Week 15 – July 22nd – July 28th

The Rideau Canal. We meet a large CRUISE SHIP on the canal!

105 Days Looping
1,714.4 Nautical Miles Total (1,972.9 Statute Miles)
68.0 Nautical Miles This Week
19.6 Hours Underway This Week
6.0 NMph Average Speed
18 Locks This Week, 74 Total Locks

Monday – July 22nd – 21.4 NM – 7 Locks – To: Merrickville, Ontario, Canada
We plan to leave the boat in Kingston, Ontario at the other end of the Rideau Canal which is about 126 miles away. We have plane tickets for August 4th, and only 126 miles to go. We want to spend three to four days in Kingston to see the sites as it’s the next big city on the route and has a lot of history. We called the marina in Kingston, and because of the construction holiday, they could not get us in until August 1st, so we had 10 days to do 126 miles, or about 11 miles a day. Lots of time to amble along and see the sites.

After our first day on the Rideau Canal and 16 locks, we took it a bit easier on day 2 of the Rideau, only 21.4 miles and 7 locks. You can tie up to the walls at most of the locks if there is space. Depending on the lock, you may or may not have power. Also, the locks don’t have any other facilities like water or wi-fi, they do have bathrooms, but only a few have shower facilities. Also, many of the locks are literally in the middle of nowhere, there are no stores or restaurants for miles around.

We decided that our next destination would be Merrickville the first town of any size. The town was a major stop on the Canal during the 1800s and was built on water-powered mills.

We left Hurst Marina at 11:00, we were ready to go at around 10 and were going to get fuel and a pump-out when the docks opened, but just as we were starting the engines two boats (both loopers Sea Loons and Cici-Kay), pulled up to the fuel dock for fuel and a pump-out. They were both taking on (and dumping off) a full load and as they only have one diesel pump, and one pump-out, we were looking at at least a few hours before it was our turn. We still had half tanks on both fuel and black-water so we decided to skip it and do it at another marina.

We headed out and cruised through some of the same types of countryside as the day before. The varying width of the river, and then narrow channels where they have dug the approaches to the locks to bypass rapids on the river. Everywhere we looked there were huge flocks of tiger lilies lining the banks.

We soon reached our first of 7 locks for the day, (Lock #17) Burritts Rapids. The lock itself was pretty much the same as the other locks, hand-cranked with about an 8-foot rise. What was unique was that about 1/2 a mile after the lock was a hand crank swing bridge. The bridge tender puts a handle into a hole in the middle of the bridge, then walks around in circles pushing the handle to turn the bridge so that we could go through! It’s a one manpower bridge!

After the bridge, we had about a 3 mile run to the “Lower Nicholsons Lock” (Lock #18). As we approached, we passed our first “Le Boat!”. Le Boat’s are rental boats imported from the canals in Europe. They are designed to be easy to drive and anyone with a driver’s license can rent one! To protect the boat, the locks, and other boats, they have “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers” all around the hull. Sort of like wrapping the whole thing in bubble wrap. If they made a car for teens like this, it would be a huge hit! We gave the Le Boat a lot of room to pass and then entered the lock for a quick 4-foot lift.

Next was “Upper Nicholsons Lock” (Lock #19), just a couple hundred yards away. There is a bridge over the lock here that they have to open. It’s just a one-lane bridge, and here there is no crank here, they just push against the bridge to swing it open and closed. On the side of the lock wall, Parks Canada has put up fancy platform tents. They are rentals, no power, but they supply firewood and propane and gas lamps and can rent these to camp out. Apparently, they are very popular and they are booked a year in advance.

After Upper Nicholsons Lock, we went about a mile to Clowes Lock (Lock #20) which was a quick lock. They seemed to have a bit more staff as there were two people per crank. A couple more miles and we reached Merrickville our stop for the night. Merrickville has three locks in a row, (Locks #21, #22, and #23). We had a short wait to get in, and as we were going up, the lockmaster chatted with us and asked what our plans were for the night. We said that we hoped to get onto their docks in an area called The Pond which is the backwater of the dam just above the third lock and had docks with power. He said that there was one space left and if the powerboat (that got into the lock first) would go to a smaller space, we could get on the dock and have power, otherwise, we could tie up to the wall of the dam for the night, but would not have power.

