Here, at Brockville, we anchored with our nose tied to shore as Andy tried out the wet rock water slide into the lake while preparing the finishing touches on the moorage. What started out as a beautiful night ended up in rain through to morning. It was not all lost though as the loud music from the party across the bay kept us singing along for hours with one great tune after another. We were thinking of swimming over and getting the play list.
In the morning we reviewed the St. Lawrence Seaway lock procedures before heading off. We had an hour wait at the first one, Iraquios Lock, only to be lowered a couple of inches as the dam was completely open. Then while enroute we spied the Crysler Park Marina and made a spontaneous decision to call in for a slip. Andy cooked a wonderful chicken dinner and kicked our asses in cribbage:)
Monday was an early start to the day. We hiked a mile to "Upper Canada Village" on the site of the Crysler Farm where on November 11, 1813 the joint forces of 800 men made of British soldiers, local men and natives pounded the 8000 Americians until they went back home with tails between their legs. This was one of two critical battles which brought the war of 1812 to a close.
The whole "Upper Canada Village" had been relocated from its original location in the 50's to make way for the new St. Lawrence Seaway. It was then reconstructed in its original form around a man-made lake used to power a sawmill, flour mill and wool factory. You could easily spend a whole day there.If you like history, you should check out their web site. The tour concluded with a miniature train ride taking us back to the marina and we were on the water by noon.
We continued on our journey towards Montreal. Enroute, we transited the Eisenhower and Snell locks which are the only 2 American locks we go through. The primary focus of the St. Lawrence Seaway is commercial traffic so pleasure boaters often have to wait. So far we haven't had long waits. We motored the remainder of the day necessitated by the channel width, tanker traffic, and lack of wind. The day was a scorcher and we finally tied up at 8 p.m. just as the lightening show & rain began. We are still 40 nm to Montreal but with the help of the current, it shouldn't take too long. Today we actually made speed over ground of 10 knots at one point! The current so far has been approx. 2 knots so combined with our hull speed of 5.5 kn, we seem to be averaging 7kn/hr.
Stowaway update: No sign of the little critter for several days. We are assuming he jumped ship or passed on....
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