Rideau Canal

Sunday, 23 June – Gatineau to  Hurst Marina, ON – 23 mi., 2353 cum mi.

Cloudy, calm, 66 degrees, turning sunny later in the afternoon. Pam, Chloe, and Andy went home. So nice to celebrate the weekend with them. Sam stayed on board to help us through the locks. And the help was appreciated. The 126-mile Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal in North America. It was built by the British as a military supply route from Montreal to the strategic naval dockyard at Kingston. It is internationally recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site. We went through 11 locks. The first eight

were in Ottawa, right through the set of parliament buildings, with dozens of tourists watching us go through the locks – hand cranked
and all. We were surprised to see Dave (from Dawn Treader) at the locks. They were waiting at the bottom for the next ride up.  We would have liked to stop at the Ottawa town dock, but it was completely full with boats enjoying the jazz festival, so we pressed on. The canal was nice, and the
river was very nice. We passed a dragon boat competition, sponsored
by Tim Horton’s doughnut shops. The whole river was quite busy, with water skiers, Sunday boaters, fishermen, kayakers, and spectators – glad to see folks enjoying themselves. We docked at the Hurst Marina and thoroughly enjoyed the heated pool and hot tub. Aahh! And there was a super moon  - the closest and brightest all year.

Monday, 24 June – Hurst Marina to Merrickville, ON – 20 mi., 2373 cum mi.

Hazy, but nice and warm, 78 degrees. We worked through four locks.

Then docked at the Peter Ayling Marina and Boat Yard. It’s an old boat yard, specializing in wooden boats. Foam poured in from the rapids next door, coming from the power plant at the dam. We met a fellow who was on a tiny boat – looked like a lobster boat, but tiny. Maybe he caught langostini. We learned later that he built that boat,
in fact, he built one each year, took a trip, then gave it to a friend or family member, and he has done that for several years. We walked to downtown Merrickville, looked at the locks up close, went to the drug store (benedril for allergic reactions to fly bites), liquor store (for obvious reasons), and grocery (for provisions). Found a giant lawn chair!
Got a ride back to the marina from the nice lady from the grocery
store. Then a ride back into town for a pub crawl. One pub had Tiny Tim Cratchett’s crutch on the wall. One had great food (Goose and Gridiron). Great ice cream at the ice cream shop. Nice experience in a small canal town

Tuesday, 25 June – Merrickville to Smiths Falls – 17 mi., 2390 cum mi.

Beautiful sunny day, a little muggy, 76 degrees. We went through 9 locks.

The last one was a combined lock in Smiths Falls. We just made it through and docked when a thunderstorm hit, soaking everything. Smiths Falls is a pretty big town. Lots of choices for restaurants. The Victoria Park Campground and Marina had four floating docks. Our lock buddies (Kim, Murray, and Ron who went through several locks with us) followed us in and borrowed our 30 amp extension cord to be able to hook up at the dock. We enjoyed walking about town and having dinner at the Lotus House, a pretty good chinese restaurant. We were awakened at 4 AM by eight young people drinking beer and diving off the docks to swim in the river. We think high school graduation may have set off the “party.”

Wednesday, 26 June – Smiths Falls to Chaffy Lock – 27 mi., 2417 cum mi.

We went through five locks (three up, two down), including Newboro which is the highest point on the Rideau Canal – 407 ft. We crossed some beautiful lakes, including Lower Rideau, Big Rideau, and Clear Lake. We talked to some fishermen from Pennsylvania in a small boat who made an annual trip to fish in the Canadian waters here (just like Reggie and Greg).

And we saw some very creative docks and boat houses along the
shore. The Big Rideau is reminiscent of Lake Champlain, with cliffs and deep water, but not as mountainous. The narrow channels were beautiful, and the narrow canals carved out of the woods at the entrance to the locks were like being on the back waters of the Homosassa River in Florida.

  A storm was brewing, so we chose to stop at the lower dock at Chaffeys Lock.  Shore power was available at the lower dock, so we tied up at the wall and spent a very nice, peaceful evening. Locals took a dip in the canal. Houseboats (rentals) pulled up to spend the
night, and small boats were scurrying to find shelter before the

predicted storm. Well the predictions were not accurate. It turned out to be a beautiful evening. Life is good.

Thursday, 27 June – Chaffy Lock to Kingston, ON – 33 mi., 2450 cum mi.

Nice day, a little hazy, 71 degrees.  12 locks down to Kingston. And

we were not alone. Houseboat, power-converted sail boat, bowrider, and a small cuddy cabin joined us in some of the locks. But we followed a brand new $1.6M 54 ft SeaRay through all the locks and winding narrow passages, crewed by a broker from the Hurst Marina and his daughter, on a delivery to Rockport, just beyond Kingston.
The speed limit through the canal was 10 kph. And that was the speed we went, keeping the engines spinning at under 1600 rpm to limit the vibration from the damaged prop.  It was a long day. The narrow passages were awesome. we passed Kelly's Point, with yellow lawn chairs. We

first thought of breaking the trip up into two days, depending on how long it took us to get through the first set of triple locks. An early start and some luck in catching the day’s first opening at the first lock - and getting to the last set just before they closed - got us all the way to Kingston. Nice town, festive atmosphere, lots of folks anticipating a three-day holiday weekend (July 1 is Canada Day, as big a holiday as our July 4). Sam studied his Chinese, since he was going to China with the Vermont Governor's School next week.

Friday, 28 June – Kingston, ON

Cold, rainy day. 61 degrees. Had the boat hauled out, prop removed, repaired and reinstalled, then back in the water for a sea trial – no vibration at high rpm – whew!

We walked about Kingston in the rain, enjoying peeking into shopsand restaurants, and people watching. We washed the boat, which was quite refreshing, since the lock walls, haul out crew, and overnight bug swarms had made their mark. “A clean boat is a happy boat.” Pam and Chloe came to pick up Sam and spent the night on the boat. Who knew we would be spending all this quality time together?