We didn’t like the sound of “tying up to the wall of the dam”, but that was our only option to get to town otherwise we’d have to anchor upstream. The powerboat didn’t like the smaller spot, so took the last larger spot with power. We wouldn’t fit into the smaller spot, so we cruised up to the wall of the dam, and tied up. When he said the wall of the dam, he wasn’t kidding. We were within 10 feet of the main sluce that the majority of the river flows through. There was a small hydroelectric power station that fortunately took most of the water so the current was not too bad, but it was a bit disconcerting tying up next to a huge WARNING! YOU WILL DIE IF YOU COME NEAR HERE!” type signs!

After we tied up, we walked into town for dinner and to see if we could find some butter tarts! We’d been told to visit a store in Merrickville that’s famous called Mrs. McGarrigle’s, there we found more butter tarts and some tasty mustards! For dinner, we went to a pub next door.

We had been told that we could not stay on the actual lock wall that night because there was a “Cruise Ship” coming in. Given the size of the locks, we couldn’t imagine what size cruise ship was going to come through. When we headed back to the boat after dinner, we found out, it had arrived! The “Kawartha Voyageur” was tied up to the lock wall for the night. It’s a 45 passenger cruise boat that does a 5 day trip between Kingston and Ottawa. It’s a very cool boat! (More details tomorrow). Once we got back to the boat, we ran the generator for a while to cool the boat down and turned in for the night.

Tuesday – July 23nd – 0 NM – In: Merrickville, Ontario, Canada
We planned to stay in Merrickville to see more of the town and visit some of the historical sites. Because we didn’t have space with power, we decided to get up early and wait for someone to move and rush over to take the spot.

When I woke up at about 5:00, I looked out and it was just starting to get a bit light, but looked like it would be a nice day. I worked on the blog for a bit, then looked outside again around 6:00 to see if there was any movement on the other docks, and I could barely see the other docks! The fog had rolled in over the past hour and we could hardly see the markers just 100 ft away. Once the sun came up at 6:30, the fog quickly burned off, and at 8:00, the two boats on the dock headed out, and we zipped over and took the end dock space. Power = Air Conditioning!!!!

We wanted to see the Kawartha Voyager go through the locks so we went for an early breakfast at a restaurant next to the locks to be ready for the 9:00 lock opening. A couple of interesting things at the lock. There is a “Block House” an 1800s fortification that they put near the locks to defend against the “American Invasion”, there are 4 left along the canal, and this one is open as a museum. Second, Canada has Black Squirrels! I’ve never seen a black squirrel before, and they are quite striking.

At 8:45, we walked over to the park at the top of the locks to watch the cruise ship go through the locks. As we mentioned, the locks are about 108 ft long and the cruise ship is 120 ft long. Also, the maximum “air draft” (distance between the water and the bridges) is 20 ft, and the Kawartha Voyageur is 28 ft tall. The ship is custom designed for the locks and is similar to the boats they use for the river trips in Europe. To fit into the locks, the bow of the boat, folds up to shorten the length, to fit under the bridges, the pilothouse at the top “squats” down, and the roof over the passenger deck folds down!

After watching the cruise ship go through the locks, we headed into town and wandered around seeing the sights. We visited many small shops including a glass blowing gallery where we learned how they make the “witches balls”, round blown glass balls with what looks like trees inside. We wanted to get some more butter tarts at Mrs. McGarrigle’s but we were too late, so we walked to the other side of town to Nana B’s and they had some! Woo Hoo!

After getting back to the boat, we walked across the street and visited the Merrickville Ruins, the site of the original water-powered mills from the 1800s. Aside from the mills, we saw the hydropower plant. In the 1940s as the water-powered grist and lumber mills were closing, an entrepreneur purchased the sites and built small hydro dams that still produce much of the power used in the local areas today. After our ruins visit, we walked back into town and had dinner at the Baldachin Inn a nice restaurant with an outdoor courtyard. When we walked back to the boat, we saw that the top lock wall was FULL of boats! Some of them were ones we recognized from our lift in Ottawa two days ago. We decided that we had better move early in the morning to make sure that we could get space!

During the afternoon two Looper boats Sea Loons and Cici-Kay that we had seen at the marina, arrived. They took the space on the Dam wall where we had been last night. We stopped by and chatted with them for a while. Sea Loons was only two days from “Crossing Their Wake” as they had started from a town just ahead one year ago. Cici-Kay is still in progress. We promised them that we would call them on the radio before we pulled out in the morning so that they could take our spot on the dock to get power. After that, we went back to the boat. The heatwave that was impacting the east coast was extending up into Canada and the evening temperature was in the low 90’s so we cranked up the A/C and headed to bed.

