August 15 – Long Island Locks
45°15′1″ N 75°42′9″ W

We were up at 7:30 this morning & had breakfast over by 9:00 – in case the lock master decided to bring us up first. Unfortunately, we had to wait for boats to come down, so we didn’t get underway until 10:30. This was a slow start to our day.

Once we were in the locks Ed had his “baptism by fire” – 8 locks in a row.

Ed had his hands full, because we were the only boat in the locks & by the time we were traveling up they were lined with tourists & everyone was asking him questions about the boat & our trip.

Everyone had a few chuckles when we took pictures of people taking pictures of us.

By the time we got through the final lock it was past noon so we tied up on the wall downtown across from the National Arts Center, had lunch & then walked over to the Farm Boy store in the Rideau Centre for a few more provisions.

Then we were off again. I wanted to get as far as possible to make up for some lost time and we managed to get through the locks at Hartwell (double), Hogs Back (single), Black Rapids (single) & Long Island (triple). In total we managed to get through 15 locks today. That was enough for anyone. Well done, Ed. Time for a G&T!

We finished the afternoon with a refreshing swim off Santosha’s swim platform. The water was beautiful – 81 degrees F.

Thursday we have an early start & head for Merrickville.

Cheers!

August 14 – Lock 8, Ottawa
45°25′36″ N 75°41′56″ W

We left Montebello at 9:30am & headed up river to Ottawa. We were making much better speed against the current than I thought we would. Traveling, with the current to Montreal a few days ago we frequently made over 8 knots so I figured we would lose 2-3 knots in speed coming back but we managed to maintain 6.5 knots most of the time.

Ed looked after the helm while I prepared lunch & we ate underway. I tried my best to interest him in one of my famous Spam special sandwiches but he declined. Oh well, all the more for me!

Photo above: The Prime Minister’s residence. I would have like to stopped to say hello but the PM’s place is one of the few on the river that has no dock. 🙂

Photo below: Ed checks out the view of the Parliament Buildings as we approached the lock entrance.

We arrived at the lower lock in Ottawa at 4:00pm but unfortunately that was too late in the day to travel up the locks so we had to spend the night on the dock. That was disappointing but at least we had a nice place to tie up & the view was fantastic.

Photo above: the Chateau Laurier Hotel.

Photo below: Sunset over Hull, Quebec

Lots of tourists were walking by & we even had requests to take people on sightseeing tours. Maybe that’s something I should consider. Hmmmm, I wonder if Catherine would be interested in a bigger boat? I’d better sleep on that first.

Cheers!