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…
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…
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…
After a seven week break from our Great Loop journey, we are now back aboard Hydrotherapy and have resumed our travels North and heading into Canada. We flew home end of May so that we could be there for the arrival of our newest grandchild. Worth and Erin welcomed their beautiful little girl, Lillian Elizabeth, on June 14th. Grace is a doting and loving big sister and is so proud…
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…
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…