Integrity Cruise

Day 92: Manotick to Merrickville, Ontario

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Day 92: Saturday, July 16th: Ruth had more laundry to do this morning so we waited to get underway. Today marked the start of the two week "workers holiday," which is when the construction workers all across Canada take vacation. That puts a lot of boats on the water, and facilities get crowded. There being nothing we could do about it, we pushed on.

The upper part of the Rideau is mostly riverbed with feeder creeks and small bays. There are a couple of varieties of weeds that have clogged these backwaters and Environment Canada (like our EPA) won't let anyone do anything about it. Vacation homes and boats are isolated and have no water access; it looks like this. Very pretty except for the weeds:

This is farm country and we saw a mix of farms and hybrid homes like this:

We still see the village church in each little town:

There are many swing bridges along the canal. Most of them are at the locks, but this was an independent one. Look closely to the right and you will see the bridge tender cranking the manually operated bridge:

This bridge is one that actually crossed the lock. It had to stay open as long as boats were in the lock (could be 30 minutes):

It was at Upper Nicholsons Lock (they don't use apostrophes here):

This is how they open and close it -- a one-manpower device.

The locking through routine has gotten, well, routine. Bill drives the boat into the lock to the appropriate spot, Ruth snags a rubber-covered cable with a boat hook at the bow, loops a line around it and holds the boat while Bill runs back to the stern and does the same there. Quick action.

Ruth needed to prove that we actually work in these locks. Here is Bill, sweltering, and wearing all the sun protection he owns. The smile is forced, but the red face is real./s It is about 93 degrees and the humidity is pegged at 100%:

Here is Ruth doing the same at the bow (front). You can see the lock tenders in the background cranking open the sluice gate to raise the water level:

We had to stop short of our intended docking spot in Merrickville, Ontario (worker holiday had filled the available mooring spots). We stayed on the lock wall below the set of three locks just a few hundred feet shy of the little town. It was a delightful spot with a little park right there:

The set of three locks looked like this; a very nice spot. This is what it looked like back where we had come from. Peaceful, but the heavy rains and thunderstorms came during the night. We hoped they would cool things off, but they didn't!

We walked into town and had a pint and late lunch (early supper?) at McClain's Pub. Delightful! This is a very lovely little town!

And so to bed.

Position tonight: N44 55.058 W075 49.995

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