2017 Rideau Adventures

[Lou_tribal]

9th days of the trip.
Today we left our favorite sport of Lower Beveridge to go to our other favorite spot of Chaffeys lock. We only had to lock twice, and once was at the Narrow lock which is the lowest elevation lock of all the Rideau.
On our way we first crossed the Big Rideau lake, a 2h cruise with head on wind that gave us again some white caps, it was a funny ride.
After locking through The Narrow, a short 30 minutes cruise lead us to Newborrow lock where we stopped for lunch.
Departing from Newborrow we met a very nice Nordic Tug 32 just before the Chaffeys cut. I have already seen this one somewhere in picture (maybe this forum?). I think it was named Spirit of something (forgive my poor memory).
I may add some pictures later but the connection is not good even on cell phone, Chaffeys is quite seclude.
We will spend the night here to have a restful sleep among the birds and be will head back tomorrow. We decide to go back to Lower Beveridge to spend 2 more days there as we really love this spot.

L.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Few picture to illustrate our trip to Perth.
First encounter the Tay tug, I just love this nice little tug. O it shows the signs of time but still I find it adorable:



Then some picture from Perth, very nice little town (sorry few pics):



And finally we are back:



L.

 

[RT Firefly]

Wonderful!

 

[Art]

What a nice time you are having!

 

[Lou_tribal]

Yes we have really good time and we are enjoying it a lot.
Yesterday we went to Chaffeys lock as mentioned in a previous post so here are some pictures:

On our way we crossed the place I feel the most nervous, the newborrow cut, long narrow cut where hopefully I will never be face to face with a 50 feet boat

At the lock we met this nice boat that was heading the other way:


Here is the narrow Lock, the least elevation lock, but when the wind blows it is also the lock I have most of the pain to go through:


We had our lunch at the Newborrow lock:


And this is our spot for the night at Chaffeys lock, one of my favorite if not my favorite:

I like these little colored boat garage:


L.

 

[Lou_tribal]

10th day. Today we are back to Lower Beveridge. We love so much this place that we wanted to spend 2 more days here. Lot of rain last night. Started around 2AM and did not stop. We departed in the rain at around 10AM after having enclosed the flybridge. There was absolutely nobody on the water, not even a single boat, only a couple of fishermen.
We reached our dock for the night at around 1:30PM in a peaceful cruise. The only stress moment was at the Narrow lock as the wind was blowing from starboard to port and tried to push us away from the lock wall.
Now we are docked for two days a this spot. Tomorrow will be a kayak day to watch the birds.
I took the opportunity of a free afternoon to do some DIY like fixing one gaz hose, and changing and rewiring all the rocker switches of one of my panel.
Time for cooking and diner.

L.

 

[alormaria]

Sometimes the best days of a cruise are the days you never started the engine.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Sometimes the best days of a cruise are the days you never started the engine.

Indeed some break is fortune. Today we stayed at the same spot, the day was lovely, sunny warm. We had a late wake up and it was just wonderful.
I took the opportunity to rewire an engine water heat sensor. The PO used the simplest way to join 2 wires, he just twisted the together So I removed this and used an automotive style waterproof connector (don't know the exact name) to make the connection adequately. I also reconnected one of my bilge pump switch to force it on as it was disconnected (don't ask me why, pretty sure because the guy that did that did not know what was the third wire).
As we really really love the peacefulness of that place we decided to stay a third day here so tomorrow will be easy going again.
I must salute the kindness of our lock master here, not only he gave me the hose to fill my water tank, but he also offered us to drive us to the nearest grocery store if we needed anything. To meet such great people is just unbelievable, low hat for him and all other Canada Park lock masters.

L.

 

[alormaria]

We had offers of cars, food, moorings, lifts to the grocery store including translation services (Quebec) and finally at St. Jean Sur Richelieu they rented a crane to open a stuck bridge for us[SIZE=-1].


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[Oceania]

Nice reporting, Lou.

