July 21 – Ottawa (Hartwell Locks)
45°23′0″ N 75°41′58″ W

Today was my second day at this location. More maintenance tasks to be done. First on the list was to try to fix the tachometer & the engine start/stop switches at the upper helm station.

The tachometer there worked intermittently during the first couple of weeks of my trip up the Intra-Coastal Waterway last summer then it stopped completely. Same for the engine start/stop switches (circled in red in the photo below).

I purchased a new tachometer before I left Goderich but never really had the opportunity to work on it until now.

Unfortunately I discovered that a straight swap is not going to be possible because the housing for the original tachometer is too small to hold the new unit and the hole that is cut in the dashboard panel is just slightly larger than the new one. I will need to fabricate an adaptor piece for the new tachometer.

I hooked up the new tachometer anyway but I couldn’t get it to work so I set that project aside & decided to take a look at the engine start/stop switches. This whole arrangement is exposed to the elements so I figured that the intense heat, rain & salt air that the boat has been exposed to in Florida since 1993 had taken its toll. I was right about that. The 3-position start/stop switch was badly corroded & when I took it apart to clean it some plastic parts of the inner switch housing simply crumbled in my hands. Oh, oh!

I cleaned up the switch as best as I could & put it back together. I can now start the engine from the upper helm station but for some reason the engine stop switch is not independent from the lower helm station so I have to stop the engine by using the lower helm switch. I guess that’s where the crumbled bits of plastic from the inside of the upper helm switch comes into the equation. But, my efforts did manage to get the original tachometer working again, so I have concluded that the wiring for the start/stop switch & the tachometer are interconnected. Hopefully a new switch will solve all of the problems at the upper helm.

Shortly after I put everything back together a fire truck from the Ottawa Fire Department arrived at the lock station. Perhaps they heard that an amateur mechanic was mucking around with his boat’s wiring & they came down to stand by-just in case….

However, it turned out that they were at the lock for a work exercise. They set up their pumper unit beside the canal & ran it for awhile. Too bad I washed the boat yesterday – they could rinse Santosha down in no time flat!

After all that excitement I decided it was time for a late lunch/early/supper. There was a pound of bacon in the fridge with my name on it! While on board the boat I generally like to cook a whole package of bacon at once & then use it up over the next several days. That way I only have to clean up the bacon fat cooking mess once.

After cooking the bacon I was amazed at how much fat I collected from the frying pan. It seems a shame to throw it away.

Perhaps I can make bio-diesel with it. Santosha would catch a lot of attention as she chugged through the locks with her diesel exhaust smelling like a local diner’s Sunday morning breakfast special. Hmmm, I think I’ll have to do some research on-line about bacon fat bio-diesel. Maybe I could cut my fuel costs & have another good reason to eat more bacon!

Cheers!

July 20 – Ottawa (Hartwell Locks)
45°23′0″ N 75°41′58″ W

I moved from the Marina at Dow’s Lake Pavilion to the overnight wall at the upper entrance to Hartwell Locks. These are the first set of locks as you leave Ottawa & head up the Rideau River. The locks are only about 1 nautical mile from the marina so it was a very short trip.

Photo above: Santosha tied up on the overnight walk at Hartwell Locks. Carleton University campus is on the other side of the canal.

My motivation for moving was primarily financial. It cost $70.00/day to stay at the marina & $0.00/day to tie up at the lock. There is no electricity at the lock & I can only stay at any lock for 2 days in a row but for those kind of savings I am happy to accept the minor inconvenience.

I washed the boat before I left the marina & then tackled some minor maintenance issues after I tied up at the lock.

Santosha has a bow thruster with controls at the upper & lower helm stations. The control at the lower station has not worked for a while so I decided to see if I could fix it.

The control panel is a sealed unit & the buttons under the touchpad were not moving. A new control unit is about $200 so I put a pinhole at the point above each button & soaked the area with WD-40. Eureka-it works again. Not sure if the remedy will last but it’s worth a try, eh?

Wayne & Cindy invited me for supper & a movie at their place – an invitation I simply could not turn down.

After supper Wayne made us flavored shaved ice drinks with his special machine. I could use one of those things on Santosha. It would be great for Margaritas!

I made a few calculations about the trip so far:

Goderich to Kingston:

593 NM – 105 hours travel time

Kingston to Ottawa:

170 NM* – 46 hours travel time

(*that includes 70 NM return trip from Smiths Falls to Jones Falls with Valerie & David)

Tomorrow I will tackle some more maintenance tasks & spend some time reading up on the history of the Rideau River & Canal System.

Cheers!

