Wednesday August 9

We left the Auberge Handfield Marina at 0725 making 6.8 knots with the help of the current. We traverserd the St. Ours locks, the largest lock on the Chambly system, at 0915 and carried on downstream. We stopped at a small marina to get gas and tried to arrange to pump out the main fuel tank without success.

As per our plan we contacted a boat transportation company in Nova Scotia to arrange to ship the boat from St. Jean Port Jolie near Riviere du Loup at the end of the week. When we discovered that the price would be the same no matter where on the river we had him pick up the boat, since he had a truck on the road that could pick us up the following day, and since the mast was already stored on deck, we decided to end the voyage at Trois Rivieres, and use the rest of my vacation to bring the boat to perfect condition with no more issues, such as bad gas in the fuel tank, and occasional loss of power when moving ahead.

As if to confirm our decision, when we left a small private dock in Sorel, after changing gas tanks, so we would have a full one for the trip across Lac St. Pierre to Trois Rivieres, we found the engine revs once again reduced to a maximum of 1300 rpm. There was too much current to risk diving on the prop so we decided to continue on to Trois Rivieres. With the help of the current and a following breeze we made a steady 7.4 knots with occasional 8 knots. We arrived at the dock at Marina Trois Rivieres at 1825, after an beautiful run across Lac Stl Pierre on a clear, sunny day. It was a good ending to a wonderful week.