OTTAWA to BURRITTS RAPIDS

Tuesday morning we departed OTTAWA at 9:30 am. The weather was sunny and a warm 78 degrees. We spent the day traveling up the Rideau Canal, clearing seven locks and two bridges. The speed limit is 10 kilometers or 6 miles per hour....with many added No Wake Zones, so we were in no hurry. The Canal is dotted with homes and farms, with all types of people and boats enjoying the beautiful day.

The Rideau Canal connects the city of OTTAWA, Ontario on the Ottawa River with the city of Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. It is 202 kilometers (125 miles) in length and has 47 locks. The name Rideau is French for "curtain" it is derived from the curtain-like appearance of the Rideau Rivers twin falls where they join the Ottawa River. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States. Today the canal is primarily used for pleasure boating. The locks typically open in mid May and close in mid October....but we have learned that can change because it's all - WeatherDependent 

We arrived to BURRITTS RAPIDS at 5 pm. We are staying on the mooring wall below the lock tonight and will clear lock 17 Wednesday morning. This location is very rural (no town), so we are having a BBQ on the mooring wall tonight and enjoying the sunset. There is a small restaurant at the lock that caters to locals and boaters. They have a shower in the restaurant that costs two "loonies" ( Canadian one dollar coin) for a four minute hot shower....priceless after conserving water for five days in OTTAWA :)

Looper Tip: We like the mooring wall below the lock with picnic tables on the floating dock. The Lock 17 Restaurant has free wifi available.

OTTAWA to BURRITTS RAPIDS

Seven Locks and two bridges today!

The Rideau River Twin Falls..."curtain".

Thistle on the "blue line".

Homes along the Rideau Canal.

No wake!!!!!!

Farms along the Rideau Canal.

Float boats and planes...Yes, that is an ice cream float :)

BURRITTS RAPIDS.

Lock 17 Restaurant on the Rideau Canal...Two Loonies for a shower!

Cheers to a nice sunset XO.

MONTEBELLO to OTTAWA

On Thursday morning we departed MONTEBELLO at 10 in the morning. The weather was a brisk 58 degrees, with clouds and some light rain ( Our weather window wasn't perfect but it looked safe to proceed.) We continued in the rain along the Ottawa River, admiring the scenery for the next 5 and half hours, arriving in Ottawa about 3:30 pm. We docked on the Blue Line at the bottom of the historic eight lock lift below the Rideau Canal. These eight locks are very beautiful,  with the Parliment Buildings on one side and the Fairmount Chateau Laurier on other. 

It takes about 2 hours to clear the eight locks...so, we got lucky when we were notified of a 4 pm opening for Thistle. We cleared the locks in the pouring rain and secured Thistle on the OTTAWA mooring wall about 7 pm. A very long day...but, we got our "second wind" after seeing the gorgeous night lights of OTTAWA along the Rideau Canal. That night we walked to the Parliament Building to watch the spectacular 30 minute light show. 

OTTAWA is the Capital of Canada. The city stands on the bank of the Ottawa River and was originally incorporated in 1855. The name OTTAWA is derived from an Algonquin word meaning "to trade". The city was originally founded when preliminary work started on the Rideau Canal in 1826. 

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we took advantage of seeing all OTTAWA has to offer...we love it here...The City is beautiful and the people are extremely friendly! Some of the highlights of the past three days: Bike rides on the numerous trails, visiting with new friends along the canal, docktales, an end of summer fireworks extravaganza, a dinner invitation with fellow boaters, the farmers market, provisioning at an Italian Market, museums, the Craft Beer Festival and sitting on our flybridge admiring OTTAWA.

Looper Tip: Free wifi on the Canal mooring wall if you dock near Le Cafe and a little extravagant,  but provision at La Bottega best Italian Market we have ever visited:) 

We planned to depart OTTAWA on Monday morning but the sun is finally shining so we decided to stay another day and provision, enjoy the city, lower our mast and most importantly finish this blog entry :) 

From MONTEBELLO to OTTAWA about 45 nautical miles.

Along the Ottawa River in the rain...first time Captain Greg piloted Thistle from the wheel inside.

