Author: mghalpin

It’s hard to imagine that climate change is not a thing given the heat this summer. Our experience from Montreal to our new slip in Warwick RI has been nothing short of exhausting given the heat and humidity. Our preferred routine is to boat early, have lunch and then do a bit of sightseeing/provisioning. This year we have found that by the time we have secured the boat in a new location, it’s just too hot to be walking around in the sun. So we close the curtains, turn on the AC and fans, and limit exertion to a minimum just to remain comfortable. Not really what we had in mind… Thus we have chosen to spend August in the comfort of our air conditioned home and cooling pool in Woodstock.

There have been a few moments when I thought we might not survive the heat. Docked at a slip in Port Henry, NY on Lake Champlain, Google Maps showed the route to groceries to be .3 miles. Being at water level, you know that every town is a walk up hill…. So we started walking and before too long realized that mileage calculation was very wrong. But we trudged up the hill and discovered that the ‘groceries’ were at a Stewarts Shop Super Store. For those unfamiliar with that store, think 7/11, WaWa or Cumberland Farms. The closest ‘real’ supermarket is 30 miles away and that is a Walmart!!! A true food desert.

Round trip, and yes the way back was mostly downhill, turned out to be 1.75 miles. We arrived back at the marina , sweaty and tired, lacking any food, to the question of amazement from the locals ‘you walked to town!!!!’, we could have driven you…… 😉 The following day after an enjoyable afternoon and evening with friends Flasch and Ed, we headed to the Champlain Canal and the Hudson River south to NYC.

The Hudson is a beautiful river. Rural settings, The Palisades, West Point, the bridges, recreational and commercial activity, wildly rolling sometimes and smooth as a lake in other locations, miles wide in places and few hundred yards in others. Hopefully these pic’s help provide an impression;

Ours has not been a traditional Great Loop though we have experienced what many refer to as the most beautiful parts of the Great Loop. It’s hard to imagine that we will retrace our steps and return to the loop. Our short term plan is a Block Island/Rhode Island Sound loop (Block Island, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Cuttyhunk….) in September. Next year we intend to do either the Maine Coast or the Chesapeake Bay for another 2 month voyage.

It has been a wonderful voyage this year, but we are both happy to be home before the next heat wave. Which just happens to be today!

For Loopers, ‘Crossing your wake’ is the mark of having completed THE Great Loop. Had we completed the Loop this year, that place would have been NY Harbor at Lady Liberty. But crossing your wake does complete other loops as well and today we reached a milestone. The Great Loop is not a single well defined path. In fact it includes a number of tangential and alternate opportunities. Given our situation this year, we were able to add to our adventure last year and complete what is referred to as The Triangle Loop. That triangle is The Erie Canal from Waterford, NY to the Oswego Canal, north across Lake Ontario to Kingston, ON, up the Rideau Canal to Ottawa, down the Ottawa River to Montreal, further east on the St Lawrence to Sorel, QC and south on the Richelieu river to the Chambly Canal, into Lake Champlain and south to the Champlain Canal to……. well Waterford, NY !!!!! OK, thats probably hard to visualize so here is the a graphic depiction;

This evening/Happy Hour, we toast our G and T’s to this mini loop accomplishment and look back at what has been an amazing journey. We do this with 97 degree sweltering sun beating down on our trying to keep up air conditioners. With 20 or so other boats on the Waterford wall, all avoiding the normal and customary interaction between boaters ( know as docktails) given the heat.

For those considering this loop, the Rideau Canal is not to be missed. Gorgeous, steeped in history, kept in historically appropriate condition. Just a delight. You can do this canal via a boat service named Le Boat which is basically no mariner knowledge bumper boats for hire. Ottawa, with government buildings and museums is a great destination by boat or car. Montreal is a first class European city just a half a day drive from NY or Boston and well worth the time. The entire loop is loaded with history I did not know and forts/battles I never understood. All very interesting in understanding how we as a nation came to be.

Whats next is a bit of a mini sprint back home down the Hudson to the East River, across Long Island Sound to… well as of right now, I don’t know where we will end up. You see in the age of Covid, many have bought boats to be able to recreate with their families in some isolation and they all need a place to dock their boat. Thus as I have been searching for a slip for Aisling, at this point I have no dock secured. I am confident something will emerge and we will remain flexible about our needs and location.

