July 27, 2017 - Ottawa to Kingston Ontario through Rideau Canal

The next section of the loop for us, The Rideau Canal, quickly became one of our favorite so far.  We met wonderful people, enjoyed not only the history of the canal but a slow and peaceful pace.  The Rideau Canal opened in 1832 and is 126 miles of rivers, lakes and man made canals that links Ottawa to Kingston.  It is North America's oldest continuously operating waterway.  It was built originally for national defense (mainly from America) and commerce but is now a recreational boating haven.  Including the Flight of Eight in Ottawa we went through 46 locks and several swing bridges over the last 2 weeks.  Ken and I both are so glad we chose to make this part of our trip.

The one cloud over the trip was that we had no invertor or generator, so we had to strategically plan each night to make sure we had shore power.  Most of the lock stations have walls that we could tie up to for the night but not all of them had power.  Before we left Ottawa, we mapped out which lock stations had power and the distance between each one.  That was that easy part.  As it is summer in Canada, there were many boaters on vaca who were also vying for space on the wall, whether they needed hydro or not (Canadians word for shore power).  We soon discovered that cruising in the early day and docking up before 2:00 in the afternoon was our best chance for getting hydro.  I have to say this strategy did not fail us, even though a couple of our days only consisted of traveling less that 10 miles.

The day we left Ottawa was sunny and perfect spring weather for the middle of July.  :)  We traversed 4 locking stations, a total of 8 locks, that raised us 70'.  Being a Saturday, we encountered kayakers, canoers, seadoos, houseboats and cruising boats.  Lots of traffic but fun.

Ottawa suburbs - Hartwell Lock

Ottawa suburbs - This city takes it's weekends seriously.  What a party!

Little story before I go on.  Ken's sister, Patsi, bought Ken and I a 'damn it doll', as a send off gift.  She is to be used in times of frustration, to be banged against your object of hate and not hurt anything or anyone around you.  Our first stop after we left Ottawa had to be at a marina, not a lock wall and Ken got to take out his frustration on the generator.  Thank you Patsi.  Between a few drinks and Ms. DamnIt, he ended up having a good night.

So on with our adventures.  The next day we made it to Burritts Rapids and docked up at the top of the lock which was a 10' rise.  We had power so we were happy campers.  The highlight here was meeting Joni Bristow and Harold Hallem.  They were out for a Sunday afternoon walk and we were chilling in the park next to the Independence.  They spoke to Roofus, our little human connector, and the rest was history.  Such a wonderful couple!  We found that they had just married the weekend before and of course, we had to celebrate with wine toasts and got down to knowing each other.  By the time we separated, it felt as if we had known each other forever.  But that was not the end of our day, as they came back and asked if we wanted a guided tour and see some historical points of interest.  We had a blast.  As it turned out, we ended up at their homestead for cocktails, which is absolutely lovely with ponds including fountains and lots of beautiful landscaping and colorful flowers.  We ended our evening with dinner in Merrickville, which would be our next stop tomorrow.  We had such a good time, we all agreed to meet again in the next couple of days, which turned out to be Smiths Falls.  They offered to take us where ever we need to go, which at the moment was the liquor store (of course).  We walked to several of the sites in Smith Falls, including the old locks, that are no longer in use and Centennial Park where we later heard the bagpipes being played.  We had dinner and parted with many hugs and thanks.  Truly a highlight of the trip.  It is about the people, after all.  :)

Burritts Rapids - Joni and Harold.  It was their 1 week anniversary when we met.

Burritts Rapids swing bridge - The lock crew moved this bridge manually.  Impressive to see.

After Burritts Rapids lock we made it to Merrickville, a less than 7 miles trip but again hydro was available and we took it.  We went through 6 locks for a rise of 47'.  Great little village.  We had a nice lunch in the local inn, ate wonderful ice cream, did a little shopping and later Ken bought the most fabulous fudge.  The best was the orange dream cycle!!  Yum, Yum.

Merrickville - we were docked across from the village center.  Very quaint.

We grilled out and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Our next day saw us only go another 14 miles to Smith Falls but we had made it through another 5 locks with a 53' rise.  This is where we met up with Joni and Harold again and had a wonderful day.  Each day that past we were more and more relaxed, as we were feeling pretty good about our track record so far as getting hydro.  We were praying our luck would hold out!

Old Slys - 2 locks and a railroad bridge.  Something new and different.

