TRIP 6 LOGS
August 2 – September 5, 2000
New York City, NY Area to Chicago, IL

PART 2   OTTAWA RIVER AND RIDEAU CANAL

Montreal to Montebello, Quebec, Friday, August 11, 2000

     We left the lock wall at 7:45am, ready to see the Carillon Lock on the Ottawa River.  We had no difficulties moving away from St Anne de Bellevue and up the river, except that the river was occasionally shallow and narrow.  Most of the time it looked like a lake, with plenty of water.  The name of the river there was Lac Des Deux Montagnes.  The land was high on the Quebec side at first; later the Ontario side was the higher. 

     We arrived at the Carillon Lock at 10am and waited for about 15 minutes, during which we met another couple also headed upstream.  They planned to make the whole 100 miles in one day and stay at the casino in Hull, Quebec, right across the river from Ottawa.  The Casino de Hull provided free boat slips to gamblers who stayed there.  The guy we met gave me the toll-free phone number to call, and he didn’t have to look it up.

     Inside the lock we were directed to a tie-up at the floating dock on our starboard side.  There was a young attendant on the dock, and she was wearing a microphone and earpiece which enabled her to communicate with the top of the lock.  We were directed to shut down our engines and keep the blowers running.  The lock raised us 19.8 meters or about 65 feet, quite a lift.  It was very impressive.  Our elevation then was about 135 feet.

     The Carillon Lock replaced several other, older locks when it was constructed.  There was a power plant there at the dam run by Ontario Hydro.  The entry door was a guillotine-type gate which lifted to provide 12.8 meters (almost 40 feet) of clearance.  There were several cruise lines which provided cruises from Ottawa to Montreal and Kingston through that lock, and their brochures always featured the boat coming out the downstream gate with the guillotine up in the air above them.

     Above Carillon I spotted an old lock in Grenville, Quebec; and we motored over to see it.  It was very attractive with its tow path, trees, and stone walls.  The Ottawa River above the Carillon Lock was called Lac Dollard Des-Ormeaux.

     We had been told about Le Chateau Montebello by people who were rafted up to us in the Quebec locks, so we decided to spend the night there. The four-story hotel was built of logs during the Great Depression,       
        
and it was elaborate and ornate in a rustic sense.  The six-pointed, star-shaped main lodge was built of 10,000 red cedar logs in 1930.  The marina there was the most expensive I had ever visited (other than the one in NJ where we stayed for OpSail 2000 in NYC); their charges were $2.50 CAN per foot per night, including 2 - 30 amp power connections and water.  It was located 55 miles from St Ann de Bellevue and 42 miles from Ottawa.

     On our dock was a Doral express cruiser named CASINO 1.  The passengers were having a lunch apparently catered by the hotel; it looked elegant.  We asked about getting a slip at Casino de Hull, since that’s where they were from.  (A brochure on the Casino had Doral’s name on it as a sponsor of the marina or something like that).  They told us no slips would be available Saturday night due to a fireworks competition being held at the Casino.  Start time for the fireworks was 9:30pm.

     The hotel complex was really a resort, a Canadian Pacific Railroad hotel, with high prices and great service.  We elected to have dinner inside, since rain was threatening.  We made reservations and walked around the main lodge and the grounds.  It was lovely.  The trees, grass, and flowers were beautiful.  Apparently many companies, clubs, and groups use the facilities there in addition to families; but it was a great family place.  The meal we had was excellent, as we expected it would be.  French cooking is our favorite.

Montebello, Quebec to Ottawa, Ontario, Saturday, August 12, 2000

     We pulled out of the marina at 8:10am and headed upriver for Ottawa.  We arrived there about 11:30.  We had been to Ottawa two years earlier, and it was a thrill to see  the staircase locks of the Rideau Canal right in the heart of downtown Ottawa.  The canal and locks were constructed from 1824 to1832 and were still being used in virtually the same ways almost 170 years later.  Alongside the flight of 8 locks there were the Parliament buildings on one side and the Chateau Laurier Hotel on the other side.  Both were beautiful and impressive. The City of Hull, Quebec was across the river from the canal locks; and there were many tours on the water for the tourists on both sides. 

 

      

     Just before we reached the capital city I telephoned our recent acquaintances from our overnight stay in Cape Vincent, NY.  Dennis and Louise came to meet us at the Rideau Canal locks, and they rode with us through the flight of 8 locks.  It was really neat that they were in town and that they could come down to see us.  Also just before reaching the locks, we saw the waterfalls created by the Rideau River cascading down into the Ottawa River. 

