The rain and the wind prepared us to savor the good weather when and if it arrived. In keeping with Dad's why-start-early plan, we scored a three out of three for afternoon starts. We had another pair of locks at Beauharnois. Like the Eisenhower Locks, this is another austere setting with towers and high-voltage cables adding to the inhospitable atmosphere. It took us more than three hours to get back on the road after waiting for an oil tanker to pass in the opposite direction. We shared the second lock with a lightly loaded ship named Christine. It was like having a four-story floating college dorm behind us. As we left the lock, the ship passed us as if it was a pleasure boat and we were the freighter. I remember Deb said, “Take the dishes in bulk.” We're going to get into discussions. » A ship of this size generates a huge wake when it exceeds ten to twelve knots. We arrived in Montreal at 7:30 that evening and secured our berth at the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club. We took a taxi to dinner at the Airport Hilton. I have very few memories of this stop or the setting. This, however, marked the completion of the first leg of our four-legged journey. Dad continued to hold the helm as we ran our sequence of afternoon starts four in a row. One of the benefits of getting on the water early is that conditions are often calmer and more suitable for sailing early in the day. As the day progresses, the winds rise frequently and the sea becomes rougher. This was exactly the case that day as we crossed Lake St Louis in rough seas accompanied by strong winds. We had added fuel and water at the Montreal stopover, and I see in Deb's logbook that we stopped at St-Anne-de-Bellevue. after crossing Lake St Louis. There is a ca...... middle of paper...... places we stopped with the Consuelo because it was a classy boat and like a classy lady people often go out of their way to be accommodating. We made it to Ottawa at seven o'clock in the evening. We tied up at the Skiff Club wharf, adjacent to the northern terminus of the Rideau Canal waterway. The first eight locks went up like stairs to town level, but we were too late to lock that day and too tired too. Dad, Deb and I climbed the steep hill to the venerable old hotel, the Chateau Laurier, to make sure you could dock for the night where we had moored. We also booked dinner at Madame Burger's, across the Ottawa River in the city of Hull, which has since been renamed Gatineau. A taxi came down to Consuelo and took us to dinner. We stopped at the Chateau Laurier for a nightcap before retiring to the boat for some well-deserved sleep..