Mon Sept 5: Smiths Falls

Any day that involves a late start is a good one, if you ask me! And then Rick made us yummy breakfast sandwiches 🥰. So it was already a tip-top day when we left the boat at 11am. 

The priority for the day was haircuts.  My hairs grows like a Chia Pet, and it has been too long since we gave each other hair cuts in Quebec City.  In spite of it being a holiday, we found the Vintage Barbershop open and willing.  Tomorrow is back-to-school for the kids here, so he had been doing a lot of kid cuts and was happy to have us instead.  He was a little reluctant to do my hair, but once I convinced him I wanted it all shaved except the top he was all in! Now I’ll be good until I get back to my gal in Atlanta (who will be horrified by my new butch look!).

We took the self-guided Heritage Walk around town.  Smiths Falls was one is the few canal towns to prosper because they were making materials for the railroads.  There were a couple of cool old buildings, but I don’t think you need to put it on your Life Bucket List. After Labor Day these small canal towns basically roll up the sidewalks.

The Rideau Canal symbol.

I’m interested to hear that a bong is now a back-to-school necessity.

 

After a quick bite out for lunch, at the most average diner on the planet, we found a few more groceries (and puzzles!) to buy at Walmart and called it a day.

This basin is home to the Le Boat Canadian branch.  Le Boat is a European company that provides canal boats, without requiring experience or licensing. Isn’t that terrifying?! We’ve seen a number of them on the Rideau, and they are good-looking practical boats.  They are wrapped in bumper protection-which is actually something we could have used.

We spent a quiet night planning our final Rideau routes - and the sky, again, gave us a show.

The water tower looks quite nice at dusk!

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...

 

Sat Sept 3: Hurst Marina to Burritts Rapids Lock Wall

 What a pleasure to be back on the water - and it was a lovely, cheerful day.  Even Rick's arm is feeling better.  What a difference a not-broken prop makes!

You can bet our eyes were GLUED to the chart and the markers... They are our friends.

You know, just your average rural docks along the water.  Dock/boat, dock/boat, dock/boat - as far as the eye can see, until the last wise-guy...

We were pretty quickly to our destination.  It's amazing how much more quickly we can go with a functional prop. (And, don't tell our real prop, it is possible this prop gives us more juice for the RPM). We were lucky enough to get a spot on the free wall - it's a long weekend so things are full.  But maybe the universe decided we had had enough for one week, and we got the last spot.  We took a walk along the Tip to Tip Trail that runs the length of the island on this side of the lock.  Charmingly, the park/lock lawn had been taken over by a troop of  Girl Guides who were camping and doing water activities.  It brought good memories back for Rick, who loved camping with Claire - and it gave me PTSD thinking about camping with my Girl Scout troop.

There's something you don't see very often! Possibly it's a Girl Guide.

At night we were able to eat dinner up on the top deck, and appreciate the show Mother Nature gave us.  It ended with a terrific lightening display in the distance. 

Fri Sept 2: One Last Night at Hurst Marina

What a weird boating season it has been…

We spent last night in an old hotel in Peterborough, Ontario. (I must say, we both enjoyed the water pressure in the shower!) Early this morning we headed out for the 30 minute drive to the Trent Lakes area, where the master prop guy has his shop.  And what a shop it was! Hundreds of newly repaired props hanging on the walls, waiting to be picked up. What a combination of math, metal working and art to fix all these damaged propeller.  He told us that this has been his busiest year ever……

Poor little old prop../

The lovely guy gave us a 4-blade prop on loan (no charge 😮) and our re-built (basically new) prop will be waiting for us in Kingston. He even did all the lifting, since we suddenly remembered Rick’s collarbone, which had been on the back burner the past couple of days.

Ima give Rick a (limited) space here to tell you all you never wanted to know about props (propellers):

Rick here. So I got a crash course in how propellers work.  I mean it makes sense, but I never thought I would have to think about it in so much detail.  Our existing (damaged) propeller has 5 blades and is 26 inches in diameter with each blade having a 19.5 degree angle off the center spindle.  The best thing is that our propeller shaft (the drive shaft that comes out of the back of the engine/transmission) has a very standard 2 inch diameter.  So, John, at Kawartha Propeller, offered us a loaner propeller that he thought would work for us. The loaner is a 4-blade, 24 inch diameter with 23 degree curve off the spindle.  So I could try to explain how the loaner is similar to our propeller but Melanie would make some comment  about how I bored our 4 readers to death if I tried to explain pitch and fluid dynamics (which I don’t understand myself), so just trust me when I say we we’re happy to have a loaner with the same shaft size that would move the boat forward!