     The ascent through 8 locks took about 2 hours, and we were raised 80 feet above the Ottawa River.  We found we really needed help and were glad Dennis and Louise were there.  The procedure was to run a rope (or a loop of a rope) under a cable which had a black, plastic covering and let it slide up with the boat as the lock would fill.  When the lock was full, the rope was then under the cable as the cable came up and over the concrete, and it often got stuck there.  There were blocks of wood made for the top of each cable to provide some space for the rope, but those blocks were only partially effective.  So we sometimes had to get out of the boat and free up the rope.  Also, our boat tended to ride up and over the concrete walls, so we needed lots of fenders.  We were glad we had saved our straw bags from the Erie Canal.

     While we were going up, Angela got off the boat and took some photographs and video of our experience.  Dennis and Louise were a big help.  Each lock was opened by hand by the team of lock personnel, starting with the lower lock number 1 and moving the same boats in a convey up to the top, lock number 8.

     We met a couple in a Monk 36 trawler who went up with us.  We chatted with them and exchanged calling cards.  Guy and Lorraine lived on the Rideau Canal at Kars, Ontario.  He told me about a company which would bring diesel fuel to us by truck, so I noted the name and phone number to call.

     At the top of the locks we pulled over to the wall and tied up for the night.  Dennis and Louise had parked their car at a grocery store, and they wanted to show us some sights on our way to it.  We passed the farmers market and the nearby area where good restaurants were to be found.  We stopped for a bite of lunch.  We saw some of the downtown sights and heard about the Light and Sound Show in the evenings at the Parliament buildings.  We bought groceries, and Dennis and Louise dropped us and our groceries off at our boat on their way home to a dinner party.  What a nice welcome to Ottawa and the Rideau Canal!

     After putting away our groceries, we went back to the farmers market and bought fresh tomatoes, peaches, apples, and Atlantic salmon for dinner the following day.  After stowing those items, we walked back to the same area and had dinner.  On the way we saw hot air balloons in the sky just up the river from the locks.  After dinner we walked towards the Casino de Hull (across the river) and saw some of the fireworks from a park near the Rideau Canal locks.  We walked to the Parliament building and saw part of the Light and Sound Show; it was very impressive.  What a lot of things to see and do in one place, in one evening; and most of it was free to the public.  We were very taken with Ottawa.

     The elevation of the Ottawa River below Lock 1 was about 135 feet; above Lock 8 it was about 215.  We would be raised almost 200 more feet before starting to descend the 14 locks on the Cataraqui River into Kingston.  The system had a total of 31 locks ascending the Rideau River, plus two more ascending the Tay River.

Ottawa to Kars, Ontario, Sunday, August 13, 2000

     I changed the oil and filter on the generator in the morning.  We left the boat before 10am to go to the Parliament and see the Changing of the Guard.  It was underway when we arrived, but we saw most of it, and we followed along as they marched down the city streets to their barracks after the ceremony. That put us back at the boat, and we pulled out at 11:30am. 

 
    
 
     The Rideau Canal at that point was very straight, with a depth of about five feet maximum.  It had a lot of grass growing in it, particularly along the sides.  (Canal brochures promised a minimum of 5’ depth throughout the system, but they also said that 5’ was in a strip 10 meters wide.)  In the winter it freezes solid and becomes the world’s largest skating rink.  In the summer, as we saw it, there were alongside the canal, on both sides, bikers, people on roller blades (skates), joggers, and some of the above pushing trams with one or two babies inside.  Those streets along the canal were closed off to vehicular traffic, and the citizens were really using them.  It was colorful and inspiring to see so many people out in the fresh air enjoying the day.  Dows Lake was the focus of a pretty city park about 4 miles from Lock 8.

     It was a beautiful day, but warm by Canadian standards, maybe 85 degrees F.  We went through Hartwell Locks, numbers 9 - 10, two locks in flight (back to back) with a total lift of 21 feet.  Then we went through Locks 11 – 12 at Hogs Back, where the main Rideau River takes a different course, with rapids and waterfalls, through the city to the falls at the Ottawa River.  Total lift was 14 feet in those 2 locks, and the main river with rocks and rapids could be seen briefly from the canal.  Lock 13 was also called Black Rapids, and it provided a lift of 9 feet.  The three locks at Long Island, 14 – 16, lifted us 25 feet.  We passed some beautiful waterfront homes in the urban and suburban areas of Ottawa, some old and some very new. 
 

