Today we transited the first three locks on the St. Lawrence River. We had anchored about 1 mile from our first lock, Iroquois, and were very excited for Grace’s first lock experience.
Iroquois, however, was over almost before it began. They locked us through without any tie ups and we only went down about 8 inches. Underwhelming; especially since we had been talking up locks to Grace for about 24 hours.
Eisenhower and Snell locks, though, were more dramatic. Eisenhower dropped us 43 feet and Snell another 46 feet. Also, the locks were full enough that we tied up to the lock, and another sailboat tied up to us.
Chatting with the sailboat that tied to us, they mentioned they had seen us the previous day — and even gave us a picture they had snapped of Guidance. They are from the Montreal area and recommended an anchorage.
We’re in the anchorage now, and it’s very nice. Before we could get to the anchorage, we had to go through Lake St. Francis — an area where the St. Lawrence River is quite wide and shallow. Along the way we snagged so many weeds on the rudders that we had to stop and send Anne to remove them!
Tomorrow, we plan to go through a few more locks and under a couple lift bridges to get into Montreal.