Westport to Kingston

Sunday, June 17

It's Father's Day in Canada, too! The locks on the Rideau have extended hours on the weekends, so we took full advantage. We finished the Rideau Canal Waterway- 44 miles and 14 locks in 9 hours today. We are done with this waterway and its 49 locks, which is more like an obstacle course than a cruising area.  But, we still have the Trent-Severn Waterway ahead, which has another 45 locks.

At the Newboro Lock we started to descend on the canal instead of rising. It was downhill the rest of the day.

One of the hand cranks used to open and close the lock gates

The most interesting locks were the flight of 4 at Jones Falls. While we waited we had time to explore the history exhibits that were open- first a working blacksmith who was making nails.

She explained the meaning of the phrase "smash to smithereens" - smithereens are the tiny bits of iron that fall off the item being shaped on the anvil, in the smithy.

We also toured the lock master's house museum, set up as it looked in the 1830's.

Mara Beel tied up on the Blue Line, waiting for the lock to open.

The scenery varied along the waterway today. We enjoy the granite lining the shores. We went from lake to lake via narrow passages connecting larger bodies of water.

Speed limit 10K, No Wake, keep to the left of the green marker 

One of the narrow connecting waterways:

After a while the surrounding area turned to marsh and was very shallow for about 8 miles. It wasn't pretty scenery, but it is a nesting area for swans.

These are a welcome sight after the zillion Canada Geese that are everywhere. We saw a group of geese at our first lock of the day that had flown in the previous evening. The lock chamber was too small to allow the geese to leave, because they need enough space to take off. They had to be content with spending the night inside the lock. As soon as the gate opened at 9 a.m. they swam out. By the way, the Canadian people watching with us told us they refer to these birds as "American Geese".  Nice.  None of us like dodging all the goose poop littering the grounds!

We arrived at the LaSalle Causeway Swing Bridge in Kingston just in time for its hourly opening at 5 p.m. From there it was a half mile or so to our berth at the Confederation Basin marina. We were assigned a slip next to another Ranger Tug, Scotfree, our big sister at 29'. Leon and Karen are also Loopers and will finish at Sau Ste. Marie. We had docktails with them, Bill on Chip Ahoy,  and Robert and Caroline (who we met in NY) on Sauvy B, all Loopers. We are all spending an extra day in Kingston due to weather. We all need to cross a small but significant stretch of Lake Ontario when we leave here- today there is a southwest wind at 15 knots with gusts to 50 and thunderstorms. No boater wants 3 foot beam waves!

After eating breakfast in a mom and pop restaurant- home fries!! - we walked to a nearby grocery store for fresh produce, a wine store, and a bakery. Seven buses unloaded tourists in the park next to the marina. Apparently Canada is a popular destination for Japanese travelers. We noticed a surprising number of panhandlers on the streets downtown- perhaps taking advantage of the influx of tourists.

We cleaned out the strainers on our cooling system again, since we sucked up a lot of grass that was floating in the locks yesterday. The grass can clog the water intake causing the engine to heat up so we need to keep it free of debris. It's a poorly designed system, but that can't be helped.

Our next stop will be Trenton.

Riding the Rideau

Wednesday June 13 - Friday June 15

As we left Ottawa and continued up the Rideau Canal system, glorious sunshine was replaced by drizzle, thunderstorms and plummeting temps- a good two days to travel in our snug little tug. We spent Thursday night at Hurst Marina in Manotick, Ontario, in a rain storm. We had hoped to do our laundry, but their only washing machine was out of order. Another Ranger Tug pulled in next to us, but we weren't able to visit much with Dennis and Peggy on "3 Cheers," as we left very early the next morning.

The Rideau is made navigable by locks- many, many locks. Lots of locks. On Thursday we traveled all of 16 miles and went through 8 of the historic hand-cranked locks. As I've said, the lock workers are all very friendly and helpful. They always ask where we are headed and then call ahead to let the next lock operators know we're on the way so the lock can be ready for us. Sometimes a bridge must be opened for us as well- a common occurrence. But we were not quite prepared for this "bridge"!


What???

This did not look passable, but yet it had to be.....

Soon two men showed up and- unbelievably - attached two trolling motors to the bridge. As the small motors worked, one man pulled on a rope to swing the bridge open. Crazy!

Attaching 2 trolling motors to the "bridge"

The novelty of the picturesque locks has worn off now, and we have many, many more ahead.

