We were the first boat at the waiting pleasure craft dock at 8 and later found out it only opens once a day right now at 9 am, so we were glad we were going to get through this morning. I made breakfast, worked out, chatted with other waiting boaters, and waited for our go ahead.
It was around 9:15/20 by the time we started loading in with 5 other boats. We went through another lock with the same boats, just a little way down the canal. Coming out of the 2nd lock, a few faster boaters passed us, but we wound up seeing them as they were docking at the next lock Ècluse de Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue (lock #3 today and 25 for the trip), which we went through alone. Seems like they will be eating and then possibly locking through after. We want to lock through now and dock at the Carillon Lock so we are ready for their first through lock at 9:30 tomorrow. We continued cruising on until we got to the monstrosity- Carillon Lock in Carillon, Quebec, across from the easternmost point of Ontario. We tied up and got ready for bed.
We were the first and only ones into the Carillon Lock (#26 for the trip) this morning. (Reopened 1:10 on June 11 and we were rushing to get through ever since.)
Unlike other floating docks inside of the locks, this one was unattended, so we had to tie ourselves up. I got nervous at one point thinking the bow line came untied as Ben was trying to power the stern in, so I climbed down the side of the boat and hung on, ready to jump to the dock, which felt much further than I anticipated it being. A few seconds of death-grip holding later, I deemed it close and dropped down to land on the dock. I messed with the line and wound up keeping it just how it was and looked up to see the lockmaster watching us. Ha ha ha- I wonder if he saw my struggle.
I climbed back on the Cartermaran and we looked around, in awe of the behemoth of a lock we were in all alone. We admired all of the rolling devices on the floating dock and along the walls.
The sun was shining and warming us up for the first time in several days, which everyone commented about. We watched the water creep up the 5 flights of metal stairs in front of us. (It took 46 seconds for one landing to fill from bottom to top bar and 100 seconds from the bottom of one flight landing to the next.) We were out of the lock by 10:05, enjoying the warmth and brightness from the sun.
The water, trees, and houses in this area- Ontario to west, Quebec to the east- with the sunlight was just beautiful! Lots of boating time today. No other locks.
In was getting cloudy and starting to drizzle when we decided to scope out the wall by the locks. There is a giant castle that runs along the side of the locks and we told the kids it was Hogwarts. It looked almost as fancy as it and they went along with it. We couldn't wait to see it closer in the morning.
We anchored at Ruisseau de la Brasserie, across the river from Ottawa, but still Quebec- close to Rideau Locks 1-8 so we could get first locks through in the morning when they open at 9 am. This was the first time Ben did most of the anchoring and I was in charge of bumping the boat into reverse every now and then, as told by Ben, so we stayed in an ideal anchorage location. I also had to touch the tablet screen to set the anchor alarm once I heard Ben start to drop the anchor. Problem was, I couldn't hear the anchor dropping like I thought I'd be able to and Ben didn't tell me when he started it. There was a lot of loud communication between the two of us and lots of learning for next time.
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