South Nation River

Saturday August 10, 2013

Lat
Long

We decided to leave Ottawa on Saturday. We had a great spot and were having a great time, but counting out the days, we really needed to keep moving. 

There are no less than 8 locks arranged in a single flight from the last of the canal down to the river. All things being equal, the trip down takes 1 ½ hours, the trip up takes 2 hours. The service begins at 9 AM to the key is to get into the first batch of boats so that you do not have to wait the 3 ½ hours for the next group. So we were up at 7 AM and second in line “on the blue” by 7:30 AM, which is where we enjoyed our breakfast. We coordinated the move with our friends so they got our spot. Weed in the strainers.

Done!

The “voyage” down was uneventful. Just a lot of starting and stopping and maneuvering. The locks are a great tourist attraction so all this was done with 100 or so people watching and taking photos and even asking questions. There was a group of people for Austria who were most intrigued and were delighted when they discovered that both the Blackmans and Peaches had visited their home town, Schruns in Austria. The important thing was that we made it and Tide Hiker did not get scratched.

First in the river job was to find a pump-out and load some water. This we did at the first marina, and as usual it did not work very well, and cost $25. We continued about 25 miles down the river to an anchorage in the South Nation River. It was a muddy stream but about 500 feet wide and reasonable deep. By sunset the wind had died and we spent a very calm night.

Great having crew!

The Ottawa river is quite substantial, typically about ½ mile wide and 20 to 30 feet deep with only a few shallow spots. The country side was pretty without being spectacular. The weather was cool and sunny, we ran the boat from the Flying Bridge all day. The anchorage is in a side river, its very protected and calm. The TV will only pick up a few stations, all in French. 

Ottawa

Thursday August 8, 2013



We were into the first locking at 9 AM. Black Rapids had been fine but it was time to get rolling. Withe Lyn and Tony on board (and a bit of experience) locking was going to be easy. We had only 5 locks and about 10 miles before our destination down town Ottawa. It was a brilliantly clear and sunny day.

The canal narrowed down as we approached the city proper. In many places there were parks and walking/riding paths both sides. We received a lot of attention from the passersby. In some places I had to move Tide Hiker over to avoid overhanging trees. In places the channel was quite narrow. It felt quite strange to be moving thru a city like this.

Parliament House (under exposed)

But all went well. We were downtown by Noon. There are slips right down town with power, but only for about 20 boats, and they were all occupied. So we back tracked a few hundred yards and just just tied to a wall. It was quite a practical spot, but hard for the girls to get on and off, and no power, but still right in the city and walking distance to Parliament House.

First thing was to go hunting for phone and internet service. Surely in a big city......! We found and tried two new phone stores as well as the Apple store. No good. In the Apple store they agreed that there was just no point bringing an Apple internet product to Canada from anywhere in the world. Crazy. I give up.

We explored the city. The architecture is quite amazing. They seem to have optimized "Canada Colonial Style" of architecture that is quite impressive. I hope my photos do the city justice.

We discovered that there would be a massed bands military performance that night in Parliament Square so we resolved to return. We ate on the boat and walked back over to see the concert.

Friday August 9, 2013

Great Spot!

Thursday afternoon we found an MTOA boat in the slip area. They were leaving in the AM so we made a deal to swap spots in the AM. We moved the boat to its new berth first thing in the AM as planned. We now had a "prime" spot with 30 amp power. Very cool, like being moored in Circular Key.

At precisely 10 AM the bands were back, this time for the changing of the guard. Their route took them right alongside the canal and Tide Hiker. Great way to start the day, very stirring.

We then headed off to ride the double-decker tourist bus for a two hour tour of the city. The city is very impressive. Tony and I spent the best part of the afternoon at the "History of Canadian Civilization" museum. (They did not have a telephone and internet section) and the girls went shopping. Back at the boat we ran into some NZ friends from Waterford (NY) and ended up all going out to dinner, followed by a light show back at Parliament.

