July 10: Sorel, Quebec

Today we completed the Chambly Canal with a unique combination bridge/three step lock. It was an interesting conveyance where as you exited the lock, you entered the next lock. They were very narrow and short, and I felt like I was driving into a shoebox. The lock masters were congenial though and the gardens along the banks were beautiful.

Our cruise today was delightfully relaxing as we found farms by our noises as well as the camera view finder. There were frequent small ferries connecting the opposite banks. We actually anchored for a while where we found an unsecured internet hotspot. We saw a number of unusual curvy steeples on churches and thought we should track down the heritage of them. Later in Sorel, we found one like this one at the Eglise de Saint Pierre (Church of St. Peter).

We emerged from the Richelieu into the Saint Lawrence Seaway to heavy commercial traffic and choppy surface water that we had not seen in a while. We passed a freighter from Hong Kong (sort of like the marine terminal by the Sanitary in Morehead, NC where we had dinner last week).

We had a reservation at the Marina de Saurel and it was white knuckle time for me as we navigated through a narrow channel and docked between two yachts with a heavy cross wind. You can see how close together we are in this picture I took from the dock.

Tonight we had dinner in restaurant on the point and enjoyed overlooking the seaway. The walls were amazingly thick glass from floor to ceiling with an awesome view of the water and passing freighters. After dinner we took our bicycles downtown for the festival de la gibelotte. We were not sure what they were celebrating but there were 3 or 4 bands playing the streets. We went to hear the Beach Bums (a homage to the Beach Boys) who were the only ones singing in English. So for our two nights in Canada so far, there has been an open air concert in both towns! Tom and I danced in the street to Barbara Ann just to show them how to do it.