As usual we are behind on our Blog. ( We are currently traveling with the Gervais’. They love to write and keep their blog up to date. We have had an interesting change of events if you would like to read more on this take a look at their Blog www.saillucyiii.blogspot.com . )
Also for a quick update where we are with no pictures you can go to http://greatloop.org/mod/aglcalocator/membermap.php?id=3788
We are departing Ottawa. The stay was great but time to go. Here is view down river as we leave.
Weeeeds The weeds are horrible anytime the water is less than 10 ft deep. You learn quickly to listen to your engines and watch your speed and any sign of engine loading up and boat slowing. You learn to do the de-weeding maneuver of slowing down and a quick move to full RPM in reverse. I can’t put weed cutters on my sail drives but anyone doing this trip that can add them should do it. I have found that running one engine at higher RPM goes through the weeds a lot better than running both. They do work on keeping the weeds down by harvesting the weeds for compost. Here is a weed harvester.
This is me (Joan) holding the bow of the boat in a lock. Some of the locks make nice waterfalls as the water comes over the top. I love waterfalls. Water,water, water, water. Yeah 
The Canadians Love their old boats. This boat was part of a 3 year restoration project.
They had a gathering of antique steam boats. These two boats were going (see the steam). Both couples slept on shore in tents. They both looked to be well over 70.
We were warned about long wait at locks. This is about or 50th lock and it was the first we had to wait.
Smith Falls: I (jay)have no pictures of it but lots of stories. Pulled up in heavy clouds. The night before weeds had choked our air conditioner strainer. The circulation pump burned out popping the 30 amp input breaker to my boat. As we pulled into Smith Falls just before 12:00 they told us the turn bridge would not open till 1:00 because of heavy road traffic. They had great Wi-Fi so I decided to order a new pump. Ten minutes later they informed us they were going to open early. We had to get tied up in the lock quickly. One huge clap of thunder and the skies opened up, so we just got wet. After we were secure Joan went in and I herd a big OH NO. I went in to see her holding my new PC upside down and water running out. I left it open under a hatch. At first it worked fine. Later the “t” gave “t5” and “y” as “y6”. This was manageable but two days later everything went crazy. Took awhile but figured out everything was coming out as a control character. It is under warranty and HP says they will fix it.. Problem is I have to be in one place for 5 to 8 days. It will have to wait till I get to Midland Ont. where they are re-stepping my mast. We will have to wait and see if it is a warranty repair.
Next day we went to Merrickville. As we pulled into the lock I bumped the wall with my stern. The people were really rude. They all stood there telling one another how they felt the earth shake. It was just a little fender bump , embarrassing but hardly a big deal. Later we went to the block house museum (pictured below) they were picking up stuff that fell off the 4 ft thick walls. There was a force 5 earthquake 50 miles south of Ottawa. We were 70 miles south of Ottawa.
the Musem in this block house saw items fall off of walls that were 4 ft thick.
Merrickville was a nice village with many preserved historical buildings, nice architecture, artisan shops and restaurants. Pretty grounds around the locks. Even a little museum where we saw a dog powered mill. They wouldn’t let Molly, Rosie and Marley into the museum to try it out though. By the way, this place has lots of Black squirrels but I haven’t seen any Gray ones. Black squirrels are kind of cute but I miss my Grays.
This turn bridge was totally manual the person just pushed no advantage whatsoever . He even made it look easy.
I have totally lost track of time and writing a blog is really getting to me cause believe it or not, in this relaxing vacation I am really quite busy most of the time and at places like this I would rather be swimming, listening to loons (and trying to find them), watching herons fly by my feet while I’m laying in the hammock etc. etc. Actually I have to tell you that this is my favorite place. We anchored out near Murphy’s Provincial Park on Big Rideau Lake. Not many people here (yeah) but this kid with and umbrella, Dad paddling a red canoe made me laugh. See ya later, I’m going skinny dipping. This is Joan talking if you haven’t guessed.
Natalie, this is Fox island, just for you
I finally got a goon picture of a loon, every time I get focused they dive.
This has to be near a record for shortest ferry crossing a one car or truck cable ferry and it goes about 100 feet.
Saturday we stopped at Chaffey’s lock. Bill and Ann Burton picked us up and took us to meeting at their house on Saturday evening. This is a picture of their meeting before it started.
Jim and Ann run a camp ground on Lake . They invited us for nice hot showers and fellowship. What a nice time we had. Thanks Jim and Ann.
Back on water and scenery is changing more cliffs and les shallow water 
Schools out and the crowds on weekends are building but still no activity on Weekdays.
Nearly every lock has a power damn some up to 120 years old. This particular plant uses 3 wooden penstocks to bring Water to the turbines.
Coming out of Kingston is Wolf Island with nearly 150 wind generators taking power from Lake Ontario’s winds . This is from about 4 miles away. The Kennedys were worried about generators 10 miles away in buzzards bay. Do they look natural No but we have built things that look a lot worse.
That’s it on to the Trent Severn after a short stop in Clayton NY for Joan to have some tests.
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