Looking for dinner

It seems to me that the Canadians are really want-to-be  Brits. They are really into pomp and ceremony and seem to bring out the military bands and pipers at the drop of a hat.  The day starts with the changing of the parliament house guard (not too sure who they are guarding it from, but it has been burned down three times). The red coated  band marches alongside the canal for ¼ mile or so, right past where Tide Hiker was moored (There is a video) There  are two soldiers standing guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier and that guard id changed every two hours, accompanied by a couple of pipers and stamping of boots. Plus Friday night there was a military

performance in front of parliament House, complete with the firing of muskets and cannons.

Here is the video of the "Changing of the guard" passing the boat:

Black Rapids

Monday August 5, 2013
45 19.249 W
75 41.861 W

We were in the lock at 9:10 AM and out by about 10 AM (Was a 3 step flight). It was a perfect morning, sunny and calm. Our objective, Black Rapids lock, was only 5 miles away and we were there and moored by 11 AM. The new mooring was a perfect set up – at last. They offered electricity and water. We needed to connect 4 hoses in a string to reach from tap to boat, but got the tanks full.  The setting was park-like and we had our own picnic table.  The lockmaster was a nice guy, even offered to pick up a slab of beer for us in Quebec (where it is 50 cents a can less expensive!) We settled in.

Prime spot - Black Rapids

After lunch we went shopping for groceries. The nearest supermarket was about 2 miles away so we walked there and caught a cab back. The place was basically a large Asian supermarket. Very busy and quite “different” with the result that we could only find about 75% of our lists. But interesting.

The Ottawa International Airport is only a few miles away, we seem to be under the flight path. 

Tuesday August 6, 2013

Lyn and Tony were due bout 3 PM. We rapped up our jobs and headed over to the airport in a cab about 1 PM. the flight was not due till about 3PM, but in our innocence we thought we would enjoy some free WiFi at the airport for an hour or so. No such deal - we had to "join" or "pay" and so we went without.

Their flight was on time. Deidre cooked up a great dinner that we enjoyed in the pilot house with a cloth on the table. Obviously, these were important guests.

Wednesday August 7, 2013

We decided to stay another full day to help Lyn and Tony settle in and recover from jet lag. Their trip, from Tasmania to Ottawa, took more than 48 hours. Literally from one end of the world to the other.

I had a few jobs on the boat to complete. Tony and I changed the bad breaker on the #2 generator. I was not comfortable making that change by myself. Also changed the Racor filter and the secondary filters on the engines. We did some shopping and drank some wine. Tony cooked dinner.

Long Island

Friday August 2, 2013 (Three nights)
45 15.007 N
75 42.101 W

We got off to a bad start. We moved the boat over to the “marina” and shoehorned into the “dock”. First problem was that the hose was only about 12’ long (no kidding) and so we needed to move the boat along just so it would reach. Then it turned out that their fittings were so leaky and the vacuum pump was so weak that it could not pull the “product” up over the rail on the boat. The first lock opening was at 9 AM so we abandoned the attempt at about 8:45 and headed for the lock. Of course we had missed our “spot” in the line so would have to wait for the second opening. Then the lock broke down and we had another delay.

Not an uncommon sight

This may be a good point to complain a bit about the Canadian lock system, the main point being that there is no system. At the risk of sounding a bit like the “Ugly Australian-American” the USA locks and lifting bridges are better organized (At least from the boater’s perspective - and we complain about them occasionally).

The first and most obvious issue is that the Canadians do not use VHF. I just cannot imagine why not. In the USA we all listen to the appropriate channel for bridges & locks (usually 13, but it sometimes changes by state). We call the bridge/lockmaster on approach. They will respond and tell us what to expect and what we need to prepare for. Since everyone is listening to the same channel, we all know “the score”.

The Rideau waters are much more restricted, the locks smaller and, this time of the year, busier. They need more coordination but get less. After one lock we were forced to reverse for several hundred yards in a very narrow channel to allow opposing boats to pass. (And I say forced because the other boater was very belligerent and refused to respect the rule “Give way to downstream vessel”). This issue, and many others, could be easily resolved with some radio chat.

