July 9 – Poonamalie Lock
44°53′34″ N 76°3′20″ W
We left Jones Falls at 8:00am & headed towards Smiths Falls. We were not too sure about how long it would take us to get through the multiple locks that were ahead of us so we were prepared to stop somewhere before Smiths Falls if it was getting too late in the day.
On this trip today we experienced a wide variety of waters. Big Rideau Lake is a very large, beautiful lake that is over 200 feet deep in many places and we also went through several narrow channels that were only wide enough for one boat at a time & the depth was less than 5 feet.
Davis Lock (#38) is a pretty spot with nice overnight finger docks that have electricity & small picnic tables with umbrellas. Chaffeys Lock (#37) is a bustling little community of tiny cottages side by side & a LCBO store with a dock.
In between Chaffeys Lock & Newboro Lock there is small cut about 75 feet wide that links Indian Lake to Clear Lake. As you pass through the cut you can see a small self-serve ferry/barge that can take two cars at a time across the cut.
The barge has no engine – car drivers have to pull the barge across by themselves by hand with a cable that’s attached to each end of the barge.
A few hours later we passed through Newboro Lock (#36), which is the highest point on the Rideau system so the rest of the locks we will be passing through on the way to Ottawa will be taking us down rather than up.
At this point the channel marker buoys also switched from green on port & red on starboard to red on port & green on starboard. The channel marker buoys are always red on your starboard side when you are traveling against the natural flow of the water.
Going down in the locks is much easier than going up. There is far less turbulence in the locks so the crew does not have to work so hard to hold the boat against the lock wall. However, it can be a bit tricky getting your lines around the lock’s guide cables because the deck of the boat can be 2-3 feet above the lock wall before it starts draining. Thankfully Parks Canada has lots of staff at each lock & they are always ready to lend a hand with the lines.
Our next lock was at Narrows Lock (#35). This was a challenging lock to enter because it is right at the end of a small lake & the wind was very strong on our stern, trying to push the boat sideways into the lock.
After passing through Narrows Lock we traveled for about 90 minutes & then stopped at a small marina in Rideau Ferry for some diesel fuel, fresh water & a pumpout.
Photo above: entering a narrow cut – sound your horn before entering to warn any boats coming the other way!
Our busy day was coming to an end so we decided to spend the night at the upper side of Poonamalie Lock (#32) which was only about 3 miles from Smiths Falls. It was a good place to stop after a long day.
We were the only boat on the dock wall for the night so it was kinda nice to have the place to ourselves.
Some trivia: Poonamalie Lock was named by one of the Royal Engineers who was working on the lock when it was first built. He had been to India & thought the area reminded him of that country. Poonamalie means “cat hill” in the Tamil language. (we didn’t see any cats on the hill).
Cheers!