After we picked up the propeller in Buckhorn, Ontario we made a B-line (the area was beautiful and we passed the Trent Severin Canal which we will travel on next year) back to Hurst Marina arriving a little after 12 pm.  We wanted to make sure to deliver the new propeller asap so the mechanics could put it on before leaving for a long Labor Day weekend. In the meantime, since we had the loaner car, we drove over to the grocery store in Manotick to stock up on a few things we need to stay alive (like chips and feta). 

Then we had to get all the shopping up the ladder at the back of the boat.  It’s very strange to be on the boat while way up in the air.

When we returned from shopping the propeller was installed and we were ready to get back in the water. In less that 24 hours they had hauled the boat, removed the damaged propeller, installed the loaner and put us back in the water. Not to mention had given us a car. Amazing service from Hurst Marina!

No prop-BAD

New prop-GOOD!!!

It was late in the afternoon so we decided to stay in the marina one more night.  The boat was dirty so we took advantage of the marina water to give her a good scrub.  We were so happy to have her alive and well again that it was a pleasure to clean, for a change!

And we went to war on the spiders. Up to now we have embraced their diet of all our bugs, but now they have taken over and have surprisingly big, green poops!! DEATH TO THE SPIDERS.

We slept well, back to rocking gently on the water, and feeling grateful.

Thurs Sept 1: Hurst Marina

Gentle Readers-do not despair.  All is not lost..

The most excellent crew at Hurst has taken our problem to heart, and right after lunch they pulled Blue Horizon out of the water so we could assess the damage and come up with a plan. 

And, yup, there was damage all right. But only to the prop, no other parts of the boat. And they regaled Rick with tales of how much worse they have seen. (I was playing ostrich in the lounge, too nervous to be present)

By 4pm we were in a loaner car, with the prop in the trunk, headed 3 hours across Canada to deliver it to the repair guy.  We will pick up a loaner prop (who knew there were such things) which they hope to put on the boat tomorrow mid-day.  If all goes well we can continue on our trip tomorrow afternoon (just in time for the long weekend and all the crazies to come out). The plan is to haul the boat out again in Kingston, where our re-built prop will be put back on.

If all of that really works, it will be a miracle.  We expected at 10-day delay, at least.  And bankruptcy.

(Most of the road we drove today was the Trans Canadian Hwy. We got a kick out of how quaint it was-just one lane each direction!)

Stay tuned —-

Poor Blue Horizon-she’s up in the air.  We know just how she feels…

Wed Aug 31: Black Rapids Wall to …. er, unplanned stop at Hurst Marina

This is really the only picture you need - it sums up the day, and our immediate future.

Damage to 3 of the 5 blades on the propeller

So, ok.  Here’s how it played out.  We left the wall in the company of a small sailboat, also headed for Kingston.  We smoothly managed one set of locks, sharing the chamber with the sail. Coming out the other side we somehow got distracted and stopped paying close attention to the red/green markers (probably thinking it was a canal and how hard could it be).  In all our days and thousands of miles on the water, we have never both failed to be on the lookout.  But for a brief moment we slipped out of the marked channel as we looked through the binoculars at the next look.  As soon as Rick saw it he jerked the boat to the left to get back in. (In addition we should have put the boat in neutral). And, of course-all the bad signs were leading up to this-WHAM. We hit something, most likely a rock. Almost immediately a ragged vibration began to shake the boat and we knew the worst had happened… They say there are only two kinds of boaters-those who have hit something, and those who will hit something at some point.

We had a flood of emotions - anger, disappointment, fear and sadness that we had damaged the boat, but we were still on the water coming up to locks 14-15-16 so we had to keep going.  We slowed the engine way down to minimize the vibration and limped up to the locks.  The wind was blowing once again in a direction that made it hard to get up to the lock wall but we made it through and as we were leaving Melanie asked the lock master if he knew a place that could haul the boat and repair the propeller.  He suggested the Hurst Marina about 5 miles further down the canal. 

We continued to limp along at about 3 mph (if you think 7 mph is slow, you should try 3) and Rick called the marina.  We were in luck as they had the space to take us in and the equipment to lift the boat and check the propeller. We arrived at the marina, tied up to the dock and tried to process what had just happened.   Yes, we know accidents happen - we’ve had a couple of them lately with broken collar bones and dings to the hull. But we can’t help feeling bad and responsible for the circumstances that led up to the accidents.  These accidents could have been avoided …. but they happened so we have to deal with the consequences.   The marina staff were great and worked out a plan to haul the boat out of the water tomorrow.  