Because of budget cuts, the hours of operation have been cut this season which causes lots of extra delay and inconvenience. We found it most frustrating because some of the locks are “triples” and one iteration can take over an hour. Yet the locks were manned with 4 or 6 people. With a few simple innovations they could cut the manning in half and extend the hours.

Enough with the complaining. But it added a lot of stress, and reduced our enjoyment of the trip significantly.

So we were thru the Smiths Falls lock (mile 60.5) by about 10.30 AM (2 ½ hours after starting engines we had progressed maybe ½ a mile.) We then had two locks at mile 59.3, one at 57.6, one at 53.9, and three at 46.0 in Merrickville, three more at mile 43 and one more at 40. By now Tide Hiker and crew are tired and it was late (maybe about 4 PM) and we were looking for a place to tie up. No room at the inn! All the spots were taken.

We had ignored a chance to stop in Merrickville where there was plenty of space, and apparently it is a very attractive town, but at that time we were stressed that it was already afternoon and we had only made about 14 miles. Big mistake.

Next docking facility was at Long Island, at Mile 15 – 25 statute miles away. This was a long stretch of flooded river valley that we would have loved to cruise on a different day. But now it was going to be 3 long hours and a race to make it by sunset. On the way we passed a marina offering pump-out so we stopped – they charged us $25! We made it in time and there was space in front of the lock on the "blue line".

At least the engine had had a decent run and the batteries were at 100%. However Deidre and Bob’s batteries were dangerously low. 

Saturday August 3, 2013

We needed to be up early to move the boat from the “blue line” (waiting for the lock) to the “gray line” (taking a break) docks. We are now only 15 miles from Downtown Ottawa, further evidenced by the 16 TV channels we can select from. (Of course French channels here have taken over from Spanish channels in the USA.)

It is a long weekend hereabouts, and the end of the Quebec Navy two week vacation. There is a constant stream of boats passing us into the locks, going north. We have lots to do to prepare the boat for visitors, but really no services here. (Fresh water is becoming an issue. The water supply at the locks has been declared off limits because of some health concerns.) We will probably stay here a couple of days but we need to move elsewhere for water and shopping.

This afternoon we rode our bikes into Manotick town center.

Sunday August 4, 2013

We received a notice on the iPad this morning that internet service was ‘suspended” because of “excessive international use”. I called the phone number provided but after about 10 minutes of “hold” the lady said she could not help us. So after completing a few jobs I headed back to the coffee shop on a bike to see if I could sort it out on line. I discovered that according to AT&T we had built up $1,050 of roaming charges on the iPad. Ha, these people are such rouges. I called them again and this time the customer service person could sort it out for me. Back to the boat and “back to work”.

It’s really windy and stormy today so we have decided not to go thru the lock, but wait for the morning when the forecast is better.  We just moved up to the Blue line so we can tale the firsy opening in the morning.

The lockmaster popped in to check our mooring pass. The pass cost about $400! So, counting tonight, this will be just our forth night using the pass, so the average cost per night so far is $100. It will need to get down to about $20 before I feel it was a decent value.

The boat is starting to look more presentable. As of 5 PM I have crossed off 13 jobs

Smiths Falls

Thursday August 1, 2013
44 53.804 N
76 01.344 W

It got really dark

The next lock was about 5 miles away and we wanted to be there by the first opening (9AM! These guys must be ex bankers). So we were up at 7 AM and underway at 8 AM and arrived at the next lock (# XX “XXXX”). Of course they opened it the other way, so we had to wait. The forecast called for lots of rain, and this is where it started. (My Christmas present last year was this very cool all weather sailing jacket and I had never had reason to wear it until today. So I was sorta happy)

After the lock we had about 15 miles of lakes ahead of us so we had a chance to get some miles under our belt. Our target for the day was Smith’s Falls, about 27 Statute Miles, and if we made that distance we would be back on schedule.

