Saint Lawrence Seaway Here We Come
Jun 1, 2025
Left our anchorage in Porter Bay just north of Otter Creek about 8:30. As we exited the Creek, Lauren saw two trawlers heading North. She put binoculars on them, but wasn’t able to get the names of the boats. Shortly after, she received a call over the VHF radio; it was Karen on Rowe Boat III. Told Karen we were heading up Otter Creek to a town called Vergennes. It was a gorgeous, sun-shiny day as we meandered along. We had quite a current against us, because of the heavy rains. The ride was idyllic. Once we arrived in Vergennes, we anchored closed to the base of three waterfalls.
Vergennes is a quintessential Vermont town that is known for a hastily-built ship building hub during the war of 1812. The Americans were aware that the British were building warships on the northern portion of Lake Champlain. U.S. forces worked almost non-stop constructing a 140-foot ship-of-war with 26 guns christened, Saratoga. They also constructed six, 75-foot row gallies each mounting 2 cannons. The British spies reported this and moved on Otter Creek. The Americans hastily constructed fortification with cannon behind earthworks at a position called Fort Cassin. It was located at the mouth of Otter Creek. The Americans were able to hold off the British Navy and the British Navy withdrew. The American fleet fought later that year in Plattsburg, NY.
When we first decided to travel this route, we were going to hopefully dock on the free dock, but because of the high water, the town has not installed those docks yet, hence anchoring in the middle of the river. We decided to take the dinghy to shore, but the electric outboard was not strong enough to motor against the current. It was a good thing we left a line tied to the boat and try the motor first against the current. If we hadn’t, Brian would have been floating back down the river with no way to get back to the boat. So, he dismantled the electric motor and put on the gas outboard. We were able to motor to the shore, but we had to tilt the motor up because the propeller was hitting the bottom which was concrete; the water level was so high, it covered the sidewalk. Once off the dinghy, Brian tied it to a tree and we walked into town. We had lunch and also stopped at a bakery. The town was well-maintained with historic houses and commercial buildings. It would be nice to stay and visit more of the town, but the anchorage is not ideal. It will be a restless night of sleep. Tomorrow morning, we will travel back down Otter Creek and head to Willsboro Bay on the New York side of Lake Champlain.
June 3, 2025
This morning while having breakfast, we spotted a female Common Merganser. Still hoping to see a Loon. Also, about 30 Cormorants came flying in landing in the water – quite a site.
Yesterday we anchored in Willsboro Bay. Lauren has an Aunt and Uncle that live in Willsboro on a peninsula. Our anchorage was on the opposite of where they lived because it was out of the winds and calm. We could have brought the dinghy to shore, tied it up and taken a hike to visit with them, but it would have been a little over 3 miles each way. This morning, Brian called Indian Bay Marina to get a slip for one day. This gave us the opportunity to visit with Lauren’s relatives and it was only 1.2 miles walk each way from the marina. It was a gorgeous day for a walk; even Heidi walked the whole way to and fro. Uncle Milton will have his 95th birthday this July. He and Aunt Ruth were just tickled to see us. We had a wonderful visit reminiscing about our families. We were shown many photos of his family going back several generations. Lauren took pictures and labeled them. She also got pictures of lists of relatives and their extended families. Hopefully, she will receive more info from her uncle regarding her ancestry.
After returning to the boat, we took apart and re-bedded one of the Sampson posts as it was leaking on Lauren while she was sleeping during the last heavy rainfall.
Late afternoon Lauren’s aunt and uncle stopped by to see our boat. We were actually shocked that they walked down the dock, it was rather wobbly and her uncle uses a cane. They even got on the boat un-assisted and seemed quite impressed with it. After a short visit, we walked up to the marina for dinner. Apparently, Lauren’s uncle is known as the “Mayor” of Willsboro; they are both well-liked. Lauren’s uncle worked on small engine repairs; numerous other miscellaneous repairs and looked after camps for years. He could repair and fix just about anything. Uncle Milton fought in Korea with the Army Airborne and has numerous medals and injuries. Many people stopped by to chat with them. It was sad saying “goodby”. Uncle Milton wants to stop by and watch us leave tomorrow.
