Down the St. Lawerance to Gaspe Peninsula

We left Kingston on Monday, July 7, starting down the St. Lawrence River towards the NE. This part of the trip traveles into the upper end of the Canadian 1000 Islands. Along the Canadian shore was a statue of St. Lawrence. We spent Monday night in Gananoque. Tuesday morning we both got our hair cut, Johnny, my last hair cut didn't make it 6 weeks as promised! We also reprovisioned and left the marina at about 2:00 continuing down river through more of the 1000 Island beauty. We spent the night on the hook near Singer's Castle. Wednesday we moved further down river, passing through our first large commercial lock, arriving at Crysler Farm Marina late afternoon. Adjacent to the marina is Upper Canada Village, a recreated early 1800's village as would have been found along the st. Lawrence. All but a couple of buildings were moved to the site from the surrounding area prior to the flooding of the river valley when the St. Lawrence Seaway was created. This is a fuctioning historic village with three water powered mills that operate, including 

this weaving mill, a cooper, bakery, blacksmith, tinsmith, cabinet maker, and cheese factory, all selling there wares. We bought some cheese from the cheese factory. We left the marina at about 3:00 and spent the night on the hook behind Pilon Island. On Friday morning we traveled 32 miles down stream to Valleyfield, where they have recently reopened an old section of the cannel and have created a waterside park right downtown. To get into the park they open two small swinging foot bridges. The width of the channel was only about 18', so putting a 14' wide boat through there was a little like threading a needle! Once inside there is a very nice floating dock which allows you to get off your boat and walk across the street to all the

services of the town. We enjoyed a nice lunch. After lunch we traversed two more locks, with a wait of only 10 minutes, and anchored for the night about 12 miles above the last two locks. On Saturday, July 12, we pulled anchor at 7:50 AM and started towards the last two locks. About a mile before the first of these locks we caught up with an empty tour boat heading towards Montreal. As a commercial boat, the locks were waiting for him and we followed him through the last two locks without any waiting. Unheard of, we traversed the seven large locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway with a total wait of only 10 minutes. We are currently in Three Rivers, Quebec, 68 NM up river from Quebec City. Tomorrow we will run down to Vauquelin, 18 NM from Quebec, traversing through the Richelieu Rapids where we will encounter where we expect ebb current of near 8 Kts. Can't wait for this great ride! The Marina Port de Quebec is in a basin behind a lock, similar to Windmill Harbor on Hilton Head. They have as much as 18' of tide here, so this is a practicle way to reduce the up down action of the docks. ODYSSEE is in the picture, in front of the tree. On the grain elevator, the run a 55 minute movie every night for their 400 year celebration. There are 16 storaqge silos to the left of the center building, and at least 40 to the right that are not in the picture. The entire surface, some 1000' long is used for the movie presentation, WOW!  We've got lots of pictures, will post when we next get wi-fi. With the great tide swing we would now see, it is important to time your departure to take advantage of the 7 MPH difference between ebb and flood tide. The flow of the water is evidenced as you look at the channel marker and the SOG on our GPS chartplotter. We are going through the water at 9.7 MPH. Shortly after leaving Quebec City, we saw Montmorey Falls, 250 ' high, along the north shore of the river. A bit further, we passed the Chapel at Ste Anne de Beaupre. As we went down river, the hills along the banks became mountains, along the north shore the Laurentian's and along the south shore the Appalachian's. Every so often you see a old light house, still being used, but really a navigational aid no longer needed. As we turned north into the Saguenay River, now a Canadian National Marine Park, the boldness of the fjord was breath taking. As we entered we saw a few Minke and Baluga Whales, and Seals. The water is 800-900 feet deep and the rock cliffs on each side tower to 2000 feet. We spent the night anchored in Baie-Eternite, and we took a picture of ODYSSEE as we hiked through the park. Saturday morning was sunny as we left our anchorage to explore more of the fjord. On Cap Trinite, the northern entrance to Baie Trinite, the Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay Statue was erected in the winter of 1878 by a merchant named Charles-Napoleon Robitaille, begged the Virgin Mary to save him from drowning after falling through the ice. To honor this miracle this statue, sculpted by Louis Tobin, was placed here. Having reached the northern most point of this trip, N48 19.663 degrees, we turn back south. We passed

through one channel behind an island that was 

                                                                                                                

