Burrett's Rapids Lock

Tied up at a lock tonight after a very quiet trip down from the wall in downtown Ottawa. Eight locks today, very few traveling. Plan to go on to Merrickville tomorrow

The Wall, Downtown Ottawa, On

Nancy found a really nice Tilley hat to keep the sun off her face.

An example of the street art along the streets.

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Beautiful morning today. Dow's Lake very calm. Had breakfast on the back of the boat, then went for a pump out and fuel fill-up, but fuel pump wasn't working, so just a pumpout. The young man did call later to say the repair man had come and we could now fuel up; we will stop there tomorrow am.

Heading uptown on the canal.

Nancy has been wanting to try Poutine - not a food they see in Florida

Statue on Parliament Hill showcasing Nellie McClung holding up .the newspaper reporting that Women were persons in 1929

Waiting for our tour of the Parliament Buildings

As we came uptown, lots of people on the bike paths running, skateboarding, biking. Tied up along the wall not far from the Rideau Centre. Walked up to the war memorial, then to the Parliament buildings. Wayne and I have not toured the Parliament building since we were in school many years ago, so we learned a lot. Got lunch at an Irish pub in the market, then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the market, picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables. Nice place to sit here watching all of the people go by. Light dinner on the boat. There is a sound and light show on Parliament hill, but we may be in bed by that time.

The view off the back of the boat this morning

Dow's Lake ,Ottawa ,On

Quiet day today. Spent a good part of this morning trying to find a small freezer. Ended up renting an SUV and going to Walmart. The website said that Walmart at Trainyards had both an upright and a chest freeer in stock, but when we got there, they had only an upright in stock, and that was the floor model, so they wouldn't sell it. We went to South Keys, and they had both upright and chest. The one that died was an upright model, we decided to try the small chest freezer - lots of very careful measuring to make sure it would fit in the smallspace in the boat. Brought it back, two very helpful young men here at the marina helped the men carry the freezer into the boat (not heavy but awkward). They even offered to take the old freezer and dispose of it, we very quickly said yes. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do with it.
Nancy and I took the car back out to Walmart and Loblaws and did a major restocking. Good opportunity to do that. Quick dinner on the boat, then Eddie and I took a brisk walk up Preston street. The exercise felt good. We plan to take the boat back uptown tomorrow, tie along the wall above the lock and do some more touring around the Parliament buildings and Byward Market. We find it very quiet here tonight, no party going on on the patio by the boat.

Dow's Lake, Ottawa, On

Inukshuk on the grounds of Rideau Hall

The changing of the Queen's Footguard

Wayne worked on the boat, changing filters etc to make sure that we would have 2 engines running as we travel over the next few days, found pieces of plastic in the fuel lines and connectors, so dirt in the fuel tanks is still causing the problems. Nancy, Eddie and I went for a walk along Queen Elizabeth Way this morning, beautiful park land and bike path. This afternoon the 3 of us went for a bus tour of Ottawa. Since we live so close to Ottawa, I've never done a tour before, so it was good for all of us. The guy here at the marina arranged for the tour bus to pick us up here at Dow's Lake, then it took us downtown and we were able to buy a ticket for the tour there. Had lunch downtown on the Sparks Street Mall,then caught the next double-decker bus for the rest of the tour. Got off at Rideau Hall, the Governer-General's Residence, had a tour of the residence and spent some time in the extensive grounds. Interesting to see the trees planted by various dignitaries who have visisted Canada, including Mugabe from Zimbabwe, the president of Pakistan, Vladomir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, several others, and the tree planted by Princess Elizabeth when she visited before she became queen.   The tour also took us past many embassies, past parliament buildings and through the Byward Market. We plan to take the boat downtown tomorrow so we can walk through the market and visit the Parliament buildings and war memorial. Our freezer seems to have died, so we have meat stowed in the freezer over the fridge and turned the ice maker into a temporary freezer. Will have to look into getting another one tomorrow. Hope they deliver.

Eddie and Nancy with a footguard. As we were taking the picture, the commissionnaire came over ask us all to stand on the side without the gun, new rule this year. Wonder if it had anything to do with the bayonet on the end of the gun, and the young man who was injured earlier this year.

Grilled steak on the boat tonight (it wouldn't fit in anywhere so we had to cook it). Big party going on in the restaurant right beside the boat, fun watching the kids dance, but hope it doesn't go on too late.

Rideau Hall

Dow's Lake Marina, Ottawa

Big display set up by the locks to celebrate the war of 1812.

The flight of 8 stair locks to get from the Ottawa River to the Rideau Canal. You can just see the Chateau Laurier on the left.