    

     It was 5pm when we arrived at the town dock at Kars, Ontario.  Guy and Lorraine and a friend of theirs saw us and came out and helped us to tie up.  They tried to pull us in close enough to their dock to connect to their shore power, but the little channel was too shallow.  We tied to the town dock and put out all our fenders for the protection from speeding boaters who passed by.  They offered to get some groceries for us; what nice people there were in that area!

     We had already stocked up on groceries, and Angela grilled the salmon for dinner, which was great.  I cleaned the sea strainers to check for grass, and I added water to the batteries.  The generator sometimes started off its own battery, and sometimes I had to jump it off the ship’s 8D battery.

Kars to Merrickville, Ontario, Monday, August 14, 2000

     By prior arrangement our fuel truck arrived about 7:30am, and we filled up and departed by 8:15.  We paid cash for 984.7 liters of diesel, or 260 gallons.  We only ran 4 hours, but our arrival in Merrickville was about 3:30pm.  The locks require the engines be shut off, and we went through 7 locks.  Also, we stopped below the Merrickville locks and filled up with water and pumped out our waste tanks.  Then we went through the locks and tied up at Parks Canada facilities above the lock.  They typically do not provide pump-out or water, and they only occasionally have electricity, which was an extra charge.  The general fee for tying up was $0.45 CAN per foot per night.

     Lock 17 at Burritts Rapids lifted us 9 feet.  The three locks, 18 – 20, at Andrewsville, were not in flight, but were operated as if they were back to back.  There actually was room to pass boats going the other way in between locks, but the lockmasters only let boats go through one way at a time.  We had a wait there; total lift for all three was 21 feet.  Then, at Merricksville, there was a turning basin between Locks 21 and 22 and again between 22 and 23, but they only ran boats one direction, so there were delays there, too.  Total lift was 25 feet. 

     The locks were operated by 2 – 4 people wearing uniforms; some were in shorts and some in long pants.  Most of the personnel were young; some were college students working for the summer.  They would close the lock doors behind us, which involved cranking a wheel with gear teeth and a chain which pushed a wooden beam against the lock door.  The two people on each side of the lock would then move to the upper gate and turn other gears, which opened a valve system to allow water from the upper pool to enter the lock.  As the lock neared the level of the upper pool, those valves would be opened still further.  Then the wheels on the side, with the wooden beams attached to the lock doors, would be turned to open the gates.  The lock gates were rectangular, without the angle mitered into the door edges to make them fit tight that we had seen on more modern locks.  

     We met several interesting people at that location.  While in the locks (there were three in series at Merrickville), Angela started talking to a young boy named Stan.  He was 11 years old, and he reminded  Angela of one of her nephews.  As we moved up in the lock system, he moved with us.  He offered to show us around Merrickville, named the most beautiful village in Canada, or something like that.  We accepted, and after we were tied up and plugged in, he showed us the town.

     When we returned to the pier, we spent some time talking with a couple on a 20-foot boat with an outboard engine.  They were from Holland originally, and now lived in Canada.  He was about 6’4” tall and in his 60’s, I’d say.  She was shorter and younger.  Their boat was tiny, yet they were doing the same thing we were doing, i.e. seeing the Rideau Canal from a boat.  In fact, they had a season pass for the lock piers or walls, as well as a season pass for the locks, so they always stayed at the locks, never at anchorages or marinas.

     As we approached them, they were sitting at the picnic tables found at all the locks.  They had a two-burner propane stove, on which they had just fried two steaks for their dinner.  He went to the boat and brought back two coffee cups and a tea kettle, and they proceeded to boil water and make two cups of coffee.  The two people were very serene and peaceful about everything they did.  They used the restroom and shower facilities at the locks, and their little boat had a clever system of canvas and mosquito netting to use during the night.  They didn’t travel fast or live expensively, but they seemed to be doing exactly what they wanted to be doing and enjoying it.

     There was a building on the side of the upper lock area which contained a shop run by Friends of the Rideau Canal.  That was a private, volunteer organization which works with Parks Canada to promote and protect the canal system.  They have a website, and I had requested some information from them in the past.  So, we stopped in and bought a few souvenirs.

Merrickville to Steadmans Bay on Upper Rideau Lake, Tuesday August 15, 2000

     On Tuesday we ascended to the summit of the system on the Rideau Canal.  We went through Locks 24, 25, 26-27, 29A (replaced 28, 29, and 30), 31, 32, and 35.  (Locks 33 and 34 were on the Tay River, a side trip for us which we did not take.)  We  also stopped and toured the Hershey factory at the lower end of the Smith Falls locks.  Further on we saw the Rideau Canal Museum at the main  Canal offices above the locks at Smith Falls.  Both were good stops, well worth the time.  There were no free chocolates at the plant, but they did have a company store with low prices.  As much as I like chocolate, I had never seen it made like that before.

