000. Contents.
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010. Sailing the Lower Ottawa River - A Waterway guide
into the heart of the National Capital Region.
020. Cruising the Rideau Waterway.
030. Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
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010. Sailing the Lower Ottawa River - A Waterway guide
into the heart of the National Capital Region.
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For nearly one hundred years, the Ottawa-Outaouais community
relied on the Lower Ottawa River for its link to the outside world.
Steam navigation on the river began as early as 1822 between
Grenville and Hull, which proved essential for the construction of
the lumberyards of Philomen Wright, and for the construction of the
Rideau Canal by Colonel John By from 1826 to 1832.  With the
completion of the Carillon Canal in 1834, navigation was further
enhanced.
By 1842, the first regular passenger service was initiated
between Montreal and Hull-Bytown employing a stagecoach in the
Montreal-Lachine portion of the trip, a steamer in the
Lachine-Grenville portion, another coach parallel to the Carillon
canal, and a final steamer in the 60 mile stretch from Carillon to
Hull-Bytown.  When Queen Victoria chose Bytown to be the capital of
the Province of Canada in 1857, the river once again served bravely
in the construction of the majestic parliament buildings which were
completed in 1866, and in the subsequent growth of the little
community.  Throughout the early years of Confederation, the
elected representatives of the new Canadian federation made their
way to the capital on steamers;  Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's
first prime minister, is said to have had a permanent stateroom on
one of them!
During this era, the quality of steamboat travel can be best
described as luxurious.  For many years it had little competition
from the newly introduced railway service.  In The Private Capital,
Sandra Gwyn writes "If travel by rail was a miserable purgatory of
dirty, jolting coaches, constant derailments, and cinders in the
eye, travel by steamboat aboard the Prince of Wales, the Queen
Victoria, and later the magnificent iron-hulled Peerless which
could accommodate a thousand passengers, offered a mode of
transportation that was as enjoyable as it was efficient."  By
1910, the railway overtook the passenger steamboat service;
steamboat excursions continued until the mid-1920s, but the primary
use of the river thereafter would be limited to freight.
We'll begin our cruise of the Lower Ottawa (in the section
from the Chaudire Falls to Upper Duck Island) at the foot of the
historic Rideau Canal.  At this point, your boat sits below the
locks which transport river traffic to and from the Rideau Canal.
The world renown Chateau Laurier is on the eastern side and the
East Block of the Parliament Buildings faces it.  Heading west from
the locks along the base of the escarpment below the Parliament
Buildings, you pass below the neo-gothic structures of the Library
of Parliament, the Centre Block, and the West Block, followed by
the Confederation Buildings, the Federal Court, the Supreme Court,
and the National Archives and Library.  The river does exhibit some
man-made turbulence between the Supreme Court and the National
Archives due to underwater pipes which come from a central heating
plant nearby.
Not far away, you are prevented from travelling any further
upriver because of the Portage Bridge and the Chaudiere Falls.  A
small picturesque bay formed between Richmond's Landing and
Victoria Island has been used by some boaters as an overnight
anchorage.  The miniature peninsula known as Richmond's Landing
used to be the site where settlers would unload their cargo and
haul it along the road leading to the village of Richmond, Ontario,
some twenty miles distance.  Victoria Island was for a long time
the site of a large lumbermill which dispatched immense rafts of
timber as far away as Europe.  There is an old abandoned stone
building on the site which was used in the lumber business.
Strange as it may seem, this tranquil site lies near the heart of
the bustling city but feels as though it is nestled far away near
some rustic community.
Turning around and heading down river, we pass a small low
lying seagull-ridden island known as Hull Island (although I must
confess that for several years, I thought it was appropriately
called "Gull Island").  The river is very shallow at this point.
Hull Island divides the river;  if you swing upriver in the north
channel, you will head near the naturally very turbulent Chaudiere
Falls. I confess that I have never ventured there, preferring to
leave it to the small sea-dos which revel in the rough waters.
