Kingston Ontario July 15 - 18

Since we couldn't check into the downtown Kingston marina until noon, we decided to do a quick tour into the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence river. This area has at least 1,600 islands. Boaters come from all over to anchor or tie up near one of the islands to hike, swim or fish. The water is clear and the Island range from small rocks to resorts. After getting to a section of islands we weaved through sailboats, shallow water, and rocky islands. We were back to Kingston by 12:30 so got into our slip with no problem. Except there was no 50 amp service near by which means no hot water (until we found 50 amp the last day.)


This is the view from the water of Kingston and the Confederation Basin Marina. This was actually taken from land while we were on a 1-hour Trolley Tour of Kingston.


















There was a waterfront park next to our marina. On Wednesdays they have noon time entertainment playing outdoors and we took advantage of the oldies band. On Saturday the park hosted the "Taste of Kingston" and had bands playing also. It was a nice chance to sample some variety including smoked salmon, and some other sandwiches.

On Friday the 18th, I walked down to about the 20th Marine/Maritime Museum I have seen in the last year. This one concentrated on steam shipping and ship building techniques. Plus the buildings were the site of a dry dock and shipbuilding warehouse.

The pictures below show a walking beam steam engine model and the Coast Guard ship Alexander Henry that I could walk through.

Kingston did have some interesting architecture. Many of these were right next to the marina. The train station was original from the late early 1900's.

The house had a feature common on many home of the 1800's in that it has an opening to allow carriages to pull through to the back of the house.

The view of the Confederation Basin Marina and downtown Kingston as we were leaving town on Sunday July 18. The wind was starting to pick up from the W and SW and we motored into it for about 20 miles on the eastern edge of Lake Ontario before reaching the protection of some islands and land.

Kingston Mills & Kingston Marina July 13 - 14

This was the last set of locks heading south on the Rideau Canal. They were at Kingston Mills and yes originally there was a mill there. This was a flight of three with one separate lock just before these for a total of four. The bridge at the top of this picture is an railroad bridge (one of the busiest in Canada) carrying passenger and freight trains. One of the trains that went by is in the next picture.

Tied up at Park Canada mooring below the Kingston Mills Locks. We spent the night there by ourselves. Once all the boats passed by it was very quiet. Plus it gave me a chance to walk back to the locks and see the equipment.

We have now completed all 44 locks of the Rideau Canal. Our next stop will be Kingston, Ontario at the junction of the St. Lawrence, Cataraqui River, and Lake Ontario.

British Colonel By who directed the building of the Rideau Canal system also recommended and supervised the construction of a series of blockhouses to protect the canal from those dangerous Americans. Four were eventually constructed. This is one of them and it sits next to the canal. Troops could be moved there in the event of an attack.

Interesting picture of water overflowing the lock gate. This isn't normal but sometimes it may happen on a flight of locks when they are moving a lot of water down.

I had decided that the boat prop needed to be repaired. I thought that the vibration was more than normal and the blade damage might hurt efficiency. So after some calls I found a place to pull the boat out of the water and a shop that said they could fix the prop. (Note, that I talked to two dive business about pulling the prop in the water and they both said that due to Canadian Government regulations on divers they must have a supervisor and line handler on the scene along with the diver. So quotes were $200 just to show up and probably at least $1600 just to pull it off and another $1600 to put it back on. There you have what happens with government regulations run amuck. )

The crane lifting us back into the water after the prop was repaired. In by 9:00 out by 5:00, sounds like a dry cleaner. We ended up staying there at the Kingston Marina that night and they gave us the spot for free, although the 15 amp breaker circuit they gave me kept tripping.

Rideau Canal & Lakes July 9 - 12

We got out of narrow and winding canals into open lakes. The is a series of connected lakes in this part of the canal. We had a pretty day (as the picture shows) and decided to stop early at an area called Big Island on Big Rideau Lake. It was really just a cove of the lake.

It was warm enough and the water clear enough that Kaye decided to go swimming. She agreed to clean the white boot stripe with a brush. It was still stained from the Tar River. This was the first time she had been able to swim this trip. I installed a new swim ladder at the haul out in April, and it seemed to work well. The yellow line in the picture is a polypropylene line that floats and can be used to keep from floating away from the boat.

