June 24
After our pumpout in Lachine, we began our slog back toward Ottawa. When we came down the Ottawa River, we had a 1-2 knot current in our favor. Our fat, slow boat averaged around 9.3 mph. Now coming back against the current we’re seeing speeds in the 7 mph. Ahh well, no big hurry. Continue reading Au Revoir, Montreal. June 24-26
The section of the Ottawa River after Carillon was a bit more cruiser friendly. Where we saw very few Aids to Navigation up to that point, now most of the buoys were now in place. The current decreased and the water depth increased. It was easy cruising. Unfortunately we also saw further signs of flooding. Islands of trees and no land began to sprout out of the river and there were several small marinas that showed no sign of opening up. As we neared St. Anne de Belleville we saw and heard an unusual boat. We soon discovered it was a Canadian Coast Guard hydroplaning vessel setting more Aids to Navigation in place. 
Locking through St. Anne was similar to locking at Carillon. They also have a floating dock go tie to, but instead of a 65′ drop, St. Anne is only a few feet change. But they too have mooring docks still underwater.
Our destination was Port de Plaisance de Lachine on the southern end of the island of Montreal. We chose it because it was close to Montreal and we would not need to venture out onto the St. Lawrence and then have to return against what we figured would be an exceptional current. Lachine is the home to the Lachine Canal which was first used in 1825. It has undergone several renovations and was even closed for a period. The canal can take a very low air draft boat ( I think about 9′) all the way into Old Montreal.
The Cottonwood trees are in bloom.
I have to give you a fair warning before I write about Montreal. I am not a big city girl. I love the small quaint towns where you get to know the people docked next to you and you can walk through town and know where you are. I am not as enamored with the noise and hustle, crowds and impersonalness ( is this a word??) of megatropolises. It’s just me. There, now you know and you must take what I say with my prejudices in mind.
Montreal is the second largest city in Canada, behind Toronto. And while it is certainly bilingual, it is most definitely French. Tim and I found it very interesting when we went to the Museum of Archaeology and History that the history of Montreal begins with the France’s desire to convert the people of the “First Nations” to Catholicism. I always knew Montreal and Quebec were French speaking, but I didn’t realize how much the people here still seem to associate themselves with France. In Ottawa, the Queen was everywhere. I don’t recall seeing any reference to the Queen and the royal family here in Montreal. It’s like England has no more role here than she does in the US.
So yes, we did most of the touristy things. As I mentioned, we went to the Museum of Archaeology and History and I found that very interesting. The museum is actually built on the site where Montreal was originally founded. Heavy plexiglass floors allow visitors to walk over ruins that are centuries old. You see how as the city grew, it was built over existing structures, layer upon layer. 
We also went to the Basilica Notre Dame. It’s quite beautiful. Our big hmmmm was seeing stained glass windows depicting clerics converting the indigenous people. We wouldn’t see that in a US church.
We went to Chinatown and Little Italy and had a lunch in both. We went to the amazing Jean-Talon Street Market and had to restrain ourselves to just one backpack full of goodies. We had to see the Port d’escale Marina on the St. Lawrence where we originally wanted to go. The flow of the St. Lawrence looked like a teeth grinder. We watched tour boats sliding sideways down the river as they took tourists to the other side. While being right in Old Montreal would have been wonderful, we are happy with our choice.
So now our visit here is almost over. We leave tomorrow morning with a lot of wishful thinking. It is a holiday weekend here and we are unsure where we will end up. We are hoping to find a spot in St. Anne. The wall in Carillon is our backup. You’ll find out when I return.
Monday, June 17
Once again our plans have changed. Unexpectedly, we are now cruising down the Ottawa River. The plan had been to go through the Ottawa Flight of 8 and then spend the night at Hull Marina just across the Ottawa River from the Locks. Since we hadn’t heard back from Hull about reservations, I called again this morning. Today we were told they are open only to members and not transients. That puts a bit of a kink in our plans. Today is also the day that our amazing photojournalist, friend and crew, Lisa is leaving us. We had planned to take her through the locks and on to Hull. From Hull she would depart for her afternoon flight to Houston. Instead we all agreed it would be best to have her lock with us and then leave her at the last lock. We hate to see Lisa go. She as been a super guest. She totally gets the flexibility needed when cruising. When she signed on we thought we would be going to Quebec City and then Montreal. She didn’t get either of those cities, but she did get to experience Ottawa, a rock grounding, Maggie’s wake up calls in the morning and US!
