  Here too, we had adverse current of 1-2 knots, which increases our fuel burn a little.  We traveled through Sorel and into the Richelieu River arriving at the dock outside the St Ours lock doors in the early afternoon where we spent a very peaceful afternoon and evening relaxing.

We traveled the canals the next day and were locked through St Ours with another local boat on the first (9:00 AM) opening.  The weather was very breezy and cloudy with breaks of sun and we followed the local boater down the Richelieu River to Chambly, a 3.5-hour trip.  Our fellow traveler pulled into a marina in Chambly while we began the 3-5 hour process of locking through the 9 Chambly Canal locks.  This was our first trip as paying customers and we cannot complain, it cost $51.80 CA (approximately $39.00 US) for 9 locks versus $33.30 CA ($25.00 US) for the single St Ours lock. We had the locks to ourselves southbound but many boats traveling northbound and we did have to wait about 10 minutes before Lock #1 and again at Lock #4 while the northbound vessels locked through. 

At the end of the canal and into the lower Richelieu River

The destination for the day, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, was new to us.  Other boaters have given thumbs up to the Le Nautique St Jean marina and restaurant so we decided to give it a try.  The marina staff kept us idling off their dock for 20 minutes in a swift river current, then did the minimum to help us tie up and to add insult to injury, asked that we meet in the office within 5 minutes to register so that they could close up and go home!  While Kapt Karl further secured Santorini in the slip, Donna went to the office to register.  Information regarding marina services was not volunteered.  When asked for the WiFi sign-in information, it was relayed verbally.  Donna asked for a piece of paper and pen to write it down and a scrap of paper was pushed across the counter.   After the trouble to obtain the login information, the WiFi was very weak and we were barely able to check e-mail.  We did receive very good service at the restaurant.  The menu was in French but we were assigned the one server that spoke English to assist us.  The outdoor dining area was very attractive but crowded and noisy.  The food was mediocre – fish and chips for Kapt Karl and moules (mussels) and frites for Donna.  The crowd at the marina seemed a little rough and not very friendly.  We will not return there.

The next morning, we walked to a market Donna had read about in the Armstrong’s book.  It was 1.5 miles away and the walk took us through parts of the town and along the river.  The many restaurants and shops looked inviting and the market is comprised of a number of individual shops under one roof.  A holistic health store provided the calcium supplement we had been looking for in other stores along the way.  Karl complemented the owner (who spoke a little bit of English) on her product selection and she beamed.  She said the Quebecoise are not yet very health conscious and she is trying to anticipate an emerging need.  She mentioned that she uses Vermont stores as her model.  Also in the Mache was a bank, and SAQ (liquor store), butchers, fishmonger, cheese and charcuterie shop, bakery and green grocer.  We bought some Italian sausage and Chorizo for grilling, some cheese and a baguette.  Mostly, we were doing some intelligence gathering for a future trip.  We agreed we will stop in Saint-Jean again but will stay at the free dock outside Lock #9.  We will not have electric hookup there but it will be a picturesque environment and an easy walk to the amenities of the town.  The weather was humid and cloudy, not a day for photos.  That will have to wait until the next time, c’est la vie.

We motored the 20 remaining miles of the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain, detouring around I’lle-aux-Noix to see St-Paul a boating community with canals that the cruising guide likened to Ft Lauderdale – au contraire, not even close; but glad we took a look.

Arriving at the US Customs dock at one o’clock, the same Agent who accused us of trying to run the border last year, was there on the dock and assisted us tying up.  He was very pleasant, and after looking at our passports said he would meet Karl up at the office to complete the paperwork.  He became impatient when Karl was briefly delayed by a couple of admiring Canadian boaters that asked a number of questions about Santorini.  Shortly, Kapt Karl returned to the boat, removed our Canada courtesy flag at the bow, stowed it for the next trip and cruised into US waters.  After stopping for fuel and pump out at Gaines Marina, Rouses Point, NY, we continued south and anchored in Middle Bay to the north of Plattsburgh.