maybe 300' wide and 59' deep. Another short distance down river and we came upon a large group of Beluga whales. We shut the engines off and drifted past as the whales pretty much ignored us and swam past and under us. We continued to Tadoussac and moored on the face dock at the municipal marina shortly after lunch. We got off the boat for a walk into a very delightful little town, ending the trek at their little, but very well stocked grocery store where we purchased what we needed to get through the next couple of days before we got Rimouski. We did see one of the most ingenius winter boat storage systems ever. They have a basin with it's floor a little above low tide level, that is used for a tourest parking lot during the summer. Note the lock doors and large fishing boat trailers behind the lock door. On a selected high tide day in late fall they spread the trailers and dollies out in the basin, open the lock doors, and flood the basin. All the boats come in and align themselves with their trailer/dollie before the tide starts out. At low tide they close the lock doors and all the boats are high and dry on their trailer/dollie for the winter. They reverse the process in the spring. ODYSSEE tied to the inside of the outside finger pier at the far end in Tadoussac. On Sunday, July 20, and we left Tadoussac in the morning to cross the St. Lawrence, to Rimouski, a trip of about 60 miles. We arrived at Rimouski on Monday. The boat however, had a major breakdown. While starting the starboard engine, it threw a rod through the cylinder wall and airjacket. We limped into Rimowski on our port engine, bucking steep waves from a wind on our nose of 20-25K and an ebb tide current of about 1.5K. Together they piled up some large square waves, several of which broke over the bow. We've located what sounds like a good used engine in Florida. It is ready to go but I want to inspect it and witness it running. So we have decided to pull the boat here for the winter and continue the trip again next June. It will take us at least a month to get things running again, and then it will be too late to enjoy the rest of the trip. The engine failure was caused by water in the top of a cylinder, not by old age or wear and tear. While we were anchored on Sunday night in an anchorage well protected from the SW breeze that was blowing when we anchored. The forcast was for the wind to shift to the NE early in the morning, blow 10-15 by mid morning and up to 20-25 by noon. Well the wind did shift at about 3:00AM and appearently blew near gale force out in the river, it was dead calm in the anchorage and fogged in, but the waves from the gale in the river rolled into the anchorage. The small tide current was holding the boat at about 45 degrees to the waves, so we were rocking and rolling pretty good. This action was pitching the boat in an ossolating motion, burying the starboard stern and then the port bow would dive into the next trough. After discussing this with several people, including son Will, we've concluded that we created a pumping action in the starboard exhaust pipe and muffler that finally pushed water over the top of the exhaust riser and down into the exhaust manifold. Then, we appearently had the valve rockers at just the right position to be holding both the intake valve and exhaust valve slightly open, allowing the water to get into the cylinder. Also when we started the engine, the fourth cylinder on the left side, also the lowest cylinder, was in a compresson strock. That piston couldn't go up when full of water, so the connecting rod broke and went through the cylinder sleeve and side wall of the engine casting. There is evidence of salt residue where the water was forced out through the block hole. A pretty bazzar situation, but it is the only sinareo that makes any sence. Quick update - it is Wednesday, July 30. We pulled the boat yesterday and is sitting on the hard. We are leaving today on the 1:45 bus westerly bound. Claria will go to Detroit and enjoy the grand kids. Chuck will go to Albany. From there, is still up for grabs. We have located an engine in the Tampa, FL area, so I may fly there to look at that engine, which sounds pretty good. Will probably end up at home for a day or so some where along the way, possible this weekend or early next week. The odyssey continues! Rimouski - WE HAVE AN ENGINE! This update is posted on Sunday, August 3. It's been a couple of busy days here in Tampa, FL. Flew down here from Albany Thursday on a non-stop SW flight into Orlando. Looked at the engine Friday morning and decided it was worth digging out of the "engine pile" to check out closer. Spent the rest of Friday looking at used Ford F 150 crew cab pick ups. Helped Zack dig out the engine Saturday morning. It is exactly the same engine we have, a model 5082-5000 with a serial number about 1000 older than mine. Outside looks a little rough, hasn't been taken care of as well as mine, but inside under the head and in the blower box looks great. No dicernable wear in cylinder walls or on valve camshaft or evidence of water in the oil pan. We will need to transfer some trim out parts from our present engine. On Saturday afternoon I purchased a used 2006 Ford F 150 crew cab pick up with 23,000 miles on it. Monday we will load the engine and I will start north, anticipating getting home late Monday night. Will spend several days at home and then head out for Canada on Friday morning, expecting to arrive in Rimouski, QC Sunday afternoon, ready to start the rebuild process on Monday. The odyssey with ODYSSEE continues! In the meantime Claria is at daughter Mary's in Ann Arbor, MI enjoying a visit with our kids and their kids. All is well and we are both still smiling.