The 50 Somethings' Disco Boat With a Train Over My Head - Day 13

I have to say day 13 was probably the hardest day of the trip. Our 5 year old was losing his mind, our patience was very low, the Montreal tip of the triangle is stressful and pretty hard to navigate and to top it off St. Anne de Bellevue was not a good overnight for us. What I love about boating is that I am already looking back at this day and laughing.

Thankfully during the night the wind shifted and when we awoke the shit smell previously wafting through Sallaberry de Valleyfield had dissipated. We had a leisurely morning at the marina enjoying decent shower facilities then set out for the tip of the triangle around noon. We motored out back into the main shipping channel and set off East only to be stalled by a timed bridge blocking our path. Sadly then next time the bridge moved was in an hour so we drifted around on the river eating chips and fighting off the most annoying little green bugs.

A bridge too far...or long...whatever

The Horror....the horror....

The bridge finally lifted and we set off toward the next set of locks. Little did we know that a few kms down the river another timed bridge awaited. Luckily we only only had to drift for 20 minutes for this one to open. A few km later you get to the last set of locks before Montreal - the Beauharnois. Luckily we didn't have to wait long before getting into these locks.

Pretty beat up gal

Another spectacular bridge

The last of these monster locks

Once through the locks my plan was to cut across Lake St Louis and take a back channel to the left of Ile Perrot into Lake of Two Mountains and start the journey up the Ottawa River. We motored some distance before Jenn pointed out that the channel depths were too shallow and I would need to backtrack. No shortcuts today. The chars for this area are not laid out as smoothly as the rest of the triangle and we struggled mightily trying to figure out the way around Ile Perrot. We knew for sure that we had to get back on the shipping channel and head East for Montreal.

Montreal!

So many old canals hiding in this area

like ships...

passing in the day...

We finally figured out that the safest way to get around was to drive all the way to Montreal west where you can take a buoyed channel across the lake and then get back on another channel heading west toward St Anne de Bellevue and the Ottawa River. Doing this literally adds about ten kms of boating.

We finally made it to St Anne de Bellevue and grabbed a spot on the sheltered canal in the town. Its probably a fun place to go if you don't have a five year old and want to party and enjoy the many restaurants along the boardwalk. That wasn't us. Add to that we had a party of four 50 somethings right behind us testing their stereo out later that night. To top it off we parked near the lock entrance, fairly close to the train bridge, which, as luck would have it, has trains running every 20 minutes. It was very loud and after a stressful day no one really got much sleep. If you stay here, stay away from the bridge!!

The party canal

dream boat!