So the short but obscure journey from Montreal to Ottawa is generally not noteworthy in many cruising forums, but well, it should be. It involves a passage on the St Lawrence Seaway and two of it's major locks (where us itty bitty guys can expect to find major delays at the locks where the big boys are constantly moving through), some additional major fighting of currents to go "upstream" on the Ottawa River, and then some surprisingly beautiful stretches of a "small" river system, where you can find wildlife and scenery and remote anchorages in the north country.
This part of our travel also happens at a seasonally busy time for the already short summer season in Canada known as the "Construction Holiday", when a large part of the population (including boaters) all take the same 2 weeks off! Like our recent experience coming in to Montreal, we end up traveling near an urban area on the weekend and "meet" many of the locals enjoying their time off too.
One of the two locks we need to transit. Note the big freighter upstream that's waiting for us to get outta the way!
On this stretch of the St Lawrence, us little guys need to chill at the locks and wait for our turn.
It becomes a bit of a parade between locks to get there and then wait until there are enough of us for the lockmaster to let us through.
"Rafting up" (tying up multiple boats, side-to-side) is what you need to get used to. It can get dicey when the turbulence of filling the lock happens and then you're yelling at each other in french and english!!!!!
The Carrillon lock requires a 65 ft water change. We 'Locked thru" with 15 boats!
Happy Happy, happy tied up at the St Anne Bellevue lock wall after a long days travel. Because of high spring rains, only one side of the lock is usable because of flooding.
The lock at Carillon. At 65 feet it is the largest on the Ottawa River and allows boat traffic around Canada's largest hydropower dam.
The stately town and lodge in Montebello.
Our last anchorage on the Ottawa in Clarence Bay.