After leaving Montreal, we had a fun evening in St. Anne de Bellevue, tying to the canal wall and visiting with Flore and Duane, on September Morn, and meeting some new Loopers as well. St. Anne is a charming town, drawing tourists from all around the region, not to mention the many boaters who come to town to tie up to the wall and go to one of the many restaurants. We’d eaten out so much in Montreal that I was determined to eat on the boat for a while, since Ottawa was in our near future, and I knew we’d again be eating out a lot there.
We had a simple dinner on the boat, and spent the evening visiting, then discussed strategy to get in the lock on the first lock-through in the morning to get the earliest possible start for a fairly long run the next day. We decided to move our boats to the “blue line”, which is the staging area for the next lock-through, first thing in the morning, and then we’d be first in line.
Things worked like clockwork the next morning, and we all ( Mer Sea, September Morn, and Transitions) locked through in the first batch. We were headed for an anchorage behind a small island that would put us within easy striking distance of Ottawa the following day. Our object was to get to Ottawa several days (like Wednesday) before the long July 1st Canada Day weekend, in order to get space on the wall in downtown Ottawa.
We locked up from St. Anne into the Ottawa River, and emerged to a breezy day. We were surprised to see whitecaps on the river, and the going was bouncy, but not really rough. Just not what we’d expected! Fortunately, the wind direction was such that there was very little fetch, and we bounced a bit but had no actual problems. Duane and Flore had some fuel issues along the way (fortunately they have more than one fuel tank, and it seemed that only the fuel from one of the tanks was bad), so they had to pause to change fuel filters and switch tanks, but they caught up with us and we all went through the next lock (and last on this river) together. The wind started to calm down later in the day, and by the time we reached the anchorage it was dead calm.
What a perfect anchorage it was, too! Tucked behind an island, and protected from all but the wakes of the several boats that were waterskiing back there with us! Of course, they only came after we’d gotten ourselves all set. Now wouldn’t you think that if you saw a couple of boats peacefully anchored in a secluded place that you’d take your waterskiing somewhere else? Oh well…before the waterskiers arrived I had a nice swim in the chilly river, and Roy took the dink for a ride, so we got done what we needed and wanted to do. And the skiers left at dusk, so it was a sublimely peaceful evening and night.
Have I mentioned that we love our Northern Lights generator? She is perfect – starts and runs first time, every time! Is that too much to ask of a generator? We don’t think so, and we’re really loving it!! Mer Sea is now really ready for anything!!
We left early the next morning, and got to the blue line at the 8-step locks in Ottawa around 11:15. We waited around 45 minutes for the locks to be ready for us, and then began the 21/2 hour process of locking up through those eight steps. There is always a big crowd of tourists watching the process, and we have the opportunity to chat as we slowly move through the locks. The weather was in the process of changing for the cooler, and the sky was threatening rain, which finally materialized in light on and off showers as we were in the last couple of locks. It didn’t rain much, though, and the interchange with the onlookers kept us entertained and occupied.
When we got to the top, we headed for the spot on the wall that Roy had already scoped out while we were waiting to lock through. It was a couple of boats behind our friends Jim and Peg, on Sanctuary, from Burnt Store Marina! They’d left Montreal a few days ahead of us, and we were happy to see them again here in Ottawa. Their grandson, Nick, was still with them, too, so we knew we were in for plenty of fun!
The next morning there were a couple of boats leaving. They’d been trapped by a swing bridge that wasn’t working, and they were ready to “get out of Dodge.” They’d also had some trouble with “undesirables” loitering in the area where the boats are tied up, and even had someone board their boat in the middle of the night. This was a big difference for us from our last year’s experience in Ottawa! This year, we, along with everyone else on the wall, had rigged a chain to secure our boats to the wall in case someone should untie our lines and set us adrift. Now, this may sound amazing to you, but this is not something we typically have to worry about. You usually tie your boat and forget it. But there had been some problems here in Ottawa, so we did what we had to do to keep Mer Sea and ourselves secure.
Anyway, these people were leaving, and Roy and I had decided to try to grab their spot, which was the primo spot on the wall (in front of the only water faucet – to rinse the boat and fill the water tank if necessary). We were ready to make the move as soon as our fellow boater made his, but we quickly realized that there were several others who were similarly inclined, and decided not to get into a mad rush. We stood down and re-secured our lines and chain, and left well enough alone!
