Sunday July 9: Chaffeys Lock

We met up with Rahn de Vous Friday at Westport. Nice enough town – very touristy with many shops along the main drag.

The water here is still quite high – seems like there is still just too much water around. Not sure what we will find back in Kingston when we arrive there later this week.

The best of Westport? A very nice breakfast place called the Tangled Garden. Craig and Karen had already been there and said it was good so off we went Saturday before getting ready to travel again.

Skies were threatening off and all most of the day but the real storm arrived after dark last night. Quite the show of lightening. We love storms at night though – way better than during the day!

So the destination for Saturday was Newboro Lock. There was a store there that is the ultimate “have everything you want” kind of store.

The strategy involved in being able to end up with a spot on a Saturday night is quite involved as the boat traffic continues to pick up. Do we leave Westport early – thinking boaters will be up early and moving on to the next lock? Or do we drag our feet thinking anyone leaving will be up having a leisurely coffee and breakfast?

We opted for the leave early only to arrive at Newport to find all spots above the lock already taken! (These are the spots with power – how spoiled we have become :-) ). No problem – we found plenty of room below the lock on the floating dock. Time to pull out the solar panels.

Steve, Karen and Craig made the trek to the 'everything' store. I thought the outdoor chairs were quite interesting :-) Plus Steve did find a zester which he's been looking for.

He was also impressed with the obvious care taken with the grounds around the town – flowers everywhere!!

What I found more interesting were the almost ripe red raspberries! Makes me thing the black raspberries are probably ripe at the farm.

The guy who is using his trailer as a seaweed harvesting tool was also interesting! Gives an idea of the amount of seaweed growing in the canal system. Sadly it will get worse as the summer progresses.

Steve found an interesting plaque at the lock that detailed the difficulties in building this particular lock.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Leaving this morning from Newboro posed the same challenge as yesterday: early off or wait. We choose the early off again and arrived at Chaffeys Lock about 15 minutes before the first lock.

As luck would have it, Steve and I ended up above the lock as a smaller space was empty. Rahn de Vous also scored with several boats below the lock leaving. Life is good …..

Thursday July 6: Portland

It was the 4th of July Tuesday and I kept thinking it should be a holiday, right? Independence Day and all that.

Ironically, Canada's celebration of it's birthday is July 1st. Funny how close together the dates are.

Regardless, we headed out Tuesday late morning with Craig and Karen to see us off. They are staying another day but we are ready to go so we'll meet up tomorrow.



We traveled an amazing 2 1/2 miles through 2 locks and pulled in the for night at Poonamalie Lock before noon.

What a beautiful lock. So quiet with no roads other the the one the lock personnel use to drive here.

Shade much of the day and then again early evening so it was perfect.

Steve of course was both out walking and kayaking.

The grounds around this lock are very nicely kept with the old lockmaster house on the property.


And of course there were turtles to be seen :-)


There was a great find (sort of :-)  ) at the local Giant Tiger in Smiths Falls.

And I have to say Steve definitely needed a haircut. His last one was in Florida in May so it was time.

So there's now another thing I can do again - cut his hair! Truthfully, I was kind of liking that he was getting it cut at an actual hair place. But then there have been some bad experiences so I guess I'm back to cutting.

At least it always looks somewhat the same :-)

We planned on anchoring out the next night so Steve spent some time cleaning out the anchor locker. Apparently it was a mess ......

But now we're ready with the chain and line rinsed and dried off and the anchor locker itself all cleaned out.








It wasn't long Wednesday morning that we spotted Rahn de Vous in the lock - headed our way.

And it didn't take us long to unhook power and head out on this really nice weather day.






Steve was clearly enjoying the exceedingly calm ride to the park :-)






The destination was the Provincial Park at Murphy's Point. The nice thing about anchoring around one of the parks is there are typically no cottages along the shoreline.

We could anchor anyway (avoiding the marked underwater electric line) but it's much preferred to not have to do that. The first bay proved to be too deep so we ended up in the second small cove. Winds were from the south so the protection was great!

Once Rahn de Vous was settled, we followed - moving past them and closer to the end of the cove.

What a beautiful spot and day. Light breeze, cool temps. Couldn't ask for more ....



And yet another thing I can do: kayak!! The discoveries are never-ending :-)

Docktails on our aft deck and we called it a night.

The sky was clear so we were both hoping for a super starry night (with almost zero ambient lighting) but Steve spotted the getting-close to full moon :-(

No stars for us!

There was NO wind this morning. What a great night. The anchor alarm was set but definitely wasn't necessary. I sure sleep a lot better with it set though!

Steve took advantage of the calm to do some fishing. One perch. But there must be more on this lake - perhaps tomorrow!

Tonight we're docked at the public dock (with power - again unusual) in Portland.

Very small town which we'd not been to before. Glad we came - especially since we arrived around lunchtime and there is a restaurant right next to the public dock. And they have wifi that reaches the boat :-)

Tomorrow we'll head out to Westport to meet up with Craig and Karen (they went there today).

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the view from the flybridge!

Tuesday July 4: Leaving Smith Falls

We actually managed to stay awake Saturday night until the fireworks started at 10. The view from the boat was pretty good and the show was actually quite nice - somewhat unexpected as this town is not very large and it seems fireworks are rather expensive.

