Kingston to Trenton

                 When we raised anchor in Morton Bay on our last day in the Rideau Canal, we pulled up this huge mess of weeds.  It took us about fifteen minutes to clear it with a gaff and a boathook.  I spoke with a local boater later about our beautiful night in that Bay and she said "Did you pull up some grass with the anchor?"  It seems this area is known for its overgrowth of thick grass and weeds.  Someone else told us the zebra mussels had done such a great job clearing the water the grass started to grow in where it had never been before.  If you anchor here, keep something handy to hack off the clumps you bring up!

        We entered the last locks on the Rideau at Kingston Mills, a flight of four locks dropping 60 feet.  The view was spectacular! 

        From there we moved on to Kingston, and took a marina for the night.  Our tentative plan was to spend a leisurely afternoon and evening looking around town and explore a little more the next day as well as take care of reprovisioning and laundry, spending another night here if we fancied.  So we scoped out where the laundromats and grocery store were, noted the lovely stone buildings, and browsed through a few shops.  We’re not big fans of dollar-type stores, but Dan was looking for thread and so we ducked into one to see they had what he needed.  He is currently designing a flag to commemorate our 2015 completion of the Down East Circle Loop.  

We chose a small restaurant with a patio overlooking the street to people watch over drinks and dinner.  I noticed a large pink cloud formation and wondered if the smoke from the wildfires was finally catching up to us.  We went to firesmoke.ca and saw that yes it was.  In fact, Kingston was due to be covered (smothered) with a ‘very unhealthy’ plume the next day.  

        We changed our plans.  After dinner we collected the laundry and the grocery bags and I sat in the laundromat while Dan did the shopping.  We got up early to leave Kingston in time to make the 0700 opening of the bridge that let us out into Lake Ontario.  Things were a little hazy, but not bad, and we had an enjoyable cruise along the coast to the Adolphus Reach that led us back inland to the Bay of Quinte.  We anchored in a little nook off Willow Point for the night.

Thursday, June 29, we awoke to a very hazy sunrise.  Air quality was designated as ‘unhealthy’ so we donned our KN95 masks as recommended and wore them all day while we cruised through the Bay of Quinte.  We decided to make a side run to the Murray Canal - because that’s Dan’s mother’s family name. 

        Murray Canal is definitely the road less traveled for most Great Loopers, even though it’s straight across Lake Ontario from Rochester NY, and is considered the beginning of the Trent-Severn Canal.  It’s only 8 kilometers (nearly 5 miles) long and has two swing bridges, but no locks.  We pretty much had the entire canal to ourselves.  We traveled the length of it to Lake Ontario, turned around and came back inside the Brighton Road Bridge and tied up to the seawall for the night.  Lucas, the bridge tender, came down to offer us the key to the washroom and told us to just hang it on the hook near his office door if we left before he got back in the morning.  

Today (Friday June 30) the air is still unhealthy, but the smoke is supposed to start clearing out later today and stay clear for the next couple of days.  We’ve taken a slip at the Trent Port Marina and are enjoying their boaters’ lounge (and wifi).  And there is a rumor of ice cream available here too…  Side note:  tomorrow is Canada Day, when all of Canada celebrates its nationhood with fireworks and festivities.  

Rideau Canal

         We stayed two nights in Ottawa, one night on the outskirts of Ottawa in Dow Lake, and then pushed on, soon leaving the city and suburbs behind us.  There are 49 locks separating several lakes and rivers that make up the Rideau Canal which rambles from Ottawa to Kingston.  So far, we’ve been through 42 of them.  We are one day away from Kingston, two if we don’t feel like traveling very far tomorrow.  

All but two of the locks so far were motorized.  All the rest were hand-operated, as were many of the opening bridges, by Canada Parks personnel.  These employees are mostly young, all smiles, filled with pride over their knowledge of the locks and the surrounding areas, and eager to answer questions or give you a hand.  They ask how far you plan to travel today and call ahead to the next lock to let them know you’re coming.  Many times we’ve moved from one lock into the next without waiting, and the times we have had to wait averages less than thirty minutes.  All the parks and docks and restrooms (they call them washrooms) are well maintained and open to the public, and there often is an audience watching you lock through.  While we are being lifted or dropped, people will stand on the side to watch and often call out questions about how far we’re coming and where we’ve been.  Little kids will wave.  People will point out the cat if Tommie shows up in the doorway.  It’s been a lot of fun being lock ‘celebrities.’  

