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.

Side trip to Ottawa and Kingston

We left the history of Montreal yesterday, Thursday June 26 to head up the Ottawa River to Ottawa. To get from downtown Montreal to the entrance of the Ottawa River we needed to take the South Shore Canal which bypasses the Lachine Rapids. This canal has two large commercial locks and commertial traffic has first use. As luck would have it, it took us 6 hours to get through those two locks. As we exited St. Catherine Lock we had to make the decision to anchor short of our intended stop for the night or run in the dark. We made pretty good progress to the only alternate anchorage, and the threat of thunderstorms had expired so we elected to run in the dark to our intended anchorage. Things went very well, the bouys were right where our GPS chartplotter said they were and our radar superimposed on the chartplotter confirmed they were there. Made the run without turning on the spotlight.

Today we ran 59 miles, traversing two locks, the second with a 65' lift, to Montebello.

Tomorrow we will have breakfast at the largest log cabin in the world, Le Chateau Montebello.

And what a fine breakfast it was. We left the marina shortly after noon, ran all afternoon in the rain, and arrived at the lower wall of the Ottawa 8 lock ladder at 5:00 PM. A lock load of boats had left 15 minutes before we arrived and the lock master informed us that there would not be time to complete the lock up of the boats already going up, turn the locks around, and lock us up before 7:30 PM, when the locks close for the day. So, we were 

in the first lock load Sunday morning.

In preperation for Canada Day on Tuesday, July 1, there were already at least 40 boats tied to the upper canal walls. Shortly after we got tied up, OUR VILLA arrived, "Loopers" from Wisconsin. The crew from MYSTIC BOND, Canadian "Loopers" who are living near Ottawa, 

joined us and hosted us for the rest of the day showing us around Ottawa. We spent Monday doing more sight seeing of the parliment building and watching the changing of the guard. Then some shopping to stock up on some fresh fruits and vegtables at the farmers market. Today, Tuesday July 1, Canada Day, we left Ottawa ahead of the hords of boats that would be leaving Wednesday morning and went 40 miles down the historic Rideau Canal to lock 17 at Burnitts Rapids.

It is now Wednesday, and we have moved another 20 miles south today, going through 12 locks, and are tied up to the canal wall in Smiths Falls. This is essentially the mid point of the Rideau Canal distance wise. The locks are small, all hand operated, many with a one lane bridge crossing them that is swung open by hand to let us through. We still have 7 more locks and 27 more miles to get to the high point at 407.5' above sea level before we start back down to Kingston and the St. Lawrence River. As we started down, the senery got more interesting. As we entered and left many of the locks we were running in narrow channels with about 7' of water depth. OUR VILLE was still traveling with us and followed us out of a lock on one of the narrow channels.

We frequently spent our nights tied up to a dock or wall at one of the locks. Here we are tied up to a dock at the Davis Lock.

We arrived in Kingston on Sunday afternoon, July 6. My original schedule developed back in March had us in Kingston on July 6, wala!

New York to Montreal

Soon after passing under the Verrazano Suspension Bridge into New York harbor, the Statue of Liberty appears along the New Jersey shoreline. We have arrived in New York and are starting up the Hudson River.

Our first stop on our historic tour was at the Croton Dam, the third largest stone structure in the world, exceeded only by the Great Wall of China and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Our next stop was at the Rockerfeller home, Kykuit. We finished the day at Washington Irving's cottage.

After spending two days in Tarrytown, viewing the historic sights in the area, we headed out on our treck up the Hudson River. One of the majestic sights is West Point along the west bank of the river.

As the river cuts through the eastern end of the Appalachian Mountains, it forms a beautiful valley, with river depths as much as 80'. What is quite amazing, is that the river is tidal all the way to Albany.

On Saturday we got to Kingston, located on the northern banks of Rondout Creek, the eastern terminus of a canal that ran from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River. Coal was hauled on small barges to Kingston, than reloaded onto larger barges for transport to New York City or other New England cities. Kingston was also the first Capital of New York and was burned to the ground in 1777 by the British.

After attending a Lutheran church service this morning, Sunday, June 15, we motored another 40 miles up the river towards Albany. We are anchored for the night behind Houghtaling Island.

Monday we continued up river, passing Albany and the capital building. Shortly north of Albany we entered the first lock of the upper Hudson River. the Troy lock. We spent the night at the town of Waterford dock, offered free with power and water to lure boaters to spend some money in their neat town.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday working our way up the Champlain Canal into the south end of Lake champlain. Because of the significance of this natural water route in our early history, there are many historic sites along the way.

On Tuesday we went through 10 lockes, 8 up to the top of the system at 140', and 2 down to Whitehall, where our first navy ships were built. They have a great museum there where they have assembled memorbelia from those years, with great models assembled of the town in those early years.

