Overnight at Poonamalie

44°53′34″ N 76°3′21″ W

We were up at 8:00am & off to the Roosteraunt for breakfast. This place is becoming a bit habit-forming!

After breakfast we walked over to the grocery store & stocked up with provisions for our trip. This is the best place to get groceries between here & Kingston so we bought a lot of stuff. It’s a good thing that there were 3 of us to carry everything back to the boat.

We cast off around 11:30am & headed for Poonamalie. Our timing was good because just as we were exiting the lock at Poonamalie a group of other boats were arriving from the other direction. We got the last space available mooring space with an electric hookup.

I was looking forward to an afternoon of snacks & snoozing when I got a call from Steve Flewitt, the owner of Aylings Boatyard in Merrickville. He & I had placed an ad on Kijiji to sell my dingy & outboard motor & Steve had an interested person taking a serious look at them back in Merrickville. After a bit of negotiation over the phone we arrived at an agreement on price. Way to go Steve!

I bought the dingy brand new in Florida in 2017 & had never used it.

The outboard motor was pretty new too. It was a good setup but I believed that it was going to be a bit too much for me to handle, moving the outboard back & forth from the storage rack on Santosha each time I wanted to use the dingy. Catherine & I both like kayaks so I will use the money to buy a couple of smaller used ones. They will be easy to carry on the boat, much lighter for me to handle & we can have some fun with them exploring the shallower waters along the way.

We had BBQ’d salmon & corn on the cob for supper to celebrate our first day of the trip to Kingston.

After the supper dishes were cleaned up Emily dug out the Yahtzee game. She ended up being the champion for the evening, handily beating her mother & me.

Better luck next time, eh!

Tomorrow we head to Newboro.

Cheers!

2nd Overnight at Detached Lock

44°53′41″ N 76°1′37″ W

Today Catherine (aka “The Admiral”) arrives with her able assistant Emily.

The boat was pretty clean after Yang & Amber headed home but I still had some tidying up to do in the cabins & bathrooms to clean.

After those chores were done I took advantage of having a decent cellphone signal & used my phone as an internet hotspot for my laptop so I could make some updates & edits to Catherine & Valerie’s Spanda Yoga & Retreats website.

When that chore was done it was time for a nap.

Catherine & Emily were scheduled to arrive on the train at 10:30pm but unfortunately it was delayed for at least an hour.

It was almost midnight by the time their taxi arrived at the boat from the train station. With no energy left for a welcome photo session, we had hugs all around & headed off to bed.

Our “slow boat to Kingston” adventure begins tomorrow.

Cheers!

Overnight at the Detached Lock

44°53′41″ N 76°1′37″ W

Sadly, today Yang & Amber had to start on their way back home to London. We had a leisurely breakfast & only a very short trip from Poonamalie back to Smiths Falls where Yang had left his car.

We had a lot of fun over the past few days & it was a good introduction for both of them to the “boating life”.

Yang starts a new job in London in a couple of weeks & he was interested in learning a bit more about Canadian style cooking & for preparing simple lunch meals that he could take to work with him. So we prepared our lunch before we left Poonamalie.

I felt it was a bit too soon to introduce him to my secret Spam recipes so we started with making egg salad for sandwiches & wraps & then step up to deviled eggs!

Yang caught on fast & has good technique – must come from the years he spent in the chemistry labs at university 🙂

Yang & Amber both promised to share some of their favorite recipes with me when I get back home to London.

Thanks for coming & Cheers!

Catherine & Emily arrive tomorrow (Friday) night so now I have to get busy & get Santosha ready for our next adventure – Smiths Falls to Kingston.

Overnight at Poonamalie

44°53′34″ N 76°3′21″ W

Today we had to head back towards Smiths Falls because Yang & Amber had to be home in London for the weekend.

We started out in a light rain & the forecast was for it to continue for most of the day but thankfully the forecast was wrong & within an hour of our departure the sun came out & the sky kept getting clearer.

Yang was becoming an old hand at managing the lines in the locks. Too bad there aren’t more locks to pass through as I was enjoying having the help!

I also showed Amber my favorite spot on the boat during a smooth passage through the Rideau Lakes.

We arrived at Poonamalie Lockstation around 1:30 pm & there was lots of space on the overnight docks so we decided to stop & enjoy the spot for the rest of the day & overnight.

It will be easy for us to get to Smiths Falls early tomorrow morning as we are now only a few kilometers away.

The afternoon sun was hot so after we had a brief rest we found a shady spot to sit on shore & I mixed us up some cool drinks of rum & grapefruit juice.

An hour or so later our thirst came back so we decided to quench it with a margarita. Not a bad way to spend a hot summer afternoon.

