Hi-5 Sailcat - Our Next Family Adventure...

2011-09-20 - to Waterford, NY

Well, we finally made it to lock 1 of the Champlain Canal. It has been a very long 'detour' but it was worth seeing the sites that we saw along the way. Our celebrations were short-lived, however. As we arrived, we were greeted by a couple of local boaters who just happened to be walking our way. We landed at the Waterford Visitors Centre. We were here 5 years ago and it was a vibrant little hub, with lots of boats coming and going. Now, it is deserted. The men on the dock explained that this whole area was under over 20 feet of water during Hurricane Irene. The whole first floor of the vistors building (just at the arched doorways) was submerged. The pics of Hi-5 at dock from a distance shows the height of the arches in comparison to our boat. Our boat would have been completely engulfed in water. They continued to explain that several of the houses surrounding the lock and the visitors centre actually floated up and off of their foundations. It was apparent as we went for a walk that there was a lot of moving water carrying debris and mud. Even tonight a small refrigerator floated behind one of the other boats. Here is a short youtube video that shows the water level on the visitors centre. Note the top part of the building that is only visable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-D5pxXr0Y&feature=related

2011-09-19 - to Ft. Edward, NY

We woke up this morning in a blanket of fog. It was so

dense that you couldn’t make anything out beyond the safety rails. Through the fog, we enjoyed again the phenomenon of the ‘echo’ (well Connor did) and, as the fog lifted, we headed on our way...a little late (8:30am). It was another scenic day through the beginning of the Champlain canal. There are rock faces that come straight into the water and bursting with trees. We even saw a deer having a drink at the waters edge. We came upon lock 12 (the very beginning of the canal system at 11:30am). We docked at the lock wall and made our way to the lock masters house. For these locks, it is only $15 for 2 days of lockage (11 locks).

This is quite different to the other lock fees. ($25/lock on the St. Lawrence, $36 for one lock on the Richelieu River, $60 for ~8 locks on the Chambly Canal). We did half of the locks today and expect to be finished with the Champlain canal tomorrow evening a Troy! It is such a straight run, you can't go wrong (see pic with gps in the foreground)

The big treat tonight was stopping on the free dock at Ft. Edward. Here they have power and water and a nice wall to tie up for the night. Power means heat for us! It has been so chilly at anchor. When we wake up the boat is about 10’C. We are all fine in our beds, but it is the getting up that is the hardest. We do have the Honda Generator that we start up in the morning. This gives us enough power for the heater and to make breakie.

We stopped here at Ft. Edward really to do laundry. It has been several days, and it was getting to the point that we had to! So, I loaded up the bike trailer and headed in the direction that one of the locals guided me to. ‘Just around the corner and up the hill’, they said…’not too far’. Well, here I go with, probably, 100lbs of laundry. I head to the corner and round it and, ‘what do I see in front of me’, was a mountainous slope. (Probably a slight exaggeration again...but, any steeper and I would need a climbing harness and a hoist!) So, fit me (cough, sputter) make my way up the ‘little hill’ and eventually (and much redder in the face) find the coin op. So, I haul my mountainous sac into the facility and scope out the correct machines to use. I saw one t

hat was 3 loads worth…perfect. I manage to stuff what I could in that and got it going. The next one, I loaded, what felt like, 100 quarters into again – loaded up the laundry – and closed the door. The price display changed back to the default setting of $3,50. Oh darn…I paid, loaded and pressed the ‘on’ button. Not, loaded, paid and pressed the ‘on’ button. Someone saw me pressing buttons and came over to tell me that I can call the ‘assistance number’ posted. I looked at it – paused - and they looked at me and said, “do you not have a cell phone”? They looked at me with such pity and said, ‘Here, borrow mine” I could see it in their eyes that they must thought – what poor person…she doesn’t have a cell phone! So, I called – sorted it out and all was well…well, except for my dignity. So, it was all going well….when, I noticed that the super 3-loader was just spinning and spinning….without finishing up (by this time, I was already folding the other dry stuff). I asked a man, who happened to be there, if those machines took longer to complete. He said they didn’t and, again, directed me to the laundry help line posted on the wall. I paused for a moment and he said, “..do you not have a cell phone?” with that same look of pity….I got to use his! The problem was fixed over the phone. I finally finished my loads and loaded up the bike trailer again. Downhill was a breeze! I woohoo’ed all of the way back, tucked the kids into bed….and, called it a night!

2011-09-18 - in Lake Champlain, VT

So, where are we anyway? This is a great little diagram of the canal system that we took yesterday in the museum. If you follow the Erie Canal (this is the bottom part of the triangle from Oswego to Troy, NY. ) you will see our intended route that we were going to take. This total distance is about 186 statute miles. Because of the severe damage from hurricane Irene, this canal was closed. So, we headed north from Oswego and followed the eastern part of the lake to Kingston, Cornwall, Montreal and then to the top of the 'triangle', Sorel. From there we have been heading south (finally). We just left Burlington, VT (see diagram) and are heading for the more southerly/narrow part of Lake Champlain today for an achorage. From there we start the Champlain canal system. This new distance will be about 670 statute miles.....a little difference of 484 statute miles.

