We arrived here yesterday as the sun set, fighting a current which typically varied from 3-5 mph. Fortunately, it was only for 1.6 miles to get into our protected marina [Yacht Club Montreal].
This shows the St Lambert Lock (lower right), the U-Turn to go up river for 1.6 miles to get to Yacht Club Montreal.
Shelly was able to capture this video of a navigation buoy near the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
There was zero wind. The “waves” you see are all from currents of the St Lawrence River here, and ‘some’ wave action from boat traffic I suppose.
A faster cruising speed for us is occasionally 9.0 mph / 1700 RPMAt 1700 RPM, we saw as low as 3.3 mph speed over ground SOG. That means we were bucking 5.7 mph of current at that part of the river. 3-5 mph was more typically observed.Our tach shows where we were set for engine speed for this 1.6 miles… a hair over 1700 RPM
This is not tidal current; it is always flowing towards the Atlantic. The St Lambert Lock is the last lock in the St Lawrence Waterway which technically goes all the way through the Welland Canal Locks to Lake Erie on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Unlike the Hudson River in Albany/Troy NY, the tide and salt water of the Atlantic Ocean never makes it up this far to the last down-bound lock.
This sailboat definitely has its engine running. You can see cooling water exiting the starboard quarter exhaust port. A 15 mile long narrow shipping CANAL exists just inside the yellow line. Two large locks overcome the elevation difference above and below the Rapids De Lachine shown in the center. Large ships and pleasure craft like ours share this waterway; the ships have priority access to the locks.
There is little to no current in the shipping canal itself. But there ARE strong currents above and below this canal. They have been generally been helping us for weeks! This evening was the exception!
Several different types of vessels are captured in this video, including a Canadian Coast Guard Hovercraft going up-river against the current on a cushion of air!