     Above Smith Falls was a shallow area followed by Lock 32 and another, short shallow area.  Then we entered Lower Rideau Lake, which was wide and deep.  After a short run to the town of Rideau Ferry (no lock there) we were in Big Rideau Lake, which was deep, wide, and long.  The Narrows lock, which lifted us 3 feet, led us to Upper Rideau Lake, which was in between the other two lakes as far as depth, width, and length.  I had heard that construction was so difficult in the limestone rock there that the 3’ lock was constructed to eliminate some blasting on the upper lake.

     In those shallow areas we were having some difficulties finding that 5’ deep strip in the canal.  Some of the canal went through marsh, and we were reading depths on our depth indicator of 4’, 3’, and even 2’.  Now I had programmed into our unit an extra foot, to make it more conservative, so a reading of 3’ really meant 4’.  Sound like making your watch 10 minutes fast so you won’t be late, right?  So, I kept having to interpret what I was reading, which is the problem with such arrangements.  Anyway, there were plenty of places where we could not find 5 feet of depth, but we didn’t hit anything hard, so it wasn’t a problem for us.  It did seem the buoys were at the very edge or just outside the edge of the canal, so we should stay well inside the buoys.  The canal was narrow at times, but always wide enough to pass a boat going the opposite direction.  Grass was waving at the top of the water just outside the edge of the channel.

     Our boat was one of the largest we saw on the Canal.  People would tell us “That’s a big boat”, to which I would sometimes reply “It didn’t seem so big in Ft Lauderdale”.  Our draft was 51 inches, or 4’3”, which should have been okay for those canals.  The grass in the channel may have caused shallow readings, or there may have been silt on the bottom that went right through our cooling system.  I checked the sea strainers several times to see if we were picking up grass, but we were not.

     We met some people in classic wooden boats, older Chris Craft runabouts with a lot  of varnish and red leather seats.  The owner of one such boat lived on Big Rideau Lake.  Another man with him lived in New York State, and he told me all about their shows and national organization and magazine, etc.  Another couple we met who had a wooden boat lived in Florida but were in the area for an upcoming show in Clayton, NY.  There is a museum for classic wooden boats in Clayton, too.  We chatted while waiting for the locks to move us in and up.  
  
     We anchored in a small bay for the evening, running the generator to cook, cool down the refrigerator, and make ice, but sleeping without it.  The day had been warm, about 85 F, with a cool breeze, and mostly sunny.  The lakes area of the Rideau was different from the earlier canal, with fewer houses and more hills, trees, and rocks.  The lakes were wide, too, where the canal had been relatively narrow.  We were then at elevation 407 above sea level, and it seemed like we were in the mountains.

Steadmans Bay to Morton Bay, off Whitefish Lake, Wednesday, August 16, 2000

     When I pulled up the anchor I found a large collection of grass.  I cleaned it off with a boat hook, but it took a while.  We didn’t drag, though.

     I spotted a bay on the chart that looked like a peaceful spot; its name was Morton Bay.  We headed to it, which required going through several locks, now descending, with a resultant change of buoys.  They use red on the right ascending the system, so when you come down, the greens are on your right. 

     At Lock 36, our first of the day at Newboro, we requested fresh water at the lock.  The lock personnel always seemed to try to accommodate our requests, and that lock was no exception.  Some locks were so remote they did not have access to potable water and could not help us.  There they used river water for their toilets and for watering the ever-present flowers and grass, and they used bottled water for drinking.  Some had wells, and the quality of the well water varied.  Anyway, we liked using water, and so we were always filling up somewhere.  We found the Canadians friendly and helpful in this area as well as many other areas.

     There were a number of families on the waterway, in boats and houseboats.  As we would come through a lock like Newboro early in the morning, we would see these groups walking to the rest rooms and showers, or eating at the picnic tables near the locks.  There were numerous children and pets there, too.  The attitude of the lock personnel was interesting; they tried to please everyone.  There were minimal restrictions about moving around or over the locks.  It was very relaxed.

     I liked Newboro Lake perhaps better than any other, although the distinction would be slight.

     I really liked the Elbow Channel between Newboro and Clear Lakes.   There was another narrow channel between Clear and Indian Lakes, and then there was Chaffey's Locks (why plural for one lock?), number 17, lift 10.75 feet.  There was a videotape for sale on just Chaffey’s, which I bought at the lockmaster’s house/museum.  Apparently Mr Chaffey’s mills and distillery were flooded,  or “drowned”, by the construction of the canal.  The video tape contained some old movie footage of fishing and parties at Chaffey’s early in the 1900’s.


