AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Merrickville Ontario to Brewers Mills Ontario

Jul 10^th – It was a warm day with a mix of sun and clouds with a brief shower and moderate winds. We left Merrickville this morning and headed 13 miles through 5 locks to Smiths Falls Ontario and stayed on the overnight wall at lock 29a. We were travelling with 4 boats including us through the 5 locks and it was a tight fit, however it was nice once it was over. We walked into Smiths Falls and found that this is a great town to get provisions in and we saw our first Canadian Tire store since we left Canada last year! We shopped in both Canadian Tire and Walmart and picked up a number of things including replacement life jackets since ours have seen a tremendous amount of use during the last year. After a BBQ dinner we walked into the downtown core which looks like it needs some TLC. We expect to stay here one more day since it’s our 30^th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow and we plan to go out to dinner before we start anchoring on the lakes just south of here.

Jul 11^th – Happy 30^th Wedding Anniversary to us! It was a warm mostly sunny day with late day showers and moderate winds. We stayed in Smiths Falls today and plan to continue exploring the Rideau Canal tomorrow. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been married for 30 years … Time flies by quickly when you’re having fun! The last few days we’ve been talking to a number of marinas where we’ll ultimately keep the boat after we complete the Loop. The finalists were Starport Marina in Lake Simcoe and Hindson’s Marina in Penetang and the winner is Hindson’s marina … it was an extremely close race and difficult decision. Then we walked into town with our rolling cooler bag to grab more provisions and returned to the boat with our supplies and had cocktails to celebrate our 30 years together while we enjoyed broken periods of sunshine. Later we went to a restaurant called “My Place” for dinner and watched the rain clouds migrate towards the area. After dinner we dashed back to the boat just before the heavy rain hit.

Jul 12^th – It was a cool cloudy day with intermittent showers and moderate winds. We left Smiths Falls today and headed 34 miles along the Rideau Canal through 5 locks to Davis Lock #38. We were planning on anchoring on one of the lakes we passed through, however the weather is crappy and I have no desire to snorkel or swim in the chilly water when the weather is also chilly. We stopped in at a marina today to take on some water and get a pump out and we were surprised with a $40 bill for the pump-out … Ouch … We were getting used to the cheap pump out prices in the US of $5 or less. The Davis Lock has a great overnight dock layout with plenty of 30amp power plugs for all that want to stay. The only issue is that the cell signal is terrible thus I guess I won’t be able to post our blog entry tonight.

Jul 13^th – It was a cool mostly cloudy day with a short shower and moderate winds. We left the Davis Lock this morning and travelled 17 miles along the Rideau Canal through 8 locks to Lower Brewers Lock in Brewers Mills Ontario. A number of the boats stopped at the same location as us including “Total Eclipse”. Our plan is to pull off the dock early tomorrow to travel to Kingston for a couple of days so we can explore the area. The cell signal isn’t very good here however I’m going to try to post the blog … I was successful if you are reading this … LOL!