The Grahams

Cruising the Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is North America’s oldest continuously operating canal. This 125 mile long chain of rivers, lakes, cut canals and locks was built between 1826-1832 as a military defense route to connect Ottawa with Lake Ontario. Although the canal has never been used for military purposes, it is now used primarily by recreational boaters to move from Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario. It is managed well by the Canadian Park Services Dept.

We arrived at the first lock in Ottawa and ascended eight locks in rapid sequence to rise from the Ottawa river to downtown Ottawa. We had to wait for a couple of hours halfway through this lock series for a thunderstorm to pass over us. All 49 locks on the Rideau are still operated manually by turning hand cranks to open and close the lock gates as well as control the flow of water in and out of the locks. The lock interiors are made of massive limestone mortared blocks. Many of the locks are staffed by college-aged park employees who are extremely helpful and friendly while assisting boaters like us moving in and out of the lock gates.

We just missed the last set of four locks heading into Kingston, ON by a few minutes. We are now secured to a place on a wall above the lock awaiting the first opening tomorrow morning. From here we will cruise south to Kingston and head west on Lake Ontario to pick up the Trent-Severn canal system which will ultimately take us into the north Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. We are now enjoying warm sunny days and comfortably cool evenings. We are not missing the Florida heat and humidity!

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.

Oh Canada!🇨🇦

We picked a good weather window to cross Lake Ontario on a day when the Great Lake was calm as a pond. We selected an anchorage off of a beautiful island near Cape Vincent, NY. Our calm night at anchor included a pleasant dinghy ride around the island before sunset. We then swam off the stern of our boat in the cool waters of the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River.

The next morning we were faced with strong winds and rain coming from the south. We weighed anchor only to find a 16 inch diameter boulder wedged into the claw of our anchor. We brought the anchor up to the bow pulpit with the boulder still attached and, after unsuccessfully trying to dislodge it, we left for a nearby marina in Clayton, NY. While at the marina, we were able to dislodge the boulder from our anchor claw. After two great sightseeing days in Clayton which included visiting the great Antique Boat Museum, we kept moving northwest on the St. Lawrence River.

After stopping at the 1000 Islands Yacht Club in Alexandria Bay, NY, we took a dinghy ride to visit the well known Boldt Castle. The castle was built in the early 1900s on Heart Island by George Boldt. He was the proprietor of the NY Waldorf-Astoria and had the castle built as a gift for his wife. Unfortunately, she died before the completion of the castle so Mr. Boldt stopped any further construction on the project and no one has ever lived in the magnificent home. It is gradually being restored by the Thousand Islands Bridge Foundation with funding provided by tour proceeds and donations.

On our further journey northbound, we traversed the Iroquois Lock, Eisenhower Lock, Snell Lock, Upper and Lower Beauharnois Locks, as well as the St. Catherine Lock and St. Lambert Lock. The last four locks have all been in Canadian waters. It is customary to fly the Canadian flag as well as the US flag when in International waters. This series of Locks has lowered us a total of 257 feet from the level of Lake Ontario to the river level at Montreal.

We are now at a comfortable marina for several days in the heart of Old Port Montreal where we can easily walk to some great tourist sites as well as fine dining. We will start heading west again next week to visit Ottawa.

Beyond the Locks

The fog lifted and we have enjoyed beautiful weather cruising up the Hudson River from NYC. We stopped at some picturesque marinas as we continued north. Just beyond Troy, NY, we entered the Erie Canal system. This series of locks was originally constructed in the 1820’s for the purpose of moving commerce from Albany, NY to Buffalo. The original small barges were pulled by mules. Now the Erie Canal is managed by the NY State Canal System and is used primarily by recreational boaters like ourselves. Our only previous lock experience was passing through a few locks in the Okeechobee waterway several years ago. The first eight locks on the Erie Canal heading east to west are encountered one after the other, each raising the water level approximately 20 feet. With just two crew members, we had to quickly learn to coordinate manning a weighted rope hanging from the lock wall on both the bow and stern while the lock was filling rapidly with water.

We kept ascending in elevation with the first twenty locks. With Lock #21 and Lock #22, we are now starting to descend again as we work our way west. We are near Syracuse, NY now and soon will be turning north on the Oswego river to venture into Lake Ontario.

Taking Advantage of the Bad Weather

In our last post we described needing to stay put in Cape May, NJ because of the relentless winds and steep waves (9-13 ft) near shore in the Atlantic. We ended staying a total of eight nights waiting for the seas to calm down to three to four feet .

Not only did we use these extra seven days in southern NJ to sightsee, walk, shop and experience some great restaurants, we also had necessary maintenance items performed. These included an oil change, oil filters and fuel filter exchanges to keep our Diesel engines performing reliably. Thankfully, this was accomplished by a certified marine mechanic at our marina slip. This will need to be repeated every 250 hours during our journey.

Finally, when the marine weather forecast improved as far as wave height, it was replaced with the prediction of dense fog. We left Cape May traveling up the Atlantic coast to Atlantic City with virtually no visibility. Relying strictly on GPS, radar and AIS (automatic information system) being transmitted from approaching boats, we successfully navigated to the marina at the Golden Nugget casino. We felt we had gambled enough that day getting to our destination. Pushing our luck at the casino was not even a consideration for us. The following day’s cruise to Staten Island, NY was calm sea, worse fog and more distance to travel (approx 100 miles). Even pilots that fly under IFR (instrument flight rules) can often fly above the poor visibility to get some blue skies. We never had the opportunity. However, we remain safe and ever optimistic.

Weathering the Storm

It was a beautiful day with calm water, sunny skies, and no wind when we left the marina in Chesapeake City on Thursday morning. We docked at the marina in Cape May, NJ under the same sunny skies we left in the morning. Thursday was a three state travel day. We started in Maryland, passed through Delaware on the Delaware River, and ended in New Jersey.

We knew a weather system was heading across the states and heading to the Eastern shore and that we would need to stay in Cape May for a few days until the system passed. What we didn’t know was how severe this system would be and how long we would need to stay here. It’s now been five days and we can’t foresee leaving here for probably another four to five days. The winds are relentless and are sustained at 30 mph with gusts to 50 mph. There are now 10-15 foot seas in the Atlantic. For the past several weeks, we have been cruising down rivers, bays and canals. We now need to head north in the Atlantic for 125 miles before we can travel up the Hudson River. We won’t be moving from our safe dock anytime soon. It’s actually difficult to stay upright at times as we have walked into town to get groceries and to the beach to see the waves crashing onshore.

We couldn’t have been stuck in a better place. Cape May is simply charming. It’s well known for its Victorian houses dating back to the early 1800’s and the pedestrian village is a short 2 or 3 mile walk from the marina.

We knew we would need to test our flexibility at many times along this journey and we are waiting patiently (!) for this weather system to get a move on so we can, too!