I decided to take the opportunity to check the prop. We had hit something in the New York canal and again just a couple days earlier. We had heard terrible grinding noises both times but I wasn't sure what damage we had done since the skeg does a good job of protecting the prop. I donned my swim mask, snorkel and fins and dived down to the prop. It indeed had edge damage including a 1/2" split in the end of one blade. We had a slight vibration but not bad.

The lockmasters get pretty good at fitting in as many boats a possible into the lock. We were in with a Yacht Club that all knew each other. The leader seemed to be the guy in the Trawler Cat ahead of us.

This lock gate had the water release gates in the lock door.

A flight of two locks.

Morton Lake was one of the prettiest spots to anchor that we have had on this trip. The narrow entrance into the lake diverts off the canal into a long narrow lake with high rock hills on each side. A pretty tranquil spot with only one other boat near by.

The only problem with Morton Lake and actually with most of the lakes in this part of the Rideau is plant growth. The water is fairly clear and plants grow from the bottom. The species is an invasion of Eurasian Water Milfoil. It doesn't need seeds. It can propagate by pieces that get cut off and float away. It's very thick in shallow areas and since 1998 the Canal has used a mechanical harvester boat to cut the weeds in the main channel. Anyway the picture shows the weeds we brought up with our anchor. It was so thick that a neighboring boater, out fishing in his dinghy, had to come help pull the plant growth off so we could raise the anchor. Usually deep water doesn't have much weeds and we were in about 20 feet and it was not visible on the surface.

This is a picture of the weeds in our next night's anchorage in Cranberry Lake. We picked a nice spot and had to move to deeper water to get away from the thickest growth. The weeds kept getting sucked into our raw water strainer for the generator. I had to clean the screen three times that night after the first time it plugged and the overheating shut down the motor. Once I had to pull the intake hose off and blow and pull the weeks out that were stuck in it. This picture shows weeds in water about 10 feet deep. The tops are actually 2-3 feet below the surface but they can been seen clearly.

Smiths Falls July 7 - 8

We reached Smiths Falls on the 7th. The picture shows the falls & rapids for which the town is named. Of course this was the site of a mill which meant early industry. Now industry in many of these small towns is dying. Smiths Falls was known as Chocolate Town due to a Hershey Chocolate plant in town. Unfortunately, it closed in December 2008 when production moved to Mexico, laying off about 600 employees from this roughly 300,000 sq ft plant. The first night we went to an English Pub and had some English food. I had a dish called "Mash and Mess" or something like that. It was sausage, peppers and onions. Kaye had fish and chips.




Smiths Falls is the headquarters for the administration of the Rideau Canal. I can't pass up a museum so I went through the Rideau Canal Museum in the admin building for the Rideau. The Museum was just a short walk across the canal from our boat. Nice displays and a stairway to a tower to look out over the city. The picture is off color because I forgot to reset it from a tungsten light setting I was using inside.


This is our boat tied up to a floating dock in Smiths Falls. The rental car was about 1.5 miles away, NAPA 1 mile, and WalMart about 1 mile. A very convenient location but we still wanted to rent a car to see more of the town and help us get groceries. It actually took two stores to get all the groceries we needed.







We visited the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smith Falls. They had some unusual equipment including this Dentist Car. For 30-40 years the Canadian Government would place this car and others in remote areas, often First Nation (native Indian) areas. There would be a Dentist that would live in the car for a year or two and provide dental services to the children of the local population that would travel many miles to seek help, often by canoe. The car was set up with all the implements of dentistry including a chair and X-ray room.


These track worker cars were a little unique also. In the background in the barn, was a 1947 (I think) Cadillac that was converted to be a track inspection car.

The museum hosts were volunteers but obviously train enthusiasts. I spent quite a bit of time with them asking questions and talking about riding modern trains.








From Smiths Falls we decided to drive to Perth. Perth has some old buildings with many made of the local limestone. Shaw's is an old hardware store from the 1800's. It sits right downtown. One of the things the town seemed to be quite proud of was, that it was the sight of the last duel fought in Canada. They even have the pistols.

