Day 1 -3 of the Rideau canal. June 9, 2019

Friday, June 7.

Today I come to you from the beautiful and immensely picturesque Rideau Canal. As I’m writing this, Captain Tim is guiding us through a channel that is barely twice the width of our boat. We have stopped several times to reverse the props and spin off weeds that have accumulated due to the shallow depths. At the moment, we are actually on Little Cranberry Lake and are cruising north into Whitefish Lake.

We say we are on the Rideau Canal, but the Rideau is made of several natural lakes and rivers that were connected by the manmade canal. Back during the War of 1812, the British decided that they needed a safe way to transport goods from Montreal and Ottawa to the Kingston area. They feared the Americans would attack transport ships on the St. Lawrence. Thousands died creating this waterway through marshlands, and rocky terrain in harsh conditions.

I last wrote while in Gananoque. We stayed there one night in the rain and then took a short jaunt back to the Alexandria Bay, US. Lisa took a tour boat to the Boldt Castle which Tim and I saw last summer with Mark and Beth Atherton. Again we spent the night in the rain. Thursday morning promised to be better and luckily for us, it was.

Finally after days of cold and rain, the sun was shining and we began to slowly peel off the layers. It was a beautiful day to begin the Rideau. We cruised into Kingston Harbor in time to make the 2:00 opening of the LaSalle Bridge. And so we began.

Cruising under the LaSalle Bridge, Kingston, ON.

In less than 5 miles, we reached the Kingston Mills flight of 4 locks # 49-46 ( We’ll be counting backwards toward Ottawa). The locks close on weekdays at 4:00 and we had enough time to lock through, but we chose to tie to the wall below the locks rather than tie at the wall above the locks. We did have a little noise from the train track that ran across the canal further on, but not too bad and it didn’t disturb our peace. There were a few locals out fishing, other than that we were by ourselves for the evening.

Excuse me, it’s time to do some locking. We are pulling into Jones Falls, Locks 42-39.

Jones Falls has 3 locks in flight and then .1 mile beyond is another lock. Locks in flight means that the locks are connected. In our case, we are locking up. The lock masters will use water from the higher locks to fill the lower locks. We entered Lock 42 and were lifted. When the lock gate opened after the lift, we exited right into Lock 41. Upon exiting Lock 41, we immediately entered the chamber for Lock 40. Between Lock 40 and Lock 39 is a pool. We read that the pool was built as a location for vessels to offload their goods.

Our next lock was Davis Lock 38 and we asked about dockage at the next lock. Lock masters are super helpful. They will call ahead to the locks up the line to check onspace and to let them know that a boat is coming. We were told that there was plenty of room at Chaffey’s Lock 38 our desired stop for the night. There’s a small town there and we’ll be able to get 30 amps on the lock wall.

We were told about a path that went back to a cemetery that held the remains of Irish workers who died while building the canal. It is thought that around one thousand men died. The conditions were immensely harsh as the canal was hand dug through marshlands, forests and rocky terrain. Many of the Irish were unskilled and the learning curve took its toll.

After a quick trip up to Brown’s Marina for a few supplies, we made the first locking and headed north to Lock 37 at Newboro. This was the first lock where we had lots of company in the chamber. We waited on the blue line while 3 boats locked down. Once emptied, we and 3 other boats crowded into the chamber and took the short ride up.

We had a short wait at Lock 38. This was our first time going down in a lock on the Rideau and while we waited we watched as bicyclists raced across the bridge that spanned the lock. Once the lock was opened so the boats that were in the chamber could exit and we could move in, the cyclist had to carry their bikes across the narrow walk way on the far wall of the lock.

Cyclists crossing the lock wall at The Narrows.

You need to know that on board we have the immensely talented photographer, Lisa Davis. Lisa takes her role as chief photographer very seriously and many of the photos I’ve used in this blog are hers.

And now, enjoy a collage of photos as we continue our journey up the Rideau.