Sun Sept 4: Burritts Rapids Lock to Smiths Falls Victoria Park Marina

We awoke to a bug massacre on our clean scrubbed boat.  ARRRRRGGGGGGGG.. This is why there is no point in ever cleaning. Anything.  It will just get dirty again. I'm going to put that on my headstone.

 

We were the only boat for the first few locks - several of them had bridges attached, or shortly after.  We had to wait on this one as the lock guy seemed more keen to wave cars over then to open it for us. But, as you will see in the video below (hope you can get it to play), we understood once he started to open it.  It's the only one of its kind in Canada, and it required that he walk in circles.  A LOT of circles.  For a LONG time. Hee Hee!

There was a lot of movement on the river in the opposite direction, with all the holidaymakers heading back toward Ottawa.  This small lock managed to get these three big boats in.  Like a clown car.

These Rideau locks are definitely not in Quebec-shape.  Many are like little terrariums, or small botanical gardens.!  Quebec Lockmasters would never put up with that.

At this lock the road bridge runs along the top of the lock doors, so we had to wait for them to move the road and open the gates.  And they moved the road/bridge by hand.  We watched as the lock attendant on the left side heaved like a football player to get the bridge moving on its spindle.  Once it started moving it continued around with it’s own momentum.  You can see the spindle with metal wheels in the picture below. Where we are unnecessarily close it, and its spiders!

If you look hard you can see the spindle and wheel mechanism.  The bridge is perfectly balanced so it just spins right on this axis to open and let us through!  Amazing really.  And all the cars had to wait for us to lock up and exit the lock so they could close the road again. 

By this time, we had picked up a couple of additional lock mates. They were holiday pontoon boats, and it was better for them to stick with us as the locks will open willingly for a boat of our size, but may choose to remain closed for the pontoons - waiting until several of them have gathered at the lock entrance before cycling the lock for these little guys. We got to be quite friendly, having chatted through the close quarters of several locks.

Gates opened and road moved - check!

 

Whew - that was a 12-lock day.  We worked hard, and we spent a LOT of time coming up with puns and word play using the word 'lock', while actually in the locks.  Needless to say we had lock-jaw by the time we arrived in Smiths Falls. Here are the big walls for the very last lock.  This lock “29A” was built in 1969 (so it is referred to as the “new” lock) to replace a series of 3 locks - 28, 29, 30.  Not sure why they did that but it is easier for us to go up in this one lock than 3 so we won’t argue. 

Rick made us poutine from left-overs (it's finally chilly enough to actually eat the stuff) and then we set out for a walk to explore Smiths Falls.  About 20 minutes in and we both HIT THE WALL of exhaustion, and had to go back to the boat to read and take it easy. Maybe it was the poutine or maybe it was the 12 locks, but we were bushed.   

We cannot understand the Canadian obsession with poutine all summer long - but it sure is good!

A number of couples came by to talk to Rick about the boat/loop, so he was contented and I got to read, so I was too. Then the sunset happened.  **Warning - excessive sunset pictures ahead**

We were hoping to see the Aurora Borealis tonight, but it was too cloudy.  C'est la vie -  no one can really be disappointed after the sunset extravaganza we had...