The Adventures of Monk's Vineyard - The Great Loop and Beyond: July 26, Day 43

We woke up to clouds, but no rain. However, it did rain during the night, but we don’t count that since we’re sleeping. After a leisurely Sunday breakfast of pancakes (with the fresh raspberries and blueberries that we picked up a couple of days before), sausage and eggs, we headed out around 9:00 a.m.

We went through 4 locks and arrived at Smiths Falls around 10:45. Historically, there used to be 3 locks at Smiths Falls, but the old ones were replaced by one big one. Then there is another lock about ¼ mile up. We were going to go through that lock and stay on the other side. However, as we exited the first lock there were several mooring areas available in a beautiful park setting, so we decided to stop and tie up.

Unfortunately, we didn’t pay attention to the trees overhead and as we were bringing the boat in we heard a cracking sound. A few of the branches got intertwined with the radar and antenna. We pulled the boat back a ways to clear all the branches but we had broken off a few so it looked like the radar had sprouted limbs. We cleared off most of the broken branches to hide the evidence that we had nearly destroyed their tree and lowered the radio antenna so we could leave without doing it (the tree) any more damage.

We have done enough locks now to learn a lot more about how they work and how we should prepare and perform our locking duties. We have been going “Up” since Montreal; this is the most challenging direction. Generally, we have been the largest boat, so we are asked to go first. That is so that we take the brunt of all the swirling waters and the little guys just hang out and drink beer (not really, I think that would be frowned on).

There is almost always a small current affecting the direction of the boat and how you need to steer to get properly lined up with the dock wall. Regardless of the experience, I only get it right about every 5 locks.

The grass they grow in the locks has an effect as well. First the depth finder tells you that you are 2 feet below the ground, but we have continued to float regardless. The rudder and thruster are both rendered useless because the grass fouls both of them. We have been thankful for the line cutters on the prop because they help mow the lawn a bit.

You get subtle warnings that you are about to have to do some pushing and pulling on the cables. The water flow is controlled manually by the cranks that open the flood gates. The gears give off a loud clicking noise when they start to open, so you know to get ready. Some of the lockmasters are very considerate of the lead boat and open them gradually, so that you only have to work a little bit. Others though, enjoy seeing Linda struggle with the staving pole (boat hook) in one hand and the line in the other trying to both push and pull at the same time and they open the flood gate a little more, but shut them off quickly, so that we have to go through the experience more often. The loud clicking of the gears will let us know what to expect based on the number of clicks and how fast it is clicking.

Then we get to exit the lock. You need to steer the boat away from the wall so that you don’t hit the gates on the way out. If you do that the dinghy will hit both the wall and the gate. So, the drill has been to use the thruster (if not clogged by the grass) to move the bow away from the wall while steering the boat into the wall to move the stern away from the wall. This seems to work ok. If the thruster is clogged, you do everything with the prop wash and you get lots of exercise turning the steering wheel and just giving a bit of throttle towards the wall , then towards the channel, etc..

Since we are usually the first boat to leave, the others don’t seem to mind waiting for us to go through our drill, because they know that we enabled them to have another beer while waiting. It works out well for everyone except maybe us. END OF LOCK TALK.

After showers, a drink and relaxing a bit we headed off to explore the town. We had lunch at Rob Roy’s Pub. Very good. Gerry thought it was the best Shepard’s Pie he’d had in a long time. After that we went to the Rideau Canal Museum. It was very interesting to learn more about the beginnings of this historical canal. We wandered through Centennial Park and then through town where we found a Giant Tiger (a multi-purpose store). Here we found some electric fly swatters that had been recommended by the couple on Sterling Lady …. So we decided to buy some. We decided they work because we haven’t seen a fly since bringing them back to the boat.

Back at the boat, Gerry did a little route planning to see where we are on our schedule. Linda took a little nap; then Gerry took a little nap. Boy, the pressures of a warm sunny Sunday afternoon!!

Around 6:00 we heard music … it sounded live and it sounded like it was right outside our door. It was! There was a Sunday evening concert in the park (sort of a musical church service). The weather was perfect and the music was relaxing.

Linda took a short walk up to the next lock (the detached Smiths Falls lock) to check it out. It was very quiet up there. Only one boat tied to the wall.

There is a big water tower that we can see from where we are moored announcing the town of Smiths Falls – Chocolate Capital of Ontario. Sadly, we were told by one of the lockmasters that the Hershey chocolate factory closed down last year. Many of the people that work at the locks are people that lost there jobs when the factory closed.

We were curious about how many locks we have done, so we tried to go back and count. We think we’ve done 53, but don’t hold us to it. Perhaps we’ll try to keep track from now on.
Our final entertainment for the night was trying to kill flies with our battery operated fly swatters. After that it was off to bed.