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!

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!