Tonight I continued to share my Canadian style cooking with Amber & Yang & we had BBQ’d chicken with boiled mini carrots & cold baby potatoes (from yesterday).

I have probably missed an opportunity to try out a Spam recipe on my guests but there’s always next year!

Here’s another update on our adventure from my guest bloggers:

8月21日，早晨7点半细细的小雨把我们吵醒，当我们洗漱完毕回到船上，Wally早已为我们做好了他拿手的咖啡拿铁。Wally教我们怎么做omlette（一种煎蛋）当我们的早餐。味道好极了！！ 吃完早餐后，我们启程开回Poonamlie. 在回去的路上还是有一些小雨，但不是很冷. 雨点并没有给这次旅途带来扫兴. 而是让我们在船上有了不同的体验。毕竟，没有任何事情是完美的，但是要学会在不同的事情中寻找自己的乐趣。刚开出不久，雨停了、天晴了. 真是应了那句不经历风雨怎么见彩虹呢？ 我们一路讨论很多有趣的事，关于生活，爱情，以及事业. 我们到达Poonamlie时大概1点半. Wally 为我们做了他的拿手牛排卷饼. 当我们吃完饭后，Wally给我们做了他的拿手饮品水果朗姆酒. 我们拿着酒坐在岸边，听着鸟叫，聊了一些有趣的事. 可能是朗姆酒的原因，Wally和Yang小憩了一会. 下午6点， 我们又喝了另一种Wally叫它Fargarita.这是倩倩最喜欢的了. 天色渐晚，我们准备开始晚餐了.我们的晚餐是烤鸡胸肉和煮土豆，小胡萝卜. Wally的厨艺好棒呀！ 晚餐后我们又聊了一会就睡觉了。我和Yang将在明天上午和Wally分开去我们的下一个旅程，Kingston. 真的很荣幸收到了Wally的邀请到他的船上做客. 这次旅途给我们的生活带来了更多的经历. 很期待我们和Wally的下次相见.

Cheers!

Overnight at Newboro

44°38′52″ N 76°19′6″ W

Today we traveled from Smiths Falls to Newboro but our first stop was at the Roosteraunt for a hearty breakfast!

We cast off about 9:30am & with only 2 locks to pass through were hoping to reach our destination in the early afternoon. The weather was great for this 30 kilometer passage & Yang tried his hand on the helm as we traveled through the Rideau Lakes section.

When we arrived at Newboro the upper overnight dock level was full so we tied up on the lower side. That turned out to be a good choice as we had Newboro Lake right off our swim platform.

We relaxed on shore for a while & then Yang & I took a swim. Amber cheered us on as we took our “best” dives off the boat.

No fancy moves for us! It turned out to be a contest to see who could make the biggest splash!

We followed up our swim with BBQ’d steaks, new potatoes & red wine for supper.

After supper we settled down to preparing some blog entries & Amber & Yang had the task of sharing their thoughts about the events of the day.

8月20日，我和倩倩度过了非常舒适的一晚，清晨起来，我们和Wally在隔壁的Roosteraunt餐馆吃了一顿早餐，我来加拿大这么久，居然还不知道各种鸡蛋的做法，Wally要的poached，以后我也要尝试一下，看起来非常不错，之后让店主给我们照了张合影，发型都没弄，哈哈哈哈，之后我们出发向Newboro lock。一路风景很好，天气也非常不错，在船顶，吹着风，一切都是那么惬意，中途当我们开到了Big Rideau lake。水很深，Wally教我如何开船，后面差不多一小时的时间都是我在开船，我也算是小captain了！这也是我第一次开船，不像开车一样，不用很紧绷，我们开的也并不快。差不多5小时之后我们到了Newboro lock。当时一路开过来确实还有点小累，所以第一件事就是吃喝了，Wally还特意调制了秘密配方的酒，让人为之一振，我们也准备了很多东西，像sushi啊，中式的卤牛肉啊，鸭翅之类的，之后因为下午的缘故吧，太阳也太大了，倩倩决定去船里睡一会，我和Wally换好了救生衣，跳到湖里好好爽了一下，后面我们直接把倩倩叫起来，给我们拍照，录小视频。湖水差不多22，23度左右，一点都不冷，很干净，真的很适合下水游游泳，消消暑。之后等差不多天黑，Wally开始做晚饭，是牛排和小土豆，我也学习了很多，才发现为啥之前我做的牛排都有些问题。我们一人一块大牛排，只有我把牛排都吃了，哈哈哈，Wally和倩倩的都剩了一些，准备留下来明天做Wrap吃～后面把红酒喝完，也差不多10点多了，接着就休息了～不过今天外面没有多少风，船舱里有一点点小热，不过都还好。差不多就这样了，明天的让倩倩写，哈哈哈哈哈哈～

Cheers!