Dorval, Quebec (Almost to Montreal)

Friday, July 25, 2008

045-26.220 N
073-45.180 W

Ahoy from somewhere near Montreal!

We almost made it to Montreal, but we didn't count on having to wait for 4.5 hours at the first lock. We departed from Couteau-Landing at just around 7 AM and arrived at the lock at 10 AM. We actually had a bit of a scare as we approached the lock as I suddenly lost power. The engine was running fine, but I had no propulsion in forward or reverse. Luckily we were on the left had side of the channel and we quickly dropped the anchor so that I could look at the problem. Sue called an approaching freighter to let them know what was going on with us. I checked everything that I could think of, but couldn't find anything and when I restarted the engine, everything was OK. We pulled onto the pleasure boat dock, where we were informed that due to preventative maintenance on the locks, that we wouldn't be allowed to pass through until 2 PM. While we were wating I changed the transmission oil, which looked OK.

Finally at around 2:30, they allowed us into the locks. There are 2 locks within a mile of one another, and it took over an hour to pass through them. So at 3:35 we still had 28 miles to go, 2 more locks and 4 bridges that needed to be raised. Then at the far end, I had a 1.5 mile slog against a 6 kt current. We wouldn't have been getting in until after 9 PM, and I really didn't want to try to be navigating that strong current at dusk. As a result we found a marina to pull into. We were hoping to catch up with some friends (Kim and Guy) from home who had moved to Montreal, but that didn't work. Hopefully we'll see them while we're here.

I was very happy to have been sitting at a dock when a strong squall line moved through in the early evening. The clouds were impressive and it did a lot of damage in some areas. It's exciting to see weather like this move though when you're at a dock and not out on water! Today we'll try again to make it into Montreal. Now I'm just worried that the rain that's fallen in these recent days hasn't increased the current even more...

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 1225