Friday, August 13, 2010

Day 12 - August 13th...jumping off the boat...and not doing much else today...

Corey has a tinsy tiny cut on his 3rd finger and says he can't write (again) He says its a gash and I'm surprised he's not hospitalized!

From the trip report -Corey
We woke up in valley field, and said good by to kara mia, maestro and low bidder. We found timmies only 400m away, they laughed at aaron and katie trying to speak french and laughed even more when aaron spoke english r-e-a-l-l-l-l-l-y-y slowly. On the walk back we found a camera store and bought some new binoculars that are more like telescopes than anything else (20x magnification).

The kids and corey took the dingy under 2 swing bridges, one had only a 4ft clearance when closed. Because we decided today was a “break day” we only were only going to go as far as cornwall which was only about 28 miles and no locks. Around lunch time we anchored off colquhoun island and jumped off the top deck and ate lunch. We anchored in such a weird place that the current going around the island and the wind pushing us back (opposite way as the 2 currents) we stayed in the same place.

Then we pulled into marina 200 and used the dingy as a tender to go between Seamorr and the office/washrooms. For dinner we went to Bo jangles (sports bar and grill)… the burgers and club sandwiches were pretty good…. Then we went back to Seamorr and played up and down the river (S.Y.N.)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Day 11 - August 12.....heading home....

We waved goodbye to the land of croissants, fleur-de-lis and great tasting breads and buns at dinner.

We left Port de l'escale at 8:00am as we knew today is the day of locks. Being a please craft, it is known that you have a lot of time and take great pleasure watching commercial ships pass you by.

We turned to port (left) as we left the Port to enter a 5 knot downward current...we had approximately half a kilometer before we turned to starboard to start heading on the canal to take us to our first lock.

We travelled approximately 40 minutes to get to the first lock...."lock" must mean "to sit and watch" as we waited several hours until we were allow to enter the lock...and we didn't see any boats (ships) in or out of the lock, so not sure what we were waiting for.

We were the 4th boat in and were instructed to tie to the wall and we had 3 boats raft to our starboard side.

We met Maestro, Low Bidder, Kara Mia and another boat who had problems trying to get rafted up to any other boat.

In the lock, we were mostly Ontario & the country of Quebec as well as another boat that had crossed the Atlantic to make the same trip back as us....this large trawler ha a 14m mast and couldn't pass under the 12m bridge...he had to wait until they raised the bridge....the bridge guys and the lock guys believe that it is best to stop, slow or impede or else you may allow others to get to where they want to go...

We motored from Montreal to Valleyfield (thanks Kara Mia for getting us the spot) in just over 12.5 hours.

We got into Valleyfield at 8:30pm and decided to eat pizza at the second best pizza place in the world (Cornwall is number 1).

We had dinner with Mark and Kathleen on their 44' Meridian....great food, great boat and great people....a good way to end a very long day.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Day 10 - August 11....Quebec City

Hotel pas de crap
Swimming in and outside within the same pool
Walking all over Quebec City
Take train back to Montreal
Back to see SeaMorr

From the trip report - Day 10 - Kim

We woke up this am in the heavenly beds of the Hilton aka "hotel pas de crap". What a pleasant change from the night before! After a swim in the warm pool which is both indoor and outdoor we headed out into Quebec City to explore. We found a great french restaurant for breakfast - crepes, eggs Bene.... There seems to be a trend on this trip about food isn't there?

We walked along le promenade des gouveneurs which is a big board walk high above the river looking over the port. It starts at the Chateau Frontenac and it ends at a staircase of 310 stairs up to the edge of the Plains of Abraham- Corey had to fill us in on our Candadian History as none of the rest of us could remember much...although we are not sure how he did so well in History getting some of his facts mixed up!! We took a tour of the Citadelle (didn't know it was built by the British) which included the firing of a canon which surprised us all with how loud it was! After the tour we walked around the old city some more, found some great gelato and ice cream and Kim finally managed to get the rest of them to stop at a cool old church. We went to an information centre about life in the times of early Quebec which had lots of exhibits, a bizarre movie about how no one really know if Samuel de Champlain really was the founder of Quebec nor knows what he looks like - Kim & Kenn both dozed off... They had a dress up area where Katie, Bryce & Aaron put on costumes from the 1700's. Bryce looks pretty good in a skirt and bonnet!

