The Sterling Lady on
America's Great Loop,
For the Secound Time!
7/8/09
Nobody said it was gonna be THIS COLD FOR THIS LONG! Today we once again took advantaage of our mooring pass, and stayted the nite in the quite park setting at St. Ours Lock.
These Canadian waters have a real week problem, that grows from the bottom to the surface, in up to 10 feet of water! This boat's job is to cut the weeds out.
7/9/09
A long day , rainy and cold AGAIN! and this time rough, but luckily we ran down wind. The St. Lawrence River is big, and nasty on this trip.  No pics.At days end we lucked out at the Indian Reservation marina called "Kanawake" meaning running rapids. It's really a small boat marina, no electric, no water, but we had drinks at their bar and they let us dock for free. Nice folks.
It's a very short run from Kanawake to St. Ann de Bellevue, but this is a great stop, right down town.
Lots of restaurants in this town, mostly waterfront.
What????
It's a $2.75  bus and subway (metro) ride to right down town Montreal.  Lot's of old architecture, but not allot else. more of a working city.
This is the Canadian No Wake sign.
This is a Canadian Coast Guard hover craft, went by our slip, and contiued OVER the dam!
Way to go Canada! Very Eco minded.
If you ever stay here, choose the wall on the park side, not the town side. There was an incident with a beer bottle and a boat last nite on the town side.
7/10/09
Today we locked thru the Carillon Lock, to raise us  feet. That's not a beer bottle sign on the wall.....it's....
instructions on how to tie to the floating dock in the lock, 3 abreast.
The enourmous gate rises out of the water, and you enter under it. Only one other dam on the Erie canal has this.
This afternoon we arrived at a free dock, with electric, at the town of Hawksburg. We will stay here 2 days as the weather tomorrow is , yes, rain and strong winds.  Behind us is "Eam De Gamme" from Montreal.
In town , we found the Dong Kong cafe??? and the world's largest collection of TY stuffed dolls.
For the non believers, this be the price of rum in Canada! I usually pay $16 for that Bacardi Bottle, not $47.75!!!!!!!!!! I actually bought the rot got for $30. May have to quit drinking. This is why bar drinks here are watered down and expensive.
After 7 hours of crusing , we anchore across from this Ottawa waterfalls.
We stayed put while Judy fed the ducks.
We are headed to the free docks at the Hilton Casino. It has some of the lowest bridges yet, I actually had to also lower my antennas and the radar only cleared one bridge by about a foot. Yep, we going thru there.
We made it, with a couple of feet to spare.
This is the best protected marina I have seen yet! It's got to be an old quarry, we are surrounded by 30 ft. high rock walls, in 45 foot of water!
7/13/09
Today we are traveling the Great Loop Backwards! The casino at Hull, back east of our anchorage 4 miles, offers free dockage with electric and water, so of course we take advantage.
There is this VERY low bridge we have to barley clear, and we did , barely.
One of the best protected marina's I have seen so far. Oh yeah, I left $30 at the casino slots.
7/14/09
With full water tanks, and charged batteries, we are off to Ottawa, cruising past the waterfall by our anchorage, under the Ottawa river bridge, took a left and There it was! The staircase flight of 8 lock that take you into the Rideau!! It just keeps getting better and better!.
Waitin at the Blue Line. We are now, according to my GPS, 1,442 miles north of home.
The view from the Blue line.
While waiting, we had two visitors come by the boat. An immature mallard duck and my a black squirrel.
It takes a while to lock thru 8 flights, but they have been doing it for over 180 years,and the are pretty good at it. You can see the rubber coated cables on the walls. We secure the stern and midship by looping a line around the cable and back to the boat. The line and boat will then ride up with the water level. Great system.
We do keep a sharp knife handy, just in case the line should catch. It din't.
At the top of the flight, you go thru a tunnel .
Our aft deck view. That's the Ottawa Queen heading our way.
The city had cleaned up the area, no more street people, and installed a surveillance system to monitor the docks.
Ottowa is a very clean city with HUGE busses.
Parliment
The flight locks.
Nice totem pole.
And ended a fantastic day, with a few expensive drinks,,
7/15/09
At 10 am every day, they do the changing of the Guard on the Parlement lawn.
Quite the ceremony.
Parlament is located on top of the HUGE cliff, that overlooks the city of Hull. The Casino where we stayed it the tall green building, cener of the picture.
After waking with dead batteries on board, we finally are Departing Ottawa, 12.30 pm.