July 30-Aug 3, Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue, QC

Mike and Owen took the boat and worked their way west around Montreal in the St Lawrence Seaway. We transit two large locks (#1 the Saint Lambert Lock where we are raised 18 feet and #2 the St Catherine Lock which raises us 32 feet) and then go north through Lake St Louis to Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue, Quebec, a total trip of about 35 miles. Several large freighters were ahead of us today and so we wait several hours for them to clear the area. Beautiful sight to see the large ships.

As we arrive at the Saint Lambert Lock we find a freighter waiting to get locked through. We have to wait.

Freighter leaving the lock (left), and freighter waiting to go through (behind). These big boats take 45 minutes to an hour to go one way through. We have to wait.

As this third freighter leaves the lock, we are next.
It has been a long wait.

We wait for one big boat to come out, then one more big boat to go in and then one more big boat to come out. About three hours at the first lock. And we transit two locks today. The wait for the Upper Beauharnois Lock is only for one big boat to come out and so it is only about an hour.

Because of our wait time of 4 1/2 hours at the locks (the freighters have priority) we finally arrived about 4 pm and found a good spot on the wall of the town promenade at Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue. Sally and Linda brought the car around after spending their day doing some sightseeing outside Montreal.

Sally and Mike Stetson.

The wall is full of pleasure boats for the weekend.

Glad we arrived when we did as the town wall fills up with boats here for the weekend. We like Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue with its promenade, shops and restaurants. People are friendly here and very interested in our trip all the way from Florida.

There is a nice farmers market here on Saturday and lots of people on the streets and in the restaurants. Weekends here are party time. As we do not have power here and need keep the hatches open for the cool air, we are involved in the party atmosphere. A bit noisy but we like it here.

Mike and Sally have a car so we go exploring to the nearby town of Hudson, just across the Ottawa River from Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue and find they are having a festival this weekend. Summer here means festivals and art shows somewhere every weekend.

Nascar is popular here too.

Booths at the festival.

Lumberjacks show their stuff.

Mike and Sally left us Sunday morning after three days and headed back to NY State. As we were getting ready to leave, we found on Sunday that one engine needed attention. So we contacted the local Caterpillar Dealer in Montreal who came out and found the problem (Sun) and we ordered the parts (heat exchanger) on Monday. We are stuck in Ste-Anne-de-Bellvue until the parts arrive (Tues) and can be installed (Wed).

We walk the town and find some very pretty homes and the local college.

John Abbott College and McGill University share the campus.

Not a bad place to be stuck except we have no power, no internet and no water to replenish our tanks. We do have great restaurants, two nice thrift stores, several shops, bank, grocery, library, college nearby and good books. We just relax and wait for the repair to be completed. So much for trying to keep to a schedule.