July 16 – Smiths Falls to Merrickville
55′5″ N 75°49′57″ W

After spending a relaxing night at Kenny Hotel in Jones Falls we headed back to the boat in Smiths Falls. En route we took a slight side trip to Chaffeys Lock & had breakfast at the Opinicon Lodge. Very nice! For sure we will come back there sometime to stay for a night or two.

Upon arriving back in Smiths Falls we stopped at the local grocery store for a few provisions & then boarded Santosha & resumed our boating adventure to Ottawa.

Photo above: the shoreline landscape along this part of the Rideau River is predominantly wetlands.

Photo above: entrance to a narrow channel cut before one on the locks en route to Merrickville.

Photo above: preparing to exit a lock after we have been lowered. Wait for both doors to open!

We were aiming for the Parks Canada overnight docks in Merrickville but unfortunately they were all full when we got there at 3:00pm.

The lockmaster kindly offered to let us stay on the “blue line”* wall for the night but we chose to continue on through the next 3 locks in the town & then tie up for the night at the overnight section of the dock.

(The “blue line”* is the area in front of each lock where boats are normally allowed to only tie up for very short periods of time while they are waiting their turn to go through the locks.)

We found a very nice spot at the foot of the 3rd lock & tied up there for the night. Unfortunately there was no wind at all & it was extremely hot & muggy. I set up the Honda generator so we could at least run some electric fans. They helped a little bit but they were too small & we couldn’t leave the generator running all night.

I looked on line to try to find a store in the area with a 20 inch box fan but everyone in the Ottawa-Smith Falls area was sold out! Heat waves create big demands for electric fans & air conditioners & winter snowstorms create a demand for snowblowers!

Tomorrow I would be on a mission to find a store with a box fan. I want that particular type of fan because we can place it in the forward hatch & use it to draw cool air in or to push out the hot air inside the boat.

Cheers!

July 15 – Kenny Hotel
44°32′41″ N 76°14′9″ W

Today is Catherine’s birthday! Happy Birthday, my dear.

We started the day tied up on the lower lock wall at Poonamalie. We were just a few miles from Smiths Falls so we decided to only have coffee on board & then head towards the next lock & tie up there because our docking spot was just a few steps away from the Roosteraunt We could have a nice breakfast there. Plus, our cars were parked nearby.

Valerie & David had a little surprise waiting for Catherine when she got up.

Breakfast at the Roosteraunt was great & the place was full by the time we left to go back to the boat.

Today was also the day that Valerie & David had to return home to London. We had quite a few adventures & saw a lot of interesting places in the short time they were with us. We look forward to them booking another cruise with “Mis-Adventure” cruise lines next season!

Since today was Catherine’s birthday I told her that she could do anything she wanted for the first part of the day. There was a quilt show on at the community arena so we decided to head over there & check it out. We expected to find about 10-15 quilts on display made by 4-5 ladies….. not so!

As soon as we saw the first quilt on display we realized that these people were super serious about their work.

There must have been about 200 quilts on display & the people & the exhibition filled the arena.

There were quilts with patterns of all kinds

I liked the one the photo below in particular.

We spent several hours at the quilt show & then headed back to the boat to pack some belongings for our overnight stay at Kenny Hotel at Jones Falls. We were both looking forward to a nice shower or bath & to sleeping in a “real” bed.

It took us about 7 hours to travel by boat from Smiths Falls to Jones Falls. Today we covered the same distance in about 30 minutes in our car.

Hotel Kenny was built in 1877’s & has lots of character.

We especially love the main lounge area & the enclosed front porch.

Both spaces seem to invite you to sit down & relax for a few hours.

We ordered a couple of glasses of chilled white wine & each took a comfy spot to enjoy the space.

Catherine found a recent newspaper & worked on the Sudoko. I read an interesting photo history book about the Rideau Canal.

After an hour we found the pace was a bit too slow (even for us) so we engaged each other in couple of games of Scrabble until it was time for dinner. For some reason I found myself wondering if venison was on the menu tonight.

We had a great dinner (salmon & steak) followed by a “surprise” piece of birthday cake with candles presented to Catherine by 3 singing staff members from the dining room.

All in all we had a great day. Tomorrow we return to the boat & resume our journey to Ottawa.

Cheers!

July 14 – Jones Falls to Poonamalie
44°52′36″ N 76°4′57″ W

We woke up this morning around 6:00am to rain showers. It rained lightly for about an hour & then poured for 10-15 minutes. After that the clouds broke up & the rain stopped. We took advantage of the situation & had a leisurely breakfast with extra coffee.

We left the dock at 9:15 & headed towards our next destination. The route was familiar now as this was the 3rd time in less than 10 days that we had traveled through these particular waters.

After the rain the water was perfectly still & produced beautiful reflections on the water in front of us as we motored through the channels.

