C-Shel's Move From the Rideau to the St. Lawrence River

I really do enjoy writing for our blog, however, you would never say it, by the amount of posts I put here giving updates on our travels. Such is life I guess, with the demands of work, and leisure for that matter. 

The biggest news is that the C-Shel has left the Rideau. Last year, given all the talk of the mismanagement of the system by Parks Canada, we thought there might be a mass exodus of boaters off the system to the 1000 islands, St. Lawrence River. This we thought, would cause a shortage of available dock space in the 1000 Islands region, so we decided to get ahead of the game and put our name on the 3 year waiting list at Gananoque Municipal Marina. So instead of 3 years going by, about half a year did. Gan Marina called us and said we have a slip on a set of new docks that are going to replace the break wall, it will have a wonderful view, and will be ready for spring 2014. Since we are the type of people who seem to thrive on change we decided to take the slip. I am able to live and work aboard for the summer, so commuting from Ottawa to Gananoque wouldn't be an issue, it seemed like the right thing to do.

We took a week vacation at the end of May to bring the boat down the Rideau to Gananoque. We only needed a weekend, but wanted to take our time and fully enjoy and say goodbye to the river system that gave us so many memories over the last 15 years. The Rideau was like a ghost town at the end of May. Very few boats, and we even stayed as the only boat at the ever popular Davis Lock. Our only company was a family of Geese tending to their Goslings.

Mother Goose and Her Young by C-Shel Photography on 500px

After saying good bye to the Rideau, we stopped into Kingston's Confederation Basin for provisions and some eating out, then the next day off to Milton Island for the night. We rarely stop at Milton, it is usually packed. This time however, we had the island to ourselves. The water looked inviting for a swim, clean and clear. However, one touch and that idea soon dissipated. The water temp was much colder that the Rideau. About 12.5 degrees celcius, the Rideau at that time was around 16-17 degrees. I know this first hand because I fell in during our trip down the Rideau...

While on a mooring at Colonel By Island, on Big Rideau Lake, I decided to take a kayak ride in the cool calm evening to take some video. We had just purchased a new Hobie i9s inflatable Kayak and we were still smitten with the novelty of it, using it whenever we had the chance. I was a little over confident in the stability of the kayak, I laid Cyndi's Canon HD Camcorder with expensive wide angle lens attached on the Kayak before getting on from the swim platform of the boat. Stepping aboard the kayak a little to much to one side I immediately knew I was in trouble. In the millisecond it took for the boat to flip I was already thinking about my wife's video camera, the very video camera that was used to take all the videos on our YouTube Channel. As I was completely submerged and my body going into shock from the cold water, especially my lower extremities, I managed to swipe my hands a few times to see if I could miraculously get ahold of the video camera. No such luck. As Cyndi came out of the boat after hearing the splash I made on entry, she could do nothing but laugh, and continued to even after I told her I had lost her video camera. I had a hoodie and pants on so I looked like a drowned rat. I promised we would get another camera, and that was that.

...Back at Milton, with the fresh memory of how cold the Rideau felt, there was no way I would enter the St. Lawrence River on purpose in May.  

The next morning with a cruise though the thick fog down the Bateau Channel, we arrived at our new home base for the summer of 2014 in Gananoque. 


C-Shel Docked at Milton Island

Now that it is the end of July, do we regret out move? Not in the slightest. Just as the Rideau is a boaters paradise in its own way, so is the 1000 Islands. So many places to go, so many anchorages, the water is beautiful, and we are having a blast.  A few weeks after the video camera incident, we bought a new GoPro Hero 3+. The 1000 Islands video below is the result. I think Cyndi is glad I lost that camera overboard. 



Though we have plans on another boat to get us down the intra-coastal and to the Bahamas, I don't think we will give up our dock at Gan. We will more than likely be back up here for the summer months to enjoy the world class freshwater boating Eastern Ontario has to offer.
 

Golden Cottage by C-Shel Photography on 500px

The Launch of C-Shel Photography

If there is one thing I became passionate about during all these years of boating and taking in the natural surroundings, it is photography.  I make no claim to being some great photographer, I have a lot to learn. However, one this is for sure I really do enjoy it, and will continue into the future and grow as a photographer. So I am am officially starting C-Shel Photography. A place where I will share my best work to date. It will only have the top 15-20 photos in the available portfolio, as more current work comes up I will be taking others down. So each print will have a limited time to purchase. You have the option to purchase different sizes of prints on a wide variety of medium, like traditional canvas to modern aluminum.

We are destined to travel by boat (the C-Shel of course) and capture some of the most beautiful places on earth. Reaching for imagery that is in some small way a capture of that deeply intense emotional experience I and others feel when we are on or near the water. There is just something about a boat, silky water, and a sunset.