...a little later...

It was another lovely day. Dylan was again at the wheel. (on autopilot...with us there...of course.)

He loves to sit there for hours some time. We stopped early at Fort Ticonderoga, just off of the channel. We all climbed in the dinghy and headed for shore. Unfortunately, this for was unpenetrable from the sea.

there was no where to land our dingy and it was very swampy. Connor was a little upset as he was so excited about seeing another fort. We promised another fort of some sort along the way. We decided to haul our anchor up and put a few extra miles on since it

was such a lovely calm day. We ended up in a beautiful little spot just off of the channel at the very end of Lake Champlain.

It was so quiet and the stars were so dense and bright. We discovered that the anchorage was a great spot to play with echos. I did an owl sound that echoed over and over again since there were so many rock faces around us. Kerry did a few, as did I again, but Connor was a little reluctant to do one. Finally he did a quick 'Whoo Whoo' and what came back was a very cross, "Quack Quack". Connor was cracking himself up on that one. I guess a duck had enough of us! He thought that was hilarious. (you really just had to be there!)

2011-09-17 - to Burlington, VT

We left the anchorage this morning for another choppy day. We had a few spots on the charts that we would

check out for shopping if the weather called for it. Burlington, VT was the spot and we headed there about mid-day. Dock hands were ready to grab our lines. The waterfront was great - full of cafes, bike trails and museums. We needed to get some shopping in so we jumped in a cab to take us there. On the way back, we

decided to brave the local bus system. It took us in one run downtown. Connor loved that excitement. We decided to stay the night and enjoy the local scene. We headed to the ECHO museum which displayed water life of Lake Champlain with a side-show special exhibit of Grossology - the gross science of your body! We ended the day with a walk down the main strip closed off to traffic and ended it with the beautiful sunset off of our boat.

2011-09-16 - to Moody Bay, VT (anchorage)

...a little later...

It was another lovely day. Dylan was again at the wheel. (on autopilot...with us there...of course.)

was such a lovely calm day. We ended up in a beautiful little spot just off of the channel at the very end of Lake Champlain.

2011-09-15 - to St. Jean sur Richeleau (the Chambly Canal)

We left St. Charles and headed for the Chambly Canal, for the one of two only canal openings. It was pouring rain most of the day. Dylan hit the wheel again, as he likes to do every morning. He checks the GPS and then looks ahead. He does a great job! (it's still on autopilot!) When we arrived, we asked the lockmasters in the lock house if anyone went in the first opening today...and, they all chuckled, "no". We would be the only ones on the canal system today. What has been funny so far is we have not bumped into anyone on our trip so far. We have not seen any southbound boats at all. Are we the only 'crazy' ones out here? :)

So, the Chambly Canal was a lovely surprise. It is fully manually hand-cranked system. There were 4 lock masters that accompanied us throughout the day. They drove by 2's in their golf carts along the paths beside. It was so picturesque and quaint. At times, it felt as if we were just floating in the flooded ditch beside the road. The maximum width on the canal was 21 feet...and we are 18 feet wide. It was nothing but us and our fenders that fit.

The last bridge at the end of the canal

The flight of 3 locks in a row

The 'flooded ditch' on the Chambly Canal

2011-09-14 - to St. Charles, PQ

Great News! the Champlain canal is completely open now! We are good to go. We spent half of the day at the dock enjoying a quiet moment, showers, internet. We left at 12:30pm to tackle the next part of the trip....the Richelieu River. We had a knot or two of current to go against, so it was a little slower day. We landed at a town dock near a closed-down restaurant. We landed and noticed that there was a convenience store across the street. It has been great to be in Quebec for the 'immersion' part of Connor's school lessons. We have been pointing out signs and listening to the language, while here. The only thing that I wish is that they didn't know English so well! :) I was hoping that he could practice speaking in French. In the store we went in, I want him to order his slushie in French. The flavours were listed in French...fraise, etc. When I said 'fraise' to Connor...to get him going - the lady behind the counter said 'strawberry?'. I have not met one person who did not speak English! (no it's all up to me I guess) :(

2011-09-13 - to Sorel, PQ

It was a very full day today. We pulled away from Dorval at 7am and landing in Sorel at 7pm. It was a very long, full-of-excitement day! We had 2 locks to do as well. We went by the old expo site and the Olympic Stadium as well. The

biggest excitement is when we noticed that a storm was coming our way. We were tracking it on our radar and we could see the lightening in the distance. We zipped all the enclosure and got a good fix on our position in the channel. We are in the shipping channel....so, any loss of visability is not great for us. Especially, with ships coming our way. Sure enough, the sky blackened and the skies opened up! We couldn't see a thing. We knew that nothing was coming for a short while and just hoped that it wouldn't last too long. It lasted only about 5 minutes, but it was a very long 5 minutes. We moved to the outside of the channel and slowed down a bit. Then, the skies cleared and we were on our way again. Within 30 minutes we were tracking another storm. We felt ok about it as we had just gone through it. But, j

ust as the storm was approaching we could see a ship in the channel coming our way. These things are huge! There was lots of water outside of the channel, so we had planned to move far aside if the storm hits. Luckily, we seemed to dodge it and all was well. We landed in Sorel, just at the top of the Champlain system before the sun went down. Now, we have to find out if the Champlain canal is open all of the way. Only the last 4 locks were still closed due to high water. (The pic of the engine is the grass that we keep having to clear from our props. It is all over floating in mats. We try to avoid it, but we have to stop every hour or so and lift the engines to clear).

