Integrity Cruise

Day 77: At Chambly Canal Lock 8, Quebec

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Day 77: Friday, July 1st: Canada Day!

Today is "Canada Day." This is the day that is often called "Canada's Birthday," but really celebrates the anniversary of the uniting of three British colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada) into a single country called Canada.

We slept in, sort of, in peace and quiet. Once we awoke the winds began to build, but the sky was still clear. About 9:00am the duty lockmaster (lock mistress?), Marie-Eve, walked down to the boat to ask if we planned to lock through this morning. All the lockmasters take care of each boat as it transits the canal, and they time their locking groups both up- and down- stream to make the passage smooth and safe for everyone. We told her we would wait until tomorrow.

However, it being a holiday, many other boats were out for a day on the water.

After breakfast, we walked to the lock to watch the action. By now we were old friends with Marie-Eve, a real sweet lady. We were amazed at how much the lockmasters used the remote telephone to communicate with the other locks. Note here the phone in her hand as she cranks the gate closed for a group. Note also the bicyclists in the background; they were out in droves today!

Actually, on a busy holiday, they have two or more people helping with the locks. Here, Marie-Eve and her helper are opening the sluice gates to lower the water. Some folks will know by looking at the picture that they are lowering the water…!:

This is what the electric bridge looks like when open:

About 2:00pm. the clouds thickened and the rain came. Around 4:00pm a severe thunderstorm came through and knocked out all the electricity. We didn't care on our boat, but the inoperable electric bridge stranded the four boats coming up in the lock! Sad, indeed! Trees were down all over the area. We had small branches blown onto Integrity. Very serious. We could see another storm to the south:

The second storm came north and was as bad as the first. The boats were still in the lock. Finally Hydro Quebec, the electric utility, came with a truck and a big generator on a trailer. They hooked into the power system and opened the bridge.

Unfortunately all the locks were now closed (after 6:00), but the victims were very philosophical and joined us at the dock for the night. The sunset was pretty, and promised good weather tomorrow ("Red sky at night…):

Position tonight: N44 59.800 W073 21.517

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