So with nothing else to do and a big bunch of thunderstorms coming through we took a short nap and then did a puzzle.  With all the bad things that have happened during this part of the trip we feel like we’ve lost our mojo, our will to continue.  So as we puzzled, we did our best to try to remember all the wonderful, amazing things we had done and seen during the first part of this year’s trip.  It has been a great trip so far and as all boaters know, stuff happens.  We just need to remember that and stay focused on the good, with an attitude of gratitude.  Once we are done with self-flagellation, of course.

We will give you all an update tomorrow once we have the boat out of the water (actually - you can see a preview of what we found in the picture at the top of this post - more details in tomorrow)

One plus-we did NOT get the tornado 

We did get dramatic weather to match our many moods…

Tues Aug 30: The Rideau Canal to Black Rapids Lock 13 free wall

** The most important thing that needs to be said here is that we are now the proud parents of a 25-year-old Claire!!! Happy Birthday to the best human - we are so fortunate to be along for the ride. 💝 **

I’m a superstitious person, and when I went to take a pic of our Looper flag in front of the Ottawa locks, only to find that our AGLCA flag, indeed the whole flag holder, had fallen off, I was immediately unnerved. It seemed a signal of some kind. And not a good one. (Dear Reader-I tell you in confidence … it WAS a sign)

Here we go-entering our 3rd canal system of the year-Rideau (pronounced Rid-doe), full speed ahead and the devil take the hindmost, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Like good little canawlers, we are waiting at the bottom on the blue line.This system does not have a radio, so you wait on the blue line until someone notices you.

 

 

The first 31 locks on the Rideau will be lifting us up until Upper Rideau Lake, and then 14 locks will drop us back down to Kingston/Lake Ontario.

While we waited Rick took down the Quebec flag. We are officially in Ontario now. No more pesky French.

We thought we might have to wait while they locked boats down, which can take up to an hour or more, but there was no one at the top waiting so right at 9am the lock master (mistresses in this case) came down to talk to us and verify our park pass. Then her crew started the laborious process of opening the first gate.  I was really glad it was too early for the crowd of tourists that we saw yesterday-I hate an audience.  (WELL …. read on…)

I shook off my gloom and worry and we started up. This system has hanging cables, and so was quite a bit more work then we had anticipated.  The water came into the lock in a less controlled way then some of the other systems, and we worked pretty hard to keep the boat steady and off the wall.

 

 

 

We are working hard, but they are working even harder.  This is the lock-master.

By about the 4th chamber we had it down to a science and looked around to discover that the tourists were out in full force.  As the boat rose up out of each chamber many feet came into view, followed by legs and then upper bodies and then faces and cameras.  So. Many. Cameras. It’s very disconcerting to know that we will be forever in the home movies of strangers.  Also, had we known so many people would be staring we might have done the dishes, or worn clean underwear… Rick, of course, was in his element and was taking questions! ‘No, it’s not a tourist boat that you can get on-it’s our house’ ‘Yes, that does say Florida’ ‘We are doing a thing called the Great Loop’ 'Yes, we are so lucky' 'YES - we really did come from FL'

Can you see the crowd above on the bridge? The whole thing was like my worst nightmare.

I am happy to wave at and talk to children, so that is what I did. I felt like I was on a Disney parade float. I got so flustered that I lost focus coming out of the final lock and the rear of the boat picked up a nice new ding. 😡 I KNEW I shoulda stayed in bed.

We had intended to stay on the canal wall at the top of the locks. And see some more of Ottawa.  But there wasn’t power, the area felt a little seedy and we just weren’t feeling it-so after a quick grocery run we headed on down the canal.

I had invited this little peanut to come visit us on the wall as they really wanted to see the inside of the boat. So after we tied up we gave a little tour.  It was a nice way to cheer up after my locking mistake.

The outskirts of Ottawa were very pretty.

 

It made me giggle that they put markers in a canal-like we were going to get lost! (Wait until tomorrow when the laugh is on us…and not in a good way. In literature we call this FORESHADOWING.......  duh duh dun {dramatic music})

A depth of at least 5’ is promised in the pool (the water between the locks) but there are so many weeds the depth gauge can neither confirm nor deny.

Here the parks dept not only locked us up, but also moved a piece of road just for us.

At this lock Rick said ‘hey-looks like you have a leak’ and the lock master said ‘yes-we have a lovely water feature in our lock just for you’ .  Dad humor -the same all over the world. 🙄

Finally, at the top of Lock 13 it was time to call it a day.  There are 45 locks in this system, but they come in groups so they will go quickly.  As of today we’ve really already done 1/4 of them! Between that cheerful news, and the fact that we got the last power pole on the wall , we were in reasonably good spirits by dinner.  Then the universe gave us an amazing rainbow, as frosting!!

Good night!