We drove around some of the town and walked the downtown part. The water below the bridge connects to a canal. The Tay Canal comes off the Rideau Canal and up to Perth. It is narrow and shallow and not quite right for our boat. So that is why we elected to drive here. The picture shows some of the architecture and the flowers. We just love the flowers the Canadians put out. This is also close to where I bought my first Beavertail. Stop laughing! It was actually pretty good. It is baked dough kind of like the elephant ears we get at County fairs in the US. You can order it with toppings and I chose apples and Cinnamon which was very tasty.

Rideau Canal July 4 - 6

We left Ottawa on July 4 in spite of an offer from the US Ambassador to visit the Embassy. Well at least the tour guide said there was an open invitation to US Citizens on July 4th. We, however, were ready to tackle the rest of the Rideau Canal.


As we left our Canal wall in downtown Ottawa we moved through a park setting with paths and parks on each side for quite a distance.



At one pair of locks we were delayed because they couldn't close the water gates on one side. They had to drain the canal to see what was blocking the drain. I got a unique opportunity to see the bottom of the canal (and one confused catfish trapped in the small remaining pool.) The metal gate mechanism (one on each side) lets water move from one lock out through a channel in the side and into a downstream (lower) lock. Whatever was blocking this gate probably got flushed out when they lowered the level.













We spent the night tied up at a canal wall in Merrickville. Downtown Merrickville, had many old buildings, some excellent restaurants, ice cream stores, and flowers. We sampled them all!





The Merrickville locks look tranquil before traffic starts in the morning.

Ottawa June 30 - July 3

The first thing we did in Ottawa was to go see the changing of the guard at the Parliament Building. This is a summer activity (primarily for tourists) but it is great showmanship. The units and band march up the street, onto and around the field. There are some maneuvers, manual of arms, inspection by the officers and other things I didn't understand. There may have been a changing of bayonets and a key also. Anyway after they had done enough "pomp" they changed their "circumstance" and marched away to the blaring of the horns and bagpipes.

It is now July 1st - Canada Day. Since I had seen the changing of the guard the day before I knew roughly how that worked but today there was to be a performance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride which was first performed in 1876. I thought I had picked a spot to see it but I picked the wrong side of the field and by the time I worked my way over to the side the Mounties were performing on I was 7-8 people back from the fence. Being tall I was able to hold my camera up high and get a few decent pictures. It was impressive to watch the riders maneuver their horses.

This is a view of the crowd. Red and maple leafs was the uniform of the day.

The crowd in front of the Parliament Building was waiting to see the Prime Minister and later the free entertainment.

This is a fly over of who I think is the SnowBird Canadian Air Force aerobatic team.

During Canada Day many museums are open for free, three stages with entertainment and some other free venues. We elected to take in a performance of the Ottawa Orchestra and a combined choir of children from though out Canada. The Performing Arts theater was completely full for the 2:00 PM performance and it was excellent. Plus we missed an afternoon shower that cooled things off outside a little.

Everyone wanted to take a picture with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This guy was right out of central casting. He had the chiseled jaw and broad shoulders that just says "Mountie!"

At the end of the day we decided to brave the crowds over at Majors Point, which is on the bluff opposite the Parliament Hill. There was a musical performance stage set up at the park there. At 10:00 pm the fireworks started and they were impressive. It was shoulder to shoulder getting out of the park afterwords. When we arrived at our boat our NJ neighbors said that a young man had expressed disgust at the US flag on the stern of our boat. Before the neighbors could react he had "liberated" our staff and flag and run off down the street. Apparently after the fireworks the crowds were thick going down the road and walkway past our boat and one probably drunk fellow was the thief. Mr NJ then told me that they woke up during the night before and found three young men in the cockpit of our boat. When he opened the door of his boat they jumped off and said they weren't hurting anything. So he and I decided to stay up and watch our boats until the crowds thinned out which turned out to be about 1:30 AM.

The next day we took a local Trolley Tour that allowed us to hop off and hop on. In the town of Hull, Quebec, just across the river from Ottawa is the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It covers history and nature and had one of the largest displays of totem poles in the world.

