Time to transit- Kingston To NYC via Rideau and Champlain Route

Planning our Summer/ early Fall travels from Kingston, Canada to NYC. Looking for advice on time needed for traversing the following at a leisurely pace. I typically use 2X the travel days to account for weather, stopping to "smell the roses" etc. Our three years of cruising 13,000 miles supports this approximation but with locks, etc a little "local knowledge" is appreciated.
Here is our rough plan:
Rideau Canal, Kingston to Ottawa- July 24 to Aug 9 (16 DAYS)
Ottawa to Sorel- Aug 9 to August 26 (17 DAYS)
Sorel to Waterford- August 26 to Sept 30 (35 DAYS)
Waterford to NYC-Sept 30 to Oct 14 (14 DAYS)

For those who have done this trip (I realize many have done it in the opposite direction) how do these elapsed times compare to your log? Are we pushing too fast to enjoy the sights or have we built in adequate time?
After NYC we will continue down the east coast to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter at a more accelerated pace (been up and down the coast so we will be more of a delivery mode to get to warm weather!)
Thanks for the input.

I did Kingston / Oswego / NYC in 5 days. 1st day was a push - 13 hours to make customs in Oswego and then proceed to Lake Oneida.

Plan to swing into Perth ON on the Tay canal while you are doing the Rideau. Charts are wrong about the depth, there's at least 5 feet of water and Perth is a lovely place to spend a couple of days. The Last Duel Park town docks are great and inexpensive. We really liked Merrickville and Westport too. 16 days is plenty for the whole thing, IMO.


Sorel to Waterford in 35 days will give you some time to really enjoy Champlain. That's smart. We enjoyed the side trip up Otter Creek to Vergennes. Burton Island State park is great. A couple of days at Shelburne Museum will be time well spent. The Naked Turtle in Plattsburgh is a fun stop. Do plan a side trip to Ausable Chasm, it's amazing. We really like North Hero Marina (great little tiki bar) and Champlain Marina. Rozzi's Lake Shore Tavern is a fun stop. Dick Mazza's General Store has great homemade pies. There's a HUGE sandy-bottom anchorage at Thayer Beach that's wonderful for swimming and overnighting if the wind is from the south.For Ticonderoga is a cool stop and you can land at the "beach" just south of it and hike up. On the Champlain canal, we enjoyed a stop in Schuylerville Yacht Basin. IT's worth a walk up to the Saratoga Monument. A $20 uber ride will get you to Saratoga Springs, which is great.


Waterford to NYC is really easy and should not take 14 days. No locks and not that many interesting ports to visit. Kingston was great. Saugerties was pretty cool too.


The Tarrytown Yacht Club is right next to a commuter rail station that will get you into the NYC pretty easily.

Tom
I don't have my logs with me but have done most of this and some multi times. From memory my reactions are...

Leg 1 Rideau- about right some nice stops along the way but you should have little Wx related problems. That's close to your 2x straight travel time

Leg 2 Ottawa Riv - Haven't done this section but my reaction is there is less to see /do other than Montreal which I'd highly recommend.

Leg 3 Champlain - Lots to see and do here but you have the most time allotted. I can elaborate more on worthwhile stops if desired but I would put Deep Bay (moorings) and Burlington on a must list. B'ton requires reservations for docking but they do have a large mooring field and there is a great public transport system available from the marina.

Leg 4 Hudson - I've done this in a faster boat but your timing seems easily doable.

In general my reaction is you are in the right ball park. My website has some cruising notes on portions of this if interested and if you have questions let me know... PM if I don't respond. Not sure where your origination is but would only suggest that if you haven't planned to spend time in St Lawrence 1,000 Is area I'd recommend adding that before departing Kingston.
Antique boat museum in Clayton is very highly recommended. Boldt & Singer Castles in Alex Bay area are interesting and give you a look at some beautiful area.
Are you including Trent Severn Waterway to get to Lk Ont & Kingston? We are headed the opposite way this summer... N to Georgian Bay.

Don
"Bacchus" http://dkloeber.wixsite.com/bacchus

Don,
We'll check out your website, thanks. And we may PM you with some specific questions or further suggestions.
We did Clayton boat museum, Sackett's Harbor, Cape Vincent, the Boldt Castle, hydroplane races at Gananoque and the Trent Severn, Georgian Bay and North Channel last summer.
We are doing the Trent Severn again as we are coming from Lake Michigan in June. Already have our Canadian lock and mooring package with the 20% discount. :>)
We've done the Erie/Oswego route and our time from NYC to Waterford was less as you suggest...I just used the actual elapsed time from last trip which included some down time for maintenance. We don't like to be rushed so I think we have been fairly conservative on timing.
Perhaps our paths will cross. We use NEBO and have AIS. Hope to meet you out there in those wonderful northern waters!

