Quebec To Newburyport via New York City (By Matt McDonald - Summer 1999) |
The cruise to Quebec City, Quebec started from the marina at Burton Island State Park, in Lake Champlain, Vermont. From there the course was to the southern end of Lake Champlain to lock through the Champlain Canal. The canal used to be a link between New York City and Montreal for commercial boats, but now pleasure boaters use it almost exclusively. The canal is fairly short (24 miles and 12 locks), but it's best to plan to overnight about two thirds of the way through. You can stay at most of the locks with the permission of the keeper, tie up to one of the walls that canal towns have for your use, or use a marina. The first two options are free, but water and electricity may or may not be provided. We opted to tie up to the wall at Mechanicsville, NY where water, electricity, and a pump-out are provided (photo at right shows the Glory-Be in Mechanicsville). |
We finished the Champlain Canal and turned into the Erie Canal just in time to begin the flight of five locks without any delay. We found the Erie Canal to be magnificent. There are many places to stop and the scenery changes around every bend. The photo at left shows one of the largest "guillotine-type" locks in the world. If you've noticed, most lock gates swing open and closed from the sides of the lock, but this type opens and closes from above. It was our plan to head west on the Erie Canal as far as Three Rivers and then decide where we wanted to go. There are three options at this point: the Cayuga-Seneca Canal to the Finger Lakes, continue on the Erie to Buffalo, or the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands. We chose the Oswego Canal and spent the night at Phoenix, NY, tied up to the wall. The town's children, who greeted us with outstretched hands for our lines and a cold drink to welcome us, ran this whole operation very well. |
We crossed Lake Ontario in beautiful weather and calm seas the next morning and entered the St. Lawrence Seaway. We planned to stay at Keywadin Marina, which is operated by New York State near the town of Alexandria Bay. This area boasts a wide variety of entertainment and we stayed for two days to enjoy some of them. The marina provided a swimming pool, picnic areas, fuel, a small general store, and spectacular views. Two places that we found very interesting were the Antique Boat Museum in nearby Clayton and Boldt Castle on Heart Island (pictured at right). George Boldt started his career as a bus boy and ended up as a very wealthy hotel owner. He built Boldt Castle for his wife, but unfortunately she never lived to see the island's completion. Boldt, who was grief-stricken, ordered the work stopped and abandoned the project. Today the State of New York is in the process of restoring the damage caused by years of neglect and attempting to finish the project according to the original plans. We returned to Montreal via the Seaway, which was our least favorite portion of the trip. This was not due to a lack of interesting places, but rather due to the large locks on the Seaway. |
By this time we were used to sharing the river with large great lake boats, but we weren't used to sharing the locks with so many other pleasure boaters. The Seaway is still used for commercial traffic, which has the right of way, and the wait for passage can be extensive. Additionally, the lockmasters wait until there are a lot of pleasure boats before letting them through. The photo at left is looking over the bow of the Glory Be and you can see all the pleasure boats rafting up in preparation of going through the locks. The procedure made us very nervous the first time we did it but got easier as we went along. We had to negotiate four of these huge locks on the section of the Seaway that we cruised. |
We stayed at the Old Port Marina in Quebec City, which is in the older section of the city. The photo at right shows Chateau Frontenac and was taken from our slip in the marina. |
We had arrived in time for the French Festival and spent an extra day to enjoy the various events, one of which was a contingent of French Marines in 17th Century costume shown drilling in the photo at left. |
We returned to Lake Champlain and made the decision to continue south down the Hudson River to New York City. John said he'd rather sail through Hell's Gate and Spitting Devil Creek backwards rather than trailer the boat again. Besides this extended our vacation and time on the water so Sheila and I were all for it. We took four days to reach New York City from our sometimes base on southern Lake Champlain, Buoy 39 Marina. You could probably do it in less and certainly take more time, as there are many places to explore along the way. One imposing sight we passed on our cruise south along the Hudson River was the United States Military Academy at West Point (photo at right). |
Before we departed on our cruising adventure, several people warned us to stay out of the harbor at New York City, but we found it to be fine if a bit crowded with commercial traffic. No one onboard had ever seen New York City from the water and it was just spectacular. At left is the aircraft carrier INTREPID which is now a war memorial in New York Harbor. |
On the right is my favorite photo, the Statue of Liberty, the most exciting place we visited. |
