July 14 – Jones Falls to Poonamalie
44°52′36″ N 76°4′57″ W

We woke up this morning around 6:00am to rain showers. It rained lightly for about an hour & then poured for 10-15 minutes. After that the clouds broke up & the rain stopped. We took advantage of the situation & had a leisurely breakfast with extra coffee.

We left the dock at 9:15 & headed towards our next destination. The route was familiar now as this was the 3rd time in less than 10 days that we had traveled through these particular waters.

After the rain the water was perfectly still & produced beautiful reflections on the water in front of us as we motored through the channels.

Once we got into open waters I convinced Valerie & David to each take a brief turn at the wheel.

They both looked like they belonged there!

After passing through the lock at Newboro we stopped for lunch & then got back underway. The clouds had really spread out & it was getting pretty hot. We were passing through Lower Rideau Lake, about an hour from the lock at Poonamalie. There were lots of boats on the water & many people were swimming in the lake to cool down so we decided to do the same thing.

I moved the boat well outside the navigation channel, shut down the engine & we all jumped in. There was no wind so the boat was hardly drifting. But, just in case, I tied a life ring to the back of the boat, tossed it in the water & we all stayed within a few strokes of the floating line.

Fully refreshed we climbed back on board & resumed our journey to Poonamalie. When we arrived at the lock there were no spaces on the overnight wall on the upper side so we locked down & tied up for the night on the lower wall.

After a long day on the water & a swim we were now all looking forward to supper. David cooked two big pork tenderloins on the BBQ & Catherine & Valerie prepared the side dishes.

We have been eating very well on this cruise. Nobody is going to go hungry!

Tomorrow we will only have a few miles to go to reach Smith Falls.

Cheers!