Sorel to Montreal

June 20, 2002 - Sorel to Montreal

ENJOYING MONTREAL

Left Sorel to travel the St. Lawrence Seaway to Montreal. It was a beautiful, warm day. -FINALLY! There was a lot of ferry and container ship traffic. The water was high from all the rain so there was a lot of debris to dodge. We were very lucky to have such a sunny, calm day to travel this section of the St. Lawrence. So far the channel is well marked and I like that. It was an uneventful day, but a long one, as there was a huge current against us, so we couldn't go much more that 6 or 7 knots, and we arrived at our marina in Montreal at 4:00. We stayed right in Old Montreal at the Port d'Escale du of Montreal, which was great and very convenient to all the action. We settled in and walked to town to discover a very charming town. We will stay for a few days to explore because neither of us had ever been here.

That evening we discovered that two boats docked right next to and behind us were also on the Great Loop trip. Judy and John, and Maggie and Howard have retired in Florida and love boating. We enjoyed talking to them and they shared a lot of good information and stories with us. We'll probably see them again on our trip down the Rideau Canal, which has 47 locks.

Friday morning we took narrated tour on a trolley all along the waterfront. Inreresting. Then we boarded a tour bus for a 3-hour tour all over Montreal, which touched the highlights, and we had several photo stops. It was a bit long, but very good. After the tour Bill and I walked all over to check out St. Catherine Street with all it's many shops and the underground mall and shops. We were tired after our day and we started dinner at the boat, but our neighbors were on the dock and we invited them to come aboard, so guess what, we never ate dinner. Went to bed late, slept in a bit, and checked to see if we could stay at the marina one more day, but we couldn't as they were expecting a crowd to see the fireworks show Saturday night. Luckily I had reserved a spot for Saturday at the Port de Plaisance de Longuail Marina on the other side of the river. So we untied our lines, said good-bye to Judy, John, Maggie and Howard and cruised over to the new marina, where we got fuel. We got organized and took a ferry that was right at our marina back over to Old Montreal to explore a little more. It was a fun town and if you haven't been there it surely is worth a trip. Later we took the ferry back to the boat, had dinner and got ready to leave early in the morning on our trip towards the Ottawa and the beginning of the Rideau Canal.