Wednesday August 29, Lower Brewers Lock, our last stop on the Rideau. Despite the strong winds on the eve of our departure for home base at Loyalist Cove Marina in Bath, we take one last dinghy ride on the Cataraqui River, accompanied by a heron, a kingfisher, and a small swimming mammal, probably a muskrat.
And our evening is made very beautiful indeed by the sunset as the winds die down and all is still.
Up at 06:00 the following morning, we are presented with winds somewhat greater than those forecast for our passage across the River Styx (not that one, the other one) and Colonel By Lake to Kingston Mills, the last but also one of the more involved stations since it includes a swing bridge and four lock chambers. Since lock-through times of up to 1 1/2 hours are possible, we want to be in the first lockage at 09:00 to make it in time for the Kingston lift bridge further on at 11:00: the bridge only opens on the hour and doesn’t open at all at noon.
So we leave just after 07:00, and it’s breezy to say the least. And the north wind makes it cool.
At Kingston Mills, at 08:40, we are the only boat there. Which is good for our place in line, but not so good for tying up to a very windy and wavy dock. With Michel performing very bravely, we get a line around a bollard, and then wrestle the boat in and then forward bit by bit. We tie up and breathe our relief, just before the Parks Canada staff arrive to help. We are certainly being tested on our last lock, but, since we are the only boat, we get through in record time, and then poodle along the Cataraqui River, under the Highway 401 bridge, as the sun comes out and the wind moderates and all is forgiven.
At 13:20, in what is now blistering heat, we tie up at the gas dock at Loyalist Cove Marina for a pump out of the holding tank and a fill up of the fuel tanks. Old friends and marina staff welcome us back, and see us safely to our old slip – C6, where the engines are shut down after our 98 day cruise. And M, of course, immediately goes for a swim in the pool.
Over three months we’ve travelled 1500 miles down the Saint Lawrence, the Richelieu River, the Chambly Canal, Lake Champlain, The Saguenay, the Ottawa River and The Rideau Waterway, from fresh water to salt and back, with currents in our favour and against us, through dozens of locks big and small. And we made it to our ultimate destination, Baie Eternité, in the fabled Saguenay fjord.
Along the way we were sweltering hot and amazingly cold, we met many great, helpful people – Americans, French and Anglo Canadians, Europeans – and enjoyed some marvelous French cuisine; we tied up at remote marinas and posh ones, anchored out on our own, and been the only boat on the water for hours on end, with only the occasional cargo ship or tanker passing by.
And we saw whales.
You couldn’t have asked for a better season…makes me want to embark on a similar voyage. What is the plan for next year…? Hope to see you before the boats are put to bed for the season.