Our life after living on a boat.

We started blogging in earnest when we decided to sell our houses and move onto a boat. We had many wonderful adventures aboard our Nordhavn 46 named Salish Aire . Seven years have passed and we have sold Salish Aire, purchased a house near the southern tip of the Salish Sea and often travel around North America towing Salish Airstream. It seems a good time to start a new blog about our further adventures but leave our boating blog intact for those who want to refer to our adventures on the boat. (http://salishaire.blogspot.com)

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Chapter 7 - Canals of Ontario

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.

Amherst Island Sheep

Amherst Island Sheep and windmills

Dry stone wall fence Amherst Island

Fields and windmills Amherst Island

Lilac lined road Amherst Island

Traditional Anglican Church Amherst Island

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.

Various mechanisms for opening locks

Clarice has bow and stern line wrapped around the cable on the wall while we raise or lower.

Lock ahead!

Waiting on the blue line for the lock to open

Inside the lock

These kids jumped at the offer to take a boat ride with their mother through a lock

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).

This cruise "ship" was built specifically for the canals - its bow folds up to allow it to fit the locks

The captain / owner of the Kawartha Voyageur was eager to share his knowledge 
after years of taking guests up the Rideau and Trent-Severn Canals

History of the canal

The northernmost set of locks from downtown Ottawa to the 
Ottawa River (we chose not to go down in the 95 degree heat).

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”).

Shallow marsh area of the canal

Narrow section of the canal

Very narrow section of the canal

These were large houses near Kingston but they are nothing 
compared to the mansions near Ottawa

Rideau Canal

Rideau Canal

Swing bridge between two lakes (houses are typical of most of the route)

Very narrow section of the canal

Fleet of LaBoat rental boats lined up in Smiths Falls

One of the larger shallow lakes

Marshy area a few feet from the main channel

Swans on a lake near Kingston

Park service underwater weed mower (there are 2 of them)

One of the large lakes (the sepia color is forest fire smoke from Quebec)

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.  

A typical overnight moorage

Moored for the night

Lock is full and the gate being hand cranked open


Geese swimming past Hyacinth on a lock mooring

Tied up for the night and a bunch of Canadian Girl Guides 
practicing their canoe skills

The Canadian Girl Guides encampment in the lock-side park.

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.

War memorial Ottawa

Temporary national senate building (Hyacinth on the wall lower right)

Hyacinth tied up for 2 nights in downtown Ottawa

Temporary House of Commons

Parliament getting it's 100 year makeover 


Supreme court building on the left

Supreme Court courtroom


Quebec across the Ottawa River

Fans made the record heat tolerable

Tied up along the canal wall in Ottawa

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.

A village of geese keep the goslings safe


Parting shots:

A retired railroad bridge is a National Landmark in Smiths Falls

Snapping turtle laying eggs next to the road

Cinnamon roles from Clarice's Omnia Oven

Yummy soup for lunch

Many of the dams are also used to produce hydroelectric power

Huge wooden penstocks still in use

This was the tallest dam in North America when it was built
 using keyed stones for strength (still holding up today)
























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