Ottawa, Canada

Yesterday and today were cloudy days with no rain and then turning hot, sunny and humid by afternoon. The last significant rainfall here was on June 3.  I spent the travel time armed with a fly swatter smacking one deerfly after another. 

Much of the scenery along this part or the Rideau River is going through farmland.

 With no rain the water levels are dropping at about 1 centimeter per day and we are a little worried about getting home through the Richelieu. If the water levels drop too far, they close off the canals.  

We came across this interesting looking grass harvesting machine used to keep the channels clear.

Monday we stayed at Burritts Rapids.

Following a winding channel through marshes, ditches, and locks, we came to a swing bridge which the operator opened by pushing a turnstile around and around. It looked like something out of a history text of Europe in the Middle Ages.  There were still quite a few one lane, wood, hand operated swing bridges in use.  You can barely see it in the background.

We caught up with Clark and Evelyn on Sea Moss in Merrickville; and then joined Chris and Marianne with their golden retriever Brody on their Oceania 35 "Options" for an evening glass of wine. Options is out of Toronto and has been with us on and off since Kingston. 

We traveled with them to Burritts Rapids and are docked next to them in Ottawa.  The original plan was to stop at Black Rapids, but it was full, and the next two locks had no power.  We decided to push on, and ended up here at Dow's Lake Pavilion.

We are both being eaten alive by bugs.  No seeums, mosquitoes and deerflies. 

Smith's Falls, Canada

A cloudy, muggy day and the threat of thunderstorms kept today's travel short.  We are again going down the locks, always the preferred direction.  We entered the narrow Poonamalie Cut, passed through Poonamalie Lock,  and were again struck by the pride the Park Service and Lockmasters take in their little pieces of the world.  Clean, painted, and landscaped, with friendly, helpful staff.

We tied up in Victoria Park in Smith's Falls and toured the Rideau Museum this afternoon. 

The canal has been designed a UNESCO world heritage site, much to the pride of the Canadians.  This is truly a special place, worth the effort to get here.  There is live rhythm and blues music in the park across the way and a festive feeling.

The original three locks here have been replaced with a single combined lock but they smartly preserved the originals and incorporated them into Victoria Park.

Among my roles on the boat are Admiral, chief cook & bottle washer, and Insect Control Officer.  During the day, it's the deerflies, both in and out of the boat.  Come dusk, which is around 9:30 or so, the mosquitoes wake up.  The first night we left the doors open, and must have killed 20 of them in the berth area.  Most had already dined somewhere else, so swatting them left bloody spots on the walls, which then had to be cleaned.  We now put up the screens at 9:00 or so, but still get a few mosquitos when we open the door to take the dogs out for their final potty break of the day.

And these dogs attract children!  Everywhere we go, there are toddlers pointing "doggy, doggy".  There are lots of others dogs around, smaller nervous ones mostly.  Ours just stare lovingly out at the kids, who ask "can we pet the dog?"  And, of course we can't say no. Besides, it sure tires out the pups.

What the locals call the Quebec Rush is on.  This is the time when businesses in Quebec close down, and the French speakers come down to the canal in their cruisers.  Canada is a bilingual country, and the relationship between the two cultures is obviously uneasy.  On Saturday, the fellow travelers were English speakers, today they are all French.

Portland Canada

Today was more winding our way through the canals and lakes.  This part of Canada is suffering through a drought, and the water levels are low.  In one narrow channel, our depth indicator showed 0.0 feet clearance.  We held our breath as the boat kept going, and we soon had a bit more water. The twists and turns were reminiscent of the jungle ride at Disney World, only without the track guiding the boat.

Up until this point, we have been traveling away from the ocean.  At Newboro Lock, the highest point on the Rideau at 407 feet above sea level, we began traveling towards the ocean.  The positions of the buoys reverse, with red on the left and green on the right. 

This part of the Rideau is called cottage country, and is the most popular recreational area. 

Today is Saturday and the boaters in Canada leave their marinas and head for the locks and anchorages, which fill up quickly.  We met several local boaters who told us their home marina locations and decided there would be space to overnight since they were away.  We chose Len’s Cove Marina in Portland, which had plenty of open space for transients.  We ended the day in a nice, salt water pool.

Davis Lock, Canada

Continuing up the Rideau, we had to carefully thread our way through islands, swing bridges, locks, lakes, and channels. From paddlers to pontoon boats, runabouts to cruisers, the Rideau is paradise for boaters. Today's route took us through lakes and curving, narrow channels. One, called The Quarters, was a narrow section bordered by rock cliffs only 80 feet wide.

We ended the day at Davis Lock, one of the most secluded. Literally at the end of the road, It is 4.5 miles off the nearest highway with little wireless phone and no data service.

The lockmaster here has taken great care of the site, watering the lawn and carefully placing the benches and picnic tables. He is quite the character, with his golden retriever Molly, the place is very dog friendly. Dogs off leash happily running and swimming. In 13 days he will retire after 41 years in the Park Service, and we hope his replacement keeps the character of this special place.
Thom and I went for an afternoon swim, and settled in for the evening.

Upper Brewers Lock, Canada

Today we left Confederation Basin and headed north up the Rideau Canal.  The first obstacle was the bascule bridge at Kingston.  While waiting for it to open, we heard the road closure bell ring, and watched the crossing guards come down.  A truck tried to run the light, got across the bridge, and thwack, went right through the arm of the guard and broke it!

The Rideau is not a long ditch like the Erie, but is a channel with some canals linking a series of lakes.  The scenery is varied, but the boater stays in a channel marked with closely spaced green and red buoys, like being on a highway.

Then there were the locks.  Different locks, Canadian, built in the 1830's.  Preservationists would love it here.  Not much has changed, in that the locks still have their original equipment and are operated manually.  No pumps, no motors, only hand cranks.  The first flight was nerve wracking, as they want you to hang on bow and stern. 

They are smaller than the Erie Locks, and do not lift so high.   The lockmasters are very helpful, and the atmosphere is casual.  No radio contact, you pull up to the lock, tie up, and go find someone, chat for a bit, and eventually lock through. 

At the first set of locks, a flight of 4, the lockmaster asks your draft. If it is more than 5 feet, they tell you to turn around. Run by the Canadian Parks Dept., each lock or flight of locks has one park employee, and two young helpers. The helpers turn the cranks manually to empty the locks, open the doors, and reflood the lock. Hard work. A few locks have wooden swing bridges that are also manually opened and closed.

Along the way we saw several blue herons in flight and a 1.5 foot long turtle.  We stopped for the day early at Upper Brewers Lock, where we could let the dogs run for a bit and relax for the afternoon.  There are several Canadian couples here who came on their boats together, very friendly, with their own dogs.

Speaking of dogs, I've decided that River is a mutant food processing machine.  I bought two 250 bag rolls of dog poop bags from www.dogpoopbags.com (no, I am not making that up).   I just hope the 500 bags last for the trip.

Our little tug is always the most unusual vessel in any group.  Thom had jokingly called it a "Gypsy RV", but it has turned out to be anything but.  Surprisingly comfortable for two people, we are very much at ease living in it.  As long as you adhere to "a place for everything and everything in its place", it stays uncluttered and quite pleasant and livable. A lot like a Manhattan apartment.