The day we left Dow Lake (Friday June 23) we moved into a narrow area lined with maples and spruces and the occasional ‘cottage.’  We went through seven locks and decided to call it a day in a little town called Burritt’s Rapids, tying up at the dock after the eighth lock of the day.  This town is on a very small island and has a few historic stone houses and a short trail called the Tip to Tip trail (one end of the island to the other, lengthwise) which goes from the lock through town and to a view of the dam on the other side of the island.  It wasn’t a very long trail, but it was a good leg-stretcher.   

Saturday we cruised on past the towns of Merrickville and Smiths Falls (13 more locks) and through the lock at the area of Poonamalie to stay on the seawall there.  Poonamalie was so named by a Royal Engineer who had worked on a site in the Tamil region of India and means ‘cat hill.’ There is little here beyond the lock and its surrounding park, but it too had tourists and bicyclists and picnickers like all the other lock parks.  These waterways so far had been rivers and canal cuts, decorated with duckweed and lily pads, the shores lined with maples and weeping willows.  Really, they could be anywhere in the US.  It does seem odd to be traveling along knowing there is no ocean outlet coming up, and there are no tides. 

        Sunday we left the narrow winding rivers to enter the Rideau lakes.  These a large, deep lakes with many islands and are very popular with Ontarians.  Lots of recreational boaters on these lakes, as well as people out fishing.  We made a lunchtime stop at Col. By Island.  Col. By is the man who designed and oversaw the creation of the entire canal.  Every town has a By street.  Ottawa was first named Bytown.  This island had been privately owned for years until it was sold to the Canada Parks system and renamed Col. By Island.  We’d been told it was a must stop.  There happened to be space, so we stopped.  We did the perimeter walk in about fifteen minutes, mindful of the poison ivy which was everywhere.  At one point on the trail Dan remarked about the oddly shaped trees and wondered if there had been an ice storm in the 1980s.  Then we came across a sign detailing how a tornado cut a swath through the middle of the island.  That explained the odd curvatures of the trees that survived.  

Done with Col. By Island, we set off again.  It was a toss up between stopping at Westport or Newboro.  One of the locktenders had told us Westport offered hamburgers “to die for” and Newboro had a store called Kilborn’s that offered everything you wanted and things you didn’t know you needed.  We opted for Newboro and tied up at the seawall there after having going through that lock.  There were only two locks on Saturday.

Kilborn’s was interesting, but it was really a one-stop department store for summer people looking to decorate their cottages.  We didn’t find anything there we needed or wanted, but we did enjoy sitting in the porch swing outside.  We had hoped for a nice restaurant for dinner, but Newboro only had one restaurant and the menu didn’t interest us.  Another time, maybe.  So we had supper on the boat (chicken teriyaki on the grill) and watched a map turtle climb the embankment adjacent to us to lay eggs.  

Today we left Newboro and began our descent down through the locks towards Kingston.  Prior to Newboro all the locks lifted us up, beginning with the 80 foot lift in Ottawa, for a total of 275 feet.  Now we descend 166.2 feet to Kingston and Lake Ontario.  Today we’ve come down around 90 feet already, the last 60 feet in four locks at Jones Falls.  We had contemplated spending the night at the dock in Jones Falls but after walking through the park to see the sights (old dam wall, no Falls because the water has been harnessed in large wooden pipes to feed a hydroelectric plant) we moved on into  beautiful Moton Bay, surrounded by stone cliffs to anchor for the night.  This could be Maine, and it’s making us a little bit homesick.  

Ottawa

         On Tuesday morning we had a very peaceful cruise to Ottawa.  We’ve been really lucky with very calm seas on our passages through large bodies of water, even if it’s raining. 

We reached the base of the Rideau Canal with its incredible flight of eight locks just before noon.  These are similar to those at the end of the Chambly Canal - hand operated, and one leading directly to the next.  We were lifted a total of 80 feet for a length of less than a half mile, and it took nearly three hours to transit all eight locks.  It’s an incredible engineering feat.  We tied up at the long seawall after the locks, right in the heart of the city, and walked back to the flight to gawk at it from above. 

The flight of locks sits between the castle-like Fairmont Laurier hotel and Parliament Hill. Ottawa is the capital of Canada; Parliament Hill is where their government (House of Commons, Senate, and Prime Minister’s Cabinet) buildings are as well as their government library and Supreme Court, all enclosed in Gothic majesty in a beautiful park.  Normally people are welcome to tour much of it - both inside and outside where all the statuary and monuments are - but much of it is under reconstruction; currently tourists are limited to the perimeter of the park.  The entire Hill overlooks the Ottawa River.  

