Burritts Rapids: After Merrickville we had a very leisurely ride down the canal to Burritts Rapids where we arrived at 11:00 a.m. to tie up for the day and stay overnight. We were at the Merrickville lock ready to go at 8:30 when they opened up for the day's business. They told us that we would need to wait while they brought up the boats from down below (3 locks in this series), and then shortly after they told us the boats at the bottom were not ready so we would be first. This saved up about a 45 minute wait so it definitely pays to be ready to go!
We locked through with a vessel from Florida named Morning Star until Burritts Rapids where we stopped and they continued on. We may cross paths again further on as they are taking the same route we are to get back home. The boaters we met from Connecticut in a Nordic Tug (the folks we crossed Lake Ontario with) have decided that they will also be making the same trip. There was some discussion of them turning around in Ottawa and going back the way they came, but the decision was made that they will make the full circle / triangle trip, so there are possibilities our paths will cross again as we make our way back to the US of A.
The only thing in Burritts Rapids is the lock wall for overnight and a combination Bistro, Laundry, and Shower. Service fees are high here. A 4-minute shower costs $3.00. A load of wash costs $2.50 and a dry costs $2.00. The main problem is that all of these take $1.00 coins (loonies) but not $2.00 coins (toonies). We ate lunch at the bistro, and I asked our waitress if we could get change for the washer / dryer and she said she had none. What poor planning on their part! I finally managed to scrounge up enough coins from the lock master to allow for one load of wash and one dry to go with it.
We had our first rainstorm while in Canada. I waited until after the thunder, lightening and wind passed before heading up to start my wash. Heaven forbid there was a power outage and I needed more coins to finish my laundry! Once all that was done - storm cleared and laundry removed from dryer, we took off on our bicycles to go find the "beach" and dive into some cool water. The humidity is still bad even after the storm passed. We were hoping for a break in the humidity if not the heat.
The bike ride down a trail through the woods next to the canal was cool and a very short ride to the beach. The beach is a public beach at the end of a street. The beach has no sand until you get into the water where there is a sandy bottom part way out into the creek where it eventually turns to a rocky bottom. It was cold getting into the water, felt good for a while in the water, and then felt cold enough to force me out of the water. On the bike ride back to the boat, we rode around the small number of streets looking at the houses. There are no shops of any kind in this isolated village. There is however a church. There used to be a convenience store associated with the bistro but that has closed.
The closer we get to Montreal the more we meet French-speaking boaters. One such couple has the exact same boat make and model as ours only 2 years older. The captain of course could not wait to compare notes on the necessary improvements required to make a Mainship 350 a workable vessel. All-in-all it was a very laid back and enjoyable day. Our next stop will be at a marina complete with pool and showers which should be included in the price per foot so no scurrying around trying to find coins to plug into a machine. Sounds like the life of luxury! We are having a very enjoyable time mixing it up from venue to venue - city living vs. camping, "anchored" or on a lock wall vs. staying in a marina.
A couple of notes of interest, we filled up our tanks in Kingston before entering the Rideau Canal. Due to the slow speed as which we move along, the fuel tanks still basically register as full. Also, I have decided that going down water levels as we are now is a lot easier than going up. We are not experiencing turbulence with the draining of the locks as we did with the filling, so holding the boat in place is more relaxed. I impressed one lock attendant today and was quite pleased with myself. He told me I would have to tie a line to the bridge by the lock until I got low enough to grab a cable. I didn't like the 2-step process, so I decided to drop my line down next to the cable (we were up too high to reach it by hand) and see if I could grab the line with my boat hook. He was watching me which made it imperative I get it right, and happily it was 1-2-3, I had the line connected to the boat hook and back up in my hands. I know he was impressed because I heard him telling the other lock attendant how I had done the connecting. The trick was that I had a loop in the end of my line so the hook had something to grab.
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