July 10, 2011 found us departing the marina in Kingston for the Rideau Waterway and Ottawa. We cleared through the causeway bridge at 1100 and then proceeded north along the lower swampy area of the Rideau. When we encountered our first set of locks there were already some boats locking through so we tied up at the "blue line" along with two smaller boats who had followed us through the causeway. The crews of the smaller boats became our cruising friends through the next sets of locks and we had a good time together as we waited to lock through and then spent time in the locks themselves while we were lifted to higher levels. After the Upper Brewers lock they took off ahead of us at their much faster speed to make it to Jones Falls where they were going to spend the night.
We, on the other hand, stopped just short of Jones Falls in a spectacularly beautiful and small bay, Morton Bay, where we navigated through a very narrow opening to enter the bay, and then were presented with an incredible view of high granite cliffs surrounding the water. We anchored in about 15 feet of water near the western end of the bay about 1920, had leftovers for dinner, and turned in early after a long day. Just after anchoring we heard the loons calling, and one loon actually moved past Sanderling at about 25 yards while preening and calling. We also saw a wild turkey on shore, as well as a number of black squirrels. The night was quiet, as the high granite walls blocked any breeze that might have been blowing past.
This morning (July 11) while raising anchor and about 100 feet of chain, we had to deal with huge clumps of grass that had become entangled in the anchor line. We'd never seen anything like it, and Bob worried that if he didn't remove the grass as it came up on the chain the weight would be too much for the windlass eventually. So he raised the anchor 25 feet at a time then used the boat hook to remove as much grass as possible, then raised the next 25 feet, etc. As the anchor came out of the water there was a huge clump of grass wadded around the chain and the anchor, to the point that the anchor itself was barely visible. As Judy drove Sanderling back out through the narrow entrance, Bob worked to remove the remaining grass and get the anchor back up to it's stowed position on the bow.
Another 2 miles brought us to Kenney Inn and Marina at the lower side of Jones Falls locks where we were meeting a friend from Toronto, Georgs, for lunch. We tied to their dock and confirmed that it was OK to tie up for lunch. After a nice lunch and chatting with our friend who has traveled this area in his own boat, Georgs departed for some business in Picton and on to his home. Judy and I decided to remain on the dock for the night, so had an afternoon working on various projects and connected to WiFi from the hotel. Bob checked out some floating docks above the next flight of locks at Jones Falls, and talked to the lockmaster about locking up tomorrow morning in the first lift.
We'll start ascending the locks at Jones Falls about 0830 on July 12th, and hopefully an hour or so later we'll emerge in the lake above the four locks and find space on the floating docks near the dam which was built in the 1840s.
The Rideau is spectacular! Here is a link to more information about it and the surrounding area: Rideau Info
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