We all decided that we wanted to leave the dock at 7 A.M. Somehow it was agreed on that I would be the one to call the lock operator at 6:30 to see if we could lock through. I called the Brandon Road lock & was told that we could go through at 7:30. We also saw on the weather radar that a thunderstorm was on it's way earlier than expected. We left the dock anyway, along with Summerland & Lollygagger. Blue Moon didn't want to leave with thunderstorms in the area. We had an easy time at the first lock, which lowered us 34 ft. Then the thunderstorms hit. There was rain, high wind gusts, thunder, and lightning. At least there were no waves to deal with on the river, but it gets scary on the flybridge with lightning around. We continued on and easily went through the second lock of the day, the Dresden Lock which lowered us 20 ft. At about 1:00 P.M. the storm was ending and the sun was coming out. It looked like we would get to our destination in Ottawa by 2:00 and have plenty of time and good weather to relax & see the town. Our day came to a screeching halt at 1:30 at the Marseilles Lock. When we got to the lock there was a big tug & barge in front of us that had to go through the lock first. Plus there was already a huge tug & barge in the lock that had to come out. On the rivers pleasure craft like ours receive the lowest priority at a lock, so we have to wait for the commercial guys to go through first. The lock operator told us that it would be about one & a half hours before we could go through. There's also no good spot for us to tie up for the wait. We're expected to just idle in the channel waiting our turn, and try to stay out of the way of the barges coming out of the lock, while the current is bringing us downriver towards the lock. After an hour Al got tired of maneuvering the boat so we tied up to a big round bollard by the side of the channel. These bollards are there for the barges to lay against. It wasn't easy tying our boat up to one of these, but we were desperate and made it work. Good thing we were able to tie to something because we ended up having to wait four hours for the barges to get through the lock. Once clear we went into the lock & were lowered 26 ft. We then traveled four miles downriver to the town of Ottawa and stayed at the free town dock. It was 6:30 by then and we were exhausted. When we got there we saw two other looper boats, Serenity and Ta Ta. Unfortunately there was no room left, so Lollygagger had to keep going and find another spot for the night. Since we ended up having such a long day we decided to stay an extra day in Ottawa to relax. Tomorrow we'll see the town and go shopping.
9/5/14
It felt good to sleep late, enjoy breakfast and not move the boat. A couple from a nearby marina stopped by to say hello and offered to drive us to the supermarket. I took them up on the offer and asked Row from Summerland if she wanted to go. Of course she said yes. When traveling by boat you don't turn down an offer to go shopping by car. You can only carry so much on a bicycle. We were told that the supermarket would provide transportation back to the boat. It turns out that our driver from the supermarket, Larry, is the former owner. He has given the store to his kids to run, but still enjoys being involved. He was happy to give us a ride back to our boats. He also gave us a history lesson about the town.
Later in the day we cleaned up the boat and Hooper got a bath.
Tomorrow we'll head down the river with Summerland, hopefully without long delays at the lock.
First lock of the day.
We traveled down the river & went through the first 2 locks with La Salle. We needed permission from him to be in the lock at the same time.
River traffic
These tug boats are huge
Marseilles Dam
Lollygagger and Summerland
Grid lock at the Marseilles Lock
We thought Lollygagger was going to get hit be the barge
Three Mainships in a row
We got to the dock just before sunset
Someone's idea of art?
Carp catcher, they scoop up as many as they can and kill them.
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