Day 106...Hawkesbury to Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada

FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2012

     Up and out of the anchorage at our usual 6:30 a.m.  We’ve got a good breeze blowing so hopefully we’ll be cool.

     There is the usual scenery so far.  There is house with huge boulders for a sea wall, 

fishermen trying to keep cool, 

a ferry hauling an easy load, 

and a church with shiny silver steeples.

     Then you get to Carillon Lock.  Remember when I was telling you about Lock 17 on the Erie Canal (It was the lock with the gate at one end that lifted instead of having doors that swing open.), I said there was only one more like it in North America.  Well this is it.  

     The 65-foot Carillon Lock was built between 1960 and 1963 to take the place of three canals and eleven locks.  We came up to the blue line to wait for the opening.  

     The direction we’re headed makes us go in the doors, go down and exit the lock under it's almost 200 ton guillotine gate. This is a picture from the stern of the boat looking back to the closed gates. 

      It is really easier than Lock 17 because there is a dock to tie up to and no ropes to hold.  See how hard Gary is working.  All we had to do was wait until we got to the bottom. 

     Gabriel was at the dock to assist us tying the boat to the dock.  His job was to ride up and down on the dock all day long.  He also collects money if a boat doesn't have a pass.  He was a very nice young man who spoke mostly French because we are in Quebec now and not Ontario.  

     He took a nice picture of us at the bottom of the lock.  It was unbelievable for us to be down in such an enormous hole.  

     We were very lucky since we were the only boat locking through.  When there are a large number of boats locking through at the same time, there is a rafting plan so that everyone knows where to go.  

     I took pictures of the door end of the lock from the top and the bottom of the lock.  I also took ones of the gate end from the top and bottom so you could see the difference in height.  

     As we left the lock, the Superintendent's House was on our port side.  

     As we continued to our next stop, we saw a gaggle of sailboats near the shore.  To us it looked like Mama Duck with seven ducklings following close behind her.

     After we crossed under the Trans-Canada Highway Bridge, we had less than 2 miles to go.

     When we enter the Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue Lock (down 3 feet), we realize we only need to tie up to a dock in this lock too.  That made our day easy. 

     We tied up to the wall on the opposite side of the canal away from town.  We thought it would be quieter over there.  Boy were we wrong as we found out later.  I guess we should've paid more attention to the signs that said not to raft together more than two boats deep.  We traveled 38 miles in almost 6 hours.  Our total is now 1956 miles. 

     We walked around town for a while and then up the hill to the grocery store.  There were many restaurants along the streets but many of the menus were written only in French.  I decided to cook supper on the boat and then go to bed early since we'd been up since before 6:00 a.m.  Wrong again.

     As the day wore on, the canal got busier and busier.  We could already see there would be no quiet night for us.  

     HARBOR NITES, the powerboat that locked through with us in Ottawa, caught up with us and tied up right behind us.  It was nice to talk to them again.

     Gary said it reminded him of when all the high school kids would cruise the McDonald's drive-in except these were older people in all kinds of boats instead of cars going up and down the canal checking everything out.
     You remember about the no rafting over two wide.  Well one of the boats right in front of us had rafted three wide and the police told them to move.  One of the ladies asked if they could raft to us and that they would be gone by midnight.  We said OK since they were all celebrating someone's birthday together. 

     By 11:00 Gary asked them if they would find another spot since there were openings on the wall now.   He explained that we needed to try to go to sleep since we'd gotten up early.  I don't know how he thought we were going to sleep with all of the loud music blaring, but we actually did go to sleep pretty soon after they left.  So much for our quiet night in Sainte Anne.  Never go there on a Friday night unless you want to party.