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!