Richelieu River

Richelieu River:  We met with the captain's friend first thing this morning.  I cooked breakfast for the three of us, and we ate on the boat.  They both captain Mainships and met through the Mainship Yahoo Group.  They have exchanged email for probably 10 years, but this is the first time they have met face-to-face.  We had a very nice visit and left our marina in Sorel around 12:30. 

Today's boating was on the Richelieu River which required low-speed, no wake for the majority of the ride.  The scenery was very much "more of the same" as we traveled along.  We saw several farms and many houses.  We saw a large number of motor homes parked along the river's edge including one we included in our pictures of one suspended over the water by a parking area supported by stilts.  One puzzling thing we saw was a number of houses that had a motor home parked in the backyard along the water.  Summer home in the backyard??? 

 At the St. Ours Lock we had to wait for the lock to be prepared and while waiting we were invited to "raft up" / tie to another vessel.  We had a very pleasant chat while waiting our turn to lock through.  The lock at St Ours had more pleasure boats waiting to lock through than I have seen before on this trip.  I was concerned that we wouldn't all fit in the lock, but the lock was significantly longer than I anticipated and we all fit with no problem. 

There was a little excitement with the last boat into the lock as he tried to tie to another boat already in the lock, there was a short period where the last boat coming in was perpendicular to the boat it was to tie to - basically crosswise in the lock.  The woman on the front of the stationary boat was pushing and pulling the boat with all her might to try to get the second vessel in position and prevent her own boat from being crashed into.  At one point she was pushing on the railing of the second boat and lost her balance.  I thought she was going to slide under her boat rail and end up in the lock.  Eventually they got themselves oriented parallel to the stationary boat and tied up so the lock attendants could start filling the lock.  As the lock attendant walked past our boat, she said "First time!" so I gather the exhibition is not a normal occurrence.

Other than the brief excitement in the lock, the trip was rather long and due to the weather, which forced me into a jacket on top and a blanket wrapped around my legs, plus the slow-speed travel rather tedious.  We finally arrived at the Marina de Chambly at 6:30, but honestly I thought we'd never get there.  Like a little kid I kept asking the captain "are we there yet?"  There was only one time in the whole afternoon where we could accelerate and that was in a lake at the end of the day's travel and lasted for about 5 minutes.  We had made a reservation at the marina earlier in the day, but by 6:00 I was starting to worry that they staff would have left for the day before we could get there.  As it turned out, they left at 8:00, so we had some time to spare. 

Since it was already getting late, we decided to stroll up to take a look around, and the first thing we see is that the vessel Morning Star which we have been traveling in parallel with for several days is tied to the wall above the lock.  We recognized another boat tied to the lock wall - the same boat that we had rafted to at St Ours Lock, so we walked over and chatted for a while with them.  The woman on board told me to be sure to visit the super market "Maxi" to stock up on good food.  It was a full-sized market which is a rare sight within walking distance along the waters. 

When we walked into town, we checked out the selection of restaurants and then went to Maxi and bought some good veggies to cook on the boat with the steak we already had on hand.  The captain likes to eat at "Chez Evaline" better than any other restaurant, so I end up cooking quite a bit of the time.  As he was washing the dishes he said that the price to be paid for eating at "Chez Evaline" is that you have to do the dishes afterwards. 

We have a recommendation to visit the fort here in Chambly.  At 300 years old, we were told it is the most well-preserved fort in North America.  It is a very short walk from the boat so I'm hoping we find the time for a quick "look see" before we get on our way down the Chambly Canal.  The question now is will we arrive in the USofA tomorrow or take two days to get to Lake Champlain.  To hit the US tomorrow we'll need to be on our way by no later than 11:00.  Since I bought some more fresh veggies tonight, we'll be eating vegetables all day long to get rid of them before we hit the border!  Life is rough!  N'est-ce pas?