After I stopped Susan off a week ago Sarah and Samantha visited for the weekend. I then spent a couple of days hanging in the islands around Gananoque. It was hot. Spent one day inside with the AC on.
Wednesday the lower locks on the Rideau opened, so on Thursday I headed for Kingston. I had been debating going down the St Lawrence, but the Rideau was my first choice.
The trip to Kingston wasn’t entirely uneventful. It was windy, but I wasn’t really bothered until a few miles from Kingston where things open up. It was getting a bit bouncy, so I stopped and dropped the dinghy into the water. My davits are for flat water only.
Just after passing Milton Island I looked back and saw the dinghy drifting behind me. The ring on the front had failed. My fault for attaching the line to it.
After chasing it down and getting a line onto the hull eye, I went to get underway and found that the throttle didn’t work at either station. Idle speed only, which was barely enough to keep me pointed into the waves. And after twice stopping and rolling around while futzing with the dinghy I had enough of the waves.
At this point I was very close to the island, which is a Parks Canada site with a nice sheltered dock, so I idled into the lee and got docked. A quick check of the cables showed that the nuts holding the linkage had come loose, so was able to fix that, but I had another problem. I had left a length of line in the dinghy, super strong dyneema that I used for the lifting harness. That had streamed out the drain hole of the dinghy, and was now wrapped on my prop… Guess it got sucked in when I was in reverse when docking.
At that point I gave up for the day. It was cool and windy. Cooked dinner and watched a big beaver climb out on the bank about 30m away. Later that evening I had a raccoon come aboard and get into a bag of garbage in the cockpit. I’m not used to that. I noticed the screen on the forward hatch torn the next day, and I think that was racoon work as well.
Friday morning I woke to a pair of maintenance workers who were there to close the dock as the island is apparently closed. So as they put up fencing I put on my mask and dove down to unwrap the line. The workers offered me a knife a couple of times, but I wanted to clear it.
Regular readers will know that I have a general aversion to being in the water. It wasn’t easy to go in. But once I was in and under the boat it wasn’t hard. I really should try to swim regularly.
Friday I stopped in Kingston and stocked up on groceries, then spent the night at the bottom of the first lock.
Saturday I stopped at Newboro and had a nice meal about a ten minute walk away.
Today I headed to Perth, had dinner out there, and am now here in the swamp on the Tay River for the night.
I’m now at the highest point in the system. The lakes below Newboro are beautiful and not overly developed. Lots of wilderness.
Boating Adventures 