July 19 – Ottawa (Dow’s Lake)
Layover Day – 45°23′47″ N 75°42′19″ W

Catherine left this morning for her canoeing adventure in Algonquin Park. She will meet some friends there & spend about 4 days canoeing & camping.

Our car was still in Smiths Falls so she took the train to retrieve it. The trip that took us 2 1/2 days aboard Santosha will be completed in about 45 minutes. She then has a 4 hour drive from Smiths Falls to the group’s meeting place

I had a glamorous day doing laundry & “housecleaning” the boat. That wore me out by lunchtime so I had a big nap in the afternoon & contemplated what to have for dinner.

Now that Catherine is gone for a few days I can break out the “good stuff” & I won’t have to feel so selfish about not wanting to share. I just need to find that special recipe book that I downloaded from the internet last year…..

Cheers!

July 18 – Ottawa (Dow’s Lake)
45°23′47″ N 75°42′19″ W

We left Pirate Cove Marina in Kemptville at 8:15am. If there were no long delays at the locks ahead of us we hoped to be in Ottawa by mid-afternoon.

The weather today was much cooler compared to the past 4-5 days. Catherine & I were both wearing heavier clothes & when the wind picked up a bit further Catherine even added another layer 🙂 Thankfully we were able to take a few layers off within a few hours.

We only had a few locks to go through. The 3-step lock in the photo below (Long Island Locks) was fun to go through as each lock door led into another lock & we dropped a fair vertical height in a very short linear distance.

Hartwells Lock (shown exiting below) was the last one we went through to arrive in the main portion of Ottawa city’s canal. There are no more locks now until we take the 8 step locks that lead from the Rideau River to the Ottawa River (below the Parliament Buildings).

We arrived at Dow’s Lake Marina just before 3:00pm & set up a dinner date with my nephew Wayne & his wife Cindy. They took us to a great restaurant in the Byward Market area.

After dinner we walked around by the side of the Parliament & the National Art Gallery.

A great summer evening for a visit & a stroll.

There were lots of people out enjoying the evening. Ottawa is a great city for pedestrian tourists.

Catherine leaves tomorrow for her canoe camping adventure Algonquin Park. She will spend 4 days there, go back to London for a week & then return to join me in Ottawa on July 30. In the meantime, I have a long list of odd jobs to do on the boat. I’m also looking forward to doing some canal cruising with Wayne & Cindy & their kids.

Cheers!

July 17 – Kemptville
45°4′8″ N 75°38′9″ W

What a difference a day makes…..

As the song goes, 24 little hours can significantly change your perspective….

Yesterday did not end well. I was really disappointed that we could not get an overnight dock with electricity & we ended up in a very pretty but bug infested space. And, on top of everything else, it was stinking hot & humid. Probably the worst heat day I had had on the entire trip so far. Somebody could have bought Santosha for a bargain price last night!

This morning was a new day. The sunrise was beautiful & there was a gentle cool breeze over the water.

While we were headed down the river towards Ottawa I called the Home Hardware store in Kemptville & managed to get them to reserve for me the last 20 inch box fan they had. We immediately altered our day’s objective destination to be Pirate Cove Marina, which is just on the outskirts of the town.

I was a happy guy, looking forward to hours of enjoyment in front of that fan! The fact that we ran aground for a minute while trying to enter the marina’s exceptionally narrow & shallow channel didn’t even phase me that much. Santosha’s propeller in full reverse made short work of that muddy bottom. Nothing was going to keep me from getting the last available box fan in Eastern Ontario!

Photo above: the channel to Pirate Cove Marina.

After getting diesel, a pump out & fresh water we moved Santosha over to a docking slip for the night & had a taxi take us into town to pick up the fan. While we were there we stopped at a local pub & had a great lunch with a big, cold draft beer. Then back to the marina to try out the new fan.

Ironically, the heat wave seems to have subsided a bit. There is a nice breeze coming off the river into the marina – dramatically different from last night.

I also managed to get the air conditioning working on the boat. It runs well on shore power but unfortunately it demands just a bit too much power for the Honda generator. Oh well, that box fan will do the job nicely, thank you very much. 🙂

With things going so well I decided that it would be a good time to defrost the fridge. It’s ability to make a sufficient supply of ice cubes each day was diminishing & that simply would not do! It was a hard job watching the fridge defrost but sitting in front of my new fan with a G&T in hand helped a lot.

After defrosting the fridge Catherine & I had a great supper & we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. If you are interested in buying Santosha, call me back in about 10 years!

What a difference a day makes: http://youtu.be/OmBxVfQTuvI

Cheers!