Heading down river from Hull Island, the river deepens.  On the
north shore across from the Rideau Locks, you will find the twin
curved structures of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and its
small private dock holding a large West Coast Haida canoe as well
as a Durham boat.  Proceeding under the Alexandria Bridge
(constructed in 1900 and initially used for railway and automobile
traffic), you will notice the Hull Marina on the north shore which
is home to many sail and power boats.  There is a good launching
ramp here and ample parking for those who would like to trailer
sail.  It is also a popular place for a large number of tourists
who embark on cruise boats like the Sea Prince II or the Paula-D.
Along the north shore, parklands stretch for a couple of miles
from the marina to the mouth of the Gatineau River.  This wasn't
always the case, however.  An impressive cement plant was once
located along that shoreline as well as lumber mills.  The natural
beauty of this area was always striking.  During the 1940s, the
British High Commissioner to Canada used to paddle across the river
from his nearby residence known as Earnscliffe, to bird watch in a
cove where Brewery Creek meets the Ottawa River.  He reported on a
large variety of birds which were not normally found in the
environs.
Along the south shore next to the Alexandria Bridge, you can't
miss the towering Nepean Point topped with the statute of explorer
Samuel de Champlain holding his legendary astrolabe. Champlain
explored this region as early as 1613 by canoe and lost his brass
astrolabe (a device for taking measurements of latitudes) while on
a portage near Cobden, Ontario;  it was discovered in 1867 by a
14-year old farm boy and is now part of the Civilization Museum's
collection.  Behind Nepean Point is found the glass menagerie known
as the National Art Gallery designed by Moshe Safdie.  Next to the
Art Gallery is found another interesting structure which looks like
a castle, the Royal Canadian Mint.  The Ontario shoreline also
contains a couple of interesting-looking turn of the century boat
houses.  Some rowing clubs are based here, as well as the cruise
ship The Senator which conducts excursions to Montebello on
Sundays.
The six lane Macdonald-Cartier Bridge crosses the river at
this point.  To the east of the bridge lies the
previously-mentioned Earnscliffe, a gabled mansion where Sir John
A. Macdonald lived from 1871 to his death in 1894.  It is now the
official residence of the British High Commissioner to Canada.  A
couple of interesting buildings can be seen next to Earnscliffe;
the distinguished National Research Council building overlooks the
river, and behind it is found the ultramodern Lester B. Pearson
Building, home to the Department of External Affairs.
One of the most impressive natural sites on this part of the
river is undoubtedly the Rideau Falls, a greenish cascade of water
which acts as a curtain for the brave souls who would dare to walk
under them.  It was Champlain who christened the falls after the
Algonquin Indians took him on a walk underneath.  A favourite game
of cruise boats is to poke their bows into the shower of the falls
to the delight of the tourists.  The falls are divided in two by
Green Island which houses the newly renovated Ottawa City Hall
complete with pyramids and towers, designed once again by Moshe
Safdie.   Next to the falls, we can see the French Embassy, and the
official residence of the Canadian prime minister (a former lumber
baron's mansion).
Below the prime minister's residence is an area known as
Governor's Bay, a shallow and weedy part of the river.  High on the
eastern side of the bay is an old gazebo.  From this lookout,
sightseers can have a breathtaking view of the Ottawa and Gatineau
Rivers as well as the bluish Gatineau Hills in the background.
Boaters can replenish their gas tanks or have a meal at the
Rockliffe Boat House which is located just below the lookout.  A
lot of powerboats and houseboats are moored for the season at this
spot.
Across from this site lies the mouth of the lengthy Gatineau
River which reaches far into the Canadian Shield.  On the western
shore, the river bed is shallow and very weedy.  On my first
experience in motoring up the Gatineau from the western approach,
my keelboat came to a complete halt held back by the dense
underwater weeds;  luckily, I had a retractable keel and was able
to pull myself out of this embarrassing situation.  On the eastern
shore we find the community of Pointe Gatineau with its Quai des
artistes, a spot where you could tie up for a spell and have a meal
at a nearby restaurant.  (In fact, one of the best French cuisine
restaurants in the entire metro region, L'Eau Vive, is located
within a short walk of the quay.)  The bridge which crosses the
Gatineau River next to the quay is called the Lady Aberdeen Bridge,
named after the wife of a former Governor General and founder of
the Victoria Order of Nurses who almost lost her life in 1896 when
she fell through the ice in the not-so-frozen river along the
Quebec side.  The towns folk generously came to her aid and
commemorated the event by naming the bridge after the thankful
victim.  The park across from the quay is called Parc Lemay;  it
has several bike paths and a modest swimming beach.  Archaeologists
have uncovered the remains of an Indian settlement there dating
from the time of Christ.
