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INTO THE RICHELEIU CANAL SYSTEM:

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The Richeleiu Canal runs approximately 100 n.m from the St. Lawrence River just east of Montreal through Lake Champlain, then it becomes the Champlain Canal to the head of the Hudson River where it meets up with the New York Canal System. Traversing that takes us through many locks and shallow waters. The mast had to be taken down in Sorel and carefully lashed on deck onto a cradle Brian made. Two American boats (Jolie Dame and Agape) did as we did - we all helped each other and Deborah´s knowledge of the French Language in the whole process was invaluable. Being mastless made us top heavy and passing boats made us roll in their wakes. We became paranoid about groundings having been in that position 3 times as well as “bumping bottom” several times). We disliked the feeling immensely. We would hesitate to recommend the Richeleiu Canal System “trip” in a sailboat, or any boat with a draught of over 1.5 metres (five feet). It is an interesting trip, but it is for power boats. Lake Champlain is beautiful – ringed with mountains, many islands and anchorages, but unless one can step a mast easily and cheaply, on arrival it is frustrating not being able to sail in it. Much of it is also shallow - we bumped there too The locks are reasonably easy to manipulate once you have done one or two of them. The other deadly hazard is the kamakazi blue heron squadron – hundreds of them darting out in front of us – as if we’d eat their fish!

2001 costs for the Richelieu System were $40 for the transit plus 50 cents per foot of boat length per night, and for the Champlain Canal $15 (USD) for a two day pass with free overnighting at the locks.

After grounding and bumping we took towing insurance with Boat U.S., and will certainly feel cheated if we don’t use it. We are told that in the Intra-coastal waterway groundings are common, and towing costs are exorbitant.


DANCES WITH SPIDERS

Debby danced with spiders. Every morning she did the "Broom Waltz" with the whole crew. Spiders love boats, and we must have picked up the full complement at Brockville – the Spider Capital of the World. There were webs from the bobstay to the backstay, which were started at sundown, and were full of the bodies of night-insects by sunup. Debby’s dancing partners are seldom out in the daylight, but she still makes sure she shakes the towels out after they have been drying in the sun.

FRIGGIN’ IN THE RIGGIN’

Knowing how active we are, friends asked us how we intended getting our exercise. When we were in marinas we were able to jog and powerwalk, but when the mast was down and draped all over the deck our flexibility was kept by climbing over the mast, ducking under the mast, through the rigging lines and around the spreaders. Swimming and rowing the dinghy helped as well, as did climbing the companionway steps many times each day. Pulling up the anchor is quite an aerobic exercise. Fitness is no trouble on the Chinook Gym.

STINKY SINKS – UNPLUGGED

Our galley sink began to emit a most unpleasant odour which continued for several days before the sink drain hose finally became plugged, and all of the smelly stuff backed up into the sinks. It took and hour and a half to free it, but of course the problem reappeared a few days later. This time it took less time to fix; the third time less time still – we have some new hose to replace the old. Our head (bathroom) sink has a nice new brass hand pump which replaced the leaking foot pump. Never a dull moment.

MAST BACK UP AT LAST

Our mast finally went up again at Hop O Nose Marina on the Catskill Creek. Chinook finally looked like a sailboat again although we would not have the chance to actually sail her for a while. The channels on the Hudson are not wide enough in most parts, and the wind was mostly southerly – against us. We anchored for three nights after that (mast-raising) event in the shelter of the Catskill Creek to wait for a cold front to go through, as well as rebuilding our fuel pump (we were lucky enough to have brought a spare kit) which gave up the ghost just after the mast was raised.

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Photo: The Pallisades (Hudson R.)

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The Hudson River quite beautiful - wide, tree-lined, with only the occasional town or city. But it almost became monotonous as we motored for hours each day. Anchoring across from West Point Military Academy was interesting as was passing by Sing Sing Prison. It certainly paid to watch the tide times, as moving with them added another knot or two to our speed.

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NINE ELEVEN - THE WORLD TRADE CENTRE ATTACK:

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We’re sure everyone watched nothing else on TV. We first learned of the attack a few hours after it happened when we tied up at Milton on the Hudson. We were subsequently given the “once-over” by the US Coast Guard who pulled alongside and took all our particulars (date of birth, address, and boat details) and we were escorted by the NY State Police past the nuclear power station at Peekshill. I guess we looked dangerous ! Word was that we would not be able to transit the lower river through New York City until the following Saturday, and that only after getting permission and escorted by the U.S. Coast Guard..

GETTING ALL THE NEWS

Public Libraries were great for emailing purposes. Not many, however, were receptive to letting us use our own diskettes on which we had previously composed email using our laptop being deathly afraid of contracting a virus and that is only natural. The Mechanicville Library scanned our diskette before giving us the OK. Public libraries were also great for discarded book sales – paperbacks 25 cents. Not many of your current “top-of-the-New-York Times-Best-Seller List”, but some fun reading - and we seem to spend a lot of time reading.


We found it difficult keeping up with all the Canadian and World news very well. Our little black and white TV did not pick up much, but we get some news from local radio stations and the occasional newspaper. We still had that holiday feeling, I guess, but settling into regular workday patterns came soon!.

THE PEOPLE YOU MEET…

We met Laura (Seven Roses – 37 steel sailboat) a young Italian woman singlehandling around the world - swapped charts with her. (Note: we were to meet up again with Laura 5 years later in Italy) We met Jean (Amiro – 31 Dufour) a Montrealer, singlehandling down south. Leo and Maureen (Jolie Dame) travelling in tandem with Tom and Donna (Agape), two experienced American couples who gave us good tips. We seem to be meeting up everywhere with Penn and Kitty (Mystic Turtle), liveaboards for many years (in the Bahamas) doing the canal circuit. A Canadian couple from Toronto Mike and Yvonne (Kemily – 31 steel custom), and another young Toronto couple with two small boys, also Bahamas bound.

Taking the time to introduce ourselves and chat with people we meet has been very worthwhile information-wise and of course very interesting to hear their stories and plans.

YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF …..

Happy hour starts at 5 p.m. (or earlier some days). The search for cheaper ways and means is always on our minds when it comes to shopping, especially now that the Canadian-US dollar exchange was making everything more expensive. The ultimate in beer purchase: $5.99 (USD) for 24 cans of Budweiser !! 25 cent beers – not since the seventies … a supermarket had a special – buy 12 and get 12 free ! We found some nice red wines for $3.99 and $4.99 also. Can’t wait until we hit the $2.00 bottles of the demon rum. Happy hour may start at noon.


INTENTIONS…

The weather remained excellent with only a few days of rain. One rough night had us up at 5:30 a.m. on anchor watch with the boat next to us, but we enjoyed many “perfect” days. We watched ot for Tropical Storm Gabriel, but he went well out in the Atlantic and did not bother us. Our intentions were to sail down to Sandy Hook (just south of New York Harbour as soon as were are allowed to pass through), then out into the Atlantic Ocean, hopping down to the Delaware and Chesapeake Rivers and hopefully get to the Annapolis Boat Show in early October.

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