Cruising the Ottawa River

After several days of great sightseeing in Montreal, we left early the next morning to begin a new path westward to cruise on the beautiful Ottawa river.  We had to first backtrack through the St. Lambert lock and unfortunately we were delayed by several hours at the second lock (St. Catherine) while the maintenance crews repaired one of the lock gates that would not close.

After the unexpected delay, we traversed the second lock and made our way to the mouth of the Ottawas river at St. Anne De Bellvue.  Although we did not make it in time to enter the lock there, we were able to tie up to the wall leading to the dock for the night.  We took advantage of this unplanned stop to grill steaks on Hydrotherapy and have a quiet meal aboard enjoying the great outdoor summer weather.

The following day we made our way westward through the St. Anne De Bellvue lock as well as the Carillon lock which was another 20 miles west on the Ottawa river.  The Carillon lock was unusual in that we were carefully directed by the lock personnel to tie up to a floating dock within the lock as well as to other boats that were in the lock with us.  The lockmasters did a skillful job making sure all nine boats could safely be in the lock together as the water level rose 62 feet to the level of the upstream river.

From here the beauty of the Ottawa river completely impressed us. We were surrounded by rolling hills, green farm lands as well as impressive private homes and properties.  We were lucky to arrange dockage at the Chateau Montebello marina adjacent to the Chateau which was built in the 1930’s completely from logs moved by train from the western United States.  This luxury hotel is the largest log structure in the world.  We enjoyed two nights of fine dining there as well as some hiking and a pleasant dinghy ride along the river.

Our next cruise was an easy pace up to the capital city of Ottawa.  It is a beautiful city with rich architecture, a spectacular Parliament and over 130 foreign embassy buildings located there.  Tomorrow we head south through the heart of downtown Ottawa on the Rideau Canal which was constructed in 1832.  We will encounter a series of 44 locks to arrive in Kingston, Ontario located on the St. Lawrence river.