Day 277 Chambly Canal

Be sure to double click on these pictures.



Waiting for the 12:30 swing bridge opening at the start of the Chambly Canal






Our first lock #9






Following Russ and Cindy on "Lady Bug"






Close quarters in these locks. You can see the upcoming step locks.








The water couldn't be any higher on these lock walls.









Manually closing the lock doors.








What a day! We left Gaines Marina in Rouses Point, NY at 8 am and could not reach the custom office by phone so we pulled into the Canadian Customs area and a woman come outside, ask # of passengers and what do we have on board and told us to keep going. We thought that was a bit strange that she took our word on everything but she didn't want to be bothered.

We arrived at our first swing bridge on the Chambly Canal (MM 50, bridge #12) at 10:30. They do not open the bridge during lunch between 11:45 and 12:30. We walked to the lock master’s house because we needed to purchase our Canadian Canal passes. After a very very long walk, he said he would sell them to us once we were in the lock so the walk was for nothing but exercise. They coordinate the lock opening with the bridge opening. There is room for only 2 boats of any size in the lock chamber. For anyone following behind us, the 2010 seasonal mooring pass is $9.80’ and the seasonal lock pass is $8.80’. The step locks were a new experience with women manually cranking shut the bridge, walking to the other end and manually opening the valves to let water out and then using the same crank opens the bridge for boats to go out. The speed on the Chambly is a maximum 6 MPH so we traveled 28 miles in 8 hours; 9 bridges, and 9 locks. Negotiating the last three locks of the day was a challenge. As you enter the 20’ wide lock, the top of the lock wall projects 8” above the water line. This leaves very little area for a fender to protect the side of the vessel from the concrete wall. Additionally complicating the maneuver were strong threatening winds that were strong on the stern, or swirling in unpredictable high gusts. Kind of a white knuckle afternoon.

With the (9) locks completed it started raining just as we exited the last lock of the day. We decided to call it a day and tie to the "Blue Line" just as we exited lock 9. We are tied behind Russ & Cindy off the motor vessel “Lady Bug”.