Arriving at the eight locks of the Rideau Canal.

Thistle on the Blue Line with Reenie & Greg Lock ready!

The view while clearing the first eight locks of the Rideau Canal.

Thistle on the mooring wall in OTTAWA.

Light show on the Parliament Building.

Art around OTTAWA.

Wonderful bike riding in OTTAWA.

Unique items at the Farmers Market.

OTTAWA museums.

La Bottega :)

We made the local paper!

OTTAWA changing of the guard...we woke up each morning to bagpipe music.

Our home in OTTAWA.

Fireworks.

Thanks OTTAWA ... We enjoyed our stay here (promise not "to trade")! 

The trees are starting to change color so it's time for us to move on XO.

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE to MONTEBELLO

On Sunday morning we departed the mooring wall at SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE and headed to MONTEBELLO. This destination has been recommended by many fellow loopers as a must stop port. The weather on Sunday, was sunny, clear and about 76 degrees for our day long journey on the Ottawa River.

We had two locks to pass today, the first being SAINT ANNE DE BELLVUE which was just a few yards from where we spent the night. Greg checked the evening prior and the first lock opening was at 10 am, we got to the the "Blue Line" (waiting wall) on Thistle about 9:30 am and we were the seventh boat in line. The lock opened at 10 am with lots of jockeying for position...WOW, we had to be a little proactive to get a place in the very crowded lock filled to capacity with ten boats.  We made it through with no problems and crossed into the expansive Ottawa River. For the next four hours, the scenery along the river was beautiful, changing from the city skyline to farms, rolling hills and evergreen trees. 

We arrived at the second Lock, Carillon about 1:30 pm and were advised in French of a 2 pm opening. This is a very exciting lock, as it has a huge 79 foot lift......slightly claustrophobic when the doors close and you can't event see sunlight ??? It took about 30 minutes to clear the lock and all was well. The other interesting thing about this lock is that it's a popular spectator event, with people lining the lock walls, taking pictures and cheering as you rise to the top :)

At 6:30pm we arrived at our reserved dock for a planned two day stay at the Chateau MONTEBELLO resort. It was a long almost ten hour day, we were both tired and happy to finally arrive :) 

Looper Tip: The resort room rates are much more reasonable with a Sunday arrival ...and if you stay in the resort your boat dock is free! So, at $3.30 a foot it was about the same cost to book a basic room as the slip fee. We still spent a lot of time on Thistle but enjoyed the comforts of our room :)

When checking the weather report (a multiple time daily function on our trip) we both realized a huge rain storm was on the way ... So, for safety we extended our stay here from two to four nights! (News reports say NYC received a record 13 inches of rain from this same storm.) Honest...this was NOT planned...but what a nice place to be stranded.

The Chateau is recognized as the largest log cabin in the world. Starting in 1930, the Chateau was build in 3 months time with thousands of workers laboring day and night. The six sided log structure was constructed out of 10,000 red cedar logs transported directly to MONTEBELLO from British Columbia via Railway. There have been many international summits here over the years.

The Chateau MONTEBELLO and it's quaint adjoining town, with museums and restaurants is a great place to stay rain or shine...Hopefully, weather permitting we are off to Ottawa tomorrow morning!

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE to MONTEBELLO 

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE Lock... Full with 10 boats.

The beautiful Ottawa River.

Carillon Lock.

A Huge lift!

Chateau MONTEBELLO.

Smile :)

Outside the Chateau.

Inside the Chateau.

Monte the Chateau greeter XO.

The town of MONTEBELLO ... A museum, cheese factory and chocolate shop (what more do you need?)

Rain, Rain go away .....

Yeah, It's clearing ...We are ready to continue our Great Loop adventure on Thistle.

A friendly game of Dominos. 

MONTREAL to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE

Wednesday was our final day after a perfect two week stay in MONTREAL. We were super busy in the morning, Greg performing important engine maintenance and Reenie doing much needed laundry. Once those chores were complete we both cleaned Thistle inside and out (She seriously needed this after lots of memorable entertaining while at dock in Old Port :) For the afternoon, we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day, so we put on our bike helmets and got our big back packs out of the lazarette and proceeded to go on a 20k ride along the Lachine Canal to Parc Rene Levesque. We stopped at our favorite market, Marche Attwater, filling our backpacks with provisions for the next leg of our adventure.

