There was one more job Steve wanted to
do before we left Kingston. Well, not really 'wanted' to do but since
the water coming in under the teak trim and leaking toward our
sleeping area, he thought it was worth doing sooner than later! I did
not disagree.
It was a messy job involving removing
the teak trim, cleaning up the old caulking and putting down new.
Definitely not fun.
As with all projects, the boat was a
wreck with tools and parts. It's just the way it is on a boat in the
middle of a project. Fortunately it didn't rain at all for the two
days we were in Kingston.
As we left our slip yesterday it was a
beautiful day for our start up the Rideau Canal. Unlike the Trent
Canal whose beginning is marked by a large banner on a bridge in
downtown Trenton, our start here was very low keyed with a beginning
pair of the familiar green and red buoys. Welcome to the Rideau!!
Lake Ontario is still very high as can
be seen as we passed by this marina. The concrete fixed dock is just
barely above water. Not sure if this marina is now defunct or not.
Didn't look like anything was going on.
It was great to see the first evidence
of our now being in the geographic region of the Canadian shield with
the first of the granite cliffs sighted.
The first set of locks were within
sight – 40 minutes from leaving Kingston. The flight locks of
Kingston Mills. Three locks and then a single make up this four lock
start to the canal.
And of course more granite – these
with a number of climbers on them!
I have a feeling that rock climbing
with these silicone knuckles will not be in my future :-)
A bit of history of the Rideau Canal
and an overall map of the canal as it winds it's way from Kingston
north to Ottawa. As you can see most of the lake areas are in the
southern half of the canal. We'll be stopping at a number of the
small towns along the way.
Remember to click on the picture to see
a larger version.
Rahn de Vous is passing under
the railroad bridge just before the flight locks at Upper Brewers.
We'll spend the night docked at the top of the locks. At right
looking backwards from the second lock is the first lock that we
already went through.
Even though a total of five of the
locks were flight locks, it's still a long day going through seven
locks!
Finally – through the last lock of
the day and tied up for the night :-)
It is such a pretty area. By the time
the locks closed we were joined by two houseboats and one more
cruiser. Weirdest thing? The woman on the houseboat across from us
looked at my splint and commented “oh – you have a dynamic splint
– what's up with that hand?” A regular ol' person wouldn't call
it a 'dynamic' splint - only someone who had this done or a physical
therapist or a hand surgeon would use that term. Turns out she is a
retired hand surgeon! Small world. By the way, I counted that as a
checkup for 9 weeks post-op :-)
Must be time for Steve and Craig to
kayak! First get them out of the bag and then haul them below the
lock for the best spot.
Sadly we had taken one of our kayak
paddles when we stopped Pirate's Cove in the trawler last year. No
problem. Craig has a dinghy so he made great use of duct tape to
convert his two dinghy paddles into a single kayak paddle. Gotta love
that duct tape :-)
Swans were EVERYWHERE! This was the
first pair we saw – seven little ones all in a line between the
parents. By the time we ended up at Upper Brewers we must have seen
at least one or two hundred swans. Never saw anything like that on
the Trent …
Also spotted when Steve walked by the
lock – a great blue heron. It's interesting that they can look very
tall (like this one) or very short depending on how it extends his
neck.
Tomorrow? Morton Bay ....
No comments:
Post a Comment