We woke up early and cruised for about 10 minutes when we reached the Canadian border. David and Russ hopped off the boat and after about 5 minutes we were both cleared! (No questions regarding our alcohol on board after we went through all the trouble to get it stored!). We stopped for the night at St John where Jax and I went for a grocery (chocolate) run to stock up on Canadian goodies (chocolate). It was a Friday so we had a typical working day, though starting now and for the remainder of our time in Canada we will be almost entirely dependent upon Starlink for our internet (just with a small backup of Google Fi for emergencies), so we’ll see how that goes.
The next day we entered the Chambly Canal, our first of several Canadian canal systems that we’ll be traversing this summer. We had been warned by our friends who went ahead of us that the canal would be narrow and the locks small! As it was a weekend day, we were attempting to get through as many locks as possible. After some conferring once we had shared the dimensions of Highwind, along with those of Inquest, we were cleared to attempt to enter the lock chamber together. With our anchor practically touching the front gate and about a foot of space between us and the other wall, and Inquest’s swim step inches from the door behind us (after we lowered our swim platform so their anchor could overhang better) we were able to fit! Thus ensued a day of approximately 8 thousand locks (i.e. 8) that were all exactly this size!
Russ took some great timelapse videos from his bow, where you can see us squeezed into the locks and passing through some of the narrowest waters that we’ve ever navigated!
We arrived in Chambly and tied up on the wall. It was a charming town and we wandered in to a brewery for a tasting. To our delight, they did a large tasting of every beer they make, which gave us a perfect opportunity to re-create a Short family photo!
The last locks after Chambly are a series of cascading locks – 3 in a row that each empty into one another. We cruised a little further north and stopped on anchor rafted together. The next day we ended up on anchor at Trois-Rivieres. I pulled out the pole, but it was so hot and humid and I was already sweating by the time that I’d finished building it that I spent about 30 minutes slipping and sliding before giving up!
At this point, we are cruising with the current of the St Lawrence River, heading towards Quebec, which is to be our next stop. Technically this is a detour, as we will need to re-trace our steps to get to Montreal, while going against the current (but that’s a concern for another day!).
The next morning, we arrived in Quebec city, which has the most amazing architecture visible on a hill overlooking the marina where we would be staying. This marina has to be entered by a lock during anything except high tide when the doors are left open. We arrived at approximately low tied and piled into the lock with several other boats. It was July 4th – just your average day in Canada!
We were set up in Quebec and intended to stay through the remainder of the week and then we would spend the weekend touring the city.