So, the three of us, Tim, Maggie and I, are now scooting along on the Ottawa. Yes, scooting. The flow of the river has added an additional 1 1/2 to 2 knots to our speed. Tim has seen NONE of the Aids to Navigation that the charts say are here. We are assuming that they have not been put in place due to the flooding. We are heading to Chateau Montebello for the night.
The Chateau Montebello is proclaimed as the world’s largest log cabin. At one time it was a private club. Now it is part of the Fairmont hotel chain. While a bit pricey for us ($4.00/ft) we felt we needed it after days of living on a wall. We plugged into their excellent WiFi, hooked up to water and power and I managed to get 5 loads of laundry washed while Tim stubbed the boat. If we had wanted, we could have gone swimming in the pool. We chose to take the short walk into town for dinner at Napoleon. Good Italian dinner.
Tuesday, June 18
Leaving Le Chateau Montebello we passed Montebello Marina. It had a few docks in the water, but showed no signs of being open. Our waiter last night had said he thought they lost all their power pedestals in the flood.
Traveling east on the Ottawa River, signs of the flood still litter many yards. Remnants of docks, tree limbs and general debris line some water front properties. Tim has been very frustrated by the lack of navigational aids. While they show on the charts, they are not to be seen in the water. Coming into the Hawkesbury area, we saw our first green buoy. The swirl of the current around it says a lot about why we may not be seeing others. Speaking of Hawkesbury, we did see one sailboat tied to the free pier. We may give it a try coming back, but we will know to be wary of the current. It was in this area that we also saw our highest push. Our normal speed is 8mph, but our Navionics flashed a few 12+mph. It will be a slow slog west when we come back.
Our only lock today was a doozy. The Carillon Lock has the greatest drop of all the locks in Canada. It will raise or lower you 65 feet. The other unique feature of Carillon is the guillotine gate. The modern Carillon lock was built from 1959 to 1963 with the construction of the Carillon Hydroelectric dam. It took the place of 10 locks between here and Grenville. Despite the change in elevation, this lock has to be one of the easiest for locking through. Instead of wrapping a line around a cable, the staff will cleat your boat to a floating dock. As the water rises or lowers, your boat will go with it. No holding on to lines or worry about winds and turbulence. 
Our plan was to tie on the wall for the night. However, the wall where we would normally tie up is still under water. We can see the water line at least 6 feet above where the water is now. The lock master suggested we tie to the wall on the south side instead. The south wall rises about five feet above our deck and has two horizontal cables running its length. Not great, but doable. Maggie may have a different opinion. To get to grass for business time, I have to climb of the very top deck onto the wall and have Tim hand her to me. Then we have to walk out to a spit of land between us and the dam. The lock master cautioned us that the land had not been surveyed for safety since the flood and there may be unstable areas. We made it work. Another tidbit of information we got from the lockmaster was that docks were still underwater at St. Anne de Belleville. Boats can lock through, but will not be able to tie up. Good thing we made reservations at Lachine.
Wednesday, June 19
Yes, I’m still working on this one post. Until we get internet, I’ll keep adding on.
We had an easy night on the wall at Carillon and were joined by fellow loopers on Swede Dreams. They had just come in from Lachine and were heading west to Ottawa.
As we continue on our way to Montreal, we see more effects of the flooding. Trees normally at the water’s edge are still in the water. Sometimes whole islands of trees stand in the middle of what appears to be a lake, but is still just the river. To Tim’s delight, the Aids to Navigation are in place on this section of the river.
Arrived at Port de Plaisance de Lachine and we have Wifi. I’m posting now and will see you later. Tomorrow is Montreal!!!!!!!
Saturday, June 15
Once again it is raining. The amazing thing is, it doesn’t seem to phase the Canadians. They are still going to the open market, commuting by bike, and walking without rain gear as if it is nothing. We’re trying to fit in and not look too Texan, but I gotta have at least a raincoat on. At least we aren’t embarrassing ourselves with boots and wool beanies.
Last night we had a brief reprieve from the rain and after dinner on the boat, we headed out to check out the lights of Ottawa.
Our morning started early with a scheduled tour at the Senate Building. Actually it isn’t the REAL Senate building. It was the old Ottawa Union Rail Station. It had been converted into the Government Conference Center, and in February 2019, the Senate moved into the renovated building while the actual Senate building on Parliament Hill is being renovated.
Lisa and I escaped the rain for a while inside the National Gallery of Canada. They had a wonderful exhibit of work by Paul Gauguin that we enjoyed.
