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| Merrickville to Newboro Lock #36 |
Cloudy and cool but have learned - if you dress for it – cloudy and cool is the best weather for locking. No sun beating down. Speaking of fashion,
Ted believes he is in style because of his holey shorts and shoes. You be the
judge. Do you think he bought ‘cool’ clothes with holes or are these just his
old ‘comfies’ to wear while locking? If you know Ted, you know the answer. And
I’ll bet that if you don’t know Ted, you still know the answer.
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| HOLES! |
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| Awaiting 2 boats coming through the 1st lock today |
Fortunately the day was long because we want to make some time. I say it was long because on
Saturdays and Sundays the locks open 1 hour earlier and stay open 1 hour later (post-
season). So, similar to yesterday, we got in as many locks and as much cruise time as
possible. Tonight we are at Newboro Lock #36 on the 'blue line waiting dock' ready for passage first thing
tomorrow. We got through 11 locks today.
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| These 2 lockhands had to manually open the swing bridge (in addition to manually opening the locks) by walking in circles while cranking |
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| I could live in this little lockhouse |
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| Long way to go up |
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| This lockhand rode a swing bridge |
The worst part of today was going through miles and miles of
canal with only 3.5’-6’ of water under the boat. The boat hit something 3 times.
This (like spotting a favored tshirt, also calls for swearing). But the boat is
running fine with no ‘vibrations’ so we are not too concerned right now. Even open waters were shallow until we hit Rideau Lake . And then we
arrived at the narrowest of the canal. Didn't see many boats or cottages. Trees, trees and more trees – maybe that is why I love this part of
Canada so much.
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| Narrow part of the canal |
We are approaching my favorite part of Canada – what I call “Old
World”. We passed Smiths Falls which looked like a storybook town to me. All I could think of was the 50s (or what I've heard about them, ahem) and the "Dick and Jane" books. That kind of 50s. If you
don’t know, "Dick and Jane" was a riveting novel about Dick, Jane and their dog
Spot. They lived in a sweet pastel town and, for some reason, seeing Smiths
Falls took me there. You may be able to read the series if your library still
has it – and you have 5 minutes.
Again, the lockhands are gems. At one of the last locks of
the day – Poonamalie – a lockhand called ahead to be certain we got a lock wall
with power. Because it is post-season, the gentleman who runs it said there is
no power but he would tag 2 power poles and turn them on for us. We got to the
lock wall and miraculously got through at the last minute so are now docked at
the blue line ready for a 10:00 a.m. lock opening at Newboro. And there was a bonus. One
other boat is at the blue line and a couple was nice enough to catch our lines
for us. Turns out it was Richard Gere – until he opened his mouth and had a
slight French accent. I choose to believe it is Richard Gere and he was ‘acting’
so we wouldn’t recognize him. Oh, how I wanted to take a picture of him but it could have been awkward. And Ted said he wouldn’t go and ask. Imagine!
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| Starboard view for tonight - TREES! |
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| Lock ahead for tomorrow morning |
2 comments:
I know Ted "style" all to well. Fashion statement. Looks like it was a good locking day.
HA! I thought you were going to say "looks like it was a good fashion day". But the last 2 days have been very good locking days. No problems.
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