We had a light supper at one of the nearby hotel restaurants and returned to watch the summer solstice sun set from the Willie Dawes. 

Wednesday we set out to navigate the subway (the O) and the bus system to get to the marine store called The Chandlery to see about equipping our boat with a throwable life ring.  We’re not city people, so we always find mass transit a little daunting, but Ottawa makes it all pretty simple. The people we encountered volunteered their help and local knowledge too and we enjoyed making quick friends everywhere.  We took the O to the end of its line, hopped the number 57 bus toward Crystal Bay, and walked a block or two from the stop to The Chandlery.  We were on the west side of town, in a small shopping mall-ish area. 

We did find a life ring that was both Canada and US approved!  Dan was quite the character wearing that ring as we browsed the nearby thrift store and hopped back on the bus - this time the number 11.  We opted to stay on the bus instead of taking it back to the subway, in order to see more of Ottawa, and we came upon Chinatown! 

This one was much smaller than the one in Montreal, but it had a much more elaborate gate.  We decided to exit the bus and eat lunch here, finding a nice little Vietnamese place with outdoor seating.  Afterwards we walked around a bit and back to a bus stop to catch the next number 11.  The buses have a posted schedule of arriving every ten minutes or so, but this one took nearly thirty to arrive and other people began to drift over to wait with us.  One of them came up to Dan and began a very long, very involved, and very personal narrative.  Dan’s recounting is below. We’ve come to learn that Dan is not just a people person, he is a people magnet.

We went to the boat for a short rest and a lot of water - it’s been close to 90 and walking through a city just amplifies the heat.  Then we set off to find the Byward Market, a few blocks’ worth of shops featuring farm fare and artisanal everything from clothing to cheese.    We picked up some great fresh fruits and vegetables.  

Thursday morning we set out to walk Parliament Hill and we timed it to be in an adjacent park for “Ottawa’s best hot dogs” (recommended by a woman we met in the subway).  The Hill was incredible, and we learned a little about the formation of Canada, but the hot dog stand in the Major's Hill park was in the section also under reconstruction, so we headed back to the Byward Market and had deli sandwiches prepared in the Byward Cafe.  We’ll have to come back another time for those hot dogs.  We also didn’t hit any of the museums save the little stone building next the Rideau Canal entrance that gives a nice history of the canal itself.  Ottawa has a War Museum, a Natural History Museum, and a National Art Gallery among others.  Next time.  Cruisers are allowed 48 hours at the seawall downtown, and we felt it best to move on so other cruisers could enjoy the city.  

From Dan:

Wednesday afternoon while we were waiting at a bus stop, Kathy observed an older fellow, quite thin and wearing a mask, bend down to pick up a cigarette butt which he rubbed off on the steps of a nearby building and then very carefully folded up in a napkin which he pocketed.  A few minutes later he tapped me on the shoulder and asked if that was a life ring or a drone.  I was confused and he repeated the question.  I explained that we’d come from a marine store where I’d bought the life ring for our boat.  He then launched into a story about how everyone these days was talking about drones - flying them, doing all kinds of things with them - and then orated on the subject of his numerous trips to Europe to visit his many relatives, which he listed by name and country.  He spoke of his wife of 35 years, now deceased 11 years, who for years refused to travel with him due to her fear of flying and how hard he tried to get her to come with him, even sending her to a therapist.  He eventually got her onto a plane to Europe, warning her the engines would be noisy and the plane cavitating upon take off.  Well this plane was delayed in takeoff - as had a previous flight, which was why he always purchased insurance, because insurance took care of you during such delays, with meals and rooms and such - and there was icing and then de-icing and more delays and finally the plane took off.  An hour or so after departure she turned to him and asked when are we taking off? So apparently her phobia was over.  They spent many months in Europe meeting long lost relatives of his and hers, months because they wanted to see the seasons change.  Once home, they were planning another trip - she was chagrinned she had waited so long to get on a plane - and the story turned to how she had fibromyalgia and went outside to pick up a package and how it had rained and there was this water-filled hole she stepped into.  In the meantime he let us know he was a mechanic and his son-in-law was having car trouble and he told him to bring the car over, but for some reason his son-in-law asked him to come over to their house instead.  After some background information of the son-in-law’s family and how many children and grandchildren were in the entire family, some adopted, some biological, he came back around to letting us know his wife had fallen into that hole, hit her head and drowned.  He and the son-in-law found her - we're not entirely clear on when, and if it was related to the car trouble - performed CPR and waited for an ambulance, but she had died.  He sued the ambulance services for not getting there quick enough.  