Thursday night we tied to the wall on Merrickville Pond, just above the Merrickville set of locks. I took off on a walk and found a nail salon and decided to have a spur of the moment pedicure- a great decision! We met two other local boats here and traveled part of the way with them on Friday. More locks- a total of eight for us.

The sunshine returned on Friday, perfect weather. We stopped in Rideau Ferry Harbor for a pumpout and fuel. I am puzzled by the Canadian insistence on keeping their waterways clean (understandable) but yet pumpout facilities are few and far between. Many marinas do not offer fuel, especially diesel, or pumpout service. We have a small boat with small tanks- 100 gallons of diesel (held 600 on our former boat) and 40 gallons in our holding tank- so we have to be intentional about where and when we stop for these things. To add insult to injury, the charge for our pumpout yesterday was $25.

We are currently in Westport, another cute little village. Eight "le boats" are also here. Le boat is  a European company that rents boats to people who want to cruise the Rideau. The people are given basic instructions, but may or may not have any boating experience. They pay $5000 a week to do this! The boats here are carrying foreign journalists who are experiencing the Rideau on le boats and will write about their experiences. The 44 foot model has 4 cabins and is designed for 4 couples without much privacy. The boats hold 400 gallons of water, and the current occupants use it all it a few hours- they don't realize that water usage on a boat is different than at home. In comparison, we hold 40 gallons, which can last us 4-7 days depending on how we use it. Theses boats are new, but have no chart plotter, radio, depth finder, etc. We have no idea how the renters navigate! Le boats are equipped with a governor limiting their speed to 6 mph, and have built in fenders all around the hull. Our policy is to stay away from these boats, much like rental houseboats on the Mississippi.

Today, June 16, is chore day. Laundry, groceries, refilling our propane tank, cleaning an engine filter, baking a batch of breakfast muffins, etc. Laundry is a .4 mile walk each way, as is the grocery store. We did go out for lunch. Fun times!

Part of the le boat fleet

Showers are in the Visitor Center a few blocks away- $1 for 2 minutes, $2 for minutes- and no way to regulate the temperature. Give me a break! We both opted for showers on the boat!

A Loonie is a $1 coin (has a loon on it) A townie is a $2 coin.

Ottawa

Ottawa is great! Its is the capital of Canada, it is in Ontario, and English is the predominant language here. It is much smaller than Montreal and feels more English than French. We arrived here June 11 and spent 2 nights.

Ottawa skyline

To get here, we had to climb the steps- Locks 1-8 of the Rideau Canal. These locks are literally stairs steps for boars. They are small, hand-cranked, and were constructed in the 1820's, and remain pretty much unchanged. We were the only boat in the locks.

Looking up at the locks before we entered

Looking down the locks after our lockage

After locking through, we were right on Parliament Hill, a 10 minute walk to this historic building. Of course we had to take a tour! After this summer, tours will be unavailable for the next 10 years as this national treasure undergoes extensive renovation. Having been warned that the English tour tickets go quickly, Mark decided to get in line an hour before the 9 a.m. opening of the ticket office. He was the first person in line!

Parliament Building with the Peace Tower in the center

The tour included the Memorial Hallway, the Library, and the Peace Tower. We could not enter the House of Commons or the Senate since both houses were working. The library contains over 1,000,000 volumes, many of which are stored elsewhere.

Queen Victoria statue in the library 

The plaques in the Hall of Memory list every member of Parliament- if you look closely as we accidentally did, you can see the Mather, B. was an MP for several years in the 1960's!

The view from the Peace Tower was impressive.

The East Office building - the West Building looks pretty much like this one.

Fairmont Hotel

War Memorial

One of these men in the foreground is a member of the Scottish Brigade. 

The Guard changes every hour at the War Memorial

We checked out the By Market District of shops and outdoor cafes, and sampled a Beavertail- a tasty pastry with about 30 grams of sugar.

The Rideau Canal wall where we are moored, behind the larger boat. In a few weeks both sides will be lined with boats, but we are here a little early in the season.

Today, June 13, we continued up the Rideau. We went through another 8 small, hand operated locks in the space of 16 miles. We also had to have 3 low bridges opened, and the first one made us wait about 45 minutes. This is as far as we could go today, since the next set of locks would be closed for the day by the time we arrived. So we are in Manotick, Ontario, at Hurst Marina for the night. They have a pool and hot tub, but we  rain and thunderstorms kept us inside. Oh well- tomorrow is another adventure.