Well done Merrickville!!

We were up and off Sunday early in order to make the first lockage through the 3 locks (not really flight locks but just one right after the other.

It was a surprise to see the dockage above the locks to be wide open! Just yesterday the place was packed.

So instead of the intended move on to Smiths Falls, we pulled in and stayed at Merrickville another night! Light travel day of 1.3 miles :-)



It was as nice Sunday as it wasn't nice Saturday. The docks overlooked the nice park and with it still being the holiday weekend, there were people everywhere! Sad that yesterday was so miserable.

The day was spent people watching and just enjoying the pleasant day.

Steve and Craig went for an extended kayak ride - it was a great area for it.

Shortly after leaving yesterday, a beaver hut was spotted along the canal. They are actually pretty easy to pick out with the giant mound of sticks built up.

No sign of the beaver though.

Further along the waterway (which for this stretch was most a narrow channel surrounded by lots of marshy areas) Steve saw a loon with it's two young chicks. I've circled the chicks in red.




When the loons have chicks with them what typically happens is the male loon will dive down or in some way try to distract the 'intruder' from the rest of the family. But the female will stay on the surface to protect the chicks.

So chicks being around gives us an ideal way to long distance get a decent picture. Without chicks, both loons would dive pretty quickly.




On the right is a typical smaller isolated lock on the Rideau with the roadway running over the center of the lock.

The bridge is actually balanced well enough that it can be pushed open and closed by the lock personnel!

I'm thinking most of these bridges are original to the area but then who knows :-)

In the locks, I tend the line at the stern with Steve taking the line in front. Typically, I can't see him as we are both of course on the same side of the boat.

Yesterday, Steve was busted by Karen who found him to be lying down on the job!

Looked like a pretty cushy way to do a job and still be comfortable :-)

Anyway, we ended up back at Smiths Falls - about 14 miles travel.

The park setting is so nice, power is available and wifi as well. It's always a special treat to have wifi actually available on the boat!

The plan for today is to move a whole 2 1/2 miles south to the lock at Poonamalie. It's supposed to isolated and beautiful.

Sounds like our kind of place :-) Rahn de Vous will stay another night here in Smiths Falls and we'll hook back up again tomorrow!


Happy 4th of July!!

Saturday July 1: Canada Day in Merricksville

It's a pretty wet, miserable day today in Merricksville as we are front and center waiting for the Canada Day parade to pass by us on the main street.

Even though it was a rainy day, that didn't seem to deter the Canadians from coming out in force to celebrate the special 150th anniversary of the formation of Canada.

Flags were flying, Shriners were driving around in a variety of motorized vehicles, horses were on parade and military vehicles were on display!

But back to Burritts Falls. After a wet welcome Tuesday, Wednesday was a really pretty day. Warm and sunny - just the day for Craig and Steve to get the kayaks back out.

There is something about the sunshine that makes the day so much nicer :-)

It was a full house above the lock with the nice weather bringing out more boaters than we seen since we started on the system in early June.


We had a great spot below the lock and on the small waterway that led toward the dam. Horses playing in the field across the water - just a really perfect place. And power to boot. Unlike the Trent Canal which has power at only 4 of the 45 or so locks, the Rideau has power at more than half of it's locks. We are definitely getting spoiled!!

The sun also brings out the turtles. Many sightings again on the kayak ride.


And with all of rain of late, the waters below the dam were running pretty strong.




And then the rains came. All. Day. Thursday! The locks have a limit of 48 hours tied on the docks but would they enforce that in an all day downpour? Thankfully not!

Steve spent part of the day tracking down an electrical issue in a GFI plug - turns out it was a skinned wire creating a short. Easy fix and WAY easier than replacing the outlet itself due to very short wires.

Otherwise he was out in the rain checking out the happenings.

A number of Dragon Boats were headed to Ottawa for the 1st. Talk about a group of soaked people ... had to have just been miserable in the literally all day rain. Not sure how far they were going this day but it's still 40 miles to Ottawa from here.

After a bit I was hearing what I thought was bagpipes but that couldn't be. But it was! A lone bagpiper playing to support the group of Dragon Boats.

Finally Friday morning came with a reprieve from the rain - good thing as we found leaks in the boat we never knew we had - mostly around the windows.

The lack of rain didn't last very long though - off and on for the next 5 miles as we continues south on the canal. Steve gets the front line in the locks and there is no escaping the rain up there.

It's amazing how good a cup of instant hot noodle soup can taste on a day like this!

Fortunately it did quit as we were getting close to the marina.

With it being the long weekend, it would be luck of the draw as to whether or not there would be a spot on the wall for both boats. So to make our lives less stressful, we just booked into a marina for the long weekend. Turns out the dockage would have been filled by the time we arrived - even though we left first thing yesterday.

Pictures from the parade!

Drums and Bagpipes!

Several dragsters were in the parade.

Shriners in planes :-)

Another group of Shriners - performing on minibikes!

And the Shriners on tractors towing an outhouse :-)

Funnest thing yesterday???

Recognizing that I can shuffle cards again :-)