Tim also got us free tickets to tour the House of Commons in the afternoon. Like the Senate Building, the House of Parliament is being renovated. The amazing part is that the architects took an outside courtyard, built a glass covered enclosure for it and created an amazing space for the House of Commons to operate.
Sunday, June 16
Unbelievably, we woke to blue skies and a gloriously warm sun. A perfect day for ByWard Market. ByWard Market is just a few blocks from the boat and is an open air market oozing with fresh vegetables, fruit, and flowers. Surrounding it are bakeries, meat markets, restaurants and bars. It was time for us to restock our fresh veggie supply and I had my eyes on an herb garden. We also decided to be brave and bought some fiddle heads to add to our steak dinner. Blanched for 5 min. Then sautéed with butter and garlic. YUM
My new herb garden- basil, mint, chives, thyme, oregano, parsley.
We came upon this group of drummers near ByWard Market and had to stop and enjoy their rhythm.
Tomorrow we leave. Tim and I head on to Montreal and Lisa flies home to her extremely patient husband, Alan. Thanks for letting us keep her so long, Alan.
This morning we are sitting at the coffee shop in the Westin Hotel near the boat sucking up some free WiFi. Getting decent WiFi has been an issue on this trip. Daily I get a text saying I’ve used up my high speed WiFi by around 10am. After that I’m on SLOW speed. It is another drippy day in Canada, so that means it is perfect for blogging. Continue reading Ottawa
Monday, June 10
We had a leisurely morning today since the lock we’ve decided to stay at is only 2 1/2 hours away. I took advantage of the internet service in Smith Falls to post the last blog while Tim took care of some provisioning. Smiths Falls is the largest town we have come to after passing Kingston. When we arrived a tribal festival of some kind was happening in the park, but by the time we got situated it was over. We had to settle for a cold brew at a local pub. Aww well. After chores this morning we took a short walk to the Rideau Museum. They had a nice exhibition, nothing fancy, but OK. 
You need to know about the swans. We met a stately couple this morning as they foraged on a wooden dock near our mooring. Later we saw them preening themselves in the sunshine at the nearby park. They did not seemed bothered by us in the least. Quite unlike the geese living in our neighborhood in Texas who are ready to attack any one or anything that ventures near.
Just a side note here. We have been told that Canada is very dog friendly and while everyone we have met seems to like dogs, local establishments ( brew pubs and restaurants ) are not. Even when sitting outside on a patio, Maggie is not welcome. We’re hoping things will be different in Ottawa.
So now we have had our 4th locking of the day- Smiths Falls, Old Sly, Edmunds and Kilmarnock. The area we are cruising is quite shallow. I often hear Tim suck in his breath as I’m blogging. we’ve reached as low as 5′ 5″ and for a vessel that draws 5′, that’s a bit skinny. This area was flooded when the dams and locks were built. It is more rural than Rideau Lake was that we passed trough yesterday. As we look about we see low farm lands. The granite walls and islands have been replaced by marsh.
Wednesday, June 11
I had to stop my blog on Monday and it’s taken a day to get going again. You see, we had a bit of a mishap. Remember how I last mentioned the water getting shallow. Well what I didn’t say was that the bottom can be somewhat rocky, as in NOT soft. Unfortunately we discovered this the hard way. We decided that Merrickville would be our destination for the night. So many people told us that it was a pretty town with restaurants, bakeries, historical sites and power on the Parc dock. We were ready for some power ( $9.80/night isn’t a bad deal at all). Coming into Merrickville you stay to the right to get to the lock, heading left takes you to an area called “the Pond” where you can moor to a small dock. In making that turn to the left, the channel markers change. Now suddenly the reds were on our right again. To add to the confusions was trying to figure out where we should moor the boat. There was one dock with a boat on it, but the wall also looked we might be able to tie to it. Tim, Lisa and I were all looking at the situation trying to decide where we should head when the crunch and grinding noise occurred. While focused on the land, not one of us was focused on where we were in the water. A combination of current and just not watching the buoys allowed us to drift too far to the right and onto the shallow rocky edge. After Tim made a quick shift into neutral, I did a depth check with the boat hook and found rock on the starboard side to be about 4 feet down but we had plenty of water on port. Ok, so we are only partially stuck. Tim devised our plan of attack. We would put my kayak in the water and Tim and Lisa would set our spare plow anchor (Lisa says it weighs 1000 lbs.) on the back on the kayak. An anchor rode would run back to the windlass. I would paddle the anchor out to the designated spot, push it off the kayak and then Tim and Lisa would use the windlass to pull the bow of the boat to port and away from the rocks. Once I dumped the anchor overboard I paddled to the closest plastic red bouy and grabbed ahold to keep the strong current from pushing me away. Great plan and it worked to get the bow away from the rocks, but the stern was still stuck. I suggested step 2 be to drop our Rochna primary anchor to hold the bow in place, run the rode from the secondary plow to the stern of the boat and have Tim and Lisa pull with all they had to try to get the stern freed. While putting this plan into play, the guy on the boat that was at the dock joined the fun in his dinghy. Steve ( we became good buddies with him) was employed to push the stern while Tim and Lisa pulled the anchor rode and I paddled around watching. After giving it all they had, suddenly the stern was free and now the current took over. The Pond actually is a basin that dumps over the dam and there is a strong current as the water rushes north into the river. So we now had a boat that was freed from the rocks, two people on board hauling in a 1000 lb anchor and rode, a Good Samaritan (we later found out Steve is hard of hearing ) still pushing the boat with his dingy and me in a kayak yelling that the boat was about to hit the red bouy. Not only did the boat hit the buoy, it went over it. Thank goodness we had the Rochna down. Once I signaled Steve to stop pushing, the boat settled back on the anchor and the plastic bouy popped up on the starboard side where it belonged. Ok, time to get this boat on the dock. 