Wednesday – July 24th – 12.5 NM – 6 Locks – To: Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada
In the morning, we got the boat ready for a 7:30 departure. We had about a 10 mile run to our first lock which opened at 9:00. Our destination for the day was Smiths Falls which is a fairly big town on the Canal and has a Wal-Mart, the Rideau Museum, a liquor store, and a marina with power. The ride to Kilmarnock (Lock #24) was smooth. Some open water and we saw our first Loons!

When we neared the Kilmarnock lock at about 8:30, we saw a number of boats anchored in the river just before the entrance to the lock channel. There were a couple of boats headed in the other direction that would get locked through first, so we had to wait downstream for them to come through as there was not enough room for us to pass.

At about 9:30 the downstream boats came out and the first boats moved up. We had to wait another 15 minutes for the first group of boats to lock through, but then it was our turn. Kilmarnock was a fairly quick lock with another manual swing bridge. Again, this one did not have a crank and it seemed a bit old as it took quite a bit of effort for the lock tender to move it. We were through in about 20 minutes and on our way to the Edmonds Lock (Lock #25) about 3 miles ahead.

After Edmonds Lock, it was only about a mile and a half to the Old Slys locks (Locks #26 and #27). which are just outside of Smiths Falls. The first group of boats was just finishing locking through, so we only had to wait a few minutes before it was our turn to go up the two locks.

It was less than a mile from Old Slys to Smiths Falls, and we reached the Lower Smiths Falls lock fairly quickly. Smiths Falls is two locks (Upper and Lower) with the first (Lock #29a) being one of the newer locks in the system with hydraulic gates, and a 25 ft rise. It replaced three old locks (28, 29, and 30) that are still visible to the side of the new lock. The passage through the lock was pretty quick, and we cruised through the basin past the Campground/Marina, to Upper Smiths Falls (Lock #31). which had an automated swing bridge in front of it, and was just a short 5 ft lift. At the upper Side of Upper Smiths Falls, we tied up to the wall for the night. Our original intent was to stop at the Campground/Marina between the locks, but our “navigator” didn’t read the guide, and we missed stopping between the locks. She missed the marina, but we did get photos of Canadian Geese number 1,327,654 – 1,327,669!

The swing bridge to Upper Smith Falls lock is very busy and we would have had to wait to get back down to the marina so we decided to stay. After docking, I walked down to the marina to check if there was still space, and the group of boats behind us had taken the last spaces, so we ended up staying at the Upper Lock even without power, water, fuel, or pump-out. (No more trusting the Navigator!) After settling in, we walked to a nearby supermarket and got some supplies and water, then had dinner on the boat.

Thursday – July 25th – 23.9 NM – 3 Locks – To: Westport, Ontario, Canada
In the morning, we walked back along the canal into Smiths Falls to visit the Rideau Canal Visitor Centre. The Visitor Centre is in a beautifully refurbished mill building on the edge of the canal. It houses the Visitor Centre and the offices for Parks Canada who operate the Rideau Canal. We walked through the 4 floors of displays, watched a short film on the history of the canal, and chatted with the staff for a while. It was a great overview of the canal!

After the visitor center, we walked up Main Street in Smiths Falls, which has a very pretty downtown with flower-lined intersections and a busy main street. About halfway up the main street, we turned back toward the lock where the boat was and walked down the side streets, toward the railroad museum we had seen advertisements about. When we got there, it didn’t look like it was much, just a lot of old rusted trains, so we decided to give it a miss, and headed back to the boat.

Just before 11:00, we cast off and followed a group of boats that had just locked through toward our next destination, Westport Ontario. We had a reservation at the Westport Municipal Marina. Westport is the next town of any size and we planned to spend two nights there. We followed the other boats for the 2.5 miles to our first lock for the day “Poonamalie Lock” (Lock #32). The entrance to Poonamalie is a very narrow twisty channel and the water is not that deep. When we got to the lock, there was a backup so we had to wait for the first group to go into the lock, then move to the holding wall while they lifted that group up. While we were waiting to tie up to the holding wall, a huge snapping turtle cruised past the boat.