Back aboard Thistle, we met some Gold Loopers from Florida (Gold, indicating they have finished the entire Loop more than once). We enjoyed docktales on each other's boats and they shared priceless information (Thanks)! Remember the Tip to always fly your AGLCA burgee :)

On Thursday morning, with bittersweet emotions we departed, excited to continue our journey, but reminisciing about the wonderful time here in MONTREAL. New boating friends and the awesome camaraderie we shared with our water polo family.  Leaving Port, we crossed paths with the ferry we rode daily to the FINA water polo games....we both smiled and agreed that this simple tranquil ferry trip to the pool was a favorite memory of the stay.  After riding the ferry to the pool we usually rode the Metro home after the games, MONTREAL'S  Public Transportation systems made it easy to explore the City day and night.

We soon crossed into the Saint Lawrence River with the current helping us this time...a 5 knot boost in speed :) arriving by 10 am at our first of two Federal Locks. These Locks are huge....it's where the cargo ships pass! These locks are not part of the Canadian Canal Pass so each lock cost $30 to enter. After passing both Federal Locks we entered Lake Saint Louis, where we crossed Lake Saint Louis in the rain,  arriving to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE at 4 pm.

Looper Tip: Lake Saint Louis is very shallow and navigation across the Lake is a little tricky? but very well maked with green and red navigation buoys to assist boaters. The colored buoys do change from port to starboard and back as you change direction to safely zig zag across the Lake.

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE was founded in 1703 and sits on Lake Louis at the mouth of the Ottawa River. The town is famous for it's mooring Wall where you can stay for free with your Canadian Pass. The Wall also has a walking path and is lined with restaurants and bars all having outdoor seating and shade umbrellas. (27 establishments!!!!!!) We purposely planned a Thursday arrival and are staying through the weekend to see the parade of boats.....it gets a little crazy on weekends but very fun to watch :) Friday night we saw boaters rafting 4 deep ready to celebrate the weekend. We met a very nice local family with 3 three young boys and invited them aboard Thistle where the boys liked climbing on our bunk beds the best :)

On Friday day we took our longest bike ride to date, 50K along the Saint Louis Lakefront, passing the towns of Baie D'urfe, Saint Claire, Dorval and back to Lachine. Reenie especially liked visiting Point Claire as she swam on the swim team there in high school. 

Saturday morning was the SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE Farmers Market where we purchased items for our BBQ dinner tonight: Corn, tomato salad, fresh bread and homemade honey and garlic sausage :)

We plan to depart in the morning for Montebello! 

What we saw biking along the Lachine Canal...a day spa on a barge and a goose! 

Wednesday bike ride on the Lachine Canal - RED

Thursday boat trip MONTREAL to SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE - BLUE

Friday bike ride along Lake Louis - GREEN

Merci MONTREAL ... XO

Memories!

On the Saint Lawrence River ... Biosphere & Habitat 67.

Saint Lambert Federal Lock is a 15 foot lift up... Captain Greg looking out for cargo ships. 

Saint Catherine Federal Lock is a 30 foot lift up....you are required to wear flotation!

The Federal Locks are 233.5 meters long (766 feet) and 24.4 meters wide (78 feet) and 9.1 meters deep (30 feet). The Locks have 91 million liters of water (24 million gallons) and fill or drain in 7-10 minutes. The process takes about 45 minutes to enter and exit each Federal Lock.

Pleasure craft raft to each other in the Federal Locks.

Yeah...on SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE mooring Wall.

Longest bike ride :)

Homes along Saint Louis Lake with summer flowers and manicured lawns.

SAINT ANNE DE BELLEVUE mooring dock Wall......it gets busy on the weekend ?

Restaurants of SAINT ANNA DEBELLEVUE.

Thistle on the mooring dock Wall, Saturday Farmers Market & new friends!

On Saturday night the parade of boats, people and dogs continues!

Nice sunset & great BBQ.

Beautiful Full Moon :)