The falls where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa

Left Montebello this morning, heading up the Ottawa River. Cloudy this morning, but calm, 40% chance of rain, but rain held off and sun came out this afternoon. As we travelled toward Ottawa, we were suddenly surrounded by go fast boats screaming past us, going the other way. We assume some sort of race or poker run. Lots of wakes as they went past, then that group was followed by several other smaller boats. Water was very busy today.
Got to the stair locks in Ottawa by 2:30, they were just bringing a boat down, so we waited about 1.5 hours, then it was our turn. Works really well with Eddie and I doing ropes, we are falling into a routine, much more relaxed doing locks and docking with the extra hands aboard. Lots of tourists watching the boats going through the locks, fun to visit with them as we locked up. Coming up those locks and then cruising slowly through the city on the canal is just amazing. It is so beautiful, very peaceful, lots of green space.
At Dow's Lake marina tonight, we went up to the Mexican restaurant here for dinner, very good. We are docked right under the patio, so we may have musical entertainment for a good part of the night.

Police boat just sitting in the Ottawa River, we later decided they were probably there to keep track of the go fast boats.

Just a few of the go fast boats swarming toward us.

Rockland ferries going almost continuously, two would cross, then as they docked 2 more would cross, made it tricky choosing our time to get by them

At dinner on the patio overlooking Dow's Lake

Several groups were having wedding pictures taken around the locks. This group needed to move so they could open the gate they were standing on to let us into the next lock

My station while we were in the locks, holding the bow rope. This lock had a lot of water coming over the gates, so I had some mist, felt really good. You can see the water bubbling into the lock from below in front of the boat.

This dog was on the boat next to us at Montebello, sat resting its head on the chain
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Chateau Montebello, Montebello

Huge church at Oka

Went out for breakfast at Sainte Anne de Bellevue, then went through the lock separating the Ottawa river from the St. Lawrence and headed up the Ottawa river. Went through Lake of Two Mountains, past Oka, Hudson, Hawkesbury, L'OriginalLefaivre ferry cross in front of us.  Pleasant trip up to Carillon lock, then a wait of just over an hour to go through the lock .In both locks today we tied to a floating dock, very easy as the dock just floated up with us. At Carillon, we rafted off another boat at the front of the lock. Near the back of the lock, a pontoon boat came in to raft off another smaller boat. We don't know what happened, but suddenly he was sideways in the lock, great difficulty getting it turned back, finally he rafted off the other boat but facing backwards. We had to exit the lock before we could see how they got him turned around so he could proceed.
After Carillon, port engine cut out again, same problem as we were having last year. Wayne had added another filter system to the boat, and that is what blocked, so he removed it, bled the system, and we were able to continue on 2 engines. Pulled into Montebello just before 6 pm. Along the way, many many beautiful homes along the water. Spent some time touring the resort here at Montebello, it is beautiful, and we have access to all of the facilities. By the time we got organized and made dinner, too late to play tennis (not that we had really planned to) or go for a swim tonight. We plan to continue on to Ottawa tomorrow, depending on the weather. Thurnderstorms are predicted for early morning.

One of the buildings here at Montebello

Approaching the Carillon lock, guillotine door is down so we will tie up to the blue line waiting area (small dock on the right)

Carillon lock with guillotine door open, waiting for us to enter

Sainte Anne de Bellevue

Lock walls where we are docked at Sainte Anne de Bellevue, you can see that most people prefer the restaurant side, only a few of us on the park side.

Some areas where the water is "skinny" or shallow on the way into Sainte Anne de Bellevue. The rocks here are just outside the channel markers, so we were very careful to stay inside the marked channel. Even then, there were places where we were down to 2.7 ft. under our boat.

In the Beauharnois lock. From the front deck of our boat, you can see the front decks of the other two boats that we are tied up to. The lady on the far end had to hold the rope to keep their boat close to the wall as we descended about 40 feet.

Left Marina 200 just after 8 this morning, beautiful sunny morning, but cool in the flybridge of the boat. Got through the 2 bridges with little delay; we were lucky, talked to some other people who waited 45 minutes for one of the bridges to open. Got to the Beauharnois locks by 1 pm, and a huge commercial freighter was coming through. The lockmaster said two other commercial boats were coming, he hadn't  decided whether we would go through before them or after. In the end he decided to make us wait, so we didn't get through until about 4:30, and then it was about 5 by the time we got through the 2nd lock. In all of the locks we did during the great loop, we have never seen another like these. The people on one boat take ropes from the top of the lock, the second boat rafts off the first boat, then the 3rd boat rafts off or ties to the 2nd boat. We were 6 boats in lock, so the next 3 did the same thing. Wayne kept the engines running so he could move the boat forward or back to keep the three of us in line. In most locks each boat would have a set of ropes to hold on to.
Another hour run and we were in Sainte Anne de Bellevue, where the Ottawa River meets the St. Lawrence. We will go through the lock just ahead of us in the morning, then start up the Ottawa River.

Boats tied along the wall at St. Anne de Bellevue, beautiful evening.

We are tied along the lock wall right in the town. Across from us is a whole row of restaurants and bars, we are tied on the side with park land, much quieter. We walked across and had dinner at a very nice place, may even go out for breakfast in the morning before we head out. First full day on the water, we all find that we are tired, even though we feel like we spent most of the day waiting for the lock.