The main theme of my photography is nautical, but to me this includes a wide variety of categories such as the voyage and the destination, the people and the places, the boats and the equipment, the rivers, lakes, and oceans.

We believe that life's journey is meant to be shared. Join us through imagery on our journey as we share ours with you... Even hang it on your wall if you like.

Day 1-3 Big Rideau to Lower Brewers Lock

Canada Day fireworks off of Cow Island in Big Rideau Lake
Start Time: 2012-07-01 11:48 AM
End Time: 2012-07-03 1:20 PM

Active track info:

Distance: 33.9 NM
Total time: 49h 27'
Average Speed: 0.7 kts
Max Speed: 7.8 kts

Has been a beautiful start to our 2012 vacation cruise. 3 days in, and we will hit Kingston Ontario tomorrow afternoon. Current plans are to go down the St. Lawrence, head south on Lake Champlain, up the Erie canal, then cross Lake Ontario to home. Pictures and video to follow.

Click on the link to see our track in Google Maps.


Opinicon Lake Anchorage
Morton Bay Kayaking. Cave!
From inside the Cave

A beautiful 52 Krogen Express anchored in Morton Bay. Cyndi says that's the boat she want to have as a liveaboard. :)
The C-Shel and the Krogen Express (Jackets II)

Old Montreal

Even though we just live a couple of hours away, we have never gone to the Old Port in Montreal. We had decided years ago that the only way we wanted to see the Old Port was by boat, it was certainly worth the wait. The Old Port Marina is a pleasure to stay at, the docks are clean, and there is lots of room. It is central to anything that is happening in Old Montreal. On the east side was the restaurant terraces, Cirque du Soleil, a photography exhibit and much more, to the west were the dock shops, the science museum, and to the north is central Old Montreal.

We stayed 3 days and 3 nights from July 9th to the 11th, and it was the perfect furthest point destination for this cruise. The first day, we just relaxed and got our bearings. We dropped into a tent display that was showing a beautiful nature photography exhibit.   That evening we had to try one of the restaurants in the area. We ended up at Jardin Nelson, which had wonderful atmosphere and good food. The restaurant is sort of outside but behind an old building facade, there are huge upside-down umbrellas that catch and funnel rain water into clear tubes where the patrons can stay dry and watch the rain falling, all the while listening to a really good live jazz band.

The next morning the Admiral wanted to get up to Saint Catherine Street for some shopping. It was advised to us that the best way to get there was on the subway. Since we have never been on a subway we decided that would be the way we would go. After riding the Metro I have to agree it is a very cheap, fast and easy way to get around Montreal.

The remaining days we spent trying to get into sold out Cirque du Soleil, which we never succeeded in doing, looking around the science museum, shopping, eating, and enjoying the action. We even seen a few of the highest fireworks from the C-Shel of the Fireworks competition where they were doing a fireworks tribute to Celine Dion, not sure why, but we will take it.

There is a good chance you will see some very large beautiful yachts as well up this way. The nicest we seen was the Vicem 72 that came in.

Old Montreal with the Old Port will be getting a visit from us again. We cannot recommend this destination more to any boater passing through. It is a great contrast against the secluded quite anchorages, small town marinas, and tranquil lock stations. Next time though, we may even stay at La Ronde Marina for a night to take in a couple roller coasters as well.

Ottawa to Montreal

The Ottawa River portion of the cruise is from July 5th through to the 9th, consisting of nights at Casino du Lac-Leamy, Montebello, Hudson, and Sainte Anne de Bellevue with a notable highlight through the Carillon Lock.

The flight of eight locks down from the Chateau Laurier were as uneventful as any other locking we do, except for the fact that we were interviewed by a Japanese documentary crew. The C-Shel may be on Japanese TV!  It was also very hot going down, we don't think we have ever been so warm doing any other lock. The heat wave struck big time that day, it reached into the 40's with the humidex. Once out on the Ottawa River however, things were a little cooler with a breeze off the water. With the Parliament buildings at our stern we were in good spirits to make the short trip to the Gatineau River, and into Lac-Leamy to take advantage of the free dockage at the Casino. The Casino Du Lac Leamy is a highly recommended stopover, with power, water hookup, its clean, with easy access to the casino and its restaurants. The casino's Air Conditioning was very much appreciated as well, since the A/C in the salon of the boat gave up blowing cold air in the mid day heat.  

