Ottawa River to Ottawa

On to Ottawa


First we have to leave Montreal the lock that connects St Lawrence to the Ottawa waterway is St Anne de Bellevue. The lock Attendant carried dog biscuits making her popular with the entire crew now down to Joan and I and the Dogs.

The next lock on the Ottawa is Carillon. This lock is unique in that it is one of the few locks with a raised gate. They claim that with its 65 ft lift it is the largest lifted gate in the world. It lifts you past the Hydro dam. It was built in 1963 for commercial and recreational activity. Now the only commercial are large site seeing ships.

There is a 7 story staircase in the lock that you pass over when you leave. When I first saw it I wondered how I was going to get by with my beam, answer is you don’t you go over.

I’m fascinated by all the churches along the rivers and canals. Every little village has a church. Many of the steeples are brilliant silver/white. They look like they are made out of some sort of metal but very shiny.

In Canada you see many home made boats. This is the first trimaran set up for cruising with a mizzen Mast

Talk about heavy traffic Between Cumberland Ontario and Mason Quebec they run 5 ferries all at once in a half mile wide section of river. As if 5 ferries are not enough to doge through add in a plane landing just for fun.

y63 This is the Rideau Falls approaching Ottawa. I am very glad that they built a canal and locks around it ‘cause we couldn’t get up it any other way. Very pretty though.

This is a picture of Parliament from the Ottawa river as you approach the Rideau canal.

Molly and Jay talking to the lockmaster just before we start up the flight of locks. We’re tied up at the "blue line”. When you tie up here it lets the lockmaster know that you are ready to lock through. There is a short space before the blue line here at the bottom of the locks that you can tie up to and stay for a while or over night. It’s quieter than the space at the top of the locks and easier to walk the dogs but you have to climb up the stairs beside the locks to get to the city. You can see in this picture that the gate to the first lock is closed. As soon as it opens we cast off and start up the 8 locks.

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This is me (Joan) and the dogs waiting for the lock to open. Molly is on the trampoline, Rosie next to me ready to take the helm, and Marley close to the table.

To fill the lock they first start flow into the upper lock creating a few moment of spectacular water fall over gates. Unfortunately this happens as you are tying up and camera is never ready for best part.

This picture is tied up at the top of the locks but we turned around so that our starboard side was tied up. You can see the clock tower on parliament