August 4 – Merrickville to Long Island
45°15′16″ N 75°42′10″ W

Merrickville was the turn-around point for our journey with Barb & Bruce. They needed to be back in Ottawa for Monday night for other family commitments. We set Long Island Locks as our destination for the day.

Photo above: early morning calm at Merrickville’s upper lock

As we were leaving Merrickville the “Canal Days” festival was just getting underway. The folks involved in the early settlers re-enactments were putting the finishing touches on their displays & even their kids were in character.

The little guy in the photo above must have made 5 or 6 trips past us fetching water for his fellow campers.

Other activities beside the dock included a classic car display and live entertainment.

This beautifully restored car is a 1934 Singer with a 9 horsepower engine. She may not be fast but she sure looks fantastic.

My favorite was the display of radio controlled model ships.

The club members were running them around in the turning basin in-between the upper & middle locks.

These boats are accurate scale models of real ships. Maybe something like that will be the next step for me! The docking fees would certainly be a lot less & haul out would be a breeze!

It was exceptionally hot today with temperatures in the mid 30s & the humidex pushed the temperature almost 40 C.

Bruce helped me escape the heat by taking a turn at the helm for awhile.

We arrived at Long Island around 3:30pm & passed through the 3-step locks to the overnight dock below. As soon as Santosha was tied up we all jumped in the water – even before the G&Ts were served up!

While we were swimming we spotted a HUGE dock spider hanging out on the side of the wall close to where the boat was tied up. Hopefully this fella has no interest in joining us for the rest of the cruise.

Even in the late afternoon the sun was still intensely hot. We decided to eat outside but the picnic tables are chained to the dock so we couldn’t get under a nearby tree. I dug out our beach umbrella to give us more shade while we enjoyed our afternoon libations & prepared our dinner. I knew if I hung onto that thing long enough I would find a use for it!

Tomorrow (Sunday) it’s supposed to be even hotter so we will be looking for a place with shore power so we can run the air conditioning.

Cheers, stay cool & remember these days next January!