THE MANY FACES OF THE RIDEAU CANAL

August 1, 2023

Last night we stayed at “Merrickville, the Jewel of the Rideau”.  Lynn says it looks like a Hallmark Movie set.

Remember The Good Witch series on Hallmark? This town is almost identical with the shops, pubs, diners, etc.

The town was truly charming, but it is a VERY popular spot.  We tied up at the designated pier, and I was astounded at the number of boats they were able to jam onto one pier!  It seems that we have hit the Rideau at a very busy time of the year: it is the middle of a two-week-long Construction Labor Holiday, and hundreds of boats are passing through the Rideau Canal.  Everyone at our dock spoke French, and one fellow had a guitar, and another boat had a parrot!  Very nice, but nothing like we are accustomed to in the States, where everything is orderly and somewhat impersonal.  

Jasper is 15 years old and travels on the boat with his owners.
Guinness tried to board to say hello.

Once again, what looked like bad news (a Hootnanny!) turned into good news, because all those boats were from Montreal, and they told me how to navigate the huge commercial locks we must transit in the St. Lawrence Seaway.  (More on that in a few days.)

I was musing to Lynn that I really had to change my mindset to become more Canadian…tonight, however, we are in a real marina, with fuel, and pumpout, and a marine store, and a swimming pool, and ice, and a restaurant!  Aaahhh!

The Rideau Canal changes its personality and its appearance every couple of days.  Earlier, we raved about the granite outcroppings.  Today, we passed through farmland and grassy marshes reminiscent of the South Carolina Low Country.

A charming little farm on the banks on the canal.

The Canal is VERY well maintained.  Harvester boats clean up the grasses in the channel, and barges clean up debris.  And every lockstation is picturesque: each one looks like a tiny postcard from another century.

There’s a dam at every lock – also beautiful

This boat cuts the grass below the water level to keep the channel clean.

And this one picks up debris, logs, branches to keep the canal safe.

And this ice cream barge just waits for boats to stop by for a “float”!

Again today, we had a wonderful day on the water.  When we left this morning, there were eight boats waiting to transit the locks, so we went to breakfast!  As luck would have it, the other boats all passed before us, and we ended up going through the locks with just one other boat, a 26’ Cutwater (a modestly sized boat) and we traveled with them all day.  And he traveled FAST!  What a pleasure compared to the prior day, when we had to squeeze into each lock with three other huge boats!

Lots of boats lined up overnight waiting for the locks to open at 9:00 am.

There is a nice restaurant here at the marina called The Swan on the Rideau, and we’ll leave for supper soon.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Ottawa!