On Wednesday we went through the last lock, down to the elevation of Lake Champlain of 96'. The south end of Champlain is basically a wide river for the first 30-40 miles. In this stretch Lake George drains into Champlain, and at that point Fort Ticondaoga was built on the high hill along the west shore. From that fort you can see up to the north a good 10 miles and to the south 5-6 miles. We anchored ODYSSEE and dingied in to visit the fort. There was significant weed growth in the shallow water, and we thought we had anchored outside of that weed growth. After a two hour tour of the fort, we came back to the shore to find that ODYSSEE had moved about 1/4 mile to the north, pushed by the south wind, well into the weed growth. The weeds wrapped around the rode and anchor were so heavy we couldn't pull the anchor up, so I would pull it up as much as I could, Claria would move the boat forward, forcing the weeds down the rode, and allowing me to pull up another foot of rode. When we got down to the last 10', the anchor was blocking any further stripping action of the water. At this point I took the boat hook, extended to it's maximum length, and used it to hook into the weeds and slowly stripped the weeds from the rode and anchor. Finally I could raise the anchor and we could move out into deeper water. Several cycles of reverse and forward and we had the weeds off the props and we were off again. Definitely another ODYSSEE odyssey! We spent a very pleasant night anchored in Bulwagga bay.

On Thursday, June 19, we finished our trip to Burlington, VT where we are spending a couple days. We have developed a leak at the shaft of our port engine fresh water pump. Have parts on the way and plan to change out that pump while we are in Burlington as well.

Waterpump replaced, we left Burlington on Saturday afternoon, June 21 and moved 30 miles up Lake champlain and anchored for the night.

On Sunday, we woke up to a drizzel and heavy clouds. We had 14 miles to go to get to the Canadian border, and then another 63 miles up the Richelieu River and Chambly Canal to Saint-Antoni sur Richelieu, our planned stop for the night at their town wall. The Chambly Canal has 9 locks, all small, 120' long by 22' wide, beginning at Saint-Jean-de-Richelieu, where several boats lined the town wall, including KAOS, our "Looper" friends 

from Texas. Locks 1 through 8 are manually operated. The canal itself is narrow with a                       

6 MPH speed limit. Actually we couldn't go any faster, with the canal only 50' wide and 8' deep in some places, our boat was pushing a lot of water. It takes 1 1/2 hours to travel the 9 miles of the canal and pass through the 9 locks.

Monday was again an overecast day with on and off showers. We arrived at Sorel and the St. Lawerance river about noon with many large ships waiting to greet us. We turned left to the SW for a 37 mile up river trek to Montreal.

As late afternoon arrived, so did the skyline of Montreal. We are planning on spending 3 nights here, leaving on Thursday, June 26 to start up the Ottawa River towards Ottawa.

Classic ODYSSEE among mostly new "bubble" boats at Yacht Club Montreal.

Up the Del-Mar coast to NYC

We left Norfolk on Thursday, June 5, went across the entrance to the Chesapeak, inside the Bay Bridge Tunnel to Cape Charles, a fine place! Entered the Virginia Inside Passage (VIP) at low water, -0.5' with a rising tide behind us. About 3 miles in ran into some 3.5' water, anchored the boat, relaxed for two hours waiting for water to rise, lifted anchor and proceeded to Anchorage for the night.

Yesterday, Friday June 6, continued up VIP through a rising tide. Found many DANGER signs indicating very skinny water. Locals also planted sticks in the bottom to help us strangers get through. Got near Wachapreague Inlet the water was falling and under +2', so we elected to go outside up to Chincoteaque where we have tied up to the town dock. On the way in to Chincoteaque passed this permanent day marker which had been distroyed and now marked with a temporary marker.








Chincoteaque has completed nice transient docks with power and water, available for 24 hours for $1.00 per foot. One of the local police officers comes down from the police station to collect your money and welcome you to town. After getting checked in, we took the Pony Express trolley for a ride around town for a fare of $.25 each. We went past the park they use to auction off the wild horses from Assateaque Island once each year. The proceeds from the sale go to the Chincoteaque police who actually own the horses.

On Saturday we went 34 miles through the shallow Chincoteaque Bay, leading a rising tide all the way through by 1 1/2 hours. Even so we passed through some skinny water of only 4 1/2'. Near the north end of the lake we crossed an abondoned crab trap and picked it up and wrapped around out starboard prop. After spending 3 hours under the boat with a wire cutter the crab trap now litters the bottom just south of the Ocean City inlet. We were anchored behind the north end of Assateaque Island where several wild horses were grazing.

Sunday June 8 we traveled another 44 miles to Lewes, Delaware, the first settlement in Delaware, where we were able to get off the boat to walk to the town Museum and down the main street.

Monday, June 9 took us accross the Delaware River to Cape May, NJ. Tomorrow my sister Mary and her husband Jack Wolfe arrive on their trawler BAOWOLFE, from St. Michael's, MD. We will travel together for the next few days up to New York City.

We left on Wednesday morning, heading north on the outside towards Manasasquan, a midway harbor between Cape May and New York City, a trip of 100 miles. Today, Thursday June 12, we motored through New York city and up the Hudson River to Tarrytown, where we will spend two nights, doing some historic sightseeing on Friday.