Part A - The Rideau Canal
In Chapter 6 we reviewed crossing from Lacey Washington to
Fonthill Ontario and visiting our daughter there as we prepared to put Hyacinth
the Boat into the waters of Ontario to begin our canal adventures.
Everything went as planned and we ramp launched Hyacinth
from her new trailer (which still needs a couple of tweaks but overall is
working well) and spent the night in a marina at the entrance to the
Trent-Severn waterway – which we will visit later. The next morning we travelled eastward taking
an island protected inside route to the entrance to the Rideau Canal. Along the way we stopped to visit some folks
who had spent two nights in our driveway in Lacey as BoondockersWelcome.com
guests. They had let us know that we
would be passing right by their house on Amherst Island and we should stop in
if they were home. It was good that they
were in as the wind was blowing hard and we were having trouble with our
battery charging system so they were able to get us access to a protected dock
with power long enough to top off the batteries.
While we were there I took out my electric-assist bicycle
and rode around the east end of the island which was my first real introduction
to rural Eastern Ontario. While riding
around I began to recognize why the island is known for its dry stone wall
fences (made of piled flat rocks with no mortar) as the flat rocks line the
shoreline and were piled next to any excavation. The island is also known for its flocks of
sheep and this being spring there were lambs aplenty including a lamb nursery
pen set up in the fresh grass next to the road.
The other pleasant surprise that has followed us so far in our travels
in Ontario is the hundreds and hundreds of blooming lilac bushes that scent the
air (along with some lily of the valley).
I started to wonder if they are native here but no they were brought
over from Europe. Finally the pastoral
scenery and old houses convinced me that if Price Edward Island were not
available for filming Anne of Green Gables movies that Amherst Island would be
a good stand in.
From Amherst Island we boated across the channel to Kingston
which is the official start of the Rideau Canal. After riding our e-bikes into Kingston to
look for boat parts and explore a bit we were ready to set out in the
morning. It didn’t take long before we
entered our first flight of locks. The
lock attendants were very helpful understanding that for many boaters this is a
new experience. They also were pleased
that we had purchased our seasonal lock pass on line about a month before
heading east and it was posted on our windshield. We looked pretty competent in the first lock
of the flight but I lost control of the stern in the second one so the lock
attendant kindly tossed me a line. This pattern seems to continue to this day
where we get a bit cocky with our locking skills and then we will loose control
of one end of the boat or the other (we have always recovered without too much
problem).
The locks themselves are interesting to both of us for the
variety of how they are built and operated.
All except a very few are still human powered with chain and capstan
systems. Even the swing bridges run the
gamut from motorized to a couple that have a human powered gear mechanism in
the middle of the turntable to one that is pushed open by hand by the
attendants. On entering the locks the goal is to smoothly stop the boat close
to the wall of the lock so Clarice can reach one of the plastic covered cables
that stretch from the top of the wall to the bottom. Once she catches the bow cable and puts a
line around it then I run back and (if all goes well) reach out for one of the
next two cables and wrap a stern line around it which I then hand back to Clarice
so she can handle both ends of the boat while the lines slide up or down the
cables as the case may be. My job is to
then shut down the engine (this being an older boat, shutting it down requires
pulling hard on a cable near the floor under the seat) and then being ready to
restart the engine once the gates start to open. After starting the engine (we are happy to
say it has been VERY reliable and easy starting), I release the stern line and
prepare to drive the boat out of the lock after Clarice releases the bow
line. This is all made much easier as
after talking about selling the two-way radio headsets we had for Salish Aire
we had instead kept them so we can communicate clearly with each other using
normal voice levels. Some of the locks
lower or lift the boat only a few feet but most are much higher than that with
the largest drop/lift being 26 ft in a “modern” lock in the town of Smiths
Falls where a single lock was built to replace a flight of 3 original locks
allowing for uninterrupted auto traffic flow on the main street in town. Many of the locks are still lined with the
original stone blocks from when they were built shortly after the War of 1812.
The reason we started with the Rideau Canal rather than the
Trent-Severn was our interest in its history.
It is reported to be the oldest operating slackwater canal in North
America. It was built in a relatively
short time as a defense project seeing how the Canadians were not happy having
just gone through the War of 1812 with the folks from that nation south of them
potentially blocking their transportation routes. The route started in 1826 and was completed
by 1832 after overcoming huge problems with digging a canal in bedrock and an
even greater problem with malaria killing off the employees. The canal is 202 kilometers long rising 83
meters up from the Ottawa River to Rideau Lakes and then back down 50 meters to
Lake Ontario. The canal has 46 locks
(you may see different numbers as the new single lock in Smiths Falls replaced
3 older locks and there is a single lock on a side canal) of which we transited
(twice) all of them except the side canal lock and the 7 locks from Ottawa
downtown to the river below. The lock
staff plans on an average of a half an hour for each lockage and each bridge
opening which affects when they close the locks for the day and put you in
“boat jail” until they open again in the morning (canoes and kayaks get a get
out of jail free card as they usually portage around the locks).
The canal scenery if generally very pastoral with even the
“big” towns not being cities by any means.