June 4, 2025
We were planning on leaving the dock about 10:00. Lauren’s Aunt & Uncle stopped by and we spent some time with them. When they were departing, the winds had picked up significantly, kicking up the water and rocking the dock system. Aunt Ruth got off the boat with no issues, but Uncle Milton had a harder time. Once off, we sandwiched her uncle between us as the docks were so rocky. Aunt Ruth was doing just fine and in front of us, so we could keep an eye on her. We shuffled slowly along just wanting to get them safely to land. They gave us parting gifts of oranges, banana muffins and lemon cookies. Lauren’s uncle brought Brian a Veteran’s T-shirt. He’s always giving them out; he as so many of them given to him for his service. Lauren gave them homemade plum jam.
After seeing Aunt Ruth and Uncle Milton safely off, we left the dock and motored across the bay to Burlington, VT. The winds hadn’t let up and the waves were broadside to us, but it actually was a comfortable ride over. Before heading to our marina, we stopped to fill up on diesel. Our fenders were already on the starboard side for the marina dock we had reserved, so instead of switching them over, Lauren brought the boat in and did a u-turn into the fuel dock; it went smoothly. Brian wanted to fill two of our tanks, but we had a difficult time with one of the tanks. The intake kept showing it was full, but if you tapped the tank in the engine room, it was hollow. We discovered part of the problem was the air vent seemed to be blocked. Brian poked his finger in that and out fell a bee, thankfully not living. We poked some q-tips into the vent to clean it, but nothing else came out. Brian then tried to find the hose that was attached to vent; eventually he did. After taking off a large vent plate, Brian was able to access the back of the vent. He removed the hose and made sure the vent hose and the vent fitting were clean. He blew into the hose and we could hear gurgling coming from the intake port. After, reattaching everything, he was able to put diesel in the tank, though it was excruciatingly slow; the dock hands said it was their pump, not us – yeah! Once the tanks were topped off, we motored over to our reserved dock at the Burlington Boathouse Marina. Docking went well. After sharing a sandwich for lunch we got off the boat to pay for our stay and walk about a bit. At the office building, there was a small ice cream store. They change out their flavors quite often, but limit it to only two flavors at a time. We both got a soft serve; Brian’s was black raspberry and Lauren had a maple walnut – they were both delicious!
Brian reading: Finished The Forgotten and Redemption both by David Baldacci
Lauren: Still reading A People’s History of the United States (reached the ½ way mark – woohoo!) Also read Kristen Hannah’s Night Road & Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter
June 5, 2025
Yesterday for dinner, we took a walk to Flat Bread Pizza – delicious!
When we arrived back on the boat, Brian took Heidi out for her business while Lauren decided to start a load of laundry. It was so hot and muggy, that Lauren stripped down to almost nothing and was squatting in front of the washer/dryer unit when she heard a knock and a “hello”. Instant panic set in because we have large windows in our salon where the washer/dryer unit is located and the area is readily visible from the docks; Lauren did check to see if anyone was about before she stripped. She crabbed crawled back down to the bedroom area to throw on some clothes; rushed back up and looked out the side and saw a man from the fire department. After introductions, he pointed out that there was a small fuel slick emanating from our boat – oh dear! Lauren told him we had just filled our fuel tanks a couple hours earlier. She also explained that we do have a tank with a leak, but we did not fill that one. He came on board and looked on the other side of the boat where we had filled our tanks and noted that, yes there were some residual stains on the deck from that process. He looked overboard on that side and did not see any fuel. He left to confer with the coast guard and marina staff. Lauren told him that if he passed a guy in a blue baseball cap walking a Yorkie, that was Brian and to not hesitate to talk to him. After the fireman left the boat, Lauren opened up the hatch to the engine compartment and noticed that, yes, there was diesel in the bilge. Panic set it!!! How did this happen? As the fireman was walking off the docks, he met Brian and explained what the issue was. Brian came back to the boat and went into the engine room. Almost immediately, he found the source of the leak. The fuel was dripping from the bottom of the sight glass, something that should not happen. The site glass is used to determine how much fuel is in the tank. He was able to stop the leak by shutting off a couple of valves. He also shut off the power to all the bilge pumps. After that, he went to find the fireman and they came back to the boat. Brian showed him what the problem was and told him that the solution would be to pump the diesel into 5-gallon buckets. Since it was late in the day, there were no local stores open. Brian also called the coast guard and informed them of the issue. He was instructed to follow-up with the fire department and Vermont’s Department of Natural Resources. The fireman was in agreement that putting the diesel into 5-gallon buckets was a reasonable solution and that he would recommend it to the person at the Department of Natural Resources. A gentleman from the Department of Natural Resources called and they discussed the issue and the solution. He was in agreement that it was a good plan, but wanted before and after pictures. Brian took pictures of the diesel in the bilge and forwarded them on. This morning, Brian was at the hardware store at 7:30 and bought several 5-gallon buckets with lids. By 8:30, all of the diesel fuel was in the buckets and the bilge had been thoroughly cleaned. It turns out there was less than 6 gallons of diesel and water mixed together in the bilge. Pictures were sent to the Department of Natural Resources and the representative was satisfied and nothing else had to be done. WHEW!!! We were concerned because depending on the severity, the fines can be pretty steep.