Once we got into open waters I convinced Valerie & David to each take a brief turn at the wheel.

They both looked like they belonged there!

After passing through the lock at Newboro we stopped for lunch & then got back underway. The clouds had really spread out & it was getting pretty hot. We were passing through Lower Rideau Lake, about an hour from the lock at Poonamalie. There were lots of boats on the water & many people were swimming in the lake to cool down so we decided to do the same thing.

I moved the boat well outside the navigation channel, shut down the engine & we all jumped in. There was no wind so the boat was hardly drifting. But, just in case, I tied a life ring to the back of the boat, tossed it in the water & we all stayed within a few strokes of the floating line.

Fully refreshed we climbed back on board & resumed our journey to Poonamalie. When we arrived at the lock there were no spaces on the overnight wall on the upper side so we locked down & tied up for the night on the lower wall.

After a long day on the water & a swim we were now all looking forward to supper. David cooked two big pork tenderloins on the BBQ & Catherine & Valerie prepared the side dishes.

We have been eating very well on this cruise. Nobody is going to go hungry!

Tomorrow we will only have a few miles to go to reach Smith Falls.

Cheers!

July 13 – Return to Jones Falls
44°32′49″ N 76°14′20″ W

We spent Thursday night tied to the Parks Canada Wall. The crew was up for coffee & breakfast at 7:00am.

The first lock opening was at 9:00am so we moved closer to the lock entrance & tied up temporarily on the blue line behind another boat that was waiting to go in the lock as well. By the time the lock gates were opening there were two more boats wanting to enter the lock.

This was Valerie & David’s first time in the locks so Catherine & I showed them “the ropes” – or how to handle the lines.

After we exited the lock we were on our way. Our guests only had 3 days to spend with us so decided to try to get as far as the upper lock at Jones Falls. This is a really nice trip with lots of variety in the landscape & the waters we were traveling.

Considering it was Friday the 13th everything was going smoothly until we entered one of the winding narrow channels & Valerie’s “Tilly” hat blew off. There were no other boats in sight so I decided to have a “man-overboard” drill. I stopped the boat at made a 180 degree turn while Catherine & Valerie prepared to try & scoop the hat out of the water & David kept watch for other approaching boats. We were lucky enough to retrieve the hat on the first pass. Another 180 degree turn & we were back on our way! I would have like to have taken some photos of the crew in action but maneuvering the boat in such tight quarters demanded all of my attention.

We arrived at Jones Falls just before 5:00pm & were lucky enough to be able to tie up at the very same spot where Catherine & Emily & I were just a few days earlier.

After a refreshing swim & a few Radlers we were all looking forward to dinner. David was in charge of the BBQ again while Catherine & Valerie prepared the veggies.

After another great meal we walked down past the 3 step locks & on to the Hotel Kenny. I reserved a room for Catherine & I for Sunday night (Catherine’s birthday) & made sure that the room had a bathtub in it – explaining to the front desk clerk that we have been on a boat for the past two weeks & were looking forward to a luxurious long soaking!

On our way back to the dock we were pestered by black flies so we had to retreat inside the boat.

I set Valerie up with our Bluetooth speaker & we listened to her music playlist while we were gamming by candlelight.

Finally it was time for bed.

All in all, Friday the 13th turned out to be a great day!

Cheers!

July 12 – Smiths Falls Combined Locks – 44°53′46″ N 76°1′20″ W

Today we relocated Santosha from one set of locks in Smiths Falls to the other set. We had reached our 2 day limit at the detached locks so we moved less than 1 km to the dock wall just above the combined locks.

Our friends Valerie & David were arriving today from London so we were busy cleaning up the boat, doing laundry, etc. to make the boat ready for their arrival.

Before leaving London Catherine had picked up the graphics for the boat that I had ordered a couple of weeks ago so we decided to put those on.

I had removed the previous owner’s “Scott Free” name & home port graphics before I left Goderich but did not have an opportunity to put the new ones on so this was a great time to get that job done.

I installed the starboard side & Catherine did the port side & stern.

After that job was complete we had a little renaming “ceremony” with a little prayer & toast with Scotch to Santosha. We have had a lot of great adventures with her so far & hope for many more to come.

Valerie & David arrived shortly after 4:30. After inspecting their boarding passes we had a welcome drink & started cooking supper. The house batteries on the boat were getting low so David took care of BBQ ing the salmon while I set up the Honda generator to recharge the batteries while we ate.

After supper we went for a short walk through the park & saw that there were lots of families assembling near the food concession booth. A large inflatable movie screen had been set up for family movies night “under the stars”.

We watched for a few minutes & then headed back to the boat. Too much action for us old folks. Plus, we had to get to bed early for our big boating adventure in the morning.

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th! Should we leave the dock?

Cheers!