The previous evening, Roy had been reading the local paper, The Ottawa Citizen, and had read an article about how the Rideau Canal was about to be named a UNESCO world heritage site, and the juxtaposition of our chained boats and the boaters’ fear of vandalism with the article made him angry. He called the paper in the morning, and asked to speak to the reporters who had written the article. He was finally put in touch, instead, with the “city” reporter, who came to the boat and interviewed us and several other boaters and the lockmaster about the situation. He ended up writing an excellent article which made the front page on Friday! Here’s link to the article; just paste it in your browser:
www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=bf0d5b02-8db8-452e-b0fe-7d99d708cf06&k=20845&p=1
The weather cooled off considerably the next day, and I bundled up and went to the wonderful Byward Market with Flore. We had so much fun, and found so much wonderful fresh produce, that we had to make a stop back at the boats to unload and then go out again to finish shopping! In our travels, we scoped out a restaurant where we might have dinner together: us, Flore and Duane, and Jim, Peg, and Nick. We selected an Italian restaurant with moderate prices as a potential crowd-pleaser.
After lunch, Roy and I went to the Arts Center, where there was supposed to be a free concert as a part of a big choral festival going on at the time. One of the amazing things about this city over this Canada Day weekend is that there are SO many concerts and activities taking place all over the city, most of them free. It was really hard to choose! Anyway, this concert was about an hour and a half, and consisted of maybe fifteen smallish choirs from all over Canada (mostly children’s choirs, but not all!) each singing two or three pieces. Some of them were really great!!!
We had our “group” dinner at the Italian restaurant that night, and it was great fun. I must say that Nick has really added to the fun on the parts of the trip for which he’s been present. I can easily see why Jim and Peg enjoy having him around. He’s agreeable, bright, witty, capable, and a really good magician, to boot! We were treated to a magic show on his last night in Ottawa, and he’s got a future in magic if he wants it!
The next morning, Roy and I went to the Changing of the Guard, which we’d both so enjoyed last year. It really is quite a spectacle, and we weren’t disappointed with our second go-round. Afterwards, we headed to the Arts Center again, where there was to be a concert with orchestra which included the massed voices of all the choirs participating in the festival.
There was quite a crowd at the concert (it was free, and there were lots of parents of both choir and orchestral participants). I think Roy and I were the only ones who didn’t have a relative participating! Not really, but there were lots of relatives in the audience. The music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra is Pinkas Zukerman, and he was the conductor for the concert. He also played the viola in a Vivaldi concerto. It was a great concert all around. And free! Fantastic!
Roy and I did a little shopping after lunch, and then I went to the National Gallery to see the Renoir exhibition and another exhibit that one of my Canadian friends had told me about. Well, the Renoir was great, but the other exhibit was on tour, so I didn’t get to see it. I did spend a considerable time in the museum, however, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
That night, we went out to a very nice romantic dinner at the Arts Center. It’s a really fine restaurant, right across the canal from where the boat was docked, and we both had fantastic meals. Because the weather was somewhat threatening, we chose to sit indoors, and were glad we had, when it started raining. Another good weather decision by the Kupkowskis!
There were so many activities planned for Canada Day that we had trouble deciding what we wanted to do! The whole downtown had roads closed off, so it was basically one big street party, with various different centers of activity. We got to see the Governor General’s arrival at the parliament, in her horse-drawn carriage!! She is the Crown’s representative in Canada, and the people love her. Here’s a photo of the people waiting to see her arrival:
And here she is!
It was quite something!
Here’s a photo of the crowd milling about on the Parliament hill:
And here’s a photo of a couple of RCMP types:
It was a bit of a mad scene!
We wandered over to another area for lunch, and then took a break from the festivities and went back to the boat. We had to get ourselves ready for the fireworks display that night! We were hoping that we’d be able to see it from the boat, and had invited Flore and Duane over to watch it with us. As it turned out, we had a fine view, and so were, once again, treated to a spectacular fireworks display from Mer Sea’s upper deck!
The next day, Monday, we’d be heading into the Rideau Canal (along with, we suspected, a large number of other boaters who had been on vacation). This was one of our favorite parts of the trip last year, so we were really looking forward to revisiting favorite places and finding some new ones.