Once we got the boat settle in at the dock and our hearts stopped racing, we employed step 3. This phase involved me slowly sliding into the Canadian water with the GoPro to survey the damage. The video showed a small chunk taken out and a flattened area on the prop but it looked a whole lot better than any of us expected. As of now, we don’t know the true extent of the damage. Once we leave Merrickville and get back on the Rideau, we’ll have a better idea. 
Step 4 involved beer. After passing a Yuengling to our new best friend, Steve ( he thought it was Chinese beer) we all sat back on the deck to recoup. As Tim said, “. One day we’ll laugh about this, today is just not that day.”
We had thought we’d be heading out this morning but the weather gods are making that difficult. The forecast was for wind, but not honking like it is. We’ve decided to wait and see if the wind dies down. If not, we’re here for another night.
Meanwhile we have had some good news. The Parc Canada moorings at Carillon and St. Anne de Belleville near Montreal will open this weekend. Also the Chateau Montebello between Ottawa and Montreal is open. We need these stops if we are going to go to Montreal. The unfortunate news is that the outflow down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario has been increased to the point that the authorities are calling it unsafe for pleasure boaters. So we will not be venturing into that body of water. We’ll still be able to go to Montreal, we just won’t be able to stay in the downtown marina.
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.
So, tonight we sit on the boat, generator humming while the heater warms us. Yes, it really is June. Hard to believe. We are tied to the dock at Gananoque Marina. The power cord is plugged in, but there is no electricity coming to the boat. They cut the power around 4:30 in case the wind driven water reaches the electric stands. It’s 50 degrees outside, the wind has actually stopped, but the rain has not. Tim and Maggie just returned from their 1/3 mile walk up the dock for a potty call and back. Maggie was greeted with a warm towel and Tim stripped off his wet gear and both are now comfortably enjoying the rest of the evening.
We left Clayton around 9 this morning and made the short 2 1/2 hour trip across the St. Lawrence to Gan. We wanted to get an early start since the weatherman said rain was on its way. The four of us took a stroll through town, taking in the quaintness of this small Canadian town. Tim and I came here several times last year by ourselves and later with Mark and Beth Atherton then with Roy and Karen Shaw. It’s a sweet town. We had to make a stop at the Gan Brewing Co. to see if Maggie’s favorite brewmaster was in. She wasn’t, but the guy who poured for us was more than happy to chat since we were the only customers. He’s American but has his Canadian work permit and a Canadian wife.
Photos from Clayton
[easy-image-collage id=2035]Beautiful gardens, colorful murals, and interesting modes of transportation in Gan.
[easy-image-collage id=2045] [easy-image-collage id=2046]Something we didn’t see last year are the funky new barrels along the main road through town.
Maggie’s favorite- Gan Brewing Co.
It’s Wednesday morning now and the rain has temporarily stopped. We’ll use this break to take some scenic walks before it returns. Our plan is to hit the Farmer’s Market in the morning and then begin the Rideau Canal. There is a promise of sunshine on Thursday and we’ll be ready for it.
Today is a perfect blogging day. Yes, that means it is raining. After a near perfect day crossing Lake Ontario yesterday, today has started foggy and drippy with a forecast of clearing this afternoon. No problems, it just means I have a great opportunity to catch up on the blog. Continue reading Clayton, NY. June 2, 2019