The rain bucketed down and visibility decreased to half a mile or so. Without the chart plotter we were navigating the old fashioned way with paper chart, dividers, parallel rulers and the binoculars. It was annoying rather than concerning, although we did have to keep our wits about us. It is just amazing how ambiguous a normal conversation can be when navigating this way,  dispersed with questions like “What do you mean by 100 yards up? Up what?” Fortunately, the route was reasonably well buoyed. And better still Deidre made hot chocolate for morning tea.

On that topic. We were able to make phone contact with C-Maps today. It took a while to convince the chap (“Phil”) that we were running blind with the chart he had sent us just 2 weeks ago. It’s too late to do anything about the Rideau, but I need charts for the Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers. (We have the St Lawrence covered in another system, but I wanted Phil to sweat a bit). He pulled up the chart he had sent us and I gave him our lat and long to enter. Silence. Then he said, “Oh, you are UP THERE”! Made me feel we were in Hudson Bay.

Taken by a friend

Some of the canal had been blasted out of solid rock and they only made the channel as wide as a “horse and cart” sized barge. We had received a lot of comments about the size of Tide Hiker, and through some passagess today I felt like I was navigating the Titanic up Mordialloc Creek. There were some sections where I felt the need to broadcast our location on the VHF radio and blast the horn to warn oncoming traffic. But all went well.

The “Upper Rideau Lakes” are just as I imagined Canada. Did not see any beavers or mounted police, but lots of water, lots of little islands, lots of fir trees and some very deep water. We were in lakes today that were just about as deep as they were long. With a very broad brush, the canal today was really a bunch of deep glacial lakes connected with narrow man made canals. (I have inserted a video below)

Tide Hiker ran OK today. The vibration seems less. But she does not like having here engines started and stopped in every bloody lock and dock. It’s as if they never get hot enough and run rough at idle, and the starboard engine even stalled a couple of time.

We arrived at Smiths Falls about 2 PM, and parked under two trees. Alongside we have a picnic table and colorful flower beds.

It was a pleasant little town. It had grown with the canal era and then faded , but revived now by tourism and proximity to Ottawa.  The areas around the canal and locks has been nicely developed with walking and biking trains and public parks. Tonight is “Movie in the park” night in the park adjacent to where we are moored.

We headed into town and found the local coffee shop and spent a pleasant hour or so catching up with emails and updating the blog. When we got back to the boat they were setting up for the movie plus pumping up those “bouncy things” for the kids. I took a bike and went to the local excuse for a marina to check out the pump-out and for a bit of a roam around town.

We had picked out a Hungarian restaurant for dinner and walked back into town about 7PM. Dinner was most forgettable.

Newboro Lock

Wednesday July 31, 2013
44 38.751 N
76 19.323 W

We enjoyed a relaxing evening last night. We were even treated to a lullaby provided by some  loons. It certainly was a pristine anchorage.

The morning was clear and calm. So I sucked in my tummy and donned my “shorty” and goggles and went over the side to check out our running gear and stabilizers. The water was clear and reasonably warm. Before I went in we installed the new swim ladder. It went on quite easily. Everything looked OK, so the vibration is still a mystery. 

Weed on the anchor 

Retrieving the anchor turned out to be a saga. Having clear river water turns out to be a mixed blessing. Because the water is clear the sunlight can penetrate the water and the result is weeds. Our anchor brought up enough weed to stall the windlass and pop the breaker. It took us an hour or so to clear the weeds off the anchor with boat hooks. That was a drag.

We eventually headed off and within a mile or so reached the Smiths Falls flight of locks, where we were held up for 2 hours or so. We did not make it to the top of the 4 locks till almost 1 PM!

The bloody locks close at 4:30 PM. We made it to Lock # (XXXX) by 4.15 and begged the guy to let us in even though we would not be done by 4:30 PM. There was a nice bulkhead above the lock so we decided to stay (since we had paid $400 for the priledge!) Dead calm night, met some people of the dock. We had made a whopping 13 miles for the day!

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.