Leilani anchored somewhere on the Mississippi near where the Kaskaski River meets the big river. As these barges would pass by I could hear the bottom being kicked up by their massive props. Looking forward to making this trip again (or maybe switching it up and going through the Erie Canal) this summer!
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Making your way down the St Lawrence seaway is also a pretty cool experience if you want to go down multiple huge >40ft tall locks!
Looks like my boat is still in the banner pic for pleasure craft portal! https://greatlakes-seaway.com/en/recreational-boating/lockage-booking/
I’ve considered it but haven’t really talked it through with someone who has done it, I’m on a 37 ft sailboat. Can you tell me more about it? I guess my main reservations would be dealing with Canada to make sure I’m passing through legally, and time frame since I’ll be coming from Duluth and I’d like to spend some time cruising through the lakes. Thanks for the link too!
This could he a huge writeup so feel free to shout me specific questions if you have any!
Timeframe wise, pleasure crafts can transit until the end of October usually (closing date gets released alongside the opening date in the spring on their notice board) and the transit between Iroquois and Montréal can be done in as little as three days.
If you’re doing the other lakes you’ll surely get used to big locks unless your draft is less than 5ft (and the Trent Severn is allowing sailboats that year) and you take the shortcut from lake Huron.
You so also need two people on board for all seaway locks except for the Welland locks upwards where you need three and for the Iroquois lock that really only needs one since they usually just let you pass straight through.
Legality and border crossing wise you’d definitely have to contact the CBSA anytime you cross the border into canada but around the American locks you don’t have to do so everytime the channel weaves in and out of either country so long as you stay in the channel. After passing the US locks you might want to call CBSA but you can double check with them when coming into Canada to see if they care. Overall the seaway seems to be a gray zone and you aren’t entering the US (by docking or anchoring(except for at the locks themselves but that’s all within a secure complex)) but I can’t point you to any published documentation about this.
Canadian locks cost 25$cad each (x5) booked and paid online and the American locks are 60$ total paid either online (make sure to print the email they send you) or by putting cash (or your payment email) in an envelope they drop down to you.
The open captain instructions for the locks are all pretty good except that no-one picks up radio calls and the bridges around Montréal can be frustrating. Oh! And very late/early in the season they might not have the waiting docks out yet so be ready to motor in circles and run in behind cargo ships after the leave the lock lol.
I was on a 33ft sailboat and went down twice and up once btw.
Oh man, I think I may have to look into it but it sounds way more complicated than my last Mississippi run, I didn’t pay a fee at a single lock either, but not sure if that’s just cause it was covid or what. If there are still no fees I want to get down the river before they cut funding to the corp of engineers and then I’ll really have to pay.
Looks like you’re on the correct side of the channel marker! As a fellow Mississippi river sailor, I’ve been stupid close to those barges and they’re pretty unnerving.
In this instance I was actually anchored and checking out the sand bar, so I was outside the markers but I did have a close call with a barge early one morning, he was nice enough to show me the way with his spot light.
Kind of them. I hear if you keep going south passed the Ohio river the tow operators get pretty chatty on the radio as the river gets tight and twisty.
I made a habit of telling them a joke whenever I needed to hail them on the radio, by the time I made the turn at the Ohio I was the joke guy and they would ask if I didn’t offer one up. This was during covid so there weren’t many pleasure boats out there which probably helped them get to know me.
How did you decide on the Mississippi route? I know a lot of people do the Tennessee-Tombigbee.
I went Tennesee-Tombigbee but started from Minnesota so I spent more time on the Mississippi that usual. There’s a big stretch of the Mississippi downriver of the Ohio with no services for 400 some odd miles so I didn’t want to risk running out of fuel. That may not be true anymore though.
Ok, that makes sense. I was thinking you went Mississippi all the way to the Gulf. You step your mast in Mobile?
Yeah, I think I could have actually brought it down with the mast up but I needed to run wires and install a tri-color up top so I opted to take it down. Was better with it down as I didn’t have to wait for bridges and it wouldn’t have been useful very often.