Whats next you ask? Our plan is to get the gardens in Woodstock back under control in August as well as attend to some Aisling repairs. Once the kiddies go back to school in September, we plan a Block Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk…. mini loop, close to home and in the cool (hopefully) of an early Fall. October brings some excellent fishing and I suspect Macks and I will be actively pursuing some Striper and Tautog.

Several people have noted from our tracks that we are heading south in Lake Champlain. This has led to the question, ‘where the hell are you guys going?’… While The Great Loop remains a goal, we have come to the conclusion that, among other reasons, Caty is only having her first child this November, in Connecticut, and Gram and Gramps (not official names) want to be there (versus Alabama….;-)) So assuming we can find a place to dock in Narragansett Bay, we expect to be home early August at which point we will rest, maintain Aisling, and plan a smaller loop in September of Block Island, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Cuttyhunk and back to Warwick.

Given all we have posted about our trip this year, mostly in confined waterways, at slow speeds, with minimal wind or current, you might get the impression that Aisling is a Canal Queen. Well, Lake Champlain is much more her natural environment and this morning she got to play while we held on for two hours of pitching and rolling. Better today as tomorrow brings 5 ft waves and T-storms. No thank you, we will be snug in a marina in Burlington VT where restaurants and brew pubs line the streets of downtown.

Back in the USA and located at a marina with great internet access, I’ll take this opportunity to upload some hopefully interesting pic’s from roughly Ottawa to Montreal…

(click on the pic’s to see full screen)

Our last two locks before Montreal were created for sea going ships up to 800′. We arrived 30 minutes before the posted time for us to pass through the first lock and as advertised on the website found no one to checkin with or confirm timing….. Meanwhile, the electronic sign was telling us the next passage would be at 5:30pm. 7 hours later…. We settled in knowing we were at their mercy and secured at the floating dock with major wind and current directly on our bow. Around noon the loudspeaker told us to get ready…. it was a bit like Big Brother speaking to us. But dutifully we started all systems and when the light turned green we proceeded into this huge lock all by ourselves. Midway through we were greeted by two lock operators who handed us 70 ft lines for the trip down the 60 ft lock.

The same scenario developed for the next lock, St. Lamberts, which is the time lapse above. This lock was a piece of cake at only 16 ft. To our surprise the same two lock operators handed us the lines though we were now 1 hour away from the first lock (by boat not sure how long by car and they did mention they had time for lunch….).

It’s a bit hard to see in this video, but once we got out into the current of the St. Lawrence and turned upbound (river speak for up river), we knew we would encounter a stiff current. Among a few other locations, this was the reason we decided to get a twin engine boat with plenty of horsepower. The current has been known to be 10 knots and was recently reported as 6 knots. Typically we go 8 knot which means you are only making 2 knots of progress. We recorded 5.2 knot current. Given that and a 25 mph gusting wind in our face (seems that is always the case….), we were pleased with our choice and Aisling was more than up to the challenge. The odd thing is as soon as you get close to the yacht club, the current drops to zero requiring the boat to go from flat out to idle speed in a heartbeat.

We just had two days in the Ottawa which Lyn reported on yesterday. It was a wonderful contrast to our experience during the past 3 weeks. That experience was of full blown Spring in Canadas Cottage Country. There was a lake the name of which I don’t recall but clearly should have been named Swan Lake for the hundreds or possibly thousands of swans and their signets. In New England we often see two swans or two pair. I have never seen anything like this amount of swans in the same place at the same time.

The Canada geese are equally prolific. Quite literally everyday we would see groups of geese with their goslings. Lot’s of goslings!! I mean I don’t know what the first year survival rate for goslings is, but if most of those we saw survive and fly south, the golf courses of New England are in for a goose S*itfest it has never seen before.

The flora of spring are no less active. Every waterway we passed through was covered with a blanket of pollen. A Yellow/green mat of dust in water creating an ooze of potential never to be fulfilled. One wonders where all that biomass ends up. I guess that is the silt found at the bottom of lakes and rivers.