After a late lunch we headed back to the train to Montreal and back to Seamorr - we start heading home in the morning!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 9 - August 10 Taddossac

Taddossac
Hotel de crap
4 different whale species
Great dinner
On ramp, open window, no air conditioning, trucks climbing hill....hotel de crap

From the trip report - Katie

Today we woke up in le hotel de crap. Surprisingly it had good food. After a delicious meal we went on a whale watching tour on a zodiac boat. We had to wear these ridiculous very hot and puffy jackets and wind pants. Also we saw a total of 30 whales. 1 humpback, 2 huge fin whales, 2 smaller minke whales and at least 25 belugas. After a very cold tour we went for lunch at the marina but it had crappy service so we got sandwiches some where else and headed for Quebec city. Finally we got there, we were staying at the Hilton. They have an awesome pool and heavenly beds. Mom & dad went out for dinner so the kids stayed at the hotel, had pizza and watched a movie and went to bed.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Day 8 - August 9...Montreal to taddosac

Train trip to Quebec city
Rental cars from Quebec city to Taddosac
Hotel in tadossac

From the trip report - Bryce

In the morning we had to wake up at 5:30 am. After we woke up we had to catch a train for 7:00 am. We were on our way to Quebec City. Once we got to Quebec City we rented a Dodge Caravan for the day. For lunch we had the best chocolate milk ever. We ate at a place called l'Accent. Yummy

After our delicious lunch we headed towards Taddoussac to see some whales. On route Kenn didn't stop to see a church or the falls. After a bit Kenn decided to go to Canyon Falls. Finally we got to Taddoussac and went to a beach. The water was freezing! It was only 2 degrees. The sand dunes were huge and we raced down them, but then had to climb back up. When we were finished we went to a Motel. Kenn calls it Hotel de Crap. After we checked into the one room they had left we went to the marina for supper. We headed back to our motel after supper. We were all tired so we decided to hit the hay.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Day 7 - August 8... old port of montreal

La ronde amusement park
Groceries from depranneur
Pouring rain at night
Chicken on the BBQ....sauce washed off during cooking
Bands playing till 1am

From the trip report - Aaron

Yesterday,( aka today, but he wrote this a day late) was the day that we went to La Ronde. We woke up at about 9 and went to Hotel Nelson. When we arrived we were told it didn't open for another half hour. So we sat on a bench in the square to wait. While we were sitting a strange thing happened, we had our photos taken by a bunch of Japanese people, first one person, then another, then 4 more. It was really weird and I still don't have an explanation for it.

After an amazing breakfast of crepes in an outdoor garden, all of us except dad met up with Michelle and went to La Ronde. Dad went back to the boat.

While not owned by the same people, La Ronde and Canada's Wonderland look surprisingly alike. The Bat looks like the Boomerang, the Behemouth looks like the Golliath, etc...

It started raining in the afternoon, when we had to leave. Luckily we had a lot of fun before it rained and we weren't too sad about leaving.

After a long trafficy ride home, during which it rained a lot, we made dad barbecue chicken (again in the rain) ate dinner, watched about 1/2 of the Hangover and went to bed.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Day 6 - August 7th...the Old port of Montreal....

We spent the whole day touring around old Montreal, first day the engine of Seamorr didn't get started! It took a bit of time to get used to our wobbly "land legs" again!

Michelle, Jacob & Lori joined us today. After touring around eating awesome French junk food like croissants and beaver tails aka ques de castor... We got lost in something called the labyrinth trying to save the world from it's own destruction, ate an awesome huge dinner at a very old restaurant called Gibby's. The firework display put on by France was incredible and won the competition in the end.

Trip report - Day 6- written by Corey, I mean typed by Corey....

