August 23-24, 2024. End of the Rideau Canal - Lower Brewers Lock and Kingston

Friday August 23, 2024  Jones Falls to Lower Brewers Lock  16 miles and 3 hours. 

It is a glorious clear sunny morning to start the day.  Temps are expected to get into ideal mid 70's. 

It's a special day when you wake up to mornings like this

We're looking forward to taking a detour into Morton Bay.  Numerous boaters have told us it's worth a visit - tight entrance, then a nice opening to anchor but also a nice passage up and back the bay with tall cliffs on both sides.  Weekends it's busy with locals boating and kids cliff jumping.  Biggest drawback is a very dense growth of weeds anywhere anchorable.  Tales of pulling up anchors with weed balls a yard in diameter are common.  The entrance is scarily narrow and twisty.  Cliff on one side, rock outcropping on the other.  It is quite scenic but with the sun still low in the sky we know we aren't getting the full effect as sun isn't shining on the more predominant cliffs on our starboard side.  Worth the side trip but not going to spend 1/2-hour cleaning off the anchor, so we head back out and down Whitefish Lake.

Narrow entrance to Morton Bay has this cliff on one side

And this rock outcropping on the other side

Cliffs in the morning shade don't do them justice

View looking down Morton Bay

The swing bridge at Brass Point opens as we arrive. Our timing is perfect as he's really opening for two upbound boats. We're thankful as the two phone numbers we have for the bridge tender are both "out of service". 

Heading through the swing bridge at Brass Point

We cross Cranberry Lake and leave lake country and enter the Cataraqui River which will take us down to Kingston. It's all narrow, shallow, and twisty.  The flight of two Upper Brewer locks are almost done bringing a small powerboat up as we approach so we simply idle rather than tie up.  We head in and descend alone. More narrow winding river travel gets us to the Lower Brewers Lock.  The lock staff is waiting for us and open the swing bridge at the entrance to the lock as we approach.  Easy lockage down 14'.   Beautiful grassy park area below the lock with power.  They tell us to pull all the way to the end for deepest water and to keep the blue line clear.  

The clear waters of the lake region turn a bit swampy looking on the Cataraqui River section.

We have the wall and park all to ourselves at Lower Brewers Lock

Boat traffic is minimal all day compared to the activity we left behind.  We walk over to the apple orchard but have no luck getting apples or one of their famous apple pies since Pick your Own doesn't start until Sept 2!  Interesting art studio across the bridge with sculptures and jewelry on the site of an old grist mill. We're the only boaters here overnight

Journey for August 23, 2024

Saturday August 24, 2024  Lower Brewers Lock to Kingston  16 miles and 3.9 hours

End of the Rideau Canal trip today as we head for Kingston and the final set of locks.   We had been waiting on a slip confirmation at Confederation Basin in Kingston.  Finally got the OK from them around 10AM for Sat, Sun and Mon.  About that time we see a boat being lowered in the lock.  It's the 40' Greenline we locked with the previous day.  Decide we need to get in line behind them to lock through the 4 locks at Kingston Mills.  If we miss it we could be waiting hours until the locks get cleared and we can proceed down.  Definitely out of lake country.  No more deep clear water.  This is shallow green swampy water.  Even when it looks like you've hit wide open water there's a narrow marked channel that usually has 3' or less under the keel. This whole area was swamp lands during the canal construction and had some of the highest mortality rates of workers - some from injuries but mostly from malaria.  We make it to the flight of four final locks at Kingston Mills and tie to the blue line.  Lockmaster tells us at least 1/2 hour wait as he's bringing up some kayakers.  

Tied to the blue line at Kingston Mills Lock wall.
40' Greenline ahead of us uses an interesting electric hybrid propulsion system.

The defensible lockmasters house at Kingston Mills. 
The small horizontal window on the second floor are the original gun ports. 
Small ones on first floor each side of the door.

Gives me time to check out the lock station.  First lock includes a swing bridge and empties into a "pond".  Then a set of 3 flight locks. These are the infinity pool type with virtually no wall for tying up against when entering. We're joined by a 25' cruiser - all headed to Kingston.  We all make it down to Lake Ontario level without incident despite some gusting SW breezes.  A few more miles of slow cruising and we make it to the site of the causeway and old Bascule Bridge.  The historic bridge buckled earlier this spring and was stuck in the down position almost forcing us to cancel this trip. The Canadian government after much deliberation finally determined that saving the historic bridge was simply unfeasible and had it removed providing us a free opening to transit until a new bridge is designed, built and installed. Winds are gusting over 20mph as we make our approach to Confederation Basin Marina.

Fort Henry guarding the entrance to Kingston and the Rideau canal from those pesky Americans

 We're thankful for the side tie and the 5 staff on hand to greet us as we turn sideways into the wind as a final maneuver and land against the dock. We make it look easy and they quickly have us tied up and then disappear to the next incoming boat.  This is our third trip to Kingston.  A lovely old town with lots to do. We'll make the most of our three days here before crossing Lake Ontario and entering the US.

A final note regarding Colonel By: The lake leading down to Kingston Mills is Col By Lake. There is even a section called Esther March Bay after his wife who accompanied him from England with their two daughters.  After completing a canal which still operates almost exactly as he planned and built some 200 years later, he returned to London where charges of unauthorized expenditures were levied against him.  The charges were false, and he was exonerated but the damage was done to his reputation.  He was forced to retire without any commendations for his work.  He died shortly afterwards in 1836 at age 57.

Journey for August 24, 2024