About this time the bus finally came, and the story ended on that note. 

From Montreal to Ottawa

         We left the city on Saturday morning (June 17) at 0700, intending to get to the St. Lamberts Lock at 0800, an hour before our scheduled opening.  This is the first of two large commercial-size locks on the St. Lawrence as we make our way from Montreal to the St. Anne de Bellevue canal, the beginning of the river pathway to Ottawa.  These big locks give precedence to the large container ships that move to and from the great lakes, and it is not uncommon for pleasure craft to wait several hours beyond their lock-through time.  Both the St. Lamberts and the Ste. Catherine Locks have floating docks to tie up and wait.  It’s a pretty smooth operation - you make your reservation online the day before, you arrive an hour prior to your reservation time (they notify you at 0700 the day of your lockage), you tie up at the dock and call on the dedicated phone at the dock that you are there, and you wait.  They’ll announce  when they’re ready for you on the loudspeaker, and a large electronic sign board lets you know the approximate time of your lockage.  For us, it was 0945, not too bad of a wait.  We were one of four vessels in the lock, and there must have been room for twenty more.  Once through, we headed straight to the next lock, where a ship was exiting, and the lock was ready to receive the four of us.  

That done, our major worry of the day was over.  We headed on over to the town of St. Anne de Bellevue, which guards the entrance lock to the canal leading to the Ottawa River.  This is a cute little town.  The seawall before the lock is lined with restaurants and the downtown is just on the other side of them.  We tied up for the night, made friends with the lockmaster - all these locktenders are very friendly and welcoming - and set off to explore the town. 
            We happened upon a thrift store and set about combing through it for things we didn’t know we needed.  Dan has been planning to sew up a couple of flags, and he found some material that in a previous life were a bedspread and blouses, as well as remnants of someone else’s projects.  

        The next morning we walked the bridge across the river to the town on the other side and found a large grocery store, purchased what we could carry, and walked back to the boat to untie and lock through.  It was another drizzly day - the weather had been gray and showery since we left Montreal - and though we would rather all was sunny and warm, this weather is good help for the people fighting the forest fires in these provinces and it keeps the smoke down.  

We arrived at the Carillon Lock - Canada’s tallest lock - around mid-afternoon.  We debated locking through and hunkering down on the other end, but decided to stay put here.  The Canadian Coast Guard auxilliary were performing inspections and they politely asked if we would agree to one. While I chatted with two of them about everything from cats to cooking, the CO went through her checklist with Dan and he ran around showing her yes we had lifejackets, here are the flares, there is the floatation rope, the horn works, the lights work, etc.  The only thing we didn’t have was a throwable life ring, but despite its absence, we passed inspection and received a sticker and several souvenirs like a whistle and key chain.  They thanked us for the experience and the CO even gave us her phone number in case we had any questions.  So different from the US!  

On Monday morning, we entered the Carillon Lock.  This one has a guillotine door, and lifts you up 60 feet.  Again, the locktenders stood on the dock beside us the whole time, chatting away: telling us all about the marvels of the mechanics of the lock and asking lots of questions about our time on the boat and the Great Loop.  We really love the Canadians.  

The sun finally came out just after noon as we traveled the Ottawa River between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.  Dan put up the mast and I admired the scenery.  Lots of farmland here, everything is very peaceful and pastoral.  We anchored off the Clarence Islands late afternoon.  Ottawa tomorrow...  

Montreal

         We set out for Montreal on Thursday morning.  It wasn’t that far from our anchorage, but the current was strong and against us; most of the time we were making less than 5 knots, and as we approached the Jacques Cartier Bridge, our speed went down to 1.8 knots.  We passed the current port of Montreal before we got to the Old Port - miles of docking and cranes waiting for the big cargo ships to load or unload their freight.  We also passed the Olympic Village of 1976.  Dan has found memories of attending that Olympics with a couple buddies.  

We stayed two nights at the Marina Port D-Escale du Vieux.  It’s a small marina in a little man-made basin between two very long docks.  The people are very friendly, the place is secure, and we were steps away from the restaurants, shops, and parks that make up the Old Port.  We docked just after noon on Thursday and were finding our way around town within the hour.  What an incredible city!  There are stone buildings dating from the 1700s mixing in with art deco buildings from the 1920s and much more modern buildings. 

