July 14, 2017 - Ottawa, Ontario

I mentioned in my last post that we planned to anchor out a couple of days on our way to Ottawa.  We found a lovely spot near Lower Duck Island about 5 miles from Ottawa.  Anchoring went perfectly....Ken and I communicated well, the anchor caught on the first try and we had a nice breeze with temps in the 70s.  We were so excited to finally get to anchor out and our joy turned to crap when the generator wouldn't start.  We had been living without the inverter but now the generator wasn't working....what the hell!  Both are new and of all our worries, these to pieces of equipment were at the bottom of our list of concerns as both were brand new.  Needless to say we had to find a marina so we could hook up to shore power.  Sigh!  We were able to dock at a marina in Gatineau, Quebec which is literally across the river from Ottawa and the entrance to the Rideau Canal, our next step in the adventure.  An end to a very disappointing day but in every cloud there is a ray of sunshine.  It turns out that for the 150th anniversary of the Canadian confederation there was a topiary display in Jacque Cartier Botanical Gardens and guess what, it was next to the marina we were in.  Being the optimist I am, I thought it was providence, so we took time to explore the art works.  We were not disappointed!!

Replica of original train connecting parts of Canada.  Roof of mail and passenger cars all grasses.

Representing Prince Edward Island - Mom and baby foxes.  Adorable.

Representing Quebec - One of 3 ships that explored Canada from Europe.  The violets represent the waters.  Beautiful.

Representing Northwest Territories - Love the muskoxen.  Grasses representing their hide.  Too cool.

Representing Northwest Territories - Can you tell I liked the muskoxen?

China partnered with Canada and had 2 topiaries of their own.

One of the China displays.  It's a lion.  Detail incredible.

Representing Newfoundland and Labrador - Native Canadian birds, the Puffins.  So neat.

So now that we are limited to shore power until we can get the generator and/or the inverter repaired, our planning consisted of "so where in the hell is the next place that has shore power that does not involve a marina charging $3.00 Canadian a foot".  To our great fortune (I won't call it luck, as that has not served us very well so far), the Rideau Canal has a lot of choices to dock at the lock walls and some have power but are on a first come first serve basis.  But I am getting ahead of myself and need to back up to our entrance into Ottawa.

The entrance to Ottawa from the river has a majestic skyline as we could see Parliament Hill (the central government (the equivalent of our DC skyline), beautiful stone buildings and the Flight of Eight Locks.  The Flight of Eight are a series of 8 locks, one after another, that moved Independence from the Ottawa River into the Rideau Canal, a total of 79' rise.  It took us about 2 hours to traverse all 8 locks.  We discovered that, we along with the other boats making the same trip were a main attraction for visitors to Ottawa.  It was like being in a fish bowl and there were more and more spectators as we move up the locks.  Roofus took it all in stride, as she got lots of oohs and awws, and had her picture taken many times.  We were able dock to the lock wall with power.  Yoohoo!  It was only 30 amp but that kept the frig and ice maker running (our priorities as you will have guessed from previous posts). 

View of Ottawa and the Rideau River dumping into the Ottawa River.

Our approach of the Flight of Eight Locks from the Ottawa River into the city of Ottawa.  The Fairmont Hotel in the background. 

Sign at the Flight of Eight Locks that we are entering the Rideau Canal.

Locking through the Flight of Eight.  Last lock.  Notice the spectators.

Flight of Eight Locks.  Our fishbowl view of people looking down on us.  Weird but fun.

We stayed here 4 days and enjoyed every moment of it, other than again, as in Montreal, we found a mechanic who he never showed up.  So no repairs were made here.  We did have some excitement on our first night but not of the fun kind.  We had intruders on the boat about 3:45 in the morning.  We both woke up at the same time and then heard another bump from above.  Ken leaped out of bed, threw on shorts and headed up.  He found 2 kids on the boat, one on the fly bridge and the other was coming down the fly bridge ladder.  Ken shouted "Get the f.... off my boat".  Which they promptly did with one kid shouting "Run, there is guy chasing us in the nude".  Ken's shorts were white so guess he looked like he was in the nude.  Ken was furious and needless to say, did not get much more sleep that night.  The little shits had left foot prints all over the boat (literally foots prints as one was bare foot) which Ken cleaned off and then later found that one of them had thrown my Carolina chair over board!!!  Needless to say, Ken did not see that as a great loss and considering what damage they could have done, I agree.  But still....

Notice the feet prints of one of our intruders on the dive platform.  Damn them.

The following days were much more calm.  We visited Parliament Hill, rode our bikes with Roofus in her puppy bag, walked to the By Water Market (oldest open market in North America), met other Loopers (including a couple from Hampton, VA who know Steven and Emily Struck, the former owners of our boat, small world) and took it all in.  Great city, nice people (who speak English as we are now in Ontario) and awesome food (Beaver tails pastries was decadent). 

View from the stern of Independence of the Rideau Canal.  Gorgeous.

Parliament Hill.  Love the rod-iron gates.

Parliament Hill, the Peace Tower.  Notice the gargoyles below the clock.

Main gate to Parliament Hill.  Again, love the iron works.

We took a pic of the Flight of Eight looking back towards the Ottawa River.  Count them, all 8.

By Water Market area.  Colorful and the hanging baskets were beautiful.

Lunch in the By Water market area.  Love the hanging baskets.

Not a beer drinker but the Kickesippi blonde was awesome.  Ken enjoyed the amber.

Post Scripts from Roofus:

I have to say that this was a nice stop.  Even though I did not get to go out much, I got lots of leftovers.  It was nice and quiet without the humans there.  Got to sleep and enjoy my new passion for sleeping on pillows.  My favorite so far is the dachshund pillow, which we have had for a while but never realize how comfy it was (pic to right).  As for the intruders, I never heard a sound and was actually quite distributed that my humans woke my up in the middle of the night for what appeared to me to be much ado about nothing.  Humans, go figure.  But they love on me constantly and feed me, so really can't complain.  At least for now.