Lac St. François avec Maud

 

After much preparation including some last-minute planning, Maud and I departed the club on September 11 at 14h. 

We motored to the gut and tried the storm jib without the furler attached. The main was reefed Winds were about 18 knots and declined and the storm jib did not perform, maybe because we did not attach the luff to the head foil. So we put away the storm jib and unfurled the headsail.  And eventually shakes out the reef from the main.

We sail to the windmill point sail and motor through part of the channel with a primary west wind and sailed then easily Soulanges arriving about 7.  We anchored north of the canal awaiting a strong south wind forecasted.

Jerry, a crew for Dick rowed by to introduce himself. He crewed for Dick who is an admirer of Bellum.

Supper was salmon and potatoes and asparagus - done to perfection.

We observed winds at 24 knots oscillating between south and west all night.  It was a rough night but not rocky as at the sandbars overnight on the 7th.  Sleeping was rough though.

Sunday morning, the Great Lakes website indicated the lockage was going to be at 10 so we departed at 8 30, docked at the pleasure craft dock, did the dishes from the previous night, had breakfast and did Yoga on the seaway docks.   I learnt Salute to the Sun. 

The lockage was mostly uneventful as we were the only boat and they put us right up front, very close to rocks at the bottom of the upward doors.  Leaving the wall was difficult for both locks and in the second lock, I had to back up to get off from the wall.

We motored against the two-knot current to the St Louis bridge and waited for what seemed a long time.  The second lock was spicy as we tried sneaking in before a freighter Everbright.  Maud was not impressed.

We made it into Lake St Francis and had a good sail around for a couple hours from 3:30 or 5:30 before we sailed into Valleyfield Bay. 

There was only one other boat anchored and the bay was very weedy - more than usual. Very different from July.  We had to re-anchor and spent much time cleaning the anchor between anchoring.  The zombie knife worked excellently.  

Supper was shrimps, cauliflower, and yellow rice. There were lots of leftovers.

On Monday morning we decided to remove the shrimpy garbage and recycling in Valleyfield and we had a nice walk returning for a 1PM departure after some lunch - tortillas sandwiches with the previous day’s leftovers.

We had an excellent sail to Ile aux Mouton but I decided on the nearby bay of Somerville.  We came across many shallow spots approaching Ile Mouton and Somerville Bay.  We were mucking around the sandy anchorage hitting bottom at 4.2 feet and mucking our way back out and anchoring for the night. 

Supper was Greek Salad

On Tuesday morning we departed earlier doing the south channel near Ile Christatie.  We were very concerned about the depth of the channel, but surprisingly it was mostly 70 feet occasionally 40- and 12-feet depths.  We had nice southern wind giving an easy beam to broad reach to a gybe as we approached the seaway channel.  Once in the channel, we decided to start the engine to give some charge to the batteries which have not been charged for a while. Fortunately, the telecom batteries keep things very civilized. 

With a forecasted strong south wind, we decided to tuck into a bay on the north side of St. Regis.  Winds were calm for the evening; a fisherman was fly fishing deep in the bay. 

I rewired the telecom batteries to supply the house – eliminating the house batteries as they had problems charging up and holding a charge.  When charge they could start the engine, but if somewhat lightly drained, they would show 4 volts.

Supper was Swordfish steaks, colourful carrots in foil and Maud’s salad consisting of mango, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro.  Excellent supper.

 

We went to bed at 11 30 and woken up to very spectacular lightning at 2 AM followed by strong winds of gust up to 31 knots but generally 10 to 22 knots mostly from the unprotected west and north swinging and heeling Bellum violently.  There were very few south winds.  I turned off master power since we did not need any electronics and put I-devices into the faraday case.  The lightning calmed down and went back to bed about 3.

Wednesday after the storm we got up about 9 and lingered around with coffee and Maud made buckwheat pancakes.

We motored to Colquhoun Island and tried to anchor north of the island near where Norm tried, but the depth contours were too challenging.  We had wanted to kayak there.

We then motored through the crab islands (very carefully) to Akwesasne  - St Regis Indian Reservation, anchored and inflated the kayak as Maud prepared lunch.  I then got concerned about the COVID situation, and we decided not to go and anchored at St Regis southeast and kayaked from there.

The supper was Confit Canard with potatoes done in the Omnia oven which worked very well. And a salad with too much lime juice

On Thursday we motored from St Regis, around the north side of Ile Christatie approaching from the East.  We tried but could not anchor well as we were dragging too much weed.  

We went around the island to come back to the southern channel when we got stuck on a rock.  We should have used the Navionics charts instead of the sonar charts.  It took about 15 minutes with Maud hanging on the boom to get us out. 

We motored to Baie Somerville and anchored a little further out than the previous Tuesday.  We kayaked through a canal and then to Bouee 35 marina which was supposed to be closed but the restaurant was open and we dropped our garbage there and kayaked back to Bellum.  Total Kayak time was from 16h30 to 18h30. 

We wined and had couscous with so-called “hot” Italian sausages. More leftovers which were lunch on Friday

On Friday morning we got up latish to clear blue skies and had coffee.

We motored to Côte au landing with some drifting midway. We kayaked the other side of Soulanges canal and around the bay and municipal dock. 

Supper was Octopus with seaweed salad and peppers on the BBQ. Excellent.

Saturday morning was cool. Maud wore her full foul weather gear - but not the tuque.  We pulled the anchor and sailed away without the engine at 9h30.  The windlass’s rope guard plate got dislodge but was still functional.

We sailed all the 5 miles to Larocque bridge and waited half an hour for the bridge which was on schedule for 13h00.  We then motored to two miles short of St Lois bridge and drifted for an hour and a half and then we waited 20 minutes for the bridge to open for Top Notch and us. 

 

At Beauharnais Josh from Top Notch helped us dock.  We arrived at 15h30 for a 16h00 scheduled lockage, but there was Eider just entering upbound so it was going to be some waiting. 

 

We locked through and Top Notch asked us where we were going and looking for a place to spend the night.  We were not sure yet but told him that the only place big enough for his 50-foot powerboat was the Royal.  We decided to anchor at Soulange as Maud was not keen to end our vacation yet.  I radioed Top Notch and invite them to follow up.  At first, our usual spot south of the canal looked full but there was lots of space.  To Notch decided to anchor North where we anchored last week.  The forecast was medium-light winds from the North. 

 

We kayaked and made a supper of leftovers into an Omelet.

 

The next morning the forecast was for north winds in the morning and dying about noon so we left about 9 with only coffee.  We sailed in an easterly wind tacking in two-knot seaway currents.  About a couple of miles before the zig-zag channel, we furled the sail and motored back to the club.  

We cleaned the masthead, did a pump out and gassed up.

We made some ham and cheese sandwiches and packed the cars and I washed the deck.

 

Hobbs 578.7  - 600  21 hours approx. 28 litre 

Trip log 5348 to 5478 - 130 nM

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