Stowaway on Board in the Rideau Canal

 

Exiting Davis Lock, one of 49 locks on the Rideau Canal.

Tory is the only authorized
animal on Salty Paws!

The lock was beginning to fill with water when Molly’s shriek echoed throughout the lock chamber.  I knew it was too loud to mean a spider, and I had a very quick look at something on the line that Molly had been holding.  She yelled “an animal is in the cockpit,” while rushing into the cabin closing the door to the cockpit.  I offered that maybe it was a squirrel or chipmunk, but “No!” Molly said, “I don’t know what it is, maybe a mink or weasel or something."

We switched places on the boat, but I saw no animal as it was likely now hiding under the lazarette seat.   I began to be thankful that at least it wasn’t a bear or raccoon that have been known to climb up on boats.  I asked one of the lock attendants his recommendation to get a weasel-like creature out of our cockpit.  The lock operator said “I have no idea.  It has never happened!”  We could have tied up after going through the lock to figure it out, but I wanted to get to our final destination of the day, still four locks away.

Cleaning out the cockpit before the attempted capture.

News of our plight was quickly shared with all the lock operators on the system.  At our last lock of the day one of the operators gave us a fishing net to try to capture whatever it was.  Finally, we docked for the night, I put on long pants, shoes and gloves and soon cleared the cockpit of everything that wasn’t bolted down.  Jon from Taku and Otto from Vega then joined me in the cockpit while Molly and Liz from Taku looked on with phone cameras in hand while Anna from Vega held on to Tory, who didn’t like the fact that an undesirable animal had invaded her space.

Quickly, I was able to use a paddle to flush the animal out of hiding, while the animal jumped and darted to a new hiding place.  It was a baby mink!  Now we are having an audience at the dock, and we hear the chorus “mink are vicious!”  Then I took the fish net while Jon and Otto each had a paddle.  Twice I got him in the fish net, but he quickly fell through one of the holes.  The two videos tell the rest of the story.

The Rideau River Falls dump into the Ottawa River and necessitated a canal for any hope of navigation.

Once the cheers subsided it was time to return to our enjoyment of the Rideau Canal.  England had wanted this canal built as a way to have a secure route of passage between Montreal, Canada's commercial hub, and Kingston, where the British navy was centered. At the time England and the United States were still bitter enemies, and the Americans could easily attack and block passage on the St. Lawrence River.  

Colonel John By, an English military engineer, came out of retirement to lead this difficult project during its construction from 1826-1832  His challenges including the difficult terrain, harsh weather, managing a diverse workforce and dealing with malaria, which was surprisingly common in many marshy and wetland parts of both Canada and the United States.  It wasn't until the mid-20th Century that improvements in public health, medical treatments and sanitation mostly eradicated malaria from both countries. 

In Canada Colonel By has always been revered for this accomplishment and many places bear his name.  Ottawa, for example, was originally named ByTown, and one of the national parks we visited was on Colonel By Island.  In England, it was a different story.  Cost overruns on the Rideau construction led to By being recalled to England just prior to its completion. His career was over. 

Skating on the Canal is popular in the
winter, but climate change resulted in
just 3 days of skating this year.

The Canal has 49 locks and covers approximately 125 miles.  Parks Canada now manages the system and each lock has a park and rest rooms.  Cruisers can tie up and stay at the walls and docks that are before and/or after each lock.  The middle third of the system connects numerous lakes with great swimming, beautiful anchorages and quaint towns.  

We spent roughly one week on the Canal.  Our stops including the lock walls, town docks, a National Park island and a beautiful anchorage as depicted in the following pictures. 

From right to left on the Rideau Canal wall in Ottawa - Taku, Salty Paws and Vega.

Liz took this picture of Salty Paws at Burritt Falls, where we all spent one night.

At Last Duel Park.

One town we visited was Perth, two locks off the main canal, where we docked at Last Duel Park.  The park is indeed the location of Canada's last fatal duel.  It was fought between two local men, Robert Lyons and John Wilson, both young lawyers and both very interested in the same woman, Elizabeth Hughes.  The combatants did their paces and turned to fire, both missing.  It could have ended there, but Wilson insisted that they continue.  In the second exchange, Wilson killed Lyon.  

This Perth park was named in honor of
Big Ben, the most celebrated horse
in Canadian history.

Wilson was tried for murder but was acquitted as at the time dueling was still thought by many to be a legitimate way to resolve disputes.  Shortly thereafter dueling was outlawed in Canada.  As to Wilson, he not only got to marry Elizabeth he become a judge!

We spent one night on Colonel By Island, owned by Canada's National Parks.  The swimming was excellent.

Otto, Jon, Tory and I climbed to the top of the cliff overlooking our anchorage in Morton's Bay.  Salty Paws was the only boat we could see from the top.

The hikers did overload our dinghy, but, fortunately, it was very calm in Morton's Bay.

Kingston City Hall and Park just up from the marina.

After 17 days on the water we finally arrived in Kingston, the terminus of the Rideau Canal.  Kingston is a city of roughly 140,000 people and a heavy maritime and tourism focus.  Restaurants, attractions and ferries to Canadian islands abound.  Our marina bordered the bustling downtown, and we spent an extra day ashore with the women window shopping and making stops at the bakery and coffee shop.  We men visited the Maritime Museum, the ice cream shop and a local boat builder that specializes in aluminum boats mostly for the US. Navy and governmental bodies that use fast patrol boats.

The Canadian cruise liner Keewatin, built to ferry tourists, settlers and Carl across Lake Huron and Lake Superior, from one train terminus to another, a journey of 2-3 days.  When the ship is the last Edwardian passenger liner in the world.  The Keewatin was built in Scotland in 1907 and was decommissioned in 1965.  When first delivered to Canada, had to be cut in half to get through the smaller locks on the St. Lawrence River.

Otto and Jon toured the Keewatin with me.

 

All the chairs in the ship's dining room are bolted down except for those at the captain's table.

Here Jon is admiring the craftmanship in this aluminum patrol boat being built for the US Virgin Islands.  The builder is Metal Craft Marine, and the company has orders for well over 150 boats, many from the US Department of Defense.

The meal at Chez Piggy in Kingston was the best meal of the trip.

Boldt Castle main entrance.

Boldt Castle.  Molly told the story of the Castle in in 2019 at - https://cruisingonsaltypaws.blogspot.com/2019/08/off-to-canada.html

Rain, wind and colder weather put an end to shorts, but we still had a nice cruise, reentering the United States at Boldt Castle, and after a visit there, going on to Clayton where our truck and boat trailer awaited us to return to Maine.

Sharing drinks on our last night together in Clayton, NY.

We awoke on our last day together to 20 knot winds.  Getting our boats out of the water was more challenging than usual.

Molly, Tory and I took a couple of days to trailer back to Maine, visiting with friends along the way.  Once we dropped off the boat at the boatyard, I couldn't restart the truck.  It might have taken us several hours to make the last 20 miles of our drive, but an enterprising boatyard worker crawled under the car, tapped the starter, and just like that we were able to start the truck!  Whew!

Our next boat adventure will likely be in the Florida Keys, beginning in January.