June 14, 2025
Back on board after a week at home. Left the boat docked in Burlington and left earlier than planned as Lauren was feeling rather ill. It took us only 3 ½ hours to drive home. Once home, we were both off and running. Lauren had numerous medical appointments. To keep her mind off of how lousy she was feeling, she did quite a bit of weeding of our perennial beds, laundry, baked cookies and prepped meals for the boat among her usual household chores. Brian ran numerous errands, took his mother out for lunch, stopped by the apartment building and checked on our tenants, etc. He also discovered that our bee hive that was abandoned by the bees last winter actually had honey in them. So, he spun it out and we got about 4 gallons - yum! After checking in with the kids, it was back to the boat yesterday. Brian unpacked the car and hauled it to the boat and ran errands again before returning the rental vehicle. Lauren unpacked and stored all. Mid-afternoon, we took a walk about Burlington poking through some of the shops. We stopped and had an early dinner of tai food – it was very good, except Brian’s cashew chicken did not have one cashew in the dish, so he was given a small back of cashew to go with his leftovers along with apologies and a discount on our bill.
This morning we were off the dock by 7:45 and traveled 53.8 miles and dropped anchor at 3:45 in the Richelieu River. The day started out with a bit of rain, but quickly cleared into a beautiful sunny day. Most of the travel day was uneventful until we had to check into Canadian Customs. The approach to the Customs dock was narrow and exactly 90 degrees to the face of the dock. That left very little room for turning the boat to get onto the dock. In addition to this, there was a fairly strong current and the chart showed shallow water all around, so no room for error. Docking did not go as smoothly as we would have liked, but there were no mishaps. The customs agent said we did just fine and he’s seen some doozies over the years. Customs check-in was a breeze – took about 5 minutes. The Customs Officer was most pleasant and seemed to be concerned primarily if we had any firearms. From there, til we dropped anchor, we felt like salmon swimming upstream. We were the only boat going North; everyone else and even the locals were traveling South. We got rocked a number of times, as quite a few of the larger pleasure craft came close to us and did not slow down; thought it was rather inconsiderate; Heidi didn’t care for the rocking at all. Being the weekend, there were many types of pleasure boats on the water along with pwc’s and kayaks; we’ve never seen so many pontoon boats – guess everyone just wanted to get out and enjoy the wonderful weather. Lauren ended up with a migraine. Before we anchored, we were trying to get a peak around the corner of a marina to see if we could tie up to a floating dock just before our first bridge of the day. There were too many boats out and about and close quarters, so she just whipped the boat around and we anchored. So, between that and the docking at the Custom’s Office, she was a bit un-nerved; doesn’t take much to set a migraine off, unfortunately. This, of course, made for a fitful sleep and her trying to figure out how she could have done better with docking.
Tomorrow morning we enter our first lock in the Chambly Canal system; we have 9 locks to traverse – should take about 3 hours.