Heading down river, you will notice a lot of small docks with
different types of boats and a good number of bars and restaurants.
Around the end of August each year things become very busy when the
international hot air balloon festival is held here.  Some seventy
balloons ascend twice daily during the event, and one of the best
places to watch it is right on the river!
The Ottawa River broadens at this point and is a popular site
for small boat sailing.  Two clubs are located on the Ontario side
of the river in an impressive building sitting on the water and
dating back to 1883.  The Ottawa New Edinburgh Club (ONEC) is the
owner of the building and shares space with another club, RA Sail.
The fleets of the two clubs consist of lasers, albacores, and
mistrals which are used for training and racing.  There are some
larger sailboats moored at ONEC belonging to private members.
To the east of this lies Kettle Island, a good sized island
stretching for about a mile down the river.  Towards the north
side, the river is filled with underwater weeds, so traffic flows
down the south side of the river.  This uninhabited island is now
owned entirely by the City of Gatineau and is home to a variety of
birds:  blue herons, kingfishers, and different types of ducks.  A
few boaters may be seen camping overnight on the island next to its
shallow shoreline.
The Rockliffe Yacht Club lies across from the mid-point of the
Island on the Ontario side.  It boasts a large number of sailboats
and a small clubhouse.  Behind it lies the National Museum of
Aviation;  on a good day you may see its white biplane taking off
and landing.
As we approach the eastern extremity of Kettle Island, we can
swing around and enter the north channel.  It is well marked with
buoys and leads you to the Kitchissippi Marina in Gatineau.  Next
to the marina you will find a handy restaurant and a local baseball
diamond.  The boats moored here tend to be mostly powerboats and
houseboats.  Returning back to the main channel along the Quebec
side, you will be following Rue Hurtubise with its collection of
fine looking houses.
The end of our excursion takes us into another broad stretch
of the river bordered by Kettle Island, the Quebec shoreline and
Upper Duck Island.  For some inexplicable reason, the wind tends to
shift frequently in this area.  Keel boats should be cautious of
the Upper Duck Island shoreline; the sandy river bed is
surprisingly shallow for a good distance.  This is once again a
popular spot for boaters wishing to anchor overnight or go for a
swim.
From the Chaudiere to Upper Duck, the Ottawa River bustles
with activity.  On certain dates, like July 1st when boaters
congregate below Nepean Point to watch the Canada Day fireworks
display, this part of the river might even be described as a place
to avoid!  From my experience, however, the river always holds
something of interest, whether that may be a hot air balloon
attempting to perform a "baptism" on the water, or a friendly
sailboat race running from the Hull Marina to Kettle Island.  It's
natural beauty and historical background make sailing the Lower
Ottawa River a memorable event.
- Written by Michael Lukyniuk (bq964@freenet.carleton.ca) (1996)
Copyright (c) by Michael Lukyniuk, 1996
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020. Cruising the Rideau Waterway.
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- Where to stop and what to do when cruising the Rideau Waterway?
I'm a big fan of the Rideau and thought I could offer some help. The best
areas of the Rideau are up past Smith's Falls- You may want to trailer to
Portland, Westport, Newboro or somewhere on the Big Rideau.  All the lakes
between Big Rideau and Morton (below Jones' Falls) are fantastic.  Stop in
Newboro and Chaffey's Lock for ice cream, and go swimming in the basin at
the Jones' Falls lock.  Any further down the Rideau gets swampy (towards
Kingston) and the areas from Ottawa to Merrickville are nice but it takes
too long to get through all the locks.  It really depends where you are
starting from - it is really a nice cruise from Manotick to Jones, but you
may not have enough time. I recommend a stop at Davis Lock between
Chaffey's Lock and Jones' Falls - not much there but a really nice spot.
