Now that we were officially done with work-work, it was time to get to work enjoying retirement. We both made it back to the boat around noon on the Friday of the Canada day weekend, and wanted to get started so as to stay ahead of the herd of boats that normally heads for big Rideau lake from the Ottawa river. I suspect that this year we didn't have to worry, as the shortage of boats on the system suggested the herd would be more of a flock. When I went downtown to work that morning, I passed by the grey line and noticed it was around half-full. Normally, this area would be over-flowing in anticipation of Canada day, with boats tied up on both sides of the canal.
Last-minute ice cream
Louise used up a gift card for The Merry Dairy with friends from work. It's only good in Ottawa so sharing it with friends was lots of fun.
We said goodby to Ross, the lockmaster at Hartwell's, then off to Hog's back to wait. On the way Louise activated our journey on Nebo. If you don't want to wait for a blog post to see where we are, you can follow us on this app.
Because we "left" just after noon, we had to wait for the bridge opening (it does not open between 12:30 and 13:15 weekdays). While we were waiting, we visited with the boaters following us, and found out they are you-tubers. The guy was also a fan of the Boogaboo youtube channel, which I have been following for a long time.
Once we got through Hogs back, we trundled through the canal towards Black rapids, with the plan to go through and stop at the bottom of Long island (strong south winds forecast for that night and next day - this would put us in the lee when the storm came through). When we travel, there are certain lockstations that we never plan to stop at (never plan A). These are the very popular destinations with limited grey line space. Black Rapids is one of those. However, as we were rising in the lock, I checked the grey line and it was completely open! On a long weekend! Score! We decided to stop for the night as Black Rapids is nice, has power and would offer some protection from the incoming winds.
Once we were tied up, we took a bit of a break to relax. About an hour after we stopped, a sailboat stopped on the blue line in preparation for locking. We looked over and recognized Raymond and Janice on Tequila! We quickly went over to say hi, and they decided to stay on the grey line overnight. We invited them to tour our boat and visited with them for a bit, then they went paddle-boarding.
Paul, Karen, Sharon, MJ and Collin then arrived for dinner (they drove out to see us off). I gave Paul the tech tour of the boat (engine room) while everyone chatted, then we all had dinner.
The next morning, Raymond and Janice came over for coffee, and then it was time to move on. The weather forecast for that day was not nice, rain all day and strong gusty south winds. We wanted to get a head start to be past the Long island locks before the winds started to blow. We made it to and past Long island without incident, and continued to Hurst in the pouring rain. Although it was windy, the wind was right on our nose so there were no handling issues through the Manotick narrows. On the way we passed Liz, and waved as we went by.
Louise discovered that Raymond had forgotten his hat on board. I suspect the hat will be travelling for a bit before it gets back to its owner.
Right around Manotick marina we passed a racing canoe. They turned around into our wake and began really paddling. I had slowed to avoid waking them, and so they easily passed us. We followed them for about 2 km before they took a break. Fun morning.
We stopped at Hurst for Fuel, water and a pump out. I also went to the service desk to get the set of keys we left with them, and to say goodby to the staff. Louise and I also each snuck in a shower, then pushed off for the next lock. The day was in-and-out of rain, but zero traffic.
Eevee is with us, she is a cat, so sleeps most of the time. Soooo, the whole time we are underway, she usually snoozes. Today is no different. But, when we arrive at the lock station, and I need to move around, she wakes up and decides to help. It's a cat thing.
Arrived at Burritts rapids lockstation, locked up and parked on the grey line for the night. Bit of fun coming out of the locks, as a Le Boat was waiting on the blue line to come down and untied his lines a bit prematurely. His stern swung around with the wind across the lock opening, and I had to hit the horn to make sure he knew I was passing him, and he got on the thruster and pulled in the stern.
There was a group of canoeists camped out at the lock. Looked like scouts, but more adults than kids. Turns out they were a combined group of scouts, girl guides, and leaders (of both programs) who were camping there for a few days getting advanced canoe instruction. We watched them for a while, and were really impressed with how good the instructors were.
The next morning was warm, bright and sunny, however the forecast was for heavy south winds. We decided to travel anyways. Since we would be travelling south, we would be heading into the wind, which would not mess too much with boat handling. We would also be locking UP, which meant we would be in the lee of the lock when entering (which is the tricky part of the operation). The Burritt's rapids lock station has a swing bridge just south of it, and so we could not leave in the morning until the lock staff arrived. They took an up-bound lockage first, and so we let the locking boat pass us before we headed off after them. So far so good. We got to the bridge right on time, and so did not have to wait and "hover" in the gusty winds while the bridge opened (the waiting area here is small and shallow).
Got this email when I checked first thing in the morning. Getting real!
All went well until we started to follow the other boat. This was a smaller express cruiser - a fast boat - driven by someone who was driving super-slow. Normally it would not be a problem to follow a boat like this, but with the strong winds I did not have enough speed to maintain steerage on the rudder. Pretty white knuckle going under the bridge and in the exit cut. After that, the other boat sped up to normal speed, so we were fine for the half-hour it took to get to the next lock.
However, at each of the following locks, the boat entered very slowly. Normally, this would not be an issue for us, but today there were very strong and gusty winds. In these conditions, I need to keep a bit of speed on to maintain steerage. Holding station requires a lot of playing around with rudder and throttle (I try to avoid thruster use unless really necessary) and you really need to stay on top of it. Our boat is heavy, with a lot of momentum. This is nice for close quarters maneuvering, as things happen slow, however once she goes she goes. Anyways, I got lots of practice that morning because we had to go so slow. After the second lock, I deliberately waited extra long for them to clear a lock, so I would arrive well behind them at the next.