Mischief,
Thanks for all the tips!

Going in the Hudson , remember the trains run on both sides , so anchoring near shore can be noisy.

sum escape said:

Planning our Summer/ early Fall travels from Kingston, Canada to NYC. Looking for advice on time needed for traversing the following at a leisurely pace. I typically use 2X the travel days to account for weather, stopping to "smell the roses" etc. Our three years of cruising 13,000 miles supports this approximation but with locks, etc a little "local knowledge" is appreciated.
Here is our rough plan:
Rideau Canal, Kingston to Ottawa- July 24 to Aug 9 (16 DAYS)
Ottawa to Sorel- Aug 9 to August 26 (17 DAYS)
Sorel to Waterford- August 26 to Sept 30 (35 DAYS)
Waterford to NYC-Sept 30 to Oct 14 (14 DAYS)

For those who have done this trip (I realize many have done it in the opposite direction) how do these elapsed times compare to your log? Are we pushing too fast to enjoy the sights or have we built in adequate time?
After NYC we will continue down the east coast to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter at a more accelerated pace (been up and down the coast so we will be more of a delivery mode to get to warm weather!)
Thanks for the input.

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I have done most of that that route. In my opinion, that is extremely conservative. You'll certainly have time to do everything you want, plus much more.
(You may run out of roses to smell).

You can spend an almost infinite time on the Rideau so 16 days is good but if you want to stay a month you have plenty of things to do/see and place where to stay/relax to do so.
The route from Ottawa to Sorel is less interesting in the sense that there is less place where to stop, however Ottawa river is a nice river to cruise with many nice bays to drop the anchor and enjoy a glass of wine watching sunset.
I would reduce my time between Ottawa and Sorel and increase my time on the Rideau.
As mentioned Perth is a very nice little town and the Tay canal is a nice trip. However be aware that the dock when you arrive at Perth is not downtown and has very few slips (6 if remember correctly) so before going up ask the Beveridge dock master to check for you, the lockmasters at Beveridge are the coolest you will ever meet! If you have kayak aboard the Tay canal is a wonderful ride and you will be able to go right downtown Perth.
Westport is a good place too especially for grocery.
Note that end of July, beginning of August is the busiest season on the Rideau so expect some delay at the locks ( and by some I mean sometimes long delays), especially at Ottawa 8 steps locks. Also you may face some busy locks if you plan to stay at the locks dock overnight.

I stay on the Ottawa river so if you cross my path say hello

L

Your schedule should allow lots of time to enjoy the trip. My concern would be the last 2 weeks of July are the Quebec Construction holiday. During the end of July & early August a surprising number of Quebecers race around the triangle Montreal-Ottawa-Kingston in 20-30' cruisers. This can be a lot of fun but bottlenecks at Ottawa flight locks and large rafted, alcohol-fuelled parties at some locks in voluable French can be tiresome if one craves peace or solitude on the waterways.

Ottawa to Sorel is mainly about Montreal. Consider an out and back to Quebec (City) if you have time on your hands. Definitely consider the bus trip from Quebec to the Saguenay fjord for whale watching. The Richelieu & Lake Champlain are delightful.

Flatswing said:

... French can be tiresome if one craves peace or solitude on the waterways...

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Well ot more than voluable people from anywhere else...

L

Bi lingual in much of the French areas means you need to use skool kids to translate if something complex is to be understood..


Many fine places to eat , but few with English translations on the menu.

Lou_tribal said:

Well ot more than voluable people from anywhere else...

L

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Well said. No offense to the francophonse intended. We enjoyed meeting many of the native Quebecers and enjoyed some memorable evenings with a delightful couple from Montreal along the way. We could communicate between 2 couples since their English was better than our high school French. We usually figured out what the others were saying.
That said, most of the raft parties at the locks were conducted exclusively in French. So it became at times a cacophony that we couldn't understand or join in (much to our chagrin). Those seeking a quieter evening could usually find it by locking through or sometime lock back, to avoid having to raft.

FF said:

Going in the Hudson , remember the trains run on both sides , so anchoring near shore can be noisy.

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The trains running on the West side of the Hudson are freight trains so they are loud, noisy and long. They also run all night. The ones on the East bank are passenger trains and they do not run through out the night.