2011-09-12 - in Montreal (Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club)

Our mast is off!! We spent the beginning of the day securing the mast, hanging out and doing a bit of tidying. We jumped on our bikes / bike wagon and headed out for the local supermarket in the afternoon. It was a great opportunity to do a little 'french' lesson for Connor as all of the grocery signs were in french and I quizzed him on some of the more frequent foods. We loaded all the groceries on our bikes and Dylan's wagon and off we went home. Not an easy task. When we got back, Kerry gathered some knowledge from one of the club members as far as where to stay now up river. There is a place to anchor about 20 nm away. We had decided earlier on to stay the night again and leave early in the morning just in case we have extended waits in the canals again. There are limited places to stop after this so we need to time it well. While he did that we had a couple of hours of schooling. A greatest part of the day was when Kerry's nephew's family came for a visit. They only live 10km away. When we arrived yesterday, we didn't realize how close they actually were to us. We called them and they came right over. It was great to see them as it has been ages!

2011-09-11 - to Montreal, PQ

We woke up in the morning to discover where we landed in the dark. It was very neat to see something that hadn't been used in over 50 years. We pulled away and pulled in all 20 fenders (slight exaggeration) that held us away from the wall. We were heading to Sorel (which is the top of the Champlain system). Yesterday, we had expected to land at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club and as we were underway, we thought that we should stop in anyway. It was a zig-zagged pattern of markers that got us into the club. We had met some people at the club that suggested that we take the mast off here and not at Sorel. They had a nice electric crane and before you knew it - we were taking off the sail and pulling the lines - The mast is coming down today! I had to be hoisted up the mast to tie on the sling for the crane. There was a very knowledgeable fellow that helped us out (thankfully) as you need another set of hands to handle the mast as it is lifted. I was glad to see the mast resting comfortably on the cabin top. Since the kids were hanging out while we did all of this we left Kerry as he tied down the mast further and we hit the local park. Connor and Dylan took no time to get completely soaked in the splash pad little chilly for such things....but, it was fun.

2011-09-10 - to Beauharnois canal, PQ

We woke up in Cornwall surrounded by over 50 Bass boats floating in the Marina. After waiting for the 'gun' to go off to start their derby we set off. It was another bumpy start. The waves were coming over the bow again. This time, depositing masses of floating grasses on our trampoline. We ended up pulling off in a little marina a couple of hours in to wait it out and see if the wind shifted a bit. Within the hour it did and it made for a better ride the rest of the trip. Once we set off we did a bit of school work. Connor has been really interested in going well and doing lots in a day....I think he believes that if he moves quickly through the work, we can get it all done early and not have to do it the entire time.

We passed through another couple of lift bridges today. We also had a couple of locks to do to today....but, this is what slowed us down. When we arrived at the lock we pulled up to the pleasure craft dock and called

the lock master on the telephone. He regretted to inform us that it will be a couple of hours for the next lock through for us as there are several tankers coming through that take priority over a little sailboat. Sure enough, 3 tankers passed through the lock one after the other. After the third one locked through, the lock master came over the loud speaker to let us know that we could come into the lock. We scrambled excitedly and got into the lock. We were a little rushed as it was now nearing 6pm and the sun would soon be setting. We need light to navigate towards Montreal. As we got in the lock the lock master informed us that we would now have to wait another hour or so as we had to coordinate our lock descent with a tanker that is coming up the lock. The pic below is us sitting in the lock waiting...sun is setting quickly. We quickly thought of an alternative plan...there is an abandoned canal (Soulanges Canal) adjacent to this one (about 15 minutes away). The guide book that we bought suggested that it was a nice stopover

that did not lack in charm. hummm Before we could get there we needed to lock through and pass a tanker in the middle of the canal. Now, it is really dark. The lock doors opened and there was this giant ship moving slowly towards us. All I was thinking of was, "did they let the captain know that we were in the canal as well?" We kept to the left of the canal and they slowly made their way passed us. No sweat?! So, the canal spit us out the other end in complete darkness save the full moon that was behind us. The GPS showed the best route for us to take. We took a little longer, deeper route just to be sure. As we pulled up to the canal, you could see the old light house and the canal wall. As we approached the wall, it was clear that this would be a little challenging to tie onto. The wall was littered with large rusty and twisted bolts. These were probably the bolts that used to hold wood at the side of the canal. Now gone, these twisted bolts only remained. It took a bit of time to pick the less littered part of the wall. Kerry jumped off the boat and secured us to the large ship cleat that was there. We would here the rumblings of rushing water in the distance. Knowing that we just came down 2 locks....we figured that the water was falling down into our canal. I guess in the morning we will find out.