Monday June 19: Catching Up

The old mill at Chaffeys Lock is still standing but now as an art gallery. The water rushing past the mill – which I assume provided the power to run the equipment that used to be in there – is still moving past the mill at a good speed. I'm thinking the mill used to have a water driven paddle wheel which harnessed the water power.

The art gallery didn't open until the next weekend but we were fortunate to meet the owners – Rick and Celine. Craig and Karen had met them two years ago and reconnected. Nice folks.

Rain was predicted so we stayed at Chaffeys again Thursday night - moving to the top of the lock so we could leave early. The locks are still operating on the 'early season' times of 10 am to 4 pm and we had a long day planned of 32 miles to Smith Falls.

A celebration at Chaffeys: it was Craig and Karen's treat to dinner at the Opinicon Hotel for Craig's birthday. Seemed we should have been the ones to do the 'treating' but we always aim to please :-) Nice to have dinner out for a change.

Steve and Craig had an opportunity the first day for a kayak around the area below the lock. They were not disappointed as the turtles were out in force on a sunny day! 

Maybe the most spotted on one log this year so far. And of course more baby ducks – so cute :-)

Spotted on the way to Smith Falls: a do-it-yourself ferry!! Limit – one car. Drive on, crank the winch and you'll be pulled across to the other side.

We couldn't figure out what would happen if the ferry was already on the other side – maybe another crank on shore that would pull it back your way??

Unusual to see: the turn right sign! Going straight was beckoning so maybe if you weren't watching the charts it would be easy to miss this turn??

Ended up staying Friday and Saturday nights at Smith Falls with breakfast the first morning at a place called the Roosteraunt. The decor certainly reflected the name :-) Breakfast was good – on to see the town.

There was a rumor of a farmer's market but that didn't pan out. Lots of shops downtown though and there was a health fair going on.

We thought Bucky Beaver was a part of the health fair but when we left town on Sunday, Bucky had moved on down the river to be a part of the dragon boat races!

It was finally time to see if the air conditioner we picked up Lowe's before we left New York was going to do the job. No place to mount it permanently so we went with Peter's (of Peter and Cheryl) method of using the doorway!

With a vinyl covering for the top part of the door, the air conditioner sits nicely on the door sill. Plug it in and – yes! It worked well enough for any heat wave we may encounter along the way.

Steve scored with his find of a tiny spatula – very soft so no scratching of his favorite small frying pan.

Plus a steel coffee pot that will work on the induction burners. He's been using an aluminum one on a propane burner – which is fine except that it can't be used inside the boat. The lid of the blue one didn't have a little glass top to see the color of the coffee so he cannibalized the two to produce one good one!

When we left it was a sunny but very windy Sunday morning. There were three of us locking through together – another boat that was about 50 feet, us and Rahn de Vous. Between the three of us the locks were pretty full with a tight squeeze on one side with us and the 50 footer.

It made for interesting locking through the next 4 locks. And then it was no longer a problem.

Steve smelled something 'electrical' in nature burning. Check the circuit board – no problem. Lift the engine compartment – yikes!! Smoke and steam – one very hot engine!!

Toss out the anchor and give a call to Rahn de Vous. They would stand by until we determined if we needed them to pull us.

We pretty quickly figured out that we weren't going to do anything for quite some time as the heat of the engine prevented Steve from even attempting to do anything. Doing a masterful job in a strong wind, Craig maneuvered Rahn de Vous close enough that Karen could get a line to Steve.

It was a long 5 miles to Merricksville …... to be con't.

Wednesday June 14: Chaffeys Lock

Another nice day but quite cool. The flybridge top is definitely coming down! The sun will pretty much balance out the coolness of the air. I definitely miss the enclosed flybridge of the trawler sometimes :-)

It was an early start as breakfast out was available a short 30 minutes down the lake! Good thing Karen found out the Kenney Hotel served breakfast until 9:30. Since we couldn't go through the next lock until 10 anyway, there was plenty of time.

The hotel is conveniently located just below the next lock so we tied up to the blue line (place to dock while waiting for the next lockage). Ready for the 10 am lock opening …. now off to breakfast!

This hotel was first opened in 1877 and has operated continuously for the past 140 years. Seemed pretty impressive to me. Fun sitting area in the lobby as well as an interesting bar area.

And of course we all took advantage of a porch with tables and chairs and most important: wifi!! Normally having our own hotspot (when in the states) definitely spoils us.

Once the lock opened at 10, it didn't take long to travel up the three flight locks and one single lock. Once through, the canal again opened up to a series of lakes – only one more lock until we arrived at our destination of Chaffeys lock.  

Jones Falls lockstation is interesting and is similar to the other flight lockstations with its being very defensible against attacks.

It was a winding way through the sometimes narrow channel. Some history of Chaffeys lock.

We ended up staying below the lock – nice shade :-) And very quiet!

Tuesday June 13: Morgan Bay

We left Upper Brewers lock about 9. Nice winding waterway to Cranberry Lake. It's right next to Dog Lake – the lake of Yesterday's Dream's stump encounter in 2011.

We have no desire to repeat that experience so we'll just stick to a drive around Cranberry to check out possible anchorages for when we had back this way!

It's another nice area with lots of granite cliffs around again. The Cranberry Lake had definite possibilities for being able to anchor out. Since we will go to Ottawa and then turn around and return to Kingston, we can check out the areas for the return trip.

We were headed to Morton Bay – one of the nicest places to anchor on the trip. A very protected bay – winds were predicted to come in overnight. Craig had read that there was a dock all the way at the end of the bay. Sure enough!  

But first we had to get there! We watched as Rahn de Vous threaded her way through the narrow opening to the bay.

Once through the opening, the bay opened up and we made our way to the very end to the promised dock. Good for the night!

Steve and Craig went off to find out where the trail went. Basically it went to a road! The sign on this building indicated fishing license were available so Steve was excited to see that – until they walked around to the front of the building only to find it boarded up and closed. Sad.

They also found a canoe launch located on private property but a sign welcomed anyone to use the dock. Unusual. My thought is the person just hasn't been sued by anyone yet ….

Kayaking was also on the agenda for the guys. Beautiful area.

It was docktails at the picnic table just a short walk from the boats. Steve was cooking our dinner on the Coleman. One of his favorite things to do :-)

Turned out that the rains never showed up other than a 5 minute sprinkle. No winds either. Made for a comfortable night.

Wildlife spotted: two deer spotted swimming between islands and a turtle and frog right next to our dock!

Funny thing about frog was that we never saw it until we looked at the picture!

Monday June 12: Upper Brewers Lock

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 ....