We leave Smith Falls as early as we can, 8:45 is the first lock time. We are in canals for several hours and then the canal opens up into the large lakes on the Rideau. It is just beautiful. We have great weather and really enjoy our cruise. The Rideau twists through tight passages and includes some road signs so we don’t make a wrong turn. When we got to the Newboro lock we began to go “lock down” and the channel markers switched for us. Some of the swing bridges are still hand operated, it is really interesting to see how easily the can swing the bridge out of the way. We don’t have any long delays in the locks until we get to Jones Falls. We were told it would be more than an hour so we walked down to the last lock and saw our friends boat “Blue Heron”. They were not on the boat but caught up with us in the locks. We chatted and told them we were going to go up about another 2 miles to Morton’s Bay. We had been told by some folks at Smith Falls that this was the best anchorage on the Rideau. We would probably see Craig and Barbra in Kingston.
Well Morton’s Bay has a tight entrance, we have to carefully navigate between the rocks to get into the bay, but it is just spectacular. We enjoy a swim after we anchor. It was a beautiful night, we got the dinghy down and I took some pictures of Jackets and some birds the I believe are “Loons”.