Because we had to wait for a locking up, we walked up to the lock to chat with some fellow Loopers on Summer Lynn who were ahead of us. Once the first group was through, and they were closing the locks back up to drain it so that we could go through, we went back to the boat and got ready for our turn.

The locking was pretty much the same as the prior 31 locks. As we got out of the lock, the channel follows along a large dike for about a mile with little room to pass. We were glad to get out of that channel and into Lower Rideau Lake and some open water again.

Historical Note: The name Poonamalie was given to the lock by the British Army Engineers who built it because it reminded them of their last posting in Poonamalie, India. During the construction of the canal, there were a large number of deaths from Malaria which it is believed was introduced to the area by infected British soldiers who were sent there after being stationed in India.

The Rideau Canal and especially the Rideau Lakes are very popular with Houseboats. There are a number of companies that rent them, and you see them all over the lakes. Some are simply pontoon boats that have had either tents or small cabins built on them, some are elaborate two-story affairs. We passed several as we crossed Lower Rideau Lake.

At the end of the lake, we passed under the bridge at Rideau Ferry and entered Big Rideau Lake. Just after the bridge is a large marina that sells fuel and offers pump-out. Our stop for the night did not have fuel or pump-out services, so we stopped here to top off the tanks which were just under 1/2, and get a pump-out. The marina was very busy, and we had to wait for almost 30 minutes before we could pull up to the fuel dock. Just as we were reaching the end of the fuel dock, three jet skis (yes from Quebec) cut in front of us to get gas. I think that they realized the error of their ways when the bow of our boat started to loom over them as we continued to pull in. In the US, they make you pump the fuel so that if there is an accident, it’s on the boat owner’s insurance. In Canada it’s just the opposite, they don’t trust you to pump your own fuel, so a teenage girl pumps the fuel for you. There was a lot of math involved, converting Liters to Gallons, and Canadian dollars to US dollars to figure out how much fuel we took on and how much it cost us. All I can say is that the numbers on the pump were scary!!!

After filling up and pumping out (they charge $25 for a pump-out in Canada)! We headed back out into Big Rideau Lake for the crossing. Shortly after getting into the lake, we saw a Loon with a couple of chicks swimming along. We noticed that two of the chicks were hitching a ride on the mother’s back!

As we crossed Big Rideau Lake, we could see the sky darkening and a few flashes of lightning in the distance. We checked the radar, and the storm was passing ahead of us (about where we were going) and would be gone by the time we got there. We got a bit of rain, and some wind, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. We traveled the 16 miles to our next lock called the “Narrows” (Lock #35) which is a lock that connects Big Rideau Lake to Upper Rideau Lake. (For those keeping track, you may notice that we missed Locks #33 and #34, these are off on a side channel that we didn’t take). The lock wall at the Narrows was already full. They had closed it for a short time when the storm passed over. Also, the docking space at the locks downstream were full for the night, so unless you had plans to anchor out or a reservation as we did, they held you overnight there. We had our reservation in Westport so were locked through.

The Narrows Lock is the last UP lock and the highest point on the Canal. From here on we would be going down. As we were rising in the lock, people from the other boats that were spending the night there came over to chat. We’d met a number of them along the way and I got to chatting with one and wasn’t watching my line. As we neared the top of the lock, the line got tight and started to pull the boat into the wall. Brenda shouted to watch it! I tried to untie the line but it was already too tight. The lock tender ran over and was going to stop filling the lock and drain it down to loosen the line, (it sounds like they deal with this on a frequent basis) but I was afraid that the cleat would break, so I grabbed a knife and cut the line. It let go with a loud POP! and the boat rolled back to an even keel. With a bit of a racing heart and a red face, we left the lock and headed toward Westport.

Westport is a town on the West side of Lower Rideau Lake and is a little off of the main Rideau Canal Path. It’s a nice little lake town with lots of shops, restaurants, and a little museum, that had been recommended to us by a number of people. Also, they have a bakery that is famous for their Butter Tarts!

As we got close to town, we called the marina on the phone to confirm our arrival and to get instructions on where our slip was and how to get there. The Dockmaster said, “Follow the markers into the North Channel. Come down the fairway and go under the bridge, turn around and dock just after the bridge with a starboard tie.” Sounds simple enough. Looking at the chart, it looked like there was a narrow fairway that opened up after the bridge to allow room to turn around, then come back under the bridge to our slip. While looking at the chart, I noticed that the charted height of the bridge was 9 feet. Ummmm… That’s not going to work! When we got into the fairway, I got the dockmaster on the radio and he said he thought we were lower, and that we should just spin in the fairway to dock. I’m glad we had thrusters, as the fairway was only about 50 ft wide and we’re 46′ end to end.

