Cornall, Ontario to Dorval, Quebec

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 already there waiting for the bridge. The bridge opened about 15 minutes later, even though the next scheduled opening wasn't until 3pm. 

At the next lift bridge there were half a dozen boats milling about waiting, and they opened it soon after we (and the other boat from the first bridge) arrived. This led to a pack of eight boats tied up at the Upper Beauharnois Lock at about 2:30 waiting for the 5pm downbound passage. The Canadians all rafted off each other at the small floating dock provided for pleasure boats and we tied up against the concrete wall. The lack of communication was frustrating. An electronic sign kept scrolling through the same set of instructions -- including to phone your presence but failing to give a phone number. The captain walked over to consult with the Canadian boaters, and they were very relaxed about the whole thing. Their attitude was don't worry, it will open. And of course, it did, right on time.

 

There were two young attendants working the lock walls tossing lines down to the boats and instructing everyone where to tie up. They had boats raft together two or three deep -- which makes sense for preventing boats floating around in the lock and bumping into each other because each lock has a 40' drop, and it gets hard to keep a boat tight against the wall with a line that hangs down from the top. The rafting made for a bit of a party atmosphere, with everyone chatting with their raft mates. We were instructed to pull up against the wall and a boat rafted off us. We had a nice visit with the people who rafted against us -- or at least the husband, who spoke English well. 

When it came time to head down to the lower lock everyone had to pull over to the side of the canal to let an upbound freight pass by that had just exited the lower lock. Once the freighter passed by everyone assumed the same position in the lower lock that they had in the upper lock. All the locals knew this and explained the drill to us.

After we exited the Lower Beauharnois Lock we had about a ten-mile run to the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club in Dorval. This turned out to be a charming place (except for the steady stream of big jets flying close overhead) with an excellent restaurant. We enjoyed a nice meal and a bottle of wine sitting outside to celebrate our successful (but somewhat stressful) education in navigating the lift bridges and locks. (Something was funny with the way the waiter took our picture so that we're looking up into the sky or something.)

The manager on duty acted as our waiter and was very nice. When asked what it takes to be a "royal" yacht club, he said it was a visit from a prince after they won a big sailing competition, and they have to reapply every year. Wikipedia says that Queen Victoria granted this status in 1894, not long after its founding in 1888, and also that Prince Philip granted his patronage to the club in 1954. This all holds together reasonably well. Irregardless, we were very pleased to be staying at a yacht club with the British royal endorsement.