Brian reading:
Lauren: A People’s History of the United States – still and The Opehelia Cut by John Lescroart
June 15, 2025
This morning, after a much-needed discussion regarding what our day could be like with all the bridges and locks, Lauren felt better about going forth. Brian offered to actually turn around and head to Maine for the summer; that would have been wonderful, BUT this is what we signed up for and really did want to continue. Each day is a challenge, one that surprises and pushes us to figure it all out and carry on. We pulled up anchor and headed to our first bridge which was a lift bridge. Shortly after that, we came to our first lock of the day; there were a total of nine locks to navigate. The lock was so small that only two boats; both our boat and the other boat were about 50 feet in length overall; it was a rather cozy fit. The accompanying boat was also a Looper from Mt. Katahdin area and they spend winters in Florida. It took us five hours to navigate all nine locks and everyone lock was a tight fit with just the two boats. Work on the canal started in 1831 and opened for navigation in 1843. Some 600 workers managed to dig the canal and lock ditches. The canal is 19.3 kilometers (12 miles). It was an absolutely majestic day! We saw a couple of hens (female ducks) and their ducklings swimming in the canal.
The canal system for the most part was rather narrow. If you didn’t stay right in the middle, the motion of the boat would create a suction with the side of the canal and pull the boat to the side which makes it a tad difficult to control. A couple of times, we could actually feel the pull, but didn’t have any issues with it.
All of the lock attendants were pleasant and helpful. We were underway for 5 hours, but only traveled 10.4 miles, because of all the bridges and locks. The last three locks were right in a row. From the third lock, you looked across the remaining two locks and the lake beyond. It was quite a dramatic sight. This area is a popular tourist destination. It was good to finally stop, though we got the last open spot on the blue dock just outside of the last canal. The blue is actually for those boats waiting to transit the canal system. Brian asked and if they would give us permission to spend a night or two. If we decide to stay more than one night, hopefully a few places further up on the dock out of the blue line will open and we can move on up. We are 38 miles from Sorel-Tracy a town on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Chambly is a very picturesque area. On the entire way through the canal, we saw numerous people out bicycling, walking and running; everyone wanted to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather. At every lock stop, there were people watching all the lock activity; nothing like being on display; makes Lauren a bit self-conscious, which heightens her anxiety to not mess up. At the end of our run, we are surrounded by many, many boats docked all around us, people milling about just enjoying this fine day. Brian took Heidi off the boat for a much-needed potty break.
Mid afternoon we took a walk about town and stopped at Tre Colori – a wonderful Italian restaurant. Everything was delicious; a great meal.
Ater catching up on the blog, we took another walk about; Brian couldn’t resist getting an ice cream. We meandered our way to Fort Chambly. Fort Chambly is a historic fort in La Vallee-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec; formerly known as Fort St. Louis. It was built in 1711 and the last of 3 forts built on the same site. It was a part of a series of five fortifications build along the Richelieu River to protect travelers on the river from the Iroquois. For many years, Fort Chambly was the main footing of the defensive chain of fortifications along the Richelieu River, which was the easiest invasion route into New France. The substantial stone structure which still stands today, was lost to the British in August 1760. Of course, there is much more to the history of this amazing structure.
While typing the blog, Lauren noticed one of the lock attendants walking by; she poked her head out and said “hello”. He remembered us and asked how we were enjoying our stay and wished us a wonderful evening.
June 16, 2025
This morning, we were off the dock by 7:10 and our way to the St. Lawrence Sea Way. We traveled down the Richelieu River and only had one lock to go through. This lock was different in that once you entered it, the lock hands tied the boat up to a floating dock, which meant that we did not have to stand on the side of our boat holding lines while the water level went down. The dock hands stayed by our boat the whole time and chatted with us. The river was wide and easy to navigate with the exception of one railroad bridge. It was a narrow opening under it with the current whipping through it and the path through was not obvious until the last minute – a bit harry.
Along the journey today, we saw many elaborate church steeples. Both the steeples and the roofs were painted silver. After doing a bit of research, we read that a lot of the Catholic Churches are painted that way. It aids in shedding the copious amounts of snow and thereby protecting the structure. They were really striking to look at, especially in full sunshine.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. Once we reached the St. Lawrence Sea Way, we turned towards the ocean and stopped at the second marina where we had reservations for the evening.
Tomorrow morning (early), we fight the current and head towards the Great Lakes and the first of two locks that we will have to navigate through. We will stop just before them and anchor for the night. The first lock is only open at 9am for pleasure craft. We had to go on-line to make reservations to transit both locks. After leaving the locks, we will be going by Montreal and heading towards Ottowa. The trip will take us about four days of travel time.
Hope all is well and stay safe out there