Loop Life with Greg and Reenie: MONTREAL to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE

Wednesday was our final day after a perfect two week stay in MONTREAL. We were super busy in the morning, Greg performing important engine maintenance and Reenie doing much needed laundry. Once those chores were complete we both cleaned Thistle inside and out (She seriously needed this after lots of memorable entertaining while at dock in Old Port :) For the afternoon, we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day, so we put on our bike helmets and got our big back packs out of the lazarette and proceeded to go on a 20k ride along the Lachine Canal to Parc Rene Levesque. We stopped at our favorite market, Marche Attwater, filling our backpacks with provisions for the next leg of our adventure.

Back aboard Thistle, we met some Gold Loopers from Florida (Gold, indicating they have finished the entire Loop more than once). We enjoyed docktales on each other's boats and they shared priceless information (Thanks)! Remember the Tip to always fly your AGLCA burgee :)

On Thursday morning, with bittersweet emotions we departed, excited to continue our journey, but reminisciing about the wonderful time here in MONTREAL. New boating friends and the awesome camaraderie we shared with our water polo family. Leaving Port, we crossed paths with the ferry we rode daily to the FINA water polo games....we both smiled and agreed that this simple tranquil ferry trip to the pool was a favorite memory of the stay. After riding the ferry to the pool we usually rode the Metro home after the games, MONTREAL'S Public Transportation systems made it easy to explore the City day and night.

We soon crossed into the Saint Lawrence River with the current helping us this time...a 5 knot boost in speed :) arriving by 10 am at our first of two Federal Locks. These Locks are huge....it's where the cargo ships pass! These locks are not part of the Canadian Canal Pass so each lock cost $30 to enter. After passing both Federal Locks we entered Lake Saint Louis, where we crossed Lake Saint Louis in the rain, arriving to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE at 4 pm.

Looper Tip: Lake Saint Louis is very shallow and navigation across the Lake is a little tricky? but very well maked with green and red navigation buoys to assist boaters. The colored buoys do change from port to starboard and back as you change direction to safely zig zag across the Lake.

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE was founded in 1703 and sits on Lake Louis at the mouth of the Ottawa River. The town is famous for it's mooring Wall where you can stay for free with your Canadian Pass. The Wall also has a walking path and is lined with restaurants and bars all having outdoor seating and shade umbrellas. (27 establishments!!!!!!) We purposely planned a Thursday arrival and are staying through the weekend to see the parade of boats.....it gets a little crazy on weekends but very fun to watch :) Friday night we saw boaters rafting 4 deep ready to celebrate the weekend. We met a very nice local family with 3 three young boys and invited them aboard Thistle where the boys liked climbing on our bunk beds the best :)

On Friday day we took our longest bike ride to date, 50K along the Saint Louis Lakefront, passing the towns of Baie D'urfe, Saint Claire, Dorval and back to Lachine. Reenie especially liked visiting Point Claire as she swam on the swim team there in high school.

Saturday morning was the SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE Farmers Market where we purchased items for our BBQ dinner tonight: Corn, tomato salad, fresh bread and homemade honey and garlic sausage :)

We plan to depart in the morning for Montebello!

What we saw biking along the Lachine Canal...a day spa on a barge and a goose!

Wednesday bike ride on the Lachine Canal - RED

Thursday boat trip MONTREAL to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE - BLUE

Friday bike ride along Lake Louis - GREEN

Merci MONTREAL ... XO

Memories!

On the Saint Lawrence River ... Biosphere & Habitat 67.

Saint Lambert Federal Lock is a 15 foot lift up... Captain Greg looking out for cargo ships.

Saint Catherine Federal Lock is a 30 foot lift up....you are required to wear flotation!

The Federal Locks are 233.5 meters long (766 feet) and 24.4 meters wide (78 feet) and 9.1 meters deep (30 feet). The Locks have 91 million liters of water (24 million gallons) and fill or drain in 7-10 minutes. The process takes about 45 minutes to enter and exit each Federal Lock.