Around 8:00 am we pull up to the wall at Jones Falls after a very pleasant night at the dock by the Hotel Kenny. The hotel chef is apparently very well known and he did an excellent job with the meal last night. Because of the price of liquor here in Canada the Rob Roys continue to come looking like they are ready to go back for a refill.
The Hotel Kenny celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2002 making it 134 years old this year. The interior is typical of hotels of the twenties vintages with a few deer heads thrown in. It was once visited by President Taft who at 350 lbs brought his own bed. A lounge chair was placed by the river's edge so he could fish.
Kenny Hotel
We were fortunate to get into the first group going north around 8:30 am, along with two small powerboats headed for Westport for ice cream (Six hours of locks and rain for ice cream,... nah, don't think so).
The rains started and the day turned ugly but it was still some of the prettiest scenery we've ever seen on our cruises. In one lock they crammed six boats in (100' x 26' lock) and in spite of the rain was like a party.
In talking to one of the boats, they suggested a place in Portland, Ontario for an overnight, Len's Cove Marina. We had hoped to go to Westport, Ontario overnight but the marina was backed up and full with five boats waiting. This is some kind of a holiday for all construction workers for two weeks and those with boats have all converged on the Rideau Canal.
Len's Cove
We decided to head in the rain to Len's Cove Marina and after a pump out from a mobile septic tank on wheels described from one Len's Cove reseident as vintage 1940, (with a stink to match), we settled down in a slip and spent some time removing "lock grime" from "Blue Belle." Tonight's dinner will be in "The Galley" a restaurant close to the marina. We launched the dinghy for a short row to the restaurant and had a nice and unexpectedly good meal on the roof top patio. There was one other restaurant in town, "Fast Freddies" but is closed.
The locks are getting old, mainly because you lose so much time going through them. We got lucky today with the first set of four but you can wait for an hour or more as they bring boats from the opposite direction, and then an hour plus for yourselves. Last two days we travelled about 25 miles each day. Only good thing is that between the locks you are going "trawler" speed (10 km/hr, or 6.2 mph), which is very economical. We filled up at Alexandria Bay, NY, at the eastern most part of the Thousand islands we went to, and I am hoping to get out of Canada without refue
ling because, as an example, the price of diesel where we are tonight is $1.50 per liter which I believe translates to $5.90 per gallon! If you want to do the math, cruising speed burns about 1.6 miles per gallon. In the States it was between $3.90 and as high as $4.499, not great but a lot better than this.
Tomorrow is a real question mark because of the Quebec holiday and where to get into a marina or lock wall. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow and Monday. so we may take the day to anchor out of one of the islands in the Big Rideau Lake, the largest in our route, and swim in this crystal clear lake water.
Not sure the video below will work for most but this will give an idea of what it takes to manually operate these locks.
Click on any of the photos above to enlarge them.
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