ONWARD FROM MONTREAL TO QUEBEC CITY

In the days of sailing ships Montreal was as far west as the St. Lawrence allowed. The Lachine rapids was the barrier. That geologic feature made Montreal the largest port and rail transshipment Center in Canada. Leaving Montreal behind, we will not see another river lock until we head up the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain. Like the Hudson, the lower St. Lawrence River is a long estuary and Nano makes very good time going eastward on an ebbing tide. We overnight at the Sorel Marina where the Richelieu river empties into the St. Lawrence. The next day we glide through an open tidal lock into the Quebec City Boat Basin and take a berth in the Old Port Marina.
It is Friday September 7th and the city is alive with cyclists riding in the Quebec International Grand Prix event. From that exhilarating introduction the pace of our visit never slows down. Of course the history of Quebec City is compelling. It was here that the dream of a Nouvelle France died exactly 259 years ago on the Plains of Abraham. That was not the biblical Abraham; it was the name of an early French settler.
After the 1758 capture of the French principal Supply base at Fort Louisbourg on the Cape Breton peninsula, the British took Quebec City in 1759 and the rest of French Canada in the following year. The French didn't have a chance; the numbers were stacked against them. In Canada they were traders not settlers and they numbered only about 60,000. The British American colonies, on the other hand, had swelled to over a million loyalists by that time. And so, the Seven Years War ended with the Treaty of Paris 1763. France lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. All of this happened, of course, on the eve of the American Revolution, a war that the patriots could not have won without the French.  And we think the world of today is topsy-turvy!
Our crew splits up in Quebec City. Marge and Jennifer Drive up from Portland and Shanghai Paul into some family time touring the city and its surrounds. bill and I take a bus out to the spectacular Montmorency Falls where the French scored a pyrrhic defensive Victory against the invading army of General Woulfe. Then we tour the Plains of Abraham Museum and the grounds where Woulfe scored his final victory and routed the French from the city. A late lunch at Ciel, a  rotating restaurant atop Hôtel le Concorde tops off our visit to this historic site. the entire Battlefield has been preserved and is laid out below this wonderful vantage point. Walking up and down from the old port to the walled City above is a much needed workout after so much time on the boat.
Too soon our visit is over and we head back up the St. Lawrence river to the Sorel Marina again to begin our trip home.

DOWNRIVER OTTAWA TO MONTREAL

We are back on big water again on our two day run from Ottawa to Montreal, and blessed with great weather.  The Golden Anchor Marina povides us a convenient overnight at Hawkesbury.  We find a quiet table in the geezer section of the Deja Vu restaurant where we can can hear ourselves talk above the biker crowd in town for a weekend rally.
On Sunday, September 2nd we pull into the Old Port of Montreal and take a berth at the Montreal Yacht Club. We have more sightseeing to do here, some provisioning, and a crew change.
Finding the tour bus in Montreal takes a bit of walking. This city of 2 million holds 1/4 of the population of it's province of Quebec, the largest province in Canada (by area). It is a sprawling  working city with many interesting neighborhoods and it is the home of acclaimed McGill University.
Mount Royal itself is largely greenspace  with beautiful parks, vistas and forests. The parkland was originally designed by Frederick Olmsted, who also co-designed New York's Central Park.
From a historical perspective, the most interesting site to visit in Montreal is the archaeological Museum located near the Old Port.  The museum sits atop an archaeological dig that exposes four thousand years of human history.  Jacques Cartier visited this site in 1535 when it was an Iroquoian village by the name of Hochelaga. 100 years later the First Nations people we're gone from the area largely because of European diseases, and what was to become Montreal was settled in 1642 by the French. The archaeological dig shows the evolution of that early settlement which grew to become a major Outpost in New France and is now second only to Toronto as a commercial center in Canada.
Jim English has been first mate on Nano though all 79 locks from Albany to Montreal.  Navigation, piloting, deckhand, engine maintenance, trouble-shooting; Jim does it all.  Jim is also a busy guy. A retired Sacramento firefighter Jim lives in Auburn, is caring for his father and working on wedding plans with his daughter Emily in New Jersey. We've been lucky to have Jim on this trip but he has to leave us in Montreal.  Bill Fitzgerald, also a seasoned sailor and longtime Rowdy Sailing Buddy, flies in from San Francisco to join the trip on September 4th. Jim and I take a hotel to give Bill some space to move on to Nsno.  The luxury of a feather-top bed is almost too much to bear.
Place Jacques Cartier, an early market place in the Old Port of Montreal, is now Restaurant Row.  The four of us have a great final dinner at Lord Nelson's Garden which had become our favorite restaurant with good music.
On Wednesday September 5th Paul, Bill and I set off for Quebec City leaving Jim at the hotel to catch a later flight.