At Merrickville, we had a nice conversation with a couple Claude and Julie from Gatineau. They even sent us some photos of our boat in the locks! Thanks for this.
As the last lock was opening, the smaller boat with us asked us to leave first as they were stopping. YES! I would not have to follow him through the narrow cut at the top of the lock. So off we go on our way out of Merrickville. Just as we were coming to the end of the no-wake zone however, buddy comes up behind us at maximum plow, pulling a huge wake through the no-wake zone. He then proceeded to tailgate us. The channel is narrow here, so I pulled as far to port as I could to give him space (deepest water) and eventually he got the message and passed us on starboard. To add to the experience, he did his hole-shot when he was abeam of us, making sure we got his maximum wake. Thanks buddy. To be honest, I did not mind getting waked. We have boated long enough on the Rideau and Ottawa rivers that I barely notice it anymore, but I did not appreciate the tailgate in a narrow channel. Anyways, not the first time have had another boat do that, so guess just another thing.
Going across the lake towards Kilmarnock we passed two beautiful Kadey-Krogens. Awesome. As we were approaching the next lock, we hear the first Kadey hailing the lock on VHF. Their steering was broken and they were using their thruster to steer. We only got pieces of the conversation, as we were about 10 km away, but sounded like they made it to the lock using thruster. Hope it was not a complicated fix for them.
We got to Smith's falls in mid afternoon and tied to one of the City's finger docks in windy conditions. This is a pay dock but it provides water, showers and electricity. Laundry facilities are also available. After we were settled in the wind really cranked up. I had to move a couple of fenders from the starboard side as the ones on port were being squished flat by the wind pushing the boat onto the dock.
Louise and I had dinner at a local taphouse overlooking the lock weir. Nice location overlooking the weir and turbine house, and a good meal.
Next morning I was up at 5:30 while Louise slept in. At 6:00 some idiot set off a bunch of fireworks. Happy Canada day! We did our morning routine, then untied and headed over to the blue line to get started on a long travel day. We stopped at Poonamalie lock station to visit briefly with Laurie, and drop off some excess stuff. We brought too much with us and are slowly culling it all. Laurie took this photo of us as we were coming into the lock. Thanks Laurie!
Crossing Lower Rideau lake who should we run into but Brendan and Caroline out on their seadoo. We chatted for a bit, and then they sped off across the lake.
Brendan took a picture of us crossing the Big Rideau lake.
In Big Rideau lake near Colonel By island they re-joined us, and we stopped to take Caroline aboard. Had a nice visit the rest of the way to the Narrows lock, while Brendan rode shotgun on the seadoo. At the narrows, Brendan came aboard and locked down with us while Caroline locked on the seadoo. We all set off across Upper Rideau lake and met up with Caroline at Newboro lock. Brendan got off and we said goodby, and set off for the next station.
Locking went pretty smoothly, again we were struck by how little boat traffic there was for a holiday long weekend. Anyways, we got to the bottom of Jones Falls after a long day (almost 10 hours) of boating and locking.
Leaving lock at Jone's falls
In the lock, Louise got soaked twice. The first time by the mist from a waterfall over the lock doors.
The second by a leak between the stones of the lock chamber. Nice to cool off after a hot day.
At flight locks (series of locks connected together) the lock chambers are made to be the same size so that an equal volume of water gets passed down as the locks operate. However, I think the engineers of Jones's falls got their math wrong. Several of the chambers overflowed and we had to wait before moving to avoid getting washed over the concrete. Part of the Jone's falls experience.
The Jones falls lockmaster let us stay on the lower blue line overnight so we could get an early start in the morning. Weather forecast was bad for Wednesday (day after tomorrow), so we wanted to get to Kingston the next day to avoid the crud.
The next morning we were up at our usual time (5:30), and enjoyed coffee and sunrise. I started the day by cleaning the engine strainers. The Rideau is very weedy this year, and so the strainers get daily attention.
Eevee enjoyed the morning finding places to snoop. She is an old cat and does not like big jumps anymore, so anytime I move the chairs around she takes advantage and checks out places while she can.
We left the dock at 8:00 to make the canal opening around 9:15. The next obstacle on the canal was a swing bridge, and we wanted to time it right to get the first opening. We got there with another boat right on time, and passed through at about 9:05. The next few locks were uneventful. We went through the Brewers locks with only one other boat, so locking was fast, and then had a bit of a long ride through the River Styx. This is a swampy shallow area full of stumps and deadheads, so we had to go slow through most of it, but once the depth increased we could speed up and use the autopilot.
We hit a delay at Kingston mills as they we doing a down-bound when we got there, so we had time to eat before locking down to Kingston and settling in at Confederation basin.
Ruth and Kiara met us at the boat and we picked up a few things, then went for dinner. Going to spend a couple of days in Kingston as the weather tomorrow is supposed to be really windy.
Walking around the harbour, I noticed something I see way too often. Why is it that people who own flybridge boats install their radar transmitter in front of the helm, right at testicle height?
The last three days have been a grind, but now we can slow down a bit and hopefully it is a while before we have long days like the last few.
Boat name of the day: Liver let die
