Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is a Unesco World Heritage site, the Canadians are very proud of it and it shows. It was built in 1832 primarily for military purposes when Great Britain and the U.S. were fighting for control of the area. Now it is run by Parks Canada and is a tourist attraction. Clearly the number of staff working each lock, by hand in almost all cases, is not cost efficient. All of these employees are helpful, friendly and quick to engage us boaters as well as visitors in conversation regarding details and history of the locks.

The lock sites have docks before and after them with space for boats to temporarily tie on while waiting their turn to proceed in, or to tie up for overnight dockage. Sometimes they have electric, they rarely have water. They are very convenient.

While boating/locking is an adventure and it is beautiful, it has it’s challenges. There are boring and stressful downsides. You need to constantly keep track of your capacities- fuel, water, power & septic. There are not gas stations every few miles. If there is a great dockage or mooring spot but you are low on water, that option is ruled out. Some bridges and locks open on demand. Others have very specific schedules that you need to attempt to meet. So, every day you need to be reviewing and keeping track of all of these. And top of the list to side track your best laid plans is weather- rain, thunderstorms and wind!

Occasionally there are even bigger challenges. One of the locks we had just passed through was completely filled with boats. When the pressure of the water entered the boats were tossed around, one boat wound up sideways and another had it’s swim platform ripped off. No one was injured but it was the talk of every looper for a week. Two more recent incidents. That big ‘guillotine’ lock we had just gone through began malfunctioning and had to be closed for repairs. There is no alternate route, you just have to wait for it to open again. Another day, the boat we had traveled with for several days, Home Port, had the bottom of it’s hull scraped when they entered the Ottawa locks and it had not been filled completely! (Parks Canada was very good about agreeing to deal with any necessary repairs.)

One night we were safely docked in Merrickville with several other loopers having docktails and playing ladder ball. The wind picked up and we gathered our snacks to scurry back aboard before the incoming storm. A non-looper boat had been anchored in the harbor and apparently the anchor was not well set as the boat was adrift with no one aboard! Everyone ran to try and help as well as to protect their own boat from being slammed into, ours being the most likely candidate. Again, disaster averted and no one hurt but it could have been a real mess.

The water is clear and very surprisingly warm. The people are fun, and the fishing….well.

We have arrived in Kingston, the capitol of Canada from 1841-1843. It is a pretty, touristy town and the end of the 47 locks of the Rideau Canal. I think we will both be fine if we never go through another lock!