Smith Falls - Taking the Foo for fresh air and exercise.  Really a combination of she walks a little and we carry her a lot.

We visited the abandoned Smith Falls flight of 3 locks.  They were replaced with a single lock that could accommodate a new fixed bridge that was built in the 70s.  The old locks have flower pots and grass now at the bottom but still pretty to see.  Joni and Harold were with us (below).

Our next stop was the Narrows Lock.  Another amazing long day of 13 miles.  :)  We only did 2 locks which took us up 15'.  We were really getting into this slow and steady pace.  This was beginning to feel like a real vacation.

Narrows Lock - Ken really liked this one as it had chains that open the lock gates vs. the wooden rams on the other locks.

The next day we went through the Narrows lock that took us to the highest level on the canal at 338' from the Ottawa River.  And we took Independence up every foot of it.  Too cool!  From there on we starting dropping with the rest of the locks.  Our next stop was Chaffeys Lock.  This was our favorite place to stay, mainly because we got to dock up not 6' from the bottom of the lock.  Every time they released the waters on the downside we felt like we were in a whirlpool.  We even got to stick our feet in the water and wait for the gates to open to experience it ourselves.  Water was cool and clear one moment then a raging rapid the next moment.  Loved it.

There is also a great lodge here call the Opinicon.  Beautiful grounds and buildings.  We had a wonderful breakfast and we were able to use their internet.  Yoohoo, as internet was very rare on the canal as well as cell service.  Maybe why we enjoyed it so much, we had to disconnect, whether we liked it or not. 

Chaffey's Lock - The Opinicon Hotel and Resort

Roofus got lots of fresh air and exercise.  She wore herself out walking more than she has in a long time.  Have to say, that by the time we were heading back to the boat, she bee lined it there.  I haven't seen her leap down steps in a long time.  But poor girl, she forgets her age as she slept the rest of the afternoon. 

Chaffey's Lock - Great pic of Independence.  Home sweet home.

Once we left Chaffey's we made the run to Kingston, the end of the Rideau canal.  It was time to get back to reality and get the generator fixed.  We had ordered the impeller from a supply place in Kingston and were anxious to get this done.  It was long day.  Went 33 miles and through the last 12 locks, barely making the last 4 in Kingston Mills and in fact, were in the last group of boaters locking through for the day.  Arrived at 6:30pm in Kingston.  Found a mechanic but there was no impeller.  Long and sad story for us and even considered the extreme thought of giving it up and wintering the boat till next year, as there was no way we could do the Georgian Bay if we couldn't anchor out.  After we had our pity party, we came up with a game plan.  Ken called Atlantic Boat Yard back home and got James to order 4 impellers for us.  Yes, you read it right, FOUR!  Ken wasn't taking any chances.  SMILE.  Our next problem was getting them from good ole' USA to Canada.  We learned our lesson with the wifi booster that it takes forever for the mail to cross the international line.  The solution came with Rhonda, the dock master at the Clayton, NY city docks.  She is Roofus's buddy, who gave her treats everyday we were there.  Clayton is only about an hour drive from Kingston.  She happily agreed to allow us to overnight the 4 impellers to her home and we drove down the next day to pick them up.  It was nice to back in Clayton and America, if only for the afternoon.  Roofus got Rhonda maple cookies and we bought her doggy treats for all the marina dogs.  It was a family reunion.  With that, Johnny, our mechanic, came the next morning to work on the generator.  I can't tell you how sweet it was to hear the generator start up and keep running!  Yoohoo!!  We were ready to go.  It took team work and our heroes were James, Rhonda and Johnny.  You're the best.

So here we are, ready to go and head for Trenton Ontario, the entrance to the Trent-Severn waterway.  We plan take a couple of weeks to cruise the 240 miles.  And for the first time since starting this adventure 3 months ago, we plan to anchor out tomorrow night.  Still don't have an inverter but with the generator working, anchoring can now be a reality. 

Post scripts from Roofus:

I have found a new job for myself.  Chief Taste Tester, Extraordinaire.  My humans grill a lot and I have taken it upon myself to make sure they don't get food poisoning and also to make sure everything is cooked to tender perfection.  I started with hotdogs and hamburgers, and have worked my way up to pork steaks and chicken kabobs.  Though not crazy about the green peppers on the kabobs, they are on their own for those.  Hey, it's a tough job but someone has to do it.  What a good dog I am!  Yum-Yum.....