As You Wish - Our Adventures: August 10-12, 2024. Short travel days, locks, and no internet

Saturday, August 10, 2024 Hurst Marina to Burritts Rapids Lock. 18 miles and 3 hours

Apologies to anyone keeping up with this blog for the lack of postings. We have been without internet service for 2 weeks. You know you are in the backwoods when your cell service signal strength only says SOS!! We have safely made it through the Rideau and are in Kingston. We'll be doing posts daily now and get you caught up.

Hurst Marina was a nice place to wait out the weather and catch up on internet. Even had a nice meal at the Black Swan Tavern. Drawback was the area is loaded with weeds. Any water depth less than 15' grows long strands of grassy stuff because the water is so clear. They actually have a mechanism on a boat for "harvesting" it.

Weed harvesting at Hurst Marina

Unfortunately, they must not have gotten to our slip before we arrived. Didn't realize how bad it was until we got docked at Burritts Rapids and I went to clean out the engine strainers and they were packed with grass. Still not sure how the engine managed to get enough water flow to keep them cool but never saw the temperature gauges going higher than normal. Today's trip was through some narrow twisting shallow areas. We were doing the required 10kph and amazed to have 3 Canadian flagged cruising boats zip by us on plane outside the marked channel. Not sure what the hurry was about as we found them all waiting for the lock to open when we finally arrived. After locking we tied to the wall for the evening. Burritts Rapids was founded in the late 1700's prior to the canal build by a Loyalist from Massachusetts who moved here and built a dam and mill. Just a few older houses, a church and a cemetery make up what was once a busy little town. Oddly, in the middle of nowhere and across the road from the lock was a nice little cafe serving a tasty breakfast.

Burritts Rapids Church

The old General Store now the Community Center

Wonderfully restored private residence dating back to canal builders

Journey for August 10, 2024

Monday August 12, 2024 Burritts Rapids to Merrickville lock 7 miles and 3.2 hours

Burritts Rapids was one of the few towns where a bridge was included in the original canal plans. The current bridge was installed in 1897 and is still in use today. Just a one lane offset truss design swing bridge. One of the lock workers has to come and open it by placing a metal pole down the center of the bridge that attaches to the gears. They walk the pole round and round to turn the gears and that make it swing open. Quite fascinating. A little nerve-wracking going through the narrow opening it makes.

Burritts Rapids 1897 manually opened swing bridge

Almost as many locks as miles today - 6 total. Double lock at Nicholsons, Clowes lock and then flight of 3 at Merrickville. We got secured inside the Clowes lock and they informed us they needed to do some maintenance before proceeding. Then two guys start climbing on one of the back gates - tightening and untightening some of the metal straps supporting the wooden doors. Made us a bit anxious knowing that gate will be holding back all the water in our chamber as we ascend upward. Thankfully, it worked fine once they were done.

Maintenance worker "fixing" something on the gate before we can lock through.
Not sure his work methods are OSHA compliant

Next issue came while transitioning between Merrickville locks 1 and 2. Apparently this is one of the shallower concrete sills and the lockmaster asked what we draw. "Four and a half feet". No problems he says, "I'll make sure to have a full 5' fill". NOT!! As we're idling over the sill we hear the unmistakable noise of scraping. Just a few seconds - twice. Not even a noticeable bump - just the noise. We have a short keel that extends a bit past the level of our props so we knew they weren't damaged, and the keel is solid fiberglass so we are hoping it was just some scratching. Won't really know until we haul the boat later this year. Anyway - the lockmaster heard the noise too. Had to fill out a report, etc. No problems with the sill at the rest of his locks. Merrickville is a popular destination on the Rideau. Another historic town built before the canal. John Merrick built a dam and then an assortment of businesses- grist mill, saw mill, foundry. The ruins of several of these stone building are still visible along the rapids. Cute town, good restaurants, artsy shops, etc. We arrived at 12:30 Monday to completely empty lock walls as all the weekenders had departed but by 1:30 they were out of space. Glad we got an early start.