We docked without any issues and got tied up, right next to the bridge at around 5:00. After settling in, we walked across the bridge and into town for dinner. There was a micro-brewery there but they only served snacks. So I had a beer and we chatted with the other customers. The storm we had seen had come right through town, and a small tornado had touched down just outside of town, and there were lots of downed trees and many people along the lakefront didn’t have power. We’re glad we were late getting in! After having a beer and a snack, we walked into town a little farther to a diner for dinner. After dinner, we just went back to the boat for the night as we had the whole day on Friday to see the sights.

Friday – July 26th – 0 NM – In: Westport, Ontario, Canada
Friday dawned clear and HOT, it was already in the mid-’80s by 9:00! Our plan for the day was to do laundry in the morning and walk around town in the afternoon. The Laundromat was a mile walk on the edge of town, so before it got REALLY hot, we packed up our laundry in our pull cart and walked to the laundromat. The Laundromat was behind a convenience store. No A/C, and very busy with folks who didn’t have power due to the storm the previous day. It took us a couple of hours to wash and dry several loads, and then we had a long hot walk back to the boat.

When we got back, it was in the 90’s so we turned up the A/C and just cooled down for a while. In the afternoon, we walked into town and visited some of the shops, loaded up on butter tarts at the bakery before they ran out, and then went up to the museum. The Museum was interesting, it’s a collection of random “stuff” from the area. Most museums are collections of “stuff” but this “stuff” was truly random. Everything from old tools, to wedding dresses, to giant statues, stuffed animals, all crammed into this little building with very little order to them. The building itself was pretty interesting as well, it started as a blacksmith shop on the first floor, and a carriage repair shop on the second floor. They would hoist the carriages up the side of the building and into a large door on the side. The front of the second floor was the family’s residence. A lot packed into a small space!

We had made a dinner reservation at “THE” place to eat in Westport called “The Cove Inn & Spa”. It’s an old guest hotel with a large wrap-around porch and looked quite good. Our reservation was for 6:00 and we got there at 5:30 so had to wait in the bar. It might be “The Best” place, but we were very disappointed. The service was very bad. Bartenders and wait staff were unfriendly, service was extremely slow, they forgot our salads, when I got my dinner it was cold and I had to send it back. Once we did get the meals sorted out, the food was pretty good, and the nights entertainment, a country singer playing his cigar box guitar was quite good! The manager came over and adjusted the bill to make up for the poor service. Perhaps we hit them on a bad/busy night, it was a Friday. But their claim to fame was that they had been in business since 1928 so you’d think that they would have gotten the hang of it by now.

Saturday – July 27th – 5.4 NM – 1 Lock – To: Newboro, Ontario, Canada
The marina didn’t have space for us to stay for Saturday, so we had to move on Saturday morning. When I got up around 5:30, there was a beautiful sunrise, however shortly after the sun came up, the fog rolled in and we were not sure that we’d be able to get out anytime soon. We prepped the boat, and by 9:00 the fog had burned off, and we headed out of Westport Harbor and back to the main route through Lower Rideau Lake. We only planned to go a short distance about 6 miles to the next lock-in Newboro and spend the night on the lock wall there.

When we got there the upper lock wall where there was power was full. Some of the boats that had spent the prior night there had not left yet. The lockmaster suggested that we go to the bottom of the lock and wait, then when something opened up, they would lock us back up. Newboro is the first DOWN lock we had on the Rideau, we’d reached our highest point.

We tied up at the bottom of the lock, then walked back up to the lock to wait for a space. Just as we got there, one of the boats pulled out, the space looked short for us, but I paced it out and we decided that we’d just fit. So, we ran down to the boat and got back into the lock to go up. When I told the lockmaster that we were taking the open spot, he looked a bit skeptical about whether we could fit in but said we could try if we wanted. As we came out of the lock, the kids on the boat in front of us, jumped into the water to go swimming, right where we were going to pull in. Again, I used a bit of size intimidation, and when their father saw we were coming in, he quickly hustled his kids out of the water. The stern thruster we put in came in handy again, as we were able to pull up next to the spot, check that we had 12″ clearance behind and about 2 ft in front, and just moved sideways into the opening! I think the lockmaster lost a bet! By 10:15 we were all tied up for the day. It was a great spot as we were right under a big tree so had shade from the sun.

