Morton Bay

Tuesday July 30, 2013

44 31.433 N

76 13.485 W

(I am typing this in “Word” because we appear to have no internet connectivity. Our “MiFi” is showing it has a signal but the computer cannot see it. Beats me. I will copy and paste these comments into the blog when we find service.)

We are anchored in a beautiful flooded valley about 25 north of Kingston. I suspect 25 to 30 miles a day will be the norm for the Rideau. There are just too many locks and they slow us down. The locks are basically “original” from the 1820s when the canal system was built, and are rather remarkable and picturesque, but also quite small and a bit slow. They are operated “manually” by the lock master and a crew of college kids on summer jobs. Many of the locks are arranged in “flights” with up to 6 locks back to back.

Deidre and I have developed a good system for dealing with the locks. I drive the boat in and close on the wall till she can grab one of the cables from the bow and connect a line. She cleats that line and heads to the stern. My job is then to bring the stern to the wall so she can grab a cable there and attach another line.  Once I get the “I have got it” message I head inside to shut down the engines (it is required) and then get out to the bow to tend the bow line while Deidre attends to the stern. We go up or down, then repeat the process to leave the lock and drive into the next one. It’s fun, but it can get tedious.

We seem to have a vibration problem. We hit another “submerged object” earlier today. It seemed to be a “keel event” and not a “prop event” but we now have a vibration. I plan to dive under the boat in the morning and have a look.  There is a big marina up ahead, so if a prop or shaft is damaged we will need to get hauled.

We pulled out of Kingston this morning at about 8:30AM so we could catch the 9:00AM opening of the bridge into the Rideau. We stayed 4 nights on the wall right down town for free – not a bad deal.