Travelling to old haunts another way

Our operations in the Great Lakes normally end at the locks at Beauharnois, the boundary between two Coast Guard regions. However, a call to assist Laurentian Region brought us east of the boundary; familiar territory for my biking but less so when navigating the ship. After a quick steam across a calm Lac St. Louis, we enter the South Shore Canal at Kahnawake.

The dyke along the canal is a popular cycling route, but no cyclists were to be seen between Cote Ste Catherine Lock and St. Lambert Lock on this crisp, late October day. A large ship can take 20 to 30 minutes to enter a lock, but we can zip in and under the bridge in about 5 minutes.

Passing clear of the east end of the island of Montreal, the brilliant silver spires of the Basilica at Varennes stand out along the south shore. This is a great day trip cycling destination from Montreal, which can be combined with a trip across the river via the Parc des Iles de Boucherville by the ferry at Bellerive Park and then another ferry from Ile Grosbois to the South shore at Boucherville (http://www.navark.ca/2_navette.htm). Note, there is a limit to the maximum number of persons the ferries can take at a time so you should factor this into your timing on busy weekends. You will also want to get to Varennes before 4pm so you can visit the Basilica and the Shrine of Sainte Marguerite d'Youville before they close (http://en.sanctuaireyouville.ca/the_shrine). Oh, and pack a lunch because there are not many choices for food at Varennes although the waterfront park just down from the Basilica is a nice place for a picnic and there are washroom facilities in the information centre.

Crossing Lac St. Pierre just east of Sorel, we passed some commercial vessels going upbound before we headed towards the elegant Pont Laviolette with Trois Rivieres lying just on the other side.

Our work assignment over the next week and a half involved removing summer light buoys from the navigation channel between Grondines and Sorel; replacing some of them with winter buoys that can within the ice that forms starting in December. Some of the buoys can be stood up on the deck, but the base of some buoys require them to be layed on their side. It makes for a cluttered working area by the end of the day.

We berthed at Trois Rivieres at the end of most work days in order to transit back to Sorel where the CG base is located for unloading of the summer buoys and loading the next batch of winter buoys.

Vieux Trois Rivieres is a very picturesque location to berth for the night, and a popular one for Coast Guard ships.

Just downstream is another Basilica: Notre Dame du Cap (http://www.sanctuaire-ndc.ca/sndc01/index.php?Itemid=152), with its dramatic dual-coloured dome.

Our trip ended in Sorel with a change of crew. It is a small town, but a very busy port for its size.

Next month will see us back in our own region, working over Christmas and New Years to close out the Seaway season and heading west to Lake Erie and another winter of icebreaking on the Lakes.