The kids will like swimming in the falls there and at Chaffey's.  And for
the more adventurous, there's cliff - diving two lakes up at Indian lake.
Some recommended stops on the waterway:
*  O'Donnell's Big Rideau Lake Marine - a campsite and night
club on the Big Rideau.
*  Livingston Island - a Parks Canada park in the Big Rideau off
Portland with some great hiking trails and a hidden lake to explore.
*  Murphy's Provincial Park - Big Rideau - some great anchorages,
swimming and a mica mine.
*  The Opinicon Hotel at Chaffey's Lock - fresh fish dinners at
excellent prices.
*  The Rideau Canal Museum - Smiths Falls.
>>> Posted in June, 1995, by Bruce Milne (ab387@freenet.carleton.ca).
Bruce Milne has indicated he will try to answer any questions people
may have about cruising the Rideau Waterway.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *
- A Convenient Stopover for Food, Phone & Tackle on the Rideau Waterway.
We found a neat little supply store just off the Rideau River.
On the South shore of the Rideau, across from the Provincial
Park, go up Kemptville Creek about one kilometer (not recommended
for boats drafting over three feet).  Tie up at the dock with
the Cedar Beach Inn sign, and a short walk up the road is the
store.  The lady sells groceries, pop, tackle and dry goods.  A
real cozy little country store.
>>> Posted in June, 1995, by Jack Gibbon (as024@freenet.carleton.ca)
*  *  *  *  *  *  *
- What to expect when locking through the Rideau Canal system.
I have transitted the Rideau Canal system in both directions.  There is
always a certain maximum draft: usually about 5 or 6 feet.  Sailboats
usually transit with their masts down, as there are a number of fixed
bridges along the way.
Basically canal transit is a hurry-up-and-wait situation, especially if you
are a power boat.  On the Rideau we were the slowest boat in the group, and
when the lock doors opened the powerboats would go roaring off in a cloud
of spray leaving us bobbing in their wakes doing a stately 5 knots, but we
always had the satisfaction of knowing that the lockmasters would hold the
lock open until we arrived whether the motorboats got there first or not.
After all, collecting a group of boats and cycling the lock is a slow
business, and if we missed it we would have to wait the better part of an
hour to get through.  Sometimes even we had to wait, especially at
locations where there were "flights" of several locks, where it can take up
to 2 hours to take a load of boats through 5 or 6.  In between locks can be
long stretches of river and lakes, great running if you are a powerboat,
but dull if you are a dismasted sailboat ... I'm glad we had an autopilot
for those stretches.  Houses and cottages are interesting at first, but
after a while it gets a bit dull.  It was nice once, but I don't think
we'll do it again.
The first thing you do at the first lock is pay: you can do it lock by
lock, but it can be cheaper to just buy a pass for several days ... just
make sure you are through the system by the time it expires or you're back
to the lock-by-lock payment.  Fenders are extremely important: get 5 or 6
of the biggest ones you can carry since the lock walls are rough stone or
concrete and the swirling currents from water entering the lock can push
your boat against the walls and other boats.  You should be prepared to
fend off as well, and be especially careful at the top since sometimes they
overfill the locks to get extra draft and the top of the wall can drop to
your waterline and pop up your fenders while grinding your gel coat :-(.
Good lines are also important.
Watch out for houseboats, especially the rented ones since they inevitably
have inexperienced crew who don't know how to compensate for windage.  I
have watched a crosswind turn one sideways in a narrow channel, and once
had to jam into reverse to prevent us from t-boning another that turned
sideways across a lock entrance.
>> Posted in 1995 by Colin Starratt (ac338@freenet.carleton.ca)
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030. Georgian Bay.
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- We are thinking of taking the boat to Georgian Bay this summer.
Any suggestions, tips, or advice?
