We June 16, Chambly Canal

Today we traveled 11 miles and navigated 9 locks on the Chambly Canal.  These historic locks dating back to 1843 are operated by hand. The Canal played an important role in the development of trade between Canada and the U.S., especially with forest products.  We radioed the lockmaster and he directed us to enter the lock.  There was room for one other small ski boat.  The lockmaster handed us our lines and we watched as they cranked the gate shut and then lifted the front gate to allow the water to flow out to a safe level before they opened the gate for us to proceed down the canal.  We enjoyed the scenery and enjoyed traveling down the canal as we watched the raging Richelieu River off our starboard side.

Brent enjoyed helping with the stern line and held the boat steady as we locked down to the canal.  The last three locks of the days were our first set of flight locks with a vertical drop of 35 feet combined. As we were in the flight locks I DROPPED my CELL PHONE in the canal.  This turned out to be a costly day. 

We docked in the rain at Marine de Chambly at the base of the locks.  That evening turned out to be a movie night.  Thank goodness Ken’s son, Brad, loaned us a number of movies to watch on rainy days.

Chambly Locks