GL: Rideau canal

[bilbir at voyager.net]

We just finished two weeks on the Rideau with Paul and Stacy from SeaSea
and had a wonderful time on this historic and scenic canal system. 
If you are going to Ottawa, know that the downtown wall tie up had major
demolition going on just across the road from the downtown mooring. 
The large excavator mounted jackhammer started, for us, at 6am and quit at
7pm and the noise and dust were so bad we could not sit on the boat and
talk.  I would recommend Hartwells lock for a tie up (due for hydro
NEXT year) and a bus ride to downtown or going into Dows Lake marina (pump
out and diesel available and a washer and dryer were being installed as we
were leaving). In general on the canal, if you need a pump out and call
ahead, be sure to ask if the pump out is in operating condtion: the one at
Westport was not just a few days ago.  We paid $20 Canadian for a
pump out at Chaffey's lock (Brown marina) and were told their pump out was
often down for repairs.  Diesel in Kingston was $1.05 per LITER
(canadian) for diesel (plus GST and PST),  This is expensive fuel: we
paid $2.19 per gallon at Winter Harbor on the Erie when we left there on
May 22nd.

We were put off by the descriptions of debris in the
Tay canal, so took our dingy up the 6 miles from the Beridges Lock to
Perth.  We discovered that we would have had no trouble taking our
boat (a 36 foot Endeavour Trawlercat) to Last Duel Park, just south of
Perth where hydro was available.  The Canadian charts don't show the
huge welands area that you dingy through.  We thought Perth was well
worth the visit.

The water at Davis lock is potable and very
well filtered and pure and we filled up there both coming and going. 
It also has power and places for many boats and the lockmaster is very
friendly and so is his golden retriever, Molly.

We are also
finding that many of the locks on the Trent/Severn can supply potable
water to boaters if you ask.

The Rideau, at least for now, has
plenty of depth in thier water as does the Trent/Severn.

Bill
and Birute Fleck
B & B
Endeavour TC36
Lock 6,
Frankford, Trent/Severn