July 5, 2025 Just another travel day.

 Saturday July 5, 2025  Cornwall to an anchorage off St. Francois   30 miles and 3.25 hours

Sort of an uneventful travel day.  You get those occasionally.  Overcast but warming up into the 80's so plenty of boaters and fishermen out enjoying the last of their Canada Day holiday week. A little navigating between islands to start, then out into the more open waters of Lake St. Francois.  Let "Otto" do most of the steering so pretty easy day for us.  Just minding that he stayed in the channel while we watched the world go by. 

Sorry to say goodbye to our dock mates but won't miss
                                  navigating their minefield of droppings. Heavy into napping, as they                didn't even stir when we started the engines and pulled away.

Passing through a narrow cut.  Shipping channel right aside the land.

Nice to see this well-preserved wooden boat out and about. Great sound too!

Only big decision was where to stop.  Always need options so today we decided 1. anchor out in the St. Francois area, 2. Head to Valleyfield and anchor near town or 3. Last resort was to call the marina and see if they had room for us. Had very little information about the anchorage but it looked like one of the rare places that offered a bit of protection from the SW breeze.  Eased our way in as the depth finder kept alternating between reading the depth to the vegetation or the depth to the bottom. 3' or 7' under the keel makes a significant difference in our anxiety level!  Dropped anchor which made it through the vegetation and grabbed hard.  Set the anchor alarms and put out some extra scope since winds are forecast to increase a little overnight.  Relaxed for the balance of the day and then dinner on board.  Early to bed for a long day Sunday as we head for our final locks and Montreal.

Not an overly picturesque anchorage but safe and secure.

Journey for July 5, 2025