One of the highlight of Ottawa was the Canadian War Museum (opened in 2005.) It is in the modern style like the Marine Corp Museum near Quantico or the Special Forces Museum in Fayetteville, NC. In these rather than big rooms of artifacts, you wind through a labyrinth of displays with the path sometimes leading you through an actual mock up display. The Canadian War Museum was a fantastic museum. There were displays of uniforms and equipment of a period but done realistically (see picture.) There were models like the mock up of a typical WWI trench (picture) and there were even actual tanks and artillery weapons.

I learned a lot about Canada's military history. Before taking this trip, I hadn't thought about how much Canada feared an invasion and defeat from the US. The US had attacked in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and some ex-Civil War Irish Brigades attacked in the year after the end of the Civil War. They thought that if they could capture Canada that they could bargain with the British and trade Canada for a "Brit-free" Ireland. There was also fear during the many US-Canada disagreements like over the Oregon border. This fear of the US was the main reason the Rideau Canal was built. Britain wanted to assure movement of goods and troops if the US captured the St. Lawrence river.

I also learned about the honesty of this museum. It covered some embarrassing events in Canadian military history including the Ross Rifle that was defective and cost many lives in WWI, the internment of Italians and German residents of Canada during WWI, and the internment of Japanese-Canadians during WWII (the same action the US took.)

I also learned that "Scotty" of the Star Trek TV show was a WWII Canadian soldier who landed on Juno Beach Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944 as a Lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Artillery. He suffered multiple wounds that day including a bullet that nearly hit his heart but was reflected off a cigarette case, a gun shot to the leg, and a third that took off a finger. In early Star Trek TV shows, skillful camera work avoided showing his hand.

Ottawa River June 28 - 29

From Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue we continued on the Ottawa River.


Along the River there were several potential anchorages although many were in shallow areas. I wanted to get out of the current and into a protected area. We found this spot in the South Nation River on the Ontario Side of the Ottawa River. The picture was taken the next morning in peaceful conditions.




The Rideau Canal is named for the Rideau River. Supposedly, when Champlain reached this area in 1613 he saw this falls of the Rideau and described it a "curtain" of water. The French word for curtain is Rideau. Thus the river got its' name.


We knew that Canada Day was coming in a couple days and we had been told that lots of boaters would show up in Ottawa for the celebration. We also knew there would fireworks shot from the Ottawa River on Canada Day. We had thought about anchoring somewhere in the river nearby and wait for Canada Day. We also thought we could tie up at mooring wall at the first lock of the Rideau Canal. Wrong! As we approached the canal wall (to the right of the boats tied up in this picture) a lock attendant came down waving his arms and told us that spot was reserved for tour boats but that we could enter the lock in about 5 minutes as soon as they opened the doors. So on the spur of the moment we took his offer and motored into the lock with four other smaller boats behind us. (The protocol in the historical locks is that the largest boat goes in first.) So with no lunch and no plan we entered the locks about 1230. The picture is not a perfect view of the flight of eight locks (I thought I would have another chance), but there are eight locks that raise boats a total of 79 feet. It is a dramatic entry into the town. A beautiful imposing national Parliament Building sits on the hill on the right above the lock but is not visible in this view. It took about 2 1/2 hours to do all eight locks.


While we were waiting to lock through we struck up conversations with many spectators. I got one to take a picture of us in a lock. Spectators get really close on all the Rideau Canal locks but particularly on these in Ottawa. People stood on the side of the lock and asked questions. On the Rideau Canal locks there are plastic covered cables about every 20 feet. To secure the boat we had to pass a line underneath the cable and back to the boat to hold it in place. The other part of the job was raising and lowering the fenders to match to location of the lock wall in relation to our boat.









The last lock was at the Bridge carrying the Wellington/Rideau Street which runs in front of the National Parliament Building. You can see more spectators on top of the bridge.












We finally reached the Rideau Canal and were lucky to get the last available spot along the canal. The boat behind us was a Ranger Tug from New Jersey. We were right downtown and with Canada Day coming boats were lining up early for the festivities. We were right in front of a Department of Defense building which we thought meant we were in a safe area. Later we found out that was not totally true.