Corey says he will email this trip report.... He no longer remembers how to hold a manual writing instrument.... Pens and pencils will become like rocks in caves back in the cave man era so I'm just practicing for the future.... Day 6 began with mr Morrison going out to get amazing croissants and cinnamon bins... After that we walked around for a while until Lori and jacob arrived... We ate beaver tails and ice cream (frozen desserts... Containing milk by products) for lunch... Following "lunch" we went to the labyrinth of hangar 16, which is like a Giant maze... It was themed as collecting elements for saving the world (quebec isn't very creative)...As for who won there was no question, corey and Jacob finished 20 entire minutes before the rest of be group.... We needed coffee just to stay awake to wait for them... we met Michelle At the exit of the
labyrinth ... She showed us a great place for dinner called gibbies... Witch was amazing the steak would melt in ur mouth... The Montecarlo was amazing... Its a bak ed potato that's baked twice... Complete with real bacon bits cheese and some other stuff.... After dinner as usual Kim had to take 10 pictures of everything so we made a human pyramid in the court yard.... As we left we saw a Ferrari f380 spider and a California (type of Ferrari) but they were automatics... I guess quebec drivers aren't coordinated enough to drive standards... That night we saw the international fireworks festival wi france competing.... They were pretty good... 1/2 way in the played jingle bells (in sync with the fireworks) and it went down hill from there.... Not surprisingly pro-separatist judges gave france a 7.9 to win the competition... Sleep was more difficult than usual due to a. Rege concert at the next pier and the sun coming up at 5:30...

Friday, August 6, 2010

Day 5 - August 6th

Day 5 - We have arrived at Port d'escale in Vieux Montreal! It is a beautiful marina right in the heart of the old city!

From the trip report -Kenn

Day 5 trip report is going to be WAY WAY WAY better than day 4 . Day 4 was good but day 5 is probably 20-25% better than crappy day 4- and the trip report ....I've just read it....I had to be woken up 4 times just to get through it. I didn't think I wanted to go back to coffee but knowing what I know now, fire up the coffee pot...

We woke up early and Kimmy saw that the sun actually goes up into the sky....all we had up until this point was sunsets... Now we have our first sunrise- an actual sunrise! After 18 years - our first sunrise picture!!

We set sail & continued along the St. Lawrence...saw more freighters and met some boats heading through the locks....and we couldn't get through the first bridge as the bridge guy didn't speak English & he ignored us..... Luckily we had 3 more French boats coming up behind us!

We started early and got into Montreal @ 5:30 - a long day but we had Frootloops tm and Cinnamon Toast Crunchies for breakfast. had some awesome sausages through the locks and traveling 11 knots where we should have been going 6 knots... On the way into Montreal we had a tough ride up the river with the strong current, and got into our spot for the night.

An awesome Italian dinner of spagetti, shrimp (Aary) & noodles (plus some great bread) made a great dinner.

We went to bed to the loud music on the pier and had a great first night in the Port of Montreal.

Pretty good report eh? Did you fall asleep on this one or not... Didn't think so! And no coffee for me on this one.........

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Day 4 - August 5th

We just finished dinner and are in lancaster Ontario..about 55 miles from Montreal...no wifi..good night.

From the trip report - Kim

We woke up at Chrysler park marina to a breakfast of bacon and croissants. The marina van took us to Upper Canadas Village. We toured around the town set in the early 1900's. One guy told us the only reason kids went to school was to "break them" so they would be good factory workers. We saw how they cut logs and ground wheat into flour using the water from the river. We saw cheese and bread making, a school house where kids at a camp were dressed up like pioneers signing God save the Queen and an old print shop where each letter was set by hand. We took horse wagon ride then bought awesome fresh baked bread and cheese from the village which we ate for lunch.

