076: Rideau Canal Part 3: Wrap up and Canada Day!

On June 25^th we left Smith Falls and headed to Colonel By Island for two days of being “unplugged.”   We’d stopped by the week before for a day stop and wanted to come back with cooler weather.   The Island has primitive bathrooms but no water or electric hook ups.  We hiked a trail around the island each day (Nancy more than once per day) and took the dinghy out for some waterway exploration.   While Nancy will take a swim at every opportunity, I’m a bit of a cold water wimp, but I did get in the water to change Hygge’s anodes from zinc (salt water) to magnesium (fresh water).   (Anodes, also known as sacrificial anodes, are a vital part of boat maintenance that protect underwater metal parts from galvanic corrosion. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two different metals are electrically connected while submerged in a conductive solution. Without anodes, this process can quickly corrode underwater metals, damaging parts like the propeller, rudder, and other metal components.)  I put new anodes on Hygge in October and check out how much one of them had deteriorated since then:

 

I caught my first fish of the trip:

Scenes from our hikes:

Dinghy tour:

We enjoyed our “low key” stay at Colonel By Island, but on the 27^th we headed over to Westport, ON, which was on a number of people’s the short list of places to visit on the Rideau Canal.   Nice small town.   The first day was a bit rainy so we didn’t do much but get ice cream (I needed a fix) during the day. Later in the day the ski’s cleared and we walked about 3k to a local winery for dinner.   

 

Small Marina:

Ice Cream:

Vineyard:

The next day was perfect weather, and we took a dinghy ride over to a nearby park to hike to the “top of the mountain” (mountain, used loosely) and got a nice view of the area.  Later we did some grocery shopping and sightseeing.  We had a nice visit with a couple on a Ranger Tug 25 (we’d met then the prior week).   A man came over very excited about seeing the name “Hygge” on our boat, as he was from Denmark.  We had a nice chat about the Great Loop Trip.   We did enjoy Westport, but Perth gets the nod as our favorite town on the Rideau.

View from the top:

A lake with a beaver, but we didn't see him/her:

On the 29^th we headed back to Chaffe Lock in the rain.   Rain is a bit of a downer, but it does keep the water sports boats (tubing, jet ski’s, etc) off the water.  Our favorite spot was taken, in fact the north side of the lock was full so we “locked through” and found a spot on the south side of the lock and spent the night there.  The next day we had a bit of sun, so we visited the small lockkeeper’s house museum and then had lunch at the Opinicon restaurant where we had dinner the prior week.

Along the way:

 

On a down note, Hygge’s Garmin chart plotter did one of its periodic updates that I didn’t request, and that wipes out all the user data.  So, I had to once again enter all the user data (boat size, beam, etc. and my user setup preferences),  PIA.  We also lost the track of our route since the last time this happened. Grrrr.

We then made the fifteen n/m run to the Upper Brewers Lock and found a spot.  In a few hours, all the spots were taken as boats just kept coming in.   Upper Brewers has showers in its restrooms, so we definitely took advantage of that (except for swimming, it had been a few days since we bathed.)  We met a nice couple from the Georgian Bay area of Canada, and the woman was very enthusiastic about showing me all their favorite spots, so I got out my Lake Huron chart book from the bowels of storage and spent a hour with her and her husband (“Now Bob, where is the nice anchorage we like near so and so Island?”  “Val, tell him about the spot we like near XYX bay…..”)

 Full house at Upper Brewers:

On July 1^st we woke up to gorgeous weather for Canada Day (which “celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the British North America Act, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada.”)

 We had seven locks to go through to get to Kingston and the first three were “full houses” but we managed without any trouble.  (Per the lock staff, “Canada Day is a usually crazy with all the boaters.”  The day before we saw a guy run his boat into the side of the lock and bend his anchor all up. Then he rushed out of the lock and gave everyone a good “waking,” I guess the guy just wanted to “get out of Dodge” asap.)

We got to Kingston by 1:00 PM and walked around celebrating with the Canadians.  There was band at the park near the marina, a huge art show at another park (and another band), and food trucks, face painting, etc. etc.   We took it all in and then some.   A highlight was visiting an fort built to guard Kingston’s harbor against an invasion from the USA.  By the time they built and armed it, the fort was mostly obsolete, and whatever tempers existed between us and the Canadians had cooled down.  

 

Street scene:

The "beach:"

The fort (one of many in the area):

We had a decidedly nondescript dinner at the restaurant next to the marina (pro tip:  if the restaurant can seat you right away on a national holiday when the streets and parks are packed, it is probably a sign that the food ain’t so good).   The night was saved however by a great fireworks display.   Happy Canada Day!

 

 Dave

 Odometer: 4,910 n/m’s