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We’re anchored here.  Tomorrow morning we’ll visit the marina to refuel and reprovision.

Today was flat calm for pretty much the whole trip.  Bill saw whales this morning before rousing me, and after shadowing the pro captains coming out of Tadoussac we saw a big fin whale close up.  Cool.  Apparently there’s the occasional blue whale around here.  I’m always watching.  That’s on my bingo card. Here’s Bill’s video from the stop.

Last time I came this way 4 years ago I was pretty nervous about the next 250 miles.  Escapade was new to me.  It’s a harsh unforgiving shoreline, with strong variable currents that can kick up nasty seas.  So, as I sometimes do, I basically sprinted from here to NB.  It’s all here in the blog. 

This time I’m going to noodle as much as is practical.  There are small fishing ports every 30-50 miles.  The forecast looks good for the next couple of days. 

The picture above is my only one for today.  I was captured by the natural beauty.  Clouds, high ground, and endlessly changing water and wave patterns. Here’s one Bill just took.

We’re eating well, and Bill is comfortable and enjoying the trip.  It’s nice to share the experience. Next port is Matane, about 50 miles away. 

As Susan mentioned, we did a crew swap in Montreal on Thursday, and Bill and I left Thursday afternoon.

Thursday night we anchored here, and on Friday we stopped in Berthierville to pick up some parts.  Then on down the river.  Friday night we stopped here past Quebec City, and yesterday we got to Tadoussac.

I was hoping that Bill would see some whales here, and we weren’t disappointed.  Saw belugas on the way in, and fin whales were swimming among the anchored boats.  One came by us and Bill captured it on video.

All good aboard.  We’ll be continuing east on the south shore of the big river.  The biggest challenge so far is current, which runs both ways due to tidal influence.  This affects speed over ground as well as wave shapes and sizes.

These are my pics.  I may add some of Bill’s at some point.

On Thursday afternoon past, Samantha, Sarah and I headed home, leaving Jeff and new Escapade traveller Bill in Montreal.

En route, Sam announced that Guelph’s overnight low was predicted to be 13. It seemed hard to believe, given that it was 30 in Escapade’s galley (aka my bedroom) the night before. Between the heat and local noise (2 loud alarms went off between 0230 and 0300), it made for a fitful night’s sleep.

Although the heat meant I didn’t sleep much and I sweat buckets most every day, it was another great experience aboard Escapade. I biked three days and felt more comfortable and confident each time I got on my bike. I swam pretty much every day and was most appreciative of Sarah’s purchase of floaties, and of Jeff’s consideration in finding anchorages with good swimming. Jeff even got in the water which I would not have believed without seeing it firsthand.

I had never boated or biked that part of the St. Lawrence and thought the scenery pretty spectacular. I also found it a good mix of spending time together (biking, chatting and playing cards) and apart (quiet reflection watching the sun come up)

Here are the last of my favourite photos.

We have been having a pretty great time over the past 3 days, biking, swimming and travelling down the St. Lawrence River.

Here are some of my favourite photos so far….

It’s been a while since I’ve been somewhere completely new and unfamiliar.  Today we left Brockville and headed down the river.  I’ve never been this way by boat.  Came through Iroquois lock with no major delay or issue.

We’re now clearly in a big river, with Canada on one side and the US on the other.  We’re anchored here for the night in reasonably calm conditions.  It’s fun watching the ship traffic.  Guess I should get used to it for a while.

Biking and boating is working well.  Tomorrow I’ll unload the cyclists and meet them downriver later in the day.  The following day they’ll boat with me through the next two locks.

Here are my pics.  Susan will post more.

Susan here, back aboard Escapade, this time with Samantha and Sarah here too! We came aboard early this morning at Ganonoque. The plan is to head east with biking, swimming and card games along the way. In the meantime, here are some sunrise pictures from this morning.

I came out of the Trent Severn late this morning, and am now cruising down the Bay of Quinte.  Nice day, with a following breeze.