Parliament Hill

Casino du Lac-Leamy Marina

The next morning we set off for Montebello. It was ridiculously hot again that day. We have a certain budget for fuel, so cruising at our hull speed of 7.5 knots was what we had planned to do most of the trip. The wind at our stern made it feel like there wasn't a breeze, we had no choice but to bring the C-Shel out of the water at planning speed of 19 knots. We enjoyed the wind at that speed and kept it up for about 1.5 to 2 hours. The Ottawa River opens up here, and almost begs you to go a little faster anyway. It was completely calm and it seemed we were the only ones headed this way.




We arrived at Montebello mid afternoon, registered, then quickly went to the pool to cool down.  We have never been to Montebello before. It exceeded our expectations. It is a lovely resort, with great marina facilities, beautiful grounds, and wonderful food. There is no way anyone cruising the Ottawa River should pass this place by. We will return every time we are on the Ottawa River.

Interior of Montebello Chalet

The following days cruise included a lockage through Carillon Lock. It is the first lock on the way to Montreal from Ottawa. It is a Parks Canada lock so your passes for Rideau or Trent locking work here. Carillon is the largest dropping lock in Canada, some 65 feet, and with its 200 ton guillotine door it is quite the experience. Locking through though is a breeze though, they have a dock installed inside the lock that goes up and down the lock wall. All boaters have to do is tie to the dock and relax and watch, no handling messy lock lines or fighting to keep you boat off the lock wall.

Continuing on to the village of Hudson, we stocked up on provisions at an IGA that was the nicest little grocery store. Hudson is a great place to stock up, and the village has a few nice places to eat as well. The Irish Pub we found served very good Lamb Shanks.

The last stop before Old Montreal would be the Sainte Anne de Bellevue Lock, which is on the lower western point of Montreal Island. This would be our destination for the next day. We stayed below the lock after going through. The southern pier is the quietest, though if you like the night life, the northern pier is where you will want to stay. The lock at Sainte Anne is lined with bars and restaurants. The Northern side will give someone great access to these, but you will get a lot of foot traffic coming by the boat. We actually were the only boat on the southern pier, probably because the water was so low, there was no access from the dock to the boat except from the bow. The C-Shel has a high bow so we had no problems. A couple of very good friends were in the area and decided to drop by and see us to chat about how the trip was going, as they may be doing this leg of the trip and back in August if the water levels do not get any lower.

Sainte Anne de Bellevue Lower Lock

Speaking of low water levels, it is pretty low on the Ottawa. I can remember kicking up mud in at least two places; pulling away from a fuel dock in Oka and pulling away from the dock in Hudson. The Yacht Club in Hudson would not even put us in the marina in a certain slip that was available because they were afraid we would hit. We stayed on the outside of the break wall of the marina. By examining the dock in Saint Anne it looks to be 2-3 feet lower than normal. It is said that the levels are at Chart Datum, and the charts display depths on the low side for safety.

The next morning it was off to Old Montreal, The distance wasn't too far, but we had 2 commercial locks to do and the wait times could be up to 3 hours. They were also calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we had to set off early. It was once again hot and not a breeze. I got lazy and left my bike leaned against the rail on the bow not tied down. I usually fold it up and put it in its storage bag in the cockpit, but not this one time. As we were entering the canal, there was a train of boaters heading from Lachine marina to go up the locks as well, each one kicking up a mighty big wake, having forgot about my bike we took the wakes at the bow as we normally would, except this time I noticed my bike rolling back and forth, It wasn't long until the bike's front tire rolled off the bow and the bike went under the rail and sunk to the bottom of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Needless to say, the C-Shel is taking donations for a fold-up bike.

After waiting for an hour to go through the first lock and finally getting through, we noticed some very dark clouds to the west that were blowing our way. I thought it best to bring the boat on plane and try to out run it to the next lock so we could tie up and take it at the dock. The storm was at our stern the for the 15 minutes it took to get to the next lock. The pleasure craft dock was full so I asked it I could raft onto someone quickly, and someone agreed. As we were tying the lines, the wind started and it poured out of the heavens.

The storm passed and we made it through the lock, now enroute to the Old Port in Montreal, we rounded the La Ronde amusement park and there was another dark cloud. This time we could not out run it, we had to head right for it. It was slow moving through the 4-5 knot current on the way to the Old Port, where we would normally be going 6.5-7.5 knots we were going 2.5-3.5 knots. At times the rain was so heavy that I could hardly see my bow pulpit and if it wasn't for the compass and the GPS, I wouldn't have a clue where we were heading. However as soon as we broke the current and the rain lifted, we could see the Old Port before us and we knew upon first glance that the trip through the commercial locks in the storms would be well worth it.