We have launched from Parry Sound on several occasions and explored the
waterways as far south as the bay leading to the Trent-Severn Waterway and
as far north as the North Channel.  The farther south you go, the greater
the number of powerboats which produce deep wakes almost constantly in the
Small Craft Channel.  It's OK if you are a powerboat, but it makes a
small-to-meduim sized sailboat uncomfortable, especially if you are trying
to sail in light winds.  As I don't know whether or not you are a
sailboat, I can only advise you from that point of view since that's what
we have.
First of all, and most important, get the appropriate sets of strip charts
for the Small Craft Channel and the Trent-Severn Waterway.  Secondly, spend
the extra bucks and purchase the larger-scale regular charts as well.  The
strip charts are very good for details and purposes of gunk-holing, but for
offshore they only cover a relatively narrow band and do not, repeat,
_not_, show you all the buoys that you can see at any one time, especially
in those areas where there is a channel leading in from the main lake.
This can be confusing at times without a general chart, and you may find
yourself heading for the wrong buoy or seriously out of a safe line towards
a set of range markers  (I speak from experience on this after rounding the
wrong buoy at Hangdog Reef!).  The larger scale charts will also show you
what to expect if you decide to go offshore for a bit to escape the
rock-and-roll of the Small Craft Channel.
There are a number of favoured anchorages, and you should arrive early at
these if you want some of the better locations for the night.  On the other
hand, there are so many smaller anchorages that you could spend a month
just making your way down to the Trent-Severn trying to see them all.  A
word of warning, however: most all of the land is owned either by cottagers
or by the local Indian bands.  Only in the "favoured" anchorages can you
take a line ashore without asking first, and our experience is that even in
apparently uninhabited areas the Indians may forbid boaters from going
ashore at all unless they buy a cruising permit from their band office in
advance.  One favourite anchorage of ours was heavily posted the last time
we were in the Parry Island area, and the Indians do patrol in boats.  As
for the cottagers, well I haven't heard that many of them are particularly
enamoured with boaters, especially since some bad apples have left garbage
and damaged property.
Normally you can anchor anywhere you like outside navigation channels since
the federal government owns the bottom, even if you can't go ashore, but
last year some cottager associations prevailed upon the provincial
government to prevent boaters from even entering some areas by declaring
them to be marine wildlife parks.  Naturally there have been howls of
indignation from some of the larger boater associations because the
cottagers' boats are apparently exempt, and because the boating public
wasn't consulted until it was virtually a "done deal".
I checked the areas concerned on the charts, and most of them are deep in
the Moon River maze of islands and channels, well away from the regular
Small Craft Channel route.  If you will be cruising on a timetable, you may
never be inconvenienced by the restrictions because you won't go in that
deep.
There are a series of national parks sprinkled among the southern islands,
but at this point I have no idea what facilities are available since it has
been a number of years since we have been in that vicinity.  There are a
number of marinas throughout the district, but as usual only a few have
pumpout facilities.
>>> Posted in 1995 by Colin Starratt (ac338@freenet.carleton.ca).
*  *  *  *  *  *  *
> Please can someone advise me of the location of clubs on Parry Sound
> where one could hope to find guest docking, within reasonable reach on
> foot of shops.
Depends on what you mean by "reasonable".  I've been to Parry Sound a
number of times.  There is a public pier you can dock at either temporarily
or overnight (with pumpout).  Nice location, but rather exposed to a
westerly wind off the Sound. I've been there only temporarily, usually
staying where I launch  when in the area at Glen Burney Marina on the
other side of the bridge and driving into town in my truck.
From the town dock you can walk to the main business district ... it's
within a half a kilometer or so. stretching mostly to the left from where
you emerge onto the main street shortly after passing under the railway
bridge.  There are various stores, and a fast-food-pizza store along with
a coin-op laundromat within reasonable walking distance across another
bridge (providing you have a cart or children to carry your laundry ;-) ).
There are a couple of good restaurants along the way. I don't know about
showering facilities at the public docks, and there is no fuel as far as I
recollect, but there are a few marinas in the area where gas is readily
available.
>>> Posted in 1995 by Colin Starratt (ac338@freenet.carleton.ca).