Craunological II -- Great Lakes Cruise 2023

  Saturday, July 29 -- Bainsville, Ontario to Montreal, Ontario -- 63 miles and four locks We set the alarm for seven so we would get a good start to make the 9:00 a m opening of the Valleyfield Lift Bridge -- the first of the two seemingly unpredictable lift bridges at the start of the Beauharnois Canal. We had on-line reservations for the Beauharnois Locks at 11:00, the Cote Ste. Catherine Lock at 3:30 and the St. Lambert Lock at 5:00. Given our recent experience going through the Beauharnois Locks and lift bridges, we were confident that once we got through the bridges the locks would fall into place. Our marina for the night, the Port de Plaisance La Ronde, was just a couple miles past the St. Lambert Lock, so we figured we should be there around six if all the other pieces worked on schedule. We left at 7:30 under grey skies and an east wind, so that we again had a heavy chop in Lac St. Francois -- only this time we were heading the other way versus yesterday. But this inauspi...

Friday, July 28 -- Dorval, Quebec back to Bainsville, Ontario -- 47 miles and two locks and two lift bridges (again) This was not a good day. We got up early in anticipation of doing the last two locks required to get to Montreal, and then the First Mate reminded the Captain that we had not checked into Canadian Customs. This was definitely a serious problem. The Captain nervously called the number for checking into customs by phone (which is standard procedure) and when he explained to the young officer that we were calling after having already spent two nights in Canada this generated multiple long intervals on hold while the young officer consulted with the officer in charge on how to handle these scofflaw Americans. The punishment meted out to us was to go back to the Creg Quay Marina in Bainsville, Ontario to report into customs. There was a certain logic to this, as it was the nearest official customs station tracing back the route we had taken, and it was better than having been...

Thursday, July 27 -- Cornwall, Ontario to Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club (Dorval, Quebec) -- 53 miles plus two locks and two lift bridges Today was about learning how to navigate the Quebec portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Seaway website posts the scheduled updown and downbound lock openings every day -- one of each morning and afternoon -- but on the day itself, not in advance. We were signed up for the afternoon downbound at the Beauharnois Locks at 5pm. (There are two locks about half a mile apart). There are also two lift bridges upstream of the locks -- the first one about twelve miles upstream and the second about halfway -- and everyone told us that the timing on these can be frustrating. We learned later that all of this equipment is managed at a central control station using cameras. Given the late timing of our passage, we didn't get underway until 11:30, under grey skies and light winds. We reached the first lift bridge about two hours later and found another boat ...

  Wednesday, July 26 -- Thousand Islands Club to Cornwall -- 94 miles and 3 locks Today was all about working through the big commercial locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. There are seven locks all together, five on the Canadian side and two on the American side. The locks on both sides are focused on commercial traffic, with pleasure boaters a distant second priority. For the Canadian locks pleasure boaters need to make reservations and pay in advance on line ($25 CAD per lock), while the US locks have no set schedule and you pay in cash when you arrive ($30 USD per lock). The Captain was nervous about getting all this right. We booked the first lock -- the Iroquois Lock on the Canadian side -- for this afternoon, and figured we'd do the two American locks (which are just 3 miles apart and start 30 miles downstream of the Iroquois Lock) as soon as we could afterwards, but hopefully not too late. We scheduled the next four Canadian locks for Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, ha...

Tuesday, July 25 -- Wellesley Island anchorage to the Thousand Islands Club (across the river from Alexandria Bay) -- 24 miles Our destination today was Alexandria Bay, but we took a roundabout way to get there so we could enjoy more cottage scenery. We came out of the Lake of the Isles, turned north and ran upstream on the Canadian side of Wellesley Island, then back downstream on the US side to Alexandria Bay.  When we arrived at the marina we had reserved we were pleased with their diesel price (70 cents/gallon below anyone else in town) but dismayed to find that their overnight docks are across the river. Our dismay disappeared once we learned that the docks were at the Thousand Islands Club and heard about the amenities there. After fueling and a pump-out we walked around town a bit and it didn't take much walking to further confirm our happiness at going over to the Thousand Islands Club as the town was very touristy.   We will spare the reader yet more cottage pict...

Monday, July 24 -- Clayton to anchorage in Lake of the Isles, Wellesley Island -- 20 miles   We spent the morning at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton. An absolutely marvelous museum for anyone who likes old boats. John was in hog heaven. Janet was tolerant. We'll share only a small number of the gazillion pictures that John took.  After the museum we had a delightful lunch on the riverside patio at Bella's, then walked back to the boat and were underway about half an hour after the official 1pm checkout time.  We ran down the river, under the Thousand Islands International Bridge, towards the town of Alexandria Bay. There were lots of interesting cottages along the way of all shapes and sizes.   As we got closer to Alexandria Bay the cottages got bigger and older -- late 1800s looking. This is the area they call Millionaires Row. The Thousand Islands were an eight-hour train ride from Manhattan and were a popular summer vacation spot for wealthy New Yorkers.  ...