 Marina at the Old Port Montreal

First Leg - Rideau Lakes to Ottawa

It is Monday July 5th, and we are writing this as we patiently await the first group of boaters locking up the eight Ottawa locks. We are thankfully underneath the shade of the Rideau Street bridge while we wait for the first lock down of the day. We seem to have picked a heat wave to boat throughout the city of Ottawa; our arrival yesterday was in the upper 30s, and today calling for the low 40s with the humidex. That's ok, we will be done before the sun is too high in the sky and docked at Casino De Lac Leamy for the rest of the day and night.

We are a little tired this morning from the uneasiness of having the homeless sleeping next to the boat, and from the construction that seemed to have started at 5am at the Congress Center. I am not sure we would spend the night in downtown Ottawa again. Its not that it was unsafe, we just weren't perfectly relaxed in the atmosphere late in the night. Our recommendation would be to spend the day downtown, but then go back up the canal to Dows Lake at the marina for the night.

As we think back on the last 4 days, big smiles cross our faces. We could not have had a better start to our vacation. Good times spent with good friends on familiar waters.  The stretch of river from the Rideau Lakes to Long Island Lock was our old cruising grounds for at least 7 years. It was great to reconnect and hang out with some of these friends on the water.

We managed to leave home port at Rideau Ferry Harbour the evening of June 30th, traveling 2 hours and staying in the Smith Falls Basin. Watch for tree branches overhanging the dock on the park side of the basin when docking; just saying. We wanted to make as much headway as we could as the next day was Canada day and Merrickville can fill up very quickly on Canada Day.

Heading for Merrickville, between Edmunds and Kilmarnoc Lock stations.

Setting off for Merrickville early Canada Day morning, we caught the first lock down. We had checked our messages and already we were notified of 2 good friends at the Merrickville dock and 2 more on the way.  It would end up being a wonderful Canada Day, with some of the best fireworks I have seen in Merrickville ever, and we have experienced many Canada Day fireworks at Merrickville.

The next day it was on to Burritts Rapids Lock station, a very popular lock where many boaters from our old marina congregate on the weekends. It was Friday so there would be a good chance we would see some more old friends that night. One couple that came to Merrickville to see us had decided to join us and hang out until Sunday morning, so two of us left Merrickville and waited to lock down the 3 locks in the small village. Thinking it would be a slow day heading down toward Ottawa, since most boaters were heading back from Canada Day in downtown Ottawa, we were surprised to see after 10 minutes on the blue line, 8 mid sized power boats waiting to go down the lock with us. It was a double lock down, where a lock full of boats would go in one lock and when entered into the second lock the lock staff would load up the top lock again and follow right behind with another lock full of boats.

Locking down Merrickville Lock

On our approach to Burritts Rapids Lock we could see that the top of the lock was full, which was unfortunate since the top gets a little more breeze than down below, so down below we went. We took the last two available spots on the lower dock, and good thing too, there was still a few boats heading up the long reach coming from Ottawa expecting to get dockage at the lower dock at Burritts. I believe there ended up being 25 boats at Burritts that evening, boats were anchored out just off from the lower dock and boats were tied to trees as well.

The next day the plan was to meet up with some good friends at Long Island who had just this season upgraded there 26 cruiser, identical to the one that we upgraded from, to a really nice 32 footer. We rafted up 3 boats while anchored at the top of Long Island Lock. We spent a beautiful evening catching up and enjoying the scenery.

Our friends who had decided to travel with us until Sunday morning, had now decided that they were going to travel with us on our last leg to downtown Ottawa as far as they could then turn around and go back home. Like us, they had never been down any farther than Black Rapids Lock, and this was a good opportunity to do so. In the morning we started the engines, lifted our anchor, untied our still bed-laden friends who also had their hook down, pushed them off to swing on their own, and started the journey toward downtown.

It is a beautiful trip into Ottawa, lovely houses on the water, passing under road bridges that you don't think twice about when we drive on them in the car, but now take on a certain majestic aura about them as you pass under. Half way to downtown, in Hogs Back lock, our friends informed us that they too were going into downtown with us, then later in the evening, going back up to Dows Lake to keep their boat there for the week, and cruise back up to home port next weekend. This was wonderful news to us as we love spending time with them, and we really appreciated their spontaneity and willingness share this portion of the journey with us.  So the two of us kept on cruising together into downtown. Rounding the final corner into downtown we seen the Chateau Laurier at the end of the canal. Though we see this beautiful building all the time, it was like seeing it again for the first time from a boat. It was a sign of closure for the first leg of this cruise, a sign of something about to finish, and something new to begin.

Later that evening, after an afternoon of shopping and eating, we watched a couple of our best friends leave downtown Ottawa and head back up the canal, under a few bridges then out of sight. Though very sad to see them go and wishing they could stay a little longer, we soon realized that phase two of this trip is starting, and there is a lot more to see, explore, and experience on this already fulfilling trip.