David’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Saturday, August 8, 2009
Location: Saint Catherine Lock, Quebec, Canada
Coordinates: 45° 24.462′ N  73° 34.170′ W

Our summer season began with us climbing the Erie and Welland Canal locks to get into the Great Lakes. As summer wanes, we now find ourselves on the down escalator. We spent eight days traversing the Trent-Severn Waterway, to get back to Lake Ontario. Now we’re transiting the seven St. Lawrence Seaway locks to get to Montreal.

These Seaway locks are very much like the Welland Canal locks, built for large, ocean-going ships. Pleasure-craft are definitely not their priority, and we find ourselves at the whim of the shipping traffic. Some locks seem better than others for getting the pleasure-craft through as quickly as possible; others seem less concerned about it. For a person with type-A personality like me, it can get a little frustrating at times. I’m learning to be a patient man.

The lock transiting is less difficult in the downbound direction. There is little turbulence as the water drains, and because it drains from the center of the lock, it tends to suck the boats off the wall. This is a good thing, as the walls are very rough and dirty. There are many other boats going through these locks with us, and we usually have a boat rafted to our “shoulder” while transiting. People on the other boats are very friendly, and it feels like we’re sharing an experience. After all, we’re all in the same boat, so to speak.

Once we get to Montreal, which should be later today, we’ll be clear all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean. There is one lock in Quebec City to go in and out of the harbour (to mitigate the tidal change), but other than that, we’ll be finished with locks until Panama. Ayla is very happy about this. So am I.