Breakfast was good, and not pricey like the evening meals which were
$35.00 each with only three entrée choices.
We’ve been told this is really early to be on the Rideau Canal. Good for us, since that means that locks and
waterways will not be as busy.
The locks open at 0900.
We followed a houseboat into the lock.
Since he preferred a starboard tie, we were forced to do a port
tie. In these locks, you take forward and aft lines from
your boat and wrap them around cables. As
the lock fills, you rise up and when you get to the top, you release your
lines. In the second lock, a couple standing on the opposite wall yelled..."we're finished the loop in a Nordic Tug". They were Joe and Mary Wilson who had looped in a 32 Nordic Tug, "Pilgrim". We went through four locks: Jones
Falls, Davis , and Chaffey locks).
At another lock, a lady standing on the top of the wall said, "We finished the loop last year". I looked at her again and realized that we had met at a get-together in Ft. Myers before they started their loop. They were Carol and Dave on boat "DC". They were on the large vessel tied to the lock wall. It is a 15 day cruise on the Rideau Canal ending at the shutes. (Forty-five passengers and 14 crew on the boat.) She said it was a first class way to travel. Carol and Dave are also traveling the country by motorhome this summer, returning to the home base in Ft. Myers later in the year. Unbelievable to meet 2 gold loopers in one day on such a small waterway.
We had hoped to stay at the top of the lock at Newboro, but we were told that the four spots on the wall were already taken. Instead, we stayed at the bottom of the lock which had lots of wall space. Since today was a Saturday, we saw a lot of boaters. The temperature today hit 85 and the skies were crystal clear, making for a very warm day. We encountered lots of kayakers, jet skiers, and swimmers in addition to the boats.
At another lock, a lady standing on the top of the wall said, "We finished the loop last year". I looked at her again and realized that we had met at a get-together in Ft. Myers before they started their loop. They were Carol and Dave on boat "DC". They were on the large vessel tied to the lock wall. It is a 15 day cruise on the Rideau Canal ending at the shutes. (Forty-five passengers and 14 crew on the boat.) She said it was a first class way to travel. Carol and Dave are also traveling the country by motorhome this summer, returning to the home base in Ft. Myers later in the year. Unbelievable to meet 2 gold loopers in one day on such a small waterway.
We had hoped to stay at the top of the lock at Newboro, but we were told that the four spots on the wall were already taken. Instead, we stayed at the bottom of the lock which had lots of wall space. Since today was a Saturday, we saw a lot of boaters. The temperature today hit 85 and the skies were crystal clear, making for a very warm day. We encountered lots of kayakers, jet skiers, and swimmers in addition to the boats.
 |
| typical scenery |
 |
| Duke on the bow |
Tomorrow we will have a long day, so we want to be first in
the lock in the morning. Our destination
is Smith Falls, 27 miles and four locks away.
Jones Falls Dam
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jones Falls stone arch dam.
Jones Falls Dam is a dam on the Rideau Canal located in Rideau Lakes, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Ontario, Canada, that was built in 1831 and completed in 1832 to tame the mile-long series of rapids and falls that runs through the Jones Falls.
History[edit]
The dam was built by John Redpath and Thomas McKay. When completed in 1832, the Jones Falls dam was the largest dam in North America, a big accomplishment in engineering. In order to keep the water in control during construction, two sluices, artificial channels for conducting water, were kept open in the dam. The first was near the base of the dam on its east side. A second sluice was put in on the west side of the dam, about 20 feet (6 metres) above the base. To make the switch from the lower to upper sluice, the outlet of Sand Lake was blocked off. It is called the ‘Whispering Dam’ because if a person stands at one edge of the dam, near the top, and another person stands at the other edge, the two can communicate quite well over a distance of almost 360 feet (110 m). This is because of the shape of the dam in an arch and the use of sandstone rather than mortar. This abnormal quality was not planned, just a delightful result of the design.
Statistics[edit]
At Jones Falls, boats rise and fall almost 60 feet via a set of four canal locks, and a dam, nicknamed the Whispering Dam, which holds back the 60 feet of water. The dam is approximately 360 feet long, 60 feet (18 m) high and 27 feet (8 m) thick at the base. It was built with large sandstone blocks that were quarried approximately 2.5 miles inland from the north end of the lake, near Elgin, Ontario, hauled by oxen to a landing, then moved by scow to the dam site and shaped there. No mortar or cement was used in this dam. The blocks were set in a giant arch, with the pressure of the water behind the dam pushing the perfectly-dressed blocks together, like an arch used in building structures.