Back at the marina Kenn & Corey filled up with diesel and Aaron, Katie, Bryce & Kim went for a swim where Kim failed miserably at flipping Bryce and now owes him a Skor bar ( but they only had Rolo)

We headed out again in the boat and went through two HUGE locks, Eisenhour and Snell. The boat dropped over 35 feet in each one really fast. The locks took a long time so we decided to stay in Creg Quay Marina. We bbq'd chicken and bought ice cream treats for dessert. We went for a swim - but Kim was too tired to even try to flip Bryce, but was able to flip Katie, Corey ( with everyone helping) and Aaron. She'll have to build up energy for Bryce and figure out how to bribe his protector Aaron.

We played 99 (Kim won in an "all in" round even thigh she was the 1st one out) then we went to bed ignoring the 1 000 000 bugs!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Day 3 - August 4th...

We are into chyrsler park marina for the night...east of Morrisburg. Went through our first lock. We are tied up and going for dinner...we do have wifi and will upload photos tonight...

From our daily report -Katie

We left Adelaide Island at about 9:00am and we sailed down the St. Lawrence River. We were heading to Brockville, but we were ahead of schedule, we decided to keep going to go to Chrysler Park Marina in Morrisburg. Along the way,we saw 3 huge freighters - Kim, Aaron, katie and Bryce played Monopoly. It was very hot so we anchored at Galop Island and went swimming in a big current. After that, we went through a lock that dropped us 10 inches. Finally we got to Chrysler park marina and went foe a swim in the pool. After a swim, we went for a walk around a field covered in gooses poop. Before we went to bed, we watched talladega nights.....best movie ever as per Ricky Bobby and Kenn.

Day 6 - Montreal

Today the boat had stayed in port all day, we are on foot for the next couple of days, but find our "land legs" are a bit wobbly!!!

Sorry for the late postings....no mutiny yet, but Corey is thinking that in the province of Quebec it seems anything goes, so maybe he will take over and drive away!!!

Michelle, Lori and Jacob have joined us today. We toured around the old port, got lost in something called the Labrinth and had an amazing dinner at a restaurant in a very very old building called Gibby's. At night we watched Frsnce's show at the international fireworks festival set to music that was incredible... Took some notes for next year's show in Napanee!

Day 6 trip report - by Corey

Corey says he will email this trip report.... He no longer remembers how to hold a manual writing instrument.... Pens and pencils will become like rocks in caves back in the cave man era so I'm just practicing for the future.... Day 6 began with mr Morrison going out to get amazing croissants and cinnamon bins... After that we walked d around for a while until Lori and jacob arrived

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Day 2 - August 3rd...

Made it to the eastern part of grenadier Island. We are at 44*26.121 and 75*50.320 for the night. Had to replace the impeller on the generator and we fired up the BBQ and the stove...yummy pasta, sauce and sausages.... Will upload photos when we have wifi...

This is from the trip report - Bryce

First we woke up at around 8:00. After that, we sailed off to Bonnie castle marina to get a part for the generator. Once we got the piece for the generator, we got some lunch at Rum Runners.

When we got done at Rum Runners, we stopped at Singer Castle. We took a tour around the Castle. We were thinking of staying the night, but we didn't because there was no air conditioning.

After dinner, all of us went on the dinghy and we went to an island. On that island, there were some hiking trails. So we decided to follow them. When we got back to SeaMorr, we washed the deck and after that we went to bed.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Day 1 - August 2nd....Aubrey island

We are in for the night.....anchored by Aubrey Island. Boys went exploring in the dinghy and we are about to have dinner.....good night KKCAK+B.

This is from our trip report - by Aaron
We left the port of Napanee at about 12:00 noon this morning, after getting subs to eat on route. Our first stop was Kingston...while heading to Kingston, Bryce, Katie & Aaron played Clue and Gobblet.

When we got to Kingston, we realized they had no room for us. They were so full that we couldn't even just dock for 10 minutes and get some ice cream. We had to go to Wolfe Island for ice cream, and we also found this book there.

We then went to the 1000 Islands to go swimming, but while we were swimming, our generator water intake broke while mom and dad tried to fix it, Corey, Bryce and Aaron went for a spin on the dinghy. Mom and dad couldn't fix the generator so we had a meal of sandwiches. Then we played 99 and went to bed.