Thurs Aug 25: St-Anne to Hawkesbury Free Town Wall

We are slaves to this blog now - SLAVES, I TELL YOU! Every morning Betty Mom wakes up and DEMANDS her update.  We are typing our fingers to the bone.  I'm going to unionize....

Somehow we both woke up under a cloud of existential crisis.  I don't know what it is - maybe we are just worn out from worry and pain (Rick), but we couldn't remember why we were on this adventure.  Or even the purpose of life. I don't sleep well since I have to touch him every two minutes to make sure he was still breathing (it's a COLLARBONE, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE) and/or I can't whack him as per usual if he is snoring.  So it was a long night for me, and I'm not the one with the injury.  That person also had a long night.  I had barely dragged my sorry-ass out of bed when the St-Anne Lock called (what a great system - they call you!) to ask all captains locking through to report. After yesterday’s successful trial run we decided to move on, so I reported in, started the engine, didn't brush my hair or teeth -  and away we went. Rick riding pillion, for a change.

One of the reasons we decided to continue is that the Canadian pleasure-boat locks (all part of Parcs Canada) have dock hands to help with lines - so Rick will not overdo it as a deck hand (I don't remember anyone ever worrying about ME overdoing it as a deck hand - even the time I had to switch fenders side to side, twice). And St-Anne was a pleasure - lovely help, and they sold ice IN THE LOCK!

 

Once through we were on the Ottawa River - and that lifted our spirits.  Back on the trail... The Carillon (pronounced Car-ee-YON, spoken very fast, with a strong emphasis on the last syllable) lock was the next hurdle and it is a Big One.  This is a newish lock (built in the 1950’s) and it has a 65 ft lift!  It is by far the largest lift we will experience, but its interior cannot hold many boats. The lock operates using a “guillotine” gate.  Instead of two doors that swing open like most locks, this lock opens by lifting a huge single door up and over the entrance to the lock.   Once it is fully open (which take a LONG time) boats enter and hand lines to a dockhand who is standing on a floating dock at the side of the lock.   

To give you a sense of scale, the arrow points to Rick standing next to the lock!

Inside the lock with the door sliding down into place. It's a canyon, and there were lots of tourists peering down on us.  There are often older guys checking out the different locks - sometimes accompanied by (possibly less enthusiastic) spouses. It always makes me think of Rick's dad, and how much he would have loved these things.

 

There were only three boats in the lock (Blue Horizon + 2 small pontoon boats) but apparently this lock can get very busy on weekends and then the boats have to tie to each other, shoulder to shoulder (called ‘rafting’).  We are glad we missed that excitment.  Once the door closed the valves open to let water in and the dock/boats slowly float up with the water level.  The floating dock makes this a very easy lock to use.  The total lock cycle - door open - boats enter - door closes - fill - upper doors open - boats exit - took almost 50 minutes. We spent the time chatting with the other boaters and the lock attendants.  A very pleasant trip up 65 ft! 

The front end of the lock (or upstream end) - this will all be under water in 30 minutes

Water level rising - you can now see the upstream doors
(the more traditional 2-side doors that will swing open on either side of the lock) and the vanishing staircase.

 

The Ottawa River here is the border between Quebec and Ontario.  After exiting the St.-Anne-de-Bellevue lock the south side of the river became Ontario (prior it was part of Quebec) so we are now traveling between the two provinces. In Hawkesbury, where we tied up to the free town wall, we were back in English-speaking Ontario for the first time in 6 weeks.  

Does this look to you like a person who is taking it easy and USING HIS SLING PROPERLY??? (No really, Doc.  I have no idea how I re-injured the bone.  I was ‘wearing’ my sling...)

 

Thinking that part of our existential crisis might be due to the fact that we’ve had absolutely no exercise since Rick’s injury, we put on our walking shoes, hoping to generate some endorphins!  Sadly there was no 'there' there. Hawksbury might as well be called Hicksbury, and there wasn't much to see... Well-we saw a Groundhog, so that was exciting.

And we saw Petanque Parking - which is a first for us!

It might be a crummy town, but it was a peaceful dock.