In Newboro there is a famous General Store called Kilborn’s. https://Kilborns.ca For a store in a backwater town that’s not really near anything, it has some expensive high-end clothing, shoes, and brick-a-brack! The store is pretty large, covering two floors of an old mercantile building. We walked to the store looking around for a while, Brenda picked out a pair of shoes (not!). It was interesting but aside from some cheese curds, we didn’t find anything we wanted.

We walked back to the boat through a park with another old Blockhouse and admired the grass draping the boat trailers. The amount of grass and weeds in the water is both amazing and distressing as it is choking out the fish and other water life. The rest of the day we just hung out on the boat watching the parade of boats come through the lock.

In the evening we cooked dinner on the boat and just hung out. There was no satellite TV as our antenna was down, we had no internet as the lock is away from pretty much everything, so we just relaxed, something that we had not done a lot of during the trip. Before bed, we watched a DVD movie (Pirates of the Caribbean) and looked at the fireflies.

Sunday – July 28th – 4.8 NM – 1 Lock – To: Chaffeys Lock, Ontario, Canada
Sunday was another short day, just one lockdown to “Chaffeys Lock” (Lock #37). The 5 miles to Chaffeys was interesting as we crossed several lakes and narrow cuts connecting them. These cuts were frequently hidden around tight corners so we cruised into a little cove, and it didn’t look like there was any way to get out until you saw a little arrow painted on a rock or nailed to a tree!

We left Newboro at 9:00 and got to Chaffey’s at 10:00. Just before the lock, there is an old railroad bridge and a small marina. When we got to the lock, we let the lock staff know that we wanted to spend the night. The top docks were already full for the night, and the lower was full, but again, being early, there were some that had not left from the prior night. We were given permission to wait on the blue line wall at the lower end until something freed up. They locked us down, opened the bridge, and when we got out of the lock, we went to the end of the channel, turned around, and tied up to wait. There was already one boat waiting for space, so they got the first slot, and about an hour later another boat pulled out and we spun in front of the lock and tied up right at the edge of the lock wall.

As we were moving, we heard the Cruise Ship, the Kawartha Voyageur call that they were approaching the lock. The lock was full of boats headed upstream and the Voyageur was headed downstream! We quickly tied up the boat and hurried up to the top of the lock to watch the chaos! The cruise boat was tied up to the sidewall, and all of the passengers got off to watch the lock through. They packed as many boats into the lock going up as they could to clear the lower lock wall, as the cruise boat would tie up there after locking down to pick up the passengers again.

After the Voyageur went through we walked up and visited the Lock Masters House Museum, then decided to walk to the railroad bridge we’d gone under. It was a rails-to-trails trail and looked on the map like we could walk along it and come out on the other side of the lock. As we headed toward the road to the bridge, we were surprised to find a beautiful guest house just around the corner from the lock. “The Opinicon Dining & Resort” is named after the lake on the other side of the lock. It is a hotel, dining room, ice cream, and snack bar, and has lots of stand-alone cabins. It is beautifully maintained and is a real blast from the past!

It was just about lunchtime, so we stopped at the snack bar and had a sandwich. We also made dinner reservations for that evening as the menu looked excellent before continuing down the road toward the bridge. On the way, we passed a carved Celtic cross, it had been carved out of old oak lock doors.

We got to the bridge and walked up the road past it for about a 1/4 mile looking for a way to get to the trail. We couldn’t find one without bushwhacking through juniper bushes, so we turned around and walked back toward the lock. On the way we found a sign that showed that there was no close access to the trail, you had to go down the road about 1 1/2 miles, with the temp near 90, we weren’t ready to take that long a hike. We walked past the little marina and were passed by a “Land Yot” driven by a local character who kept stopping in the middle of the road to chat with folks. Then went back to the boat until dinner. While we’d been out walking, a houseboat had joined us on the wall taking the last space.

In the evening we walked to the Opinicon and had an excellent dinner with fantastic service, it more than made up for our experience at The Cove Inn the night before.

Next Week: We finish the Rideau Canal in Kingston Ontario, and fly home to South Carolina for a week.