The seven locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway cater to large commercial traffic. Pleasure vessels such as Crossroads are guaranteed lock passage only twice a day and the schedule is posted online at 7:30 in the morning. Seeing how we were staged, we waited for a west-bound bulk carrier to pass our marina. We knew that we would have an hour wait after it locked through. We fell in behind it and slowly made our way to the St. Lambert Lock while enjoying one last view of the Montreal skyline.
We passed our friends aboard Carolina as they exited the Six Flags marina. Originally they were going to travel with us for the next few days, but a change of plans had them heading back to Burlington, VT. We arrived at the St. Lambert Lock, tied up to the staging dock, and waited for about 30 minutes before we were called to get ready. We were very glad to see the bow of the east-bound bulk carrier as it began to emerge from the lock chamber. Several minutes passed and we were even more excited to see the stern emerge. It was now our time time enter.
We pulled in behind two other boats, the smaller one required to raft up to the larger one. Luckily were were by ourselves and only had to be concerned with our port side against the wall. We secured our lines, the gates closed and water filled the chamber as we were lifted 15 feet before exiting. A train passed over the lock as the chamber filled. We fell in behind Kithy-P, a 66-foot aluminum hulled trawler, and began the run to the next lock, scheduled to open for us at 3:00. Off in the distance we spy another large bulk carrier heading our way and quickly realized that at our current speeds we were destined to meet at the narrowest possible point -- under the bridge. We pulled over and let the the big guy pass us by before proceeding.
We arrived at the St. Catherine lock and were asked to come right in, well before the scheduled 3:00. This was a pleasant surprise and saved about 90 minutes off of our day's travel time. We were lifted 30 feet, and exited into Lake St. Louis, a deep and wide body of water. By this time the humidex (our new favorite Canadian term -- what we call heat index) was well over 100. It was a stifling hot day with very little breeze and not much fun. Two hours later we were at our marina for the evening, and as we pull in, we realize one big challenge still awaits us.
"You want us where?" we asked the dockhand. "Are you sure we are going to fit? We are 16-feet wide." "No problem," we were told and continue to back up. I'm on the port stern working our fenders around the sharp corner of the floating dock with no room to spare. Barry is on the headset asking how we're doing on the starboard side and I tell him that I can't see that side. The dockhand keeps saying we're fine. We keep Crossroads close and tight to the finger pier, bring her back perfectly, and tie her up. It is only after we get off that we see how close we are to our neighbor. Sometimes its just best to not know. The fenders did their job and we never touched fiberglass. "No problem."
Tomorrow morning's challenge is to get out of the slip just as effortlessly. We think we can ... we think we can.
I cannot imagine trying to squeeze into a slip that tight. Great job you two!
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