The only exception is Ottawa which was very impressive. The term “stackwater canal” comes from how
the canal was constructed. The rivers
that meandered from the peak of the route had rapids and waterfalls but also a
lot of acreage of lakes and marshes. In
many places the Canadian Shield bedrock was right at the surface and didn’t
avail itself to easy digging or blasting with the tools of the day so instead
of digging the canal except for short distances the rivers were dammed. A dam would be built that flooded the
previous rapids, marshes and falls and instead created a large area that could
be navigated once the boats were lifted to the new lakes by locks. The dams challenged engineers of the time
with the largest one being made of keyed stone blocks in a reverse arch so the
pressure of the water forced the stones firmly together. It worked well enough that the structure is
still in use today creating a navigation lake as well as a reservoir for a
power plant fed by 3 massive wooden penstocks.
In some places the lakes are quite large and fast speedboats, jet skis,
and pontoon craft (sorry I can’t bring myself to call rafts with motors
“boats”) vie for space to speed along.
In other places the woodlands overhang the narrow channel and signs
direct that a horn be sounded before entering to alert oncoming boats. Much of the Rideau River that drains to the
north is a water bird and fish heaven with acres of cattails and underwater
plants. The navigation channel is
reportedly maintained at 5 feet. We draw 2.5 feet and have our depth sounder
set to alert us when the bottom is 2 feet below our keel – it alarms on a
frequent basis. So far we haven’t had
any close calls as to grounding but we have learned that when the boat starts to
sound different and vibrate we need to stop and run the propeller in hard
reverse to clear weeds from the machinery.
In all of the canal the main channel is well marked with red and green
marks (which switch sides at the top to maintain the standard of “red right
returning from the sea”).
Along with our seasonal lock pass we pre-purchased a lock wall overnight pass. This was one of the best purchases we’ve made in a long time considering we didn’t know what were getting in to. We imagined the lock walls to be concrete walls next to dirt that we could tie up to for the night. Considering moorage is very expensive (especially here) and that Jarvis, Clarice, and I all like to get off of the boat and stretch our legs it seemed like a good plan along with anchoring out some and otherwise staying in marinas in transient slips. Our first night “on the wall” collapsed all of our pre-conceived notions when we tied up to a very nice wooden dock (with power available for an extra fee) set in a national park setting with clean restrooms and free showers! Some of the docks have been not as fancy and without power available (which we seldom use anyway) but every one has been in a lovely setting with its own character.
Perhaps the best deal of all was our dock in
downtown Ottawa about 50 feet away from the temporary senate building (the
parliament building is currently getting its 100 year makeover). This was included with our pass and put us in
an ideal location for exploring the central government district for the capital
of Canada.
For my entertainment I set up to try broadcasting to the
Parks on the Air (POTA) ham radio group.
At first I was very discouraged and then the ionosphere did something
and life got interesting. With my 100
watt radio and 12 ft tall semi portable antenna I found myself talking to
Spain, Italy, North Africa, and Portugal as well as to a number of loud and
clear stations in the USA and Canada.
The boat has performed admirably overall. The first major glitch involved a fancy
electrical device designed to make sure that the engine starting battery gets
charged before the house batteries. A
couple of calls to the manufacturer ended with the recommendation that I mail
it in for a checkup. I had also designed
the system with a manual bypass switch just for an eventuality like this but
wasn’t happy it wasn’t working as designed even though we could make due. Next we made our first fuel stop and a young
man on his second day on the fuel dock put about 5 gallons of gasoline into our
diesel tank before I caught the error.
The outcome was that the marina pumped out the fuel the next morning
then wiped out the tank with a rag before filling it with diesel – all at their
cost. What was really surprising and I
still don’t have an explanation is that after the diesel fiasco the battery
isolator started working as designed and has continued to do so!! We are still getting used to having unlimited
fresh water to rinse the boat using our deck wash pump (but we have to be a bit
judicious with our use of drinking water as most locks have untested wells for
watering lawns and flushing toilets only.
We have also learned that at the
speeds we are typically running we need to do a high speed run for a while
periodically to keep carbon from building up in the engine. Overall our fuel usage is almost negligible
as the little engine in the little boat just chugs along.
Our weather has been great for the most part with the
exception of the wind on Amherst Island and 2 record breaking hot (95 degrees
F) days in Ontario. You may also notice
a “sepia” tone to some of the photos as we neared Kingston on our way south as the
air was thick with smoke from forest fires in Quebec.
Finally, Jarvis seems to have his own on-line fan club so I
try to make sure to give periodic updates about him. The good news is having lived much of his
life on various boats he seems very happy to be back aboard where he knows
where everything is. I think he likes
his mornings best when he begs to lie between us on the pilot chair. I noticed the past several days that he is
more back to his old self (less grouchy, more waggy) with visitors and children. Yesterday a dog about his size and he had
quite the pleasant interaction while I talked to the owner (the other dog even
offered to share a stick!) He has no
interest in keeping the geese off of the dock or out of the park anymore as
long as they don’t bother him or us. In
general he seems happy in his very old age.
My last comment is about Canada Geese of all things. When we lived in the marina in Everett we
watched for the new baby duck hatchlings as a sign of Spring. Sadly so did the
seals and eagles who considered them to be tasty. We noticed that ducks with
their first brood didn’t seem to understand how to protect the ducklings and
they would quickly go from 14 to 1 to zero within a few days. Later they would learn to join with another
duck pair and protect the kiddos and more of the hatchlings would grow to
adulthood. Here we have seen flocks with
probably 50 teenage goslings protected by a number of aggressive adult
geese. We’ve come to believe that with
geese and humans a village does a much better job of raising children than
single parents working alone.
