Troy New York to Montreal

June 15, 2002 - Troy New York to Montreal

We got up real early to a very cool, rainy day, but we decided that we had to get moving again even tho' the weather was crumby. Right away we had to go through the Troy Lock and it was kind of a mess because the lock people didn't give us any information about how to tie to their lock. We have been in all kinds of locks and they are all a little different. We did figure it out and were on our way again. The Troy Lock provides access to both the Champlain and the Erie Canals. There is actually a "road sign" along side of the canal with arrows directing to each one. This was the only road sign we have seen along the way. We took the Champlain Canal. It starts out like a long narrow cut. This canal connects the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. It begins at Troy and covers a distance of 64 statute miles. The Champlain Canal begins where the Erie Canal leaves the Hudson and is comprised of eleven locks. From Troy north it follows the Hudson for 40 miles to Fort Edward, with locks, dams, and dug channels that bypass the falls and rapids in the river. At Fort Edward the leaves the Hudson and follows a dug channel, for an additional 24 miles, to Whitehall at the head of Lake Champlain. It can take a good day and a half for the trip from Troy to Lake Champlain. We bought a 2-day pass at Lock, which is 5 miles north of the Troy Lock for all the locks that are operated by the New York State Canal Corporation. There is no more tide to look out for now. There weren't very many boats moving today as the weather is so nasty - only 1 small sailboat that we saw. We planned to get all the way to Whitehall today but by the time we got to Fort Edward we were so cold and wet that we decided to stay the night at Fort Edward. They have a long wall right in town that was free and even had electric and water hookups. It is just before Lock 7. We felt safe and got dried out again, but now we were off schedule. That small sailboat was tied up there also and he even helped us with our lines. Boaters are so nice to each other and we never mind a little help, especially when it is so nasty.

Sunday, June 16th was Fathers Day. We woke up early and it was STILL raining hard, but we really needed to go. So we ventured out and got to Lock 7 at 7:30 and locked up 10 feet. Then we headed for Lock 8, which raised boats to Summit Level, 139 feet above sea level. It is at this level that the water needed to operate the locks in this portion of the canal is fed into the canal from the upper Hudson near Glens Falls. From Lock 8 north, vessels are lowered to Lake Champlain's water level of 95.6 feet. At Lock 7 we began traveling on a 24-mile dug channel, which ends at Whitehall. After we finished all the locks, we decided to travel the 51 more miles to Westport and the Westport Marina. We were now on Lake Champlain. We got there about 4:00. The sun tried to come out but only for a minute but at least we got back on schedule.

Monday, June 17th we left Westport for Rouse Point about 61 miles away. We wanted to go over to Burlington Vermont, but decided that would put us behind again, so didn't. It was still gray and we couldn't see all the beauty of Lake Champlain that were hoping to see, but the countryside was pretty and green and we could see islands and mountains in the distance. I'm sure it is a very special lake to enjoy when the weather is better. I'm glad we didn't come through here any earlier in the season. We stayed at the Marina at Lighthouse Point and had dinner at a cute restaurant right at the marina that was highly recommended. It was delicious and we needed a break from being on the boat, as we had several very long, not so fun days, on the water.

Tuesday, June 18th we left Rouse Point for Chambly at 11:00. Right after Rouse Point we had to travel to check in at a special dockside customs house about a quarter of a mile away. The wind was blowing hard and we had a bit of a current and it was a challenge to Bill's docking skills. Of course, the dock girl wasn't much help, as she was there to clear customs not to dock boats. It was a cement pier that had hard rubber bumpers, but we hit kind of hard anyway. It gave Bill a little repair work to do sometime; luckily he has all his tools and supplies with him to do it. All that for them only to want to see a picture I.D. We showed her our passport, and she wanted to know if we were bringing anything to anyone in Canada. Also, how much wine we had aboard. Now, you probably know how much wine we have aboard, don't you? Luckily she caught us at the end of our trip and had consumed most of it. Hint, Hint. We were planning on doing all the 9 Chambly Locks that afternoon and had reservations at the Chambly Marina for that night. Well. Bad news! We arrived at the first bridge and lock at 1:15 pm at Saint Jean Sur Richelier and were told that the bridge wouldn't be opening again until 8:30 A.M. We couldn't believe it. That sure changed our schedule AGAIN. How frustrating. So the only thing to do was to tie up to a long town dock and wait. This dock didn't have any water or electricity, so we had to run the generator. Bill started his repair work and I walked uptown to find a post office to mail our Blue Cross payment. I checked the town out and it wasn't much, so I didn't drag Bill away from his work to see it. Of course, after dinner we had to have ice cream for dessert, so we walked up there so that he could see for himself that I wasn't hiding anything. Not much English was spoken around here.

Wednesday, June 19th we were up real early to be ready to tackle the 9 upcoming locks - all-descending, 7 swing bridges and then on to Sorel for the night. We were ready and called the bridge tender at 8:20 and he said he would open between 8:30 and 8:45. WE SIT AND WAIT. We found out later that the Canadian Government is on an austerity program so the same man that mans the bridges has to run or take a golf cart down to the lock and manually lock us through.

A little note about this canal. The Chambly Canal begins at St. Jean and runs beside the Richelier river to Chambly, 10 miles downstream. The canal enables boats heading north to gracefully drop 80 feet in elevation to the level of the Chambly Basin.

It has 9 locks that are all hand operated, except one. There is a maximum drop of 15 feet and a minimum of 5' at Lock 9. There locks are only 21' wide and 100' long and is only about 6'deep. Some of the swing bridges are very low and have to be opened for boats to pass. Speed limit is 10k, which is 6 miles per hour. Not very fast, but that's o.k. as it a nice day, FINALLY. We went through the first lock at 9:15 and then we traveled 11/2 hours to the next lock along this very narrow path. It was very weird. We almost filled the whole channel. There is a jogging, bike path all along the side and many people were out enjoying the nice weather. They liked to watch the swing bridges and the boats locking through.

At I^ll Ste-Therese the channel widens as it enters the west side of the island and there were lovely homes, many with docks. Then it narrows again until it reaches Chambly.

These locks are really different. They give us their lines and we take them aboard and keep them to use when we get to the next one. They crank open the flood gates at the bottom of the lock manually to let the water out of the lock, and when we were at the next level, they would open the lock and we would go on to the next one. The Locks were all so close together that the lockmaster and his assistant would jump in their golf cart and be there waiting for us when we arrived. Too Strange, this whole thing. You should have seen how funny we looked going down this canal and in the locks. At some points, we worried that if we didn't pay close attention, we might run ashore. The last 3 are like stair steps and are literally all in a row. Then we were dumped out right into the Chambly Basin. On our right we could see the Chambly Rapids and a fort built in 1665 and off in the distance we could see the mountain of Mont St-Helaire.

By noon we were through all 9 locks just in time for the Canadians to have their noon meal.

For us, it was off to Sorel, another 40 miles. Several ferries crossed the canal in front of us taking cars and passengers to the other side. At one point I looked ahead and saw hundreds of Canadian geese ahead all in a row- it looked like a huge long timber. As we passed, they scattered in unison. What a sight.

We arrived at our last lock for today at St-Ours at 3:00 and followed and entered the St Lawrence Seaway. We were in Sorels in time to walk to town to get some groceries and back for dinner.

RENDEZVOUS HITS MONTREAL TOMORROW!!! YEA!