Speaking of which, as we traveled from the wall in Merrickville to the blue line ( which is the entrance to the lock) I had several depth readings of 3.9 ft. Parc Canada which manages the Rideau is responsible for providing 5 ft, and we draw ~ 4′. I say approximately because the boat is stated as having a 3’8″ draft. I assume that is without the weight of 160 gallons of water, 600 gallons of diesel and 60 gallons of that which will not be mentioned…. on the order of 6000 lbs and thus more draft… So it’s interesting/important to know if that reduction in depth is silt or (heaven forbid) rock or perhaps weed growth which does frequently cause false depth readings.

Photos and videos still being uploaded…..

That fact is so much more true in Canada than in the States both in terms of weather and activities. In the States, Memorial Day is the beginning of Summer and we assumed that perspective was shared everywhere. Wrong, very wrong. Our time on the Rideau, which has been roughly 3 weeks (can be done in 3-4 days, often done in 7 days) has been frequently cold, rainy and windy. One day last week, we were under a tornado watch for several hours. Where does one go when they are on a boat in the middle of Canada’s Cottage Country and tornado potential is high?

(interesting side note. That same t-storm system dump so much rain on the Trent Severn Waterway, where we originally planned to be at this time, that they closed the system ‘for at least a week’. Stuck in place for a week on a boat in very rural Canada can present challenges ;-))

Weather alone does not define summer. Activities do. Outdoor activities. Canada has those, but not until the Summer Solstice…. Before that, as referenced in many conversations and experiences we have had, it’s still spring. Stores are not yet open or just starting the stock up for the summer. Few, if any, farmers markets. Street festivals? Um, no.

It would be understandable, but unfortunate, if one were to take away from this description of the late Canadian Spring that we must be miserable. That could not be further from the truth. We have had great cruising days, stunning anchoring locations, interesting towns to explore and even today, as the rain lightly falls in Ottawa, we will take in the Canadian National Galley, the Byward Market and some fine dining (not to belittle in any way what we have been able to cook on board, but that will have to wait for another blog post) at Whalesbone.

Everyone we have met while on the Rideau Canal has lived up to the impression I had that Canadians would be humble, polite, sharing, helpful…. not a few of they actually do dress and look like Bob and Doug MacKenzie (SNL reference in case its not obvious, eh!) Canada also has these gems called ‘butter tarts’. To the uneducated eye (mine) these look like two bite pecan pies. But to the discerning palate, the first bite tells you something is different here. This is not Karo syrup, it is of course maple syrup. The crust (forgive my lack of baking skills and thus my inability to describe crust and its ingredients with any specificity) is just amazing. Our first purchase, and yes there have been many, bought at a super market was quite good until we stumbled upon the serious bakers. In Westport, ON we turned a corner and found ourselves face to face with a master baker making pies in the window of her shop. I have never seen hands transform flour into dough and then basket weave crust so effortless and beautifully. Above this display was a hand written scrawl on the window ” 290,000 butter tarts sold”. Yes, that is the correct number of zero’s! The handwriting on the…, well window in this case, we purchase and ate and looked at each other with that look that does not require words and none could suffice. Think of that first super ripe strawberry of the year, that amazing 20% fat ice cream cone, that, well you choose your own most amazing palate experience and that will get you close. Our journey has not ended and while visiting Merrickville, ON we became aware of ‘voted the best in Canada’ butter tarts. Well, maybe. I can’t judge. I’m sure it takes years to become a butter tart aficionado, and my efforts to lose weight will not support the kind of dedication. However, to those who have never heard of a butter tart and those unfortunates that have never tasted one, deny yourself no longer. They ship well;-)

On to Montreal for BeaverTails! Crap, there goes my diet again….

Given the limitations we have experienced with cell coverage and no wifi, this will be brief and without pic’s…..

Living without the internet just sucks! Sure it’s easy to say ‘let’s get off the grid for a break….’ blah, blah, blah. How about this; no banking, no weather, no navigation updates, no contact with Macks and Caty, NO WORDLE!!! Really? To say nothing of the never ending stream of questions that arise to which Google and WikiPedia have always provided for. So with deep appreciation for those explorers and surveyors that imagined and created this gorgeous waterway ( see Lyn’s blog about why they did that), I say, let’s upgrade the experience with some basic utilities essential for everyday life just as water, sanitation, fuel are available.

It goes without saying that it should be free and without cell towers 😉