The trip down from Healey Falls was pleasant and unremarkable, except that I hit solid bottom unexpectedly.  I thought I was in the marked channel but had swung a bit wide to give an oncoming boat lots of room.  I was going slow and got into neutral and bumped over it.  Charts showed lots of water.  I dunno.  Maybe it was a sunken car.  There seems to be a lot of that recently.

I filled up with fuel in Belleville.  436 litres since my last fill up in Tobermory, 642 miles back. 

Had a nice dinner out last night in Frankfort with a couple I met going up to Couchiching on their new-to-them Bayliner 4788.  We traveled down together from Healey Falls.  I hadn’t realized that there is a little downtown across the river.  Another nice spot to stop.

I’m due in Gananoque in a week to meet Samantha Sarah and Susan.  In the meantime I need to fix some stuff and get things habitable for guests.  Will stop in Kingston for a few days.

You can see what interests me in my travels.  The first is a Greenline 40.  Lots to like beyond the hybrid power.  The second looks like a very practical mini-houseboat.  Cute.

And a bridge pic for Sarah.

It’s been nice slow cruising the last couple of days.  Last night I stopped at Hastings, and the night before was in Bobcageon.  I explored a bit more of Stoney Lake and found the sailing association.  They have an active dinghy program run out of their island base.  Nice area.

Today I stopped at Lock 19 and will stay for a bit.  Heading to Guelph for a Canada Day party on my motorcycle.  I’m not in any rush, with 11 days to get to Gananoque to meet guests.

I like this section of the waterway.   The locks are remote and quiet.

Not much else to report.  Maneuvering around locks and narrow passages seems more trivial now, in comparison to narrow boating.  My winter holiday was good cross training 😀

That last boat is a looper in an Aquila 42.  Seems like a great big budget loop boat.  I’ve been meeting a few as I come down.

I’m anchored here at the entrance to the canal.  In the past I’ve tied up inside the breakwater, but it’s quiet here with an easterly wind.  And I’m a bit leery of walls.

After spending two nights below Big Chute we went up and over on the railway, and Miles went back to work.  I meandered up to the bottom of Lock 42 and spent the night there.  Nice spot with a decent burger spot close by.

This morning I woke up to a minor mess in the galley.  I had the boat closed up, but found the window screen open.  I’m quite certain a racoon opened the screen and came in to feast on my bagels.

It was raining and I wasn’t in a big rush, so I didn’t join the other boats for the first locking.  When I was getting off the wall to enter the lock a bit later my control cable for the transmission failed, and I was stuck in reverse. 

I had almost exactly the same thing happen with Mazurka 8 years ago, and the outcome was the same.  I hit the wall going backwards.  Fortunately no damage to the boat or dinghy apart from a scuff on the metal swim platform. 

I’m fortunate that this didn’t happen when I was close to other boats.  I had checked all the cables and connections carefully last year when decommissioning the upper helm.  There was no sign of problems before the internal rod in the cable broke close to the end fitting.

I was able to fix the problem by replacing the cable with the one from the upper station.

Cool, grey and rainy today.  A nice break from the heat of the last couple of days.

I stopped in Orillia on the way through.  Had a nice chat with the folks on this boat, they’re doing a loop of Lake Huron from their home in Ohio.  Cool boat.  They had passed me earlier at their 29 knot cruising speed.

We’re on the Trent Severn.  I’m anchored here below Big Chure, expecting a visit from Miles later today.

I’ve been reminded again of how much I like this area.  On Sunday I came across a calm and foggy lake and went down Twelve Mile Bay.  Monday I traveled the inside route down and came through the first lock in the late afternoon.

Big news is that I met the couple who built Escapade into its current form.  I popped into an anchorage to say hello to fellow loopers, and they were there with their steel tug and approached me as I was leaving.  I’m glad they did.  It filled in some history on the boat for me.  They’ve built and renovated many boats, but all steel apart from mine.  Kyle did some impressive wood work for a metal guy!

There has been a heat warning for the last couple of days, and it hit me yesterday as I came off the lake.  It’s moderated now.  I don’t have air conditioning and for the most part don’t miss it, but it was a bit sticky last night.