The people are equally diverse.  A lot of shops and art galleries are devoted the First Nations cultures and China Town hosts a variety of Southeast Asian foods and boutiques.  We got a kick out of the restaurant called Chez Chili. Chez is French, Chili hints at Mexican food, but it specializes in Szechuan and Hunan dishes.  We walked and walked, poking our noses into many places, getting a feel for everything.  We stopped in a small Mexican restaurant just for drinks, returned to the boat to feed Tommie, and then set out again for a meal in China Town at Maison VIP.  It was excellent.  We spent the remainder of the evening checking out the various art galleries. 

Friday (June 16) we set off to visit the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History.  This is a multi-building museum, all connected through underground tunnels, and gives a terrific history of this city.  It incorporates actual building foundations in the underground tunnels as part of the exhibit - showing parts of older walls and sewers along with many artifacts.  The entire history of Montreal is done exceptionally well.  We highly recommend this museum just for this aspect, but they also have temporary exhibits. Currently there is a great one about the culture of Egypt.  It’s not so much about mummies and pharaohs, but about the societies themselves.  Also very well done.  We spent several hours there. 

 Afterwards, we walked to a nearby Portuguese restaurant and had a late lunch.  It was an odd time of day, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and our waiter couldn’t have been nicer.  The food was very good. 

We walked around some more, and stumbled upon an open rehearsal of a quintet in one of the oldest churches in the city.  The woman had a beautiful voice. 

We had an ice cream supper and watched the sunset.  The picture doesn’t do it justice - it was a very fiery-red ball, due the wildfire smoke that has been wafting over this area today.

 

St. Ours Lock - from the Richilieu to the St. Lawrence

         Tuesday (June 13) we left the Chambly Basin and headed up the Richielieu River to St. Ours.  We took our time getting underway and had a nice easy cruise.  The St. Ours ‘canal’ is only one lock long.  It's a bigger lock, and was constructed for larger canal barges to bring materials all the way down the Richilieu, but since the Chambly canal was never updated, this canal wasn't much good for the bigger vessels and is mainly used for pleasure craft.  

    We were the only boat there and opted to tie up to the wall for the night instead of locking through.  The lock is situated between a small island and the mainland where the town of St. Ours is located. The Canadian park system runs a small ‘glamping’ campground on the island.  Structures that are half-tent, half cabin are grouped on one side of the island, which is criss-crossed with many paved pathways that take you from the lock on one side to a view of the dam on the other side.  You can walk the bridge over the dam to view the Jacob’s Ladder - a fish ladder built to help the fish spawn.  There is a large window there through which you can see the fish.  We walked all around the island (it’s very small so you can cover it in about fifteen minutes) and over to see the fish ladder.  We saw several of the same kind of fish, which an attendant informed us were tanche (tench), an invasive fish that is working its way into the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes.  

Jacobs Ladder

Tanche

        There is a small community building that houses bathrooms and showers (showers are $3.00 each) and a few small out buildings.  At one time this park/island was the headquarters of the lockmaster and his family and boasted stables, a pump house, and a barn.    (Their house is now the community building.)  The town of St. Ours, we were told, has nothing much more than a coffeeshop and we never went over there to explore.  

We locked through on Wednesday morning.  This lock, like many to come, has a floating wharf to tie to, which makes the lockage very smooth, as the entire wharf travels up or down, not just the boat, and we don’t have to tend lines or fend off during the maneuver.  The locktender stood on the wharf the entire time, talking with us and admiring Tommie through the doorway and we barely noticed the drop of about eight feet.  

St. Ours lock.  See the waterline as we drop.

Once out of the lock we headed through the Richielieu and into the St. Lawrence.  We’ve been in this seaway before, but we’d forgotten how big it is and how strong the current.  We are traveling west, now, to Montreal, so we have to travel against the current.  Fortunately, the forecast calls for some pretty calm days, so we don’t have to worry about the wind.  We are keeping an eye on the smoke forecast, and hoping the coming rain helps dampen that down.  We’ve been lucky so far - the air has been clean and looks to continue that way.  

Into the St. Lawrence

        We dropped anchor for the day in a small channel north of Iles de Vercheres, a few hours’ cruise from Montreal.  We’d thought about going farther, but this was such a pretty and quiet area, we thought we’d soak it up before getting into the hustle and bustle of a large city.

Sunset on the St. Lawrence