     At Jones Falls I wanted to see the famous arch dam, which has been performing faithfully for 175 years with virtually no maintenance.  There was 60 feet of drop through those 4 locks.  So we did not pull in to the Blue Line, on our starboard side, but we tied up on the other side, indicating we were not in line for locking.  We left the boat and went up the hill to a building where John By lived while the canal system was being  built.

     It was a perfect little house with a living room, a kitchen with a table for eating, a bedroom, and a spare room with a bed and storage in it.  There were narrow horizontal windows which provided light and air, and visibility in case of an Indian attack, while protecting those inside from invaders.  We walked down to the dam, took some pictures, and returned to the boat.

     At the lockmasters station there were two speakers sitting outside, small to medium in size.  The music playing was a mixture of country and what I’d call Cajun, the South Louisiana accordion music I had heard when I lived in that area.  I went over to the lockmaster to tell him we were ready to go, and should we now move to the Blue Line?  He said no, and he told me what would be happening next, very helpful, with a French or Cajun accent.  I asked him about the music, and he said he recorded it himself.  He showed me a picture of his over 100 accordions.  I bought a tape from Ray for $10 CAN, and we enjoyed it for the rest of the trip.  The classical wooden boat people from FL said he had performed for their boat show in Clayton, and he was very good.  He played the accordion and his wife sang.  What a treat!

     The Jones Falls locks were special, because they had one lock followed by a turning basin followed by three locks in flight.  We went through  Lock 39, then 40-42 at that location.  That put us on Whitefish Lake, although the name changed every time we passed through a narrow spot.  Morton Bay was everything I had hoped it would be, so we anchored at 2:45pm.  We enjoyed sitting outside looking at the rocky cliffs.  We had to move to another spot to stop dragging anchor, but eventually got settled for the evening. 


       

Morton Bay to Kingston, Ontario, Thursday, August 17, 2000

     I had a cleaning job to do again when I lifted the anchor.  There was a pile of grass and mud on the anchor, but it held us through the night.  We left the anchorage at 8am and went through Locks 43 and 44 at Brewers Mills (also called Upper Brewers).  These locks together dropped us 16.5 feet.  The next lock, called Washburn, or Lower Brewers, dropped us 13.5 feet.  The Cataraqui River began somewhere in there, and the river below Washburn was also called the River Styx.

     The last locks were at Kingston Mills, where riverboat cargo used to be unloaded and hauled overland to Kingston.  Lock 46 dropped us 9.83 feet, and the flight locks 47, 48, and 49 dropped us 35.16 feet to the level of Lake Ontario, or about 243 feet above sea level.  That was an area of high, rocky bluffs favored by rock climbers who are often visible to boaters on the canal.  We then had a 5-mile run, on the Cataraqui River, through a marsh to the City of Kingston, where the small craft bridge had only 14 or so feet clearance for us (shown to be 18’).  We waited 30 minutes or so until the 1pm opening of the bascule bridge to get to the south side of Highway 2 and our marina.

     The Rideau Canal was approximately 125 miles in length.  We used 44 locks and spent Saturday through Thursday on the canal, a total of 6 days.  It could be done in 5, obviously, as we began our first day 42 miles away from Ottawa.  We ended our last day at 1:30pm at Confederation Basin in Kingston. It was a delightful experience, and I would do it again with pleasure.  The people we met along the way were some of the nicest and friendliest people I’ve met.

     Our lock total for Trip 6 included 36 from Part 1, 1 on the Ottawa River, and 44 on the Rideau Canal in Part 2, for a total of 81.

     After getting settled into a slip at Kingston, we did laundry and cleaned the boat.  I had some really good hull cleaner, but I used it all on the side I could reach, which was the port side.  I made a note to ask for a starboard tie-up in Trenton to clean the other side.  We kept our straw-filled bags for use on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

     Kingston was an impressive town.  The municipal marina was right in front of City Hall, which was a large, old limestone structure with a dome in the center of its roof.  Kingston had been the capital of Canada at one time.  There was live music being performed on the lawn in front of City Hall in the afternoon, and in the evening a pair of country musicians were performing.  Locals had brought lawn chairs to sit on the lawn and listen to the free music.  The people were friendly, and there were several nice restaurants to choose for dinner.  Again we noticed families doing things together, and the children seemed well behaved and orderly.  Residents of New York kept their boats there to enjoy the waters and the towns in that part of Canada.