Jeff and Lisa’s tiny boat blog

Here we are tied up to the lock wall. The water was so high. We had to have our fenders down to the waterline. It almost seemed like we would just float onto the dock wall!                                    The Rideau is beautiful!    I tried to manually close the lock - it’s harder than you think. We arrived to Beverages Lock Wall on June 24 and stayed a couple of nights. We had to go through a couple of locks, but they’re small, narrow locks and operated manually by young (maybe college students) workers.The lock staff are friendly and while locking through, you’re close to other boaters, so you can talk with each other.  There’s actually a Lower Beverages and Upper Beverages Lock; you can stay at either lock wall. We stayed on the Lower Beverages Lock Wall. It was the best of both worlds! The lower lock had power and the upper lock was an oTENTik (that’s how they spelled it) site...

The Rideau Canal. Mañana - a Rosborough like ours.  We cruised with them Later in the Georgian Bay.  Russ and Carol on Spirit, gold loopers we met.  Rachel and Malcolm on Stay Cool and  Us on Boomerang. The town of Smiths Falls. Very pretty place. Le Beau Boats - rental boats owned by France. Notice the rub rails all over them! Entering a lock.       You can see the blue line. This is where you would tie Up your boat to notify lock staff that you want to lock through. Smiths Falls was an overnight stay.  It was very picturesque, docking alongside a nice park. The falls were pretty - but it’s not a natural waterfall; it’s created by the dam.  The lock was a single lock which lifted us 26’.  This particular lock used to have 3 locks to travel thorough. A new high level bridge was constructed, which required the flight of 3 locks be replaced with one lock. There were concerns over traffic restrictions with the previous swing bridge. You can...

Love seeing and listening to the loons! Boomerang looks like she’s sitting on a street! We’re docked on that wall. Leaving the lock. Entering the lock. The ruins of a woolen mill in Merrickville.  The spillway below the dam - very scenic and the dam trail Goes along side of it. Nice path with a chance to  Get your feet wet too! Locking through. Entering the lock. The spillway - very scenic.      This appeared to be a venue setting - looks like it used to                                           Be a church.                 We don’t see these signs in southern Illinois!         Super cute and looks like they celebrated Pride Month.                                             So pretty!  ...

Watson’s Mill and Dickinson House. Just finished locking up. Entering the lock.                         Rachel, Malcolm, me and Jeff.           Watson’s Mill - a working water powered flour mill.                                        Inside the mill.                                  Downtown Manotick.               Dickinson House was the mill owners home. Manotick is considered to be in the rural, southern part of Ottawa. As I said in a previous post, it’s a sprawling city! It’s a nice place, although a lot of these water towns begin to run together. Most of them have nice restaurants, pubs, art studios, etc; it’s just some are bigger than others with more (or less) of the same. In Man...

                                      Malcolm and Jeff.                 Traxx sniffing out that huge snapping turtle!          Jeff and Traxx - there was a few trails near the lock.       Our friend, Rachel - we’re playing the dice game, 10,000.               Reminds me of my Seniors Group when I was working                      At Choate - except we’re not seniors!          Not sure what building this is - looks like a mosque.                        Malcolm trying to fish out the nut.                           Trying to retrieve the prop nut.           ...

Me, Jeff, Graham (Malcolm’s brother), Malcolm and Rachel. Boomerang. The water was so high! They really lifted us! Leaving Ottawa - it was a sprawling city.                 Experimental farms at Carleton University. We left the city of Ottawa and headed to Hartwells Lock, which were the next set of locks after Ottawa, (the flight of 8 locks.) Hartwells Lock had two locks to navigate through, which took about 30 minutes (about 15 minutes for each lock). We were lifted 21.5’. We could still see the skyline of Ottawa from  Hartwells Locks. There was a nice trail beside the locks. Adjacent to the lock, was Carleton University.  We were able to walk around the grounds of the university and visit the experimental farms - beautiful plants and a nice place to walk.  It looked like they were experimenting with various varieties of plants; there would be a row of peonies (example), with so many different colors, leaf variations, etc. It was a...