 

[Marlinmike]

Awesome pic's thanks for sharing!!

 

[Lou_tribal]

Last update: W finally departed from Beveridge last Monday after 3 days of rest that were really enjoyable. Our plan was to stop at Merrickville for the night and now start a little story.
We departed early morning to start crossing the first lock as soon as it opened. We arrived just in time and 2 minutes later another boat, a cruiser, came behind us. He was following us all the way at low speed. When we arrived at the last lock before Merrickville, the lock master came to see us to say that Merrickville was very busy and almost full, that they still have one spot free for a 30 feet but that they cannot say if the spot will still be free when we will arrive (around 45 min later). So we thanked him for the info and told him that we will check and if not free we will go at the bottom of the lock where there is no power as it does not really matter for us.
As soon as we got out of the lock the cruiser behind put full throttle passing us by port at less than 5 meters making of course a big nasty wave, only to got first in Merrickville and grab the spot if free. Some people are just bloody idiots. I know that is the game of first in first serve but if he did just ask us to take the spot with power I would have been happy to let him go first as it was not in my plans to dock in the middle of 10 other boats but more to lock through and be alone. This reminded me that courtesy is a value that some people do not have...

At the end we reached Merrickville, and after a talk with the lock master he gave us the ok to stay at the blue line after the locks, we were alone and peaceful there and we were able to depart very early in the morning for our long stretch.

L.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Story continue...

We departed from Merrickville Tuesday early morning and our goal was to reach Black Rapids in one long stretch. We met another trawler (Miller Time coming from the severn, very nice people) at the next lock, Clowes that was going our way. We spent the whole day together almost alone.
In the middle of the long reach (the long stretch between Burrits Rapid and Long Island) we got caught by a severe storm. I was in leading and Miller Time was following. Looking back we were able to see the storm taking on us by the stern, I was able to see the rain coming and coming until it reached Miller Time and then us. Rain was pouring and lightning were a bit intimidating and with the wind blowing from stern it was not a really nice ride. We crossed 3 boat that were turning back (maybe to get to safer place not sure). Finally after 2h and being totally wet we got out of the storm to finish the stretch in better shape. We reached Long Island lock at 2PM and the lock master told us that Black Rapids was again almost full but we could stay at the blue line. I decided to lock through Long Island and stay at the bottom for the night and leave the empty space to Miller Time who wanted to be at Black Rapids also. We had a very nice evening and night, the space at the bottom in Long Island is very very nice and silent.

[to be continued...]

 

[Lou_tribal]

Wednesday we departed at 8AM from Long Island to be get to Ottawa for one night. We met Miller Time at Black Rapids and we continued our trip like the day before. They were staying at Hartwell lok for the night while we were continuing to Ottawa. The lock master at Hartwell told us that powered dock at Ottawa were 100% full but that they opened the opposite dock for Canada Day stay. We reached Ottawa at noon and we are now docked just before the bridge on the dock on the parliament side. We initially wanted to only spend one night before locking through and going back home on the Ottawa river. Finally thinking about it we decided to stay for Canada Day. This is the first times in our life that we are in Ottawa for Canada Day and it is the 150th of Canada, and we are just in the right place so better to take this opportunity. I am a bit afraid of the locking time Sunday and also afraid to be stuck with a lot of boat putting my handling skills to test but we will see.

If any of you are around in Ottawa you can pass by and say hello

I will post some pictures of our last 3 legs a bit later.

Regards,

L.

 

[Art]

What Fun!! TY for sharing all about your boating vacation!

 

[Roamer Blue]

Enjoy Canada 150 in the capital!!

I am very jealous!

RB

 

[Moonstruck]

Just a great write up and photos, Lou. Thanks for taking us along.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Funny fact, our Bleuvet was caught on the news while we were entering Ottawa locks docks (go to 17:20 and watch the boat behind the presenter):

CTV Ottawa | Video - Watch our Latest News Stories and Daily Newscasts




L.