AUGUST 2, 2007...OOPS

Today started well with our departure from Ottawa and arriving at lock 9 at 8:30am. We then locked through locks 9 through 20. Some were single locks and others were a flight of three. The scenery is pretty boring...swamp lands. The water was shallow, but with a 39 inch draft and 5 foot of water we covered the 43 miles in 8 hours safely.

We arrived at Merrickville and had reservations at Alyias Marina just before the locks. It is a boat yard specializing in wood boat restoration, but was the only place where we could get 50amp power. Merrickville is designated as the jewel of the Rideau and we planned to spend an extra day here.

Little did we know we would spend the next three days in the area. The dockhand directed us to our dock; but as we were backing into the slip, as directed, we hit our props on a rock. According to the marina this is a big surprise to them. However, it shut down the starboard engine and ate up the port prop.

We got the boat to the dock and began discussing how we could examine the props and get them replaced. No one in the area had equipment that could lift our boat out of the water nor was there a diver in the area. Steph started looking for prop shops and marinas. Louie dove under the boat and discovered the port prop looked like a shark attacked it and the starboard prop was pretty bent up.

We spent the evening reviewing our options and started making a number of phone calls to determine our options. They didn't look all that good since we were one of the biggest boats doing the Rideau. The marina had no suggestions. The evening ended with no answers, but we will work on it again tomorrow. We have no options but to get it fixed before moving on.