Leaving Montreal

We left Montreal for the 165 mile leg to Quebec. It took 5 days. The first day was light wind on the nose. If not for the current, we never would have made the 20 miles. Strange feeling working windward and having windway versus leeway. We still motored the last 3 miles to an anchorage off of Contrecoeur. It was a small village with a quiet cove. Most everyone follows the no wake rule, otherwise this would have been a bumpy anchorage. We left the next morning with the promise of 15 knots from the SW. It never materialized. We ghosted out into the channel and then motorsailed for 15 miles. We were heading to an achorage noted in Activecaptain.com. It was in a small canal just past Sorel. There must have been 500 powerboats buzzing through there. Total disrepect for anyone who had a camp and a boat tied up. The water was 20-30 feet right up to shore, so we motored the 3 miles through to look for another spot. At the end of the canal, we found where they were all going. There is a little cove, basically a deep spot in the marsh. You have to motor over mud to get in and there were hundreds of power boats in there. All rafted up and partying. I guess that is their version of the piss-hole (inside joke). Upon exiting the canal, we saw a sailboat anchored against a NE shoreline. We wound up anchoring in 15' of clay bottom. No protection from the forecasted SW, but it never really came up anyway.

The next morning, brought SW breeze that built to 15-25 knots by afternoon. We sailed 40 miles to a river anchorage in Batiscan. Here we experienced our first motor issue. The wind was blowing heavy and there was 3 knots of ebb current. Being a new anchorage, we decided to drop sail outside the marked channel and motor in. Duane quickly told me that we had very little thrust. I assumed weeds and dove over to find the prop tightly encased in weeds. It took a few dives to clear and then we had improved, but not full thrust. We had drifted 1/4 mile and were slowly working our way back, but we decided to hoist a double reefed sail and sail in. Once in, the motor worked fine again. There is a current limiter in the control and I can only assume the weed wrap made it exceed the current level and it needed to reset. At least it still provided enough power to hold our position and even advance further. From that day on, we would reverse the engine, to clear any weeds, before we dropped sail. There are so many large patches of weeds going downstream, that you can't avoid them all.

The next day brought no wind in the morning. We have 65 miles to Quebec and are now timing our travel to the tides. In the anchorage, was a nice couple from Toronto sailing a Tayana Vancouver. They are heading to Nova Scotia and left around 9:30. We watched them struggle to find wind and stay away from the shoal. A little over an hour later, we could still see them and the wind finally started to come up out of the west. It built to a steady 15, but we left too late to go all the way to Quebec and stopped at Portneuf for the night. Nice, quiet, clean and great river views for only $1.10 per night. We met a Rochester couple sailing out to start a 1 year trial living aboard. They're going to the Carribean on a 41' Bristol.

The next morning brought a 8-10 NW for a final leg to Quebec. We were docked by 3:00. We elected to stay across the river in Levis. Nice marina, but a longer walk to the ferry than expected. For $6 roundtrip you get a ferry ride right to old Montreal. The marina was cheap at $1.30 per night and when you stay 3 nights, you get the 4th night free. Great biking and walking trails with free bikes from the marina. The marina in the city was $2.25 a foot. We like the lower cost, but also prefer a more quiet setting for our daily jogs and walks. Plan to leave Saturday

morning so I can work from the WiFi all week.