Leg 1 - Ottawa to The Rideau Canal

 8/5/23

Montebello to Ottawa

3 Locks

36 Miles

A beautiful ride on the Ottawa River brought us to Ottawa. We decided to stay at Hull Marina just across the bridge, on the Quebec side. The other side of the bridge is Ontario, moving from a French speaking providence to English, a true bi-lingual city. Staying at Hull Marina gave us easy access to the Ottawa locks in the morning. As I mentioned in the previous post it was the last weekend of the Quebec Construction Holiday and a long weekend for the Ontario providence. We were glad we got a reservation just yesterday. On the water we find you can secure a dockage if you plan one to two days in advance at most. The marine community is quite fluid; weather happens, boats break and sometimes people just want to stay put or leave. It seems to always work out with thoughtful and yet minimal planning.

 There is a great walking and bike path over the bridge with lots of tourists checking things out. The view of the city and the locks is beautiful. We had a perfect day to explore on foot and Milo was up for the adventure.

Our first stop was checking out the locks from the top, examining what we are up against tomorrow. Known as The Flight of 8. These locks not only hold a prominent visual in the landscape, the locks are one of the primary reasons Ottawa was selected as the capital of Canada. The Ottawa locks are the entrance to the Rideau Canal, at one time a critical military waterway built in the 1830s on the heels of the War of 1812. After a few different capital cities for the country, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa in 1857 to fortify the military commitment to the area.

Making time to take in the sights, the Parliament Buildings are within a few steps of the locks. A few years after the naming of the capital an expansive collection of government buildings built of sandstone and slate were constructed. The gothic architecture is impressive.

Byward Market is a fun outdoor market with lots of vendor stalls, restaurants, pubs and plenty of ice cream or gelato - take your pick!!

Ottawa to Rideau Canal

8 Locks

We snagged the last spot!! Only 5 spots on the Ottawa Blue Wall, we were number 5! The Blue Wall is literally a blue painted wall where boats wait for the locks to open. It is consistent throughout the entire Canadian locking system. The Blue Wall is the exact length matching the length of the lock. Any additional boats wanting to lock through must find somewhere else to tie up or hover until there is room on the Blue Wall. Locking is a first come first serve etiquette so there is boat shaming if a boat tries to skip the line. 

While we wait, Milo and I walked to the top.

And boy did we wait, 4.5 hours before we started. Again the busy holiday weekend impacted the locking traffic. We were locking up, while there were double the amount of boats at the top locking down. The lockmaster decided to start from the top. 

The locks are a huge tourist attraction. The Rideau is one of the oldest continuously operated canals in North America with most of the locks hand operated. One lock attendant told us she was sore the first few weeks of the season, but by the end of the season she was in the best shape! It is a very physical job.

The lock attendants perform Tetris like modeling in short order to pack us all in based on the size and technology of the boats. COAST has pods which gives us great maneuverability and Captain Walt is an exceptional driver. :) All boats don't have the same handling, boats with limited maneuverability go in first considering those boats often swing out needing a lot of space until they are tied up to the wall. The Ottawa locks are large enough to usually have three boats across. A boat ties up to each wall with port or starboard ties, smaller boats are in the middle and rafted up to another boat on either the port or starboard side. Once you start the Flight of 8 you are with the same boaters in the same positions for the entire time. Pray you get a good boat neighbor, there is a lot of time to chit chat!

These locks are tall and continuous. As soon as you lock through one, another one is in close succession. The good part is you get really good at locking!  As the boat enters the lock, a lock attendant assigns the boat a cable. From the bow I grab the cable on the wall with a boat hook and loop a line around it. Once I am on the wall, Walt does the same on the stern. With loose hands you hold the lines as the locks rises or falls. Loose hands are very important to keep the boat fenders off the wall to let the boat move smoothly and the lock walls are usually full of algae making a mess of your fenders!

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Just shy of 7 hours we were through the locks and on our way to the Rideau! 

All our best from the vessel COAST , Captain Walt and crew Aimee and Milo