St Lawrence Seaway

The St. Lawrence River begins by emptying Lake Ontario at its eastern end, flowing east between New York and Ontario, through Quebec, and emptying into the North Atlantic Ocean north of Nova Scotia.  Locks have been added to the river providing deep water for shipping, making it known as the St. Lawrence Seaway.  The large schooner above is the first boat the Last Dance crew encountered, but not typical of this waterway.

This is the type of watercraft most seen on the seaway, what today would be known as small freighters, but huge ships in comparison to Last Dance.  The freighters are built to fit the locks.  One ship completely fills the lock.  How do you pilot a large, heavy boat into a lock only a few feet to spare?  You lay it along the lock wall and just slide into the lock.  The concrete wall extending out from the lock can be seen on the port side of this ship.  It is lined with large timbers to create a surface with less friction.  As can be seen on the starboard side of this ship, it has leaned against many a lock wall.

The tight squeeze into the lock can be seen in this image.  The ship's flybridge is just past the opened bridge.

This shot shows the stern of the ship as it moves past the lock doors, again illustrating the tight squeeze necessary to fit the ships into the locks.  The freighters have stern anchors to allow them to anchor in the river bow and stern, so they do not swing while awaiting space at a loading dock.

As Last Dance enters that same lock much maneuvering space is available.  The ships, of course, have priority for the locks, sometimes creating long wait times before recreational craft can be locked through.

Another ship, this one heading up river to the west, exits the second lock south of Montreal.

The aft half of the ship is pictured, since it was too long for the whole length to be seen at once.  This lock had a unique arrangement for the auto roadway that crossed the lock and the river.  There are two bridges at either end of the lock linked to one roadway with a "Y" at each side.  As a ship enters the lock, the traffic is shifted to the bridge at the other end of the lock.  When the ship is in the lock, the first bridge is closed, traffic shifted again so the second bridge can be opened when the ship leaves the lock.  The second bridge is raised, barely high enough for the flybridge of this ship to clear, as it exits the lock.

Downriver from the locks the shipping traffic becomes heavy as there are many shipping terminals along the Seaway.  Behind this freighter is a long loading dock.

These two freighters are anchored in the river waiting for space on the docks so they can unload.

An image of the chartplotter aboard Last Dance.  The red triangles are locations of ships provided through the AIS (Automatic Information System) transponders required on commercial vessels.  The signals from the vessels are received via the ship VF radio and the data transmitted to the chart plotter for display.  The gray image toward the bottom locates Last Dance on the chart and has a crumb trail denoting the path taken.  Much information can be quickly gleaned looking at this image.  The two freighters at anchor in the previous image are the two red triangles near the middle of the river.  There are a lot of ships in this area, most at docks.  It is obvious that Last Dance is heading downstream as the speed at this time is 10 mph, flying for a displacement hull trawler.  Actually, Last Dance is only traveling through the water at 7.5 mph, the current speed of 2.5 mph makes for a speed over ground of 10 mph.  The river to the right is the Richleau.  Last Dance will be turning to starboard and begin heading south on the Richeau River toward Lake Champlain.