Montebello on the Ottawa river is a fabulous stop for lunch, dinner or an overnight. Saint Anne de Bellvue at the West end of Montreal is also a fun stop for lunch. Downtown Ottawa is a must do. Great Byward Market area. Tie up along the canal wall. Enjoy

STOWAWAY said:

Montebello on the Ottawa river is a fabulous stop for lunch, dinner or an overnight. Saint Anne de Bellvue at the West end of Montreal is also a fun stop for lunch. Downtown Ottawa is a must do. Great Byward Market area. Tie up along the canal wall. Enjoy

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For your info Montebello has 2 marina, chateau Montebello and municipal marina far cheaper but of course not the same level. At municipal marina docks are quite short but are fine for my 30 feet boat. They can accomodate longer boats (I saw a 50 feet docked there) but space is limited. Chateau Montebello is a more select yacht club but at 3x the price. If you prefer ancorage you have many nearby Montebello and you can use your dinguy to go out for dinner at the chateau.
Docking downtown Ottawa is really cool but a bit noisy. There is very nice bistro brasserie at 5 min by walk, named Metropolitan, we love to stop there. One advice, if you want to be sure to go down the locks as soon as possible, wake up very early or in the middle of he night, move your boat to the blue line at the lock and go back to sleep so you have your spot. In very busy days you may just not be able to cross the lock the day you want.

L

You should be able to tie up on blue line as soon as locks close as long as you want to pass thru on first lock.
Tip if staying downtown I'd suggest tieing THRU a cleat and back to boat w long line so any messing w lines requires getting on the boat. We were untied middle of night when we stayed there many yrs ago. I try to make it difficult if any question about pranksters.

Bacchus said:

You should be able to tie up on blue line as soon as locks close as long as you want to pass thru on first lock.
Tip if staying downtown I'd suggest tieing THRU a cleat and back to boat w long line so any messing w lines requires getting on the boat. We were untied middle of night when we stayed there many yrs ago. I try to make it difficult if any question about pranksters.

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I agree that some may have had bad experience but no need to be paranoid either, it is Ottawa not Kandahar
The worst I heard was some beers stolen from a cooler kept on the deck.

L

Lou_tribal said:

I agree that some may have had bad experience but no need to be paranoid either, it is Ottawa not Kandahar
The worst I heard was some beers stolen from a cooler kept on the deck.

L

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Agree... I wouldn't hesitate to stay there.... just take reasonable precautions.
I practice the same tieing in many places... just to sleep better.

Lou_tribal said:

I agree that some may have had bad experience but no need to be paranoid either, it is Ottawa not Kandahar
The worst I heard was some beers stolen from a cooler kept on the deck.

L

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We make it a habit to tie back through to the boat when we tie up at any public wall. As was stated, make it difficult for pranksters. Thanks for the reminder!

Kingston/NYC/Rideau

We'll be doing a very similar trip in our Monk 36 trawler "Just Passin' Thru", this summer. Maybe we'll see you ! Eric Cruise

Greetings, we did this trip in 2014 leaving Kingston 6/29 and arriving 79th St NYC 9/12. You have divided time different ly since we spent more on Rideau. The comments on Lake Champlain look great. We have to go back since on two trips we have not done all of those. Happy to send my log notes if you want specifics. Also we have done St least five trips on be Hudson and made many stops so you can use that 14 days if you want to. Lots of little places like Hudson are fine for an afternoon on a short day. Cheers Julia

Plan a fuel stop at Lefaivre on the Ottawa River. In the past they have always been the least expensive fuel around. They have a pump out, but overnight docks exposed to river wakes. In 2013 it took us 28 travel days between Great Kills, NYC & Kingston On. In 2017 it was only 21 days, but we were dealing with electrical issues and needed to move on for repairs.

Greetings,
I very quickly re-skimmed the responses and I didn't notice any mention of water levels. Be aware that water levels that are either too high or too low might cause problems.

You are planning a truly great trip. We did pretty much the same trip in 2010, and documented our travels and stops

Benchmarkadventure.wordpress.com

Scroll to the very first post and go from there to our Ottawa departure.

A couple of pointers

Call ahead to Montebello resort to reserve a slip and ensure they can accommodate your vessel.

Do the same for The Old Port marina in Montreal.....and plan at least a few days exploring this fabulous city with all it's historical old town, cultural activity and outstanding restaurants.

The Antique Boat Museum is a highly recommended stop.....as is a leisurely tour of the Thousand Islands. Be aware you must check in with Customs every time you put a line ashore....so what we do is do one side first, then the other.....parks services has a bunch of nice dockd for overnighting at some of the islands.

Safe Travels!

Thanks to All!

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions everyone. Perhaps some of our paths will cross. safe travels to all.