Montreal - Ottawa (Almost)

July 8

Montreal

WOW.  I can't believe it has been 6 days since I last wrote.  Our days are busy from 8am to 11:30pm, and all of it fun or at least an adventure.

Quebec City was nothing short of fantastic and leaving it was hard.  However, it was time to get back on the road, or water as the case might be, and move on.  This turned out to be much harder than expected.  On the trip down to Quebec I discussed how strong the current was.  Well, heading in the other direction it had not changed.  It is strange, we were headed SOUTH but going UP RIVER.  

I was giving the boat the power that should have yielded ~22 mph but in that current only reached 18mph so a pretty constant 4mph current.  THEN we hit the tough current.  There was a place where the St. Lawrence narrowed thus increasing the current substantially.  This slowed us all the way to 13 mph!  Yes,  we were facing 8 - 9 mph currents.  The autopilot was worthless.  It was everything I could do on the wheel to keep us in the channel.  I talked to a buddy in a big boat and he said it took him down to 2mph (his top was 11) and he thought he would never get out of there.  His engines overheated with the effort forcing a repair stop.  Look at the Nebo log.  I kept pretty much constant RPMs all day but the speed is all over the place.  (The color coding shows the speeds.)

In the end, we made it to our anchorage in Three Rivers.  It was a great spot for the night.

The next day we continued on to Montreal.  The river was still fighting us but the Shorebilly had the power to weight ratio to win the day.

Whereas Quebec City was like a trip to Europe, Montreal is a "city done right".  Our marina was right in the center of town and we walked all over the place.  It did not hold the historic allure we had just seen.  Instead it felt fresh and vibrant.  Everything was clean and well maintained.  It was beautiful.  We were there with both Home Alone and Jolly Roger Too.  We saw beautiful art and sculptures and listened to street musicians around the city who were part of the Montreal Jazz Festival.  We headed down St Catherine street for the big performances at night but it was just way too crowded to enjoy so we moved on.  We are getting tons of exercise with all the steps we are putting in. 

This video was typical of what we saw.  This is nothing more than a tall building that the city decided to turn into living art.  

We also went in the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal.  Beautiful.  We attended mass in French and when we arrived it turned out the facility staff was on strike and they started blowing the ultra high pitched whistles and throwing confetti.  So the priest then invited a small group to join him in private quarters for the service.  Very cool.

The next day had Terri in heaven.  First,  we took the scooters to the ultimate farmers market.  This place was nothing but fresh fruits, veggies and meats.  We filled the backpack.  Then in the evening we went to Cirque de Soleil Echo.  What a show.  Totally cool.  After, we sat on our boats and watched the fireworks over Montreal,

So for you geeks, here are some stats.  According to Nebo, we did 676 miles.  Couple this with the May number I previously posted of 584 miles and we have a total of 1,260 miles in the trip so far.  Not to bad

The route shown here is from our visits with friends and family in NJ to Quebec City.

So, the Shorebilly and Never Home are headed to Ottawa tomorrow.  More to come!

Thanks for reading this far. 

God Bless and stay safe.

With Love,   Terri and Aubrey