AUGUST 7, 2007...Portland, On.

Another hot and sunny day. We had a light breakfast so we could get started early. We are entering the prettier part of the Rideau with the lakes and cliffs....and deep cruising water. One of main reasons we did the Rideau was it is their 175 years since the canal was opened. It really hasn't changed much, except it is all pleasure crafts and no working boats. They still use the original hand cranks to open the lock doors and bring the water in and out of the lock. Lots of young kids working the cranks.

We have seen a number of restored wood boats, and the one pictured is the Nemesis built in 1940. We have locked with this couple a number of times. An older couple in a pontoon boat ran into the back of them in one of the locks. This pontoon couple is a complete blog in itself, so we won't go there.

We continue to have to navigate narrow channels and some of them are blind entrances. Most every lock has a narrow channel leading into it, so passing becomes a real art. We covered 23 miles today and another 8 locks. Stephanie and Louie have been a great help. I don't know if we could have done this without their help. You've heard the expression "throwing someone under the bus? Well we have thrown Louie under the boat a couple of times to check props. Poor guy.....he had no idea what was coming in that marriage. Thanks Louie!! We reached the highest point in the Rideau at Newboro lock and are now starting down to lake Ontario. Locking is a little different, since you enter with the lock full of water and have to hand lines to the lock boys/girls. We also had a change in the red/green bouys; with red now on our left since we are going back to sea. After 4 weeks of red right return, you have to think about each bouy...mistake here and you are on the rocks.

We bumped bottom while entering Edmond locks...we were right in the middle of the channel. This is the lowest water we have experienced. We also have picked up a lot of weeds and this seems to create a vibration in the props. The weeds seem to have come off when we backed into our slip at Len's Cove Marina in Portland.

Len's Cove is a family owned, staffed, and run marina. They have a good parts dept., a lift, and a good service dept. The dockage was real tight and the docks are steel sided...don't make a mistake. They only have 30amp service so we had to run a 30amp cord from another plug to our splitter to get 50 amp service. A 50 amp boat should carry a 30amp cord for this reason.

Louie and I made a grocery run into town, and the store had the basics. Not much else in town, except for a few resturants and one shop that sold a little of everything.

Dinner on the boat and a few more games of eucher...the boys had a better night. But still not ahead