We are now sitting in Kingston after having spent a wonderful few days going down the Rideau. The last posting covered day 1.
Day 2 saw us down the longest section of the Rideau without a lock - the Long Reach. It was very pretty yet surprisingly narrow and curvy. That night was spent at the Kilmarnock locks, this time accompanied by another boat from Ottawa which was out for the weekend. Kilmarnock is a picturesque lock and we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere with marshland behind the boat.
Day 3 brought us the largest number of locks as we passed through Smith Falls and the Rideau lakes. We had a pleasant surprise as we met Rob Hilkes (a friend from work) unexpectedly at the Newboro locks. We also saw another catamaran (not sail but power) which is also heading south, and we expect we will see again. That night was spent at a small marina just before Chaffeys lock.
Until now our friend Terry had accompanied us during the days to help navigate the boat through the locks. He came by in the morning of day 4 for a short visit to drop off some extra diesel fuel and bid us farewell - thank you for your help Terry! With a bit of trepidation we headed off on Day 4 with just the two of us to master the last 13 locks before Kingston. The day was spent threading our way through the lakes and rivers to the Kingston Mills locks. It was quite a different day than we'd had as we were navigating through small cuts between lakes with rocky shorelines and cliffs, rather than the large marshy lakes and meandering river of the upper Rideau. We didn't expect we would make it all the way through the Kingston Mills locks, however, as we found throughout the whole trip, every lock was ready and waiting for us so we could motor right in - unheard of during the high boating season in summer! We drifted off to sleep to the roar of the train on the bridge above the locks this night, having made it through the entire Rideau lock system - 37 locks in three and a half days - without incident.
Day 5 we completed the final stretch into Kingston down the River Stxy and the Cataraqui, which wind their way through flooded mash and swamp land. Again, like for most of the trip, we were alone on the water. For those of you who are interested, some photos have been posted on Flikr (click on the Flikr link on the right side of the main page).
We will be spending roughly the next two weeks in Kingston getting things further sorted out on the boat before we leave for the US. We expect to leave sometime after the 15th of October (dependent on the weather).
Below is a video of a portion of the narrow Rideau.
