Day 33 – Sun. July 12, 2009

When we entered the St. Lawrence River (on left) it was very impressive. It had the same feeling as entering the Mississippi River, wide and fast flowing. We encountered large ocean going ships that push a lot of water in front of them. When approaching Montreal (picture at bottom right) a large number of pleasure boats seamed to swarm every where!

Typically of this summer’s weather the wind kicked up and we had thunderstorms building behind us to the north east. The weather become ugly the last hour of our cruise and as I was attempting to back into our slip the wind caught me and I bumped our dingy into the anchor of another Carver. I must say the owner was very gracious and understanding and even provided a beer while I was apologizing for thumping his boat. It was explained to me that the difference between Illinois boaters and Montreal boaters is winter comes we put our boats in storage and go to Florida or Mexico. Up here they change out their props to winter props to break the ice and remove their dinghies and replace them with snow mobiles! I have learned one thing from this incident………………soft inflatable dinghies make good fenders or WOOPE cushions.

Barb and I were disappointed that we won’t have the opportunity to visit with Nicholas. After speaking with him and finding out that he is in the town of Magog (east of us) and consulting a map found that we are about a hundred miles apart and neither of us has a car.

Tonight we walked to the town of Longueuil and had one of the best meals we have had since leaving home one month ago. The French influence is very obvious!

Tomorrow we will ferry from the marina in Longueuil across the river to Montreal’s Old Port and visit Montreal.