St Lawrence Seaway lock system

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norman

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How diffcult is it to traverse the St Lawrence locks?
We are going to cruise the 1000 islands next week and are toying with the idea of going right to Montreal from Brockville.
We've never cruised these waters before so of course we're not aware of how practical a run to Montreal might be.

How long does it take to typically lock through? I realize you have to share the locks with commerical traffic so does that mean (as with the Welland canal) you may wait for hours before they will allow you to lock through?

Do a lot of pleasure craft use these locks...or is it just too time consuming?

Thanks,

~Norm
 
Norman:
The last time I used the locks was 3 years ago...It is very costly...back then it was 20 bucks for EACH lock...they are easy to go through, but you may have to wait, and it can be time consuming if waiting for Commercial trafic...Your first set of locks will be in Cardinal...There is a dam to the right of the locks that pleasure craft will use, (depending on your height)...it is free to travel through the dam...
I did the trip to Montreal once, and would never do it again...There is very little to see once you get east of Brockville...
From Lachine to Montreal you will be in a canal which is a dead slow speed limit and will take about 3 hours...
Brockville to Montreal is a 2 day trip, depending on your cruising speed...

Are you going to be around Gan on the 15 of Aug. to join in the Get-Together with other BoaterEd members?..

Wayne
 
Well Wayne's got it mostly right. The first downbound lock is at Iroquois, not Cardinal. You can get under the dam with an airdraft of less than 8 feet. Anything more than that and you have to go through the seaway locks. From Brockville you're looking at a hard two days transit. Priority is given to commercial traffic and pleasure boats have to wait, sometimes 3-4 hours depending on how anal the lockmasters are being. Pretty much everything from Eisenhower lock to Montreal is industrial canal. Cornwall is a nice stop though. Lake St. Francis is a big lake. Easy to get turned around and in big trouble if you stray outside the shipping channel. There are a few bridges to deal with towards Valleyfield and you have to wait there as well. Once in Montreal I don't know where to go other than Sainte-Ann-De-Bellevue (Old Montreal) which is nice.

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Thanks everyone.
Doesn't sound like we'll have time for that leg to Montreal...which is what I suspected would be the case.
As for Gananoque...sounds like a great time unfortunately we'll be in Ottawa that weekend.
Hopefully next time.
Thanks again.
~Norm
 
You could go from Brockville to Kingston in about 3 hours. Kingston is a cute little town.
 
Thanks Carrie,

I should have made it clearer in my original post. Our trip will take us from Kingston to Brockville. I was wondering about the possibility of continuing on to Montreal but that doesn't look practical in the time we have.
We certainly will visiting the U.S. side though. Probably Clayton and Alexandria Bay.
 
Norman,
My home port is Bonnie Castle in Alexandria Bay. Lots of stuff to do. You can dock overnight at the City Docks (no electricity). There are also plenty of State Parks on different islands that are really fun, again no electricity.

In Brockville, make sure you go to Don's Fish and Chips (across from the beer store) for lunch.
 
Thanks for the tips Carrie. Will definitely check everything out. Not sure what our itinerary is..in fact, we don't have an itinerary. We'll be taking it one day at a time...nice and easy. Of course, a lot depends on the weather.

~Norm
 
The Mary St dock in Clayton has power. If boats (wooden) are your fancy the antique boat museum
is worth a visit. Clayton is more of a quiet walking village.

Ray
 
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