Climbing up 8 Steps in 90 Minutes!

We left our anchorage... no weeds.. yea!.... about 8a and traveled down the Ottawa River.  There were several places along the river that had car & people ferries.  One place had three ferries running all at the same time back and forth across in front of us..... we timed it just right and made it passed them.   One we couldn't resist taking a photo of was this one carrying a large RV pulling a trailer as long as it was!

We slowed down for a small peaceful looking sailboat.

Then about 3 hours later we were approaching the grand city of Ottawa, Capital of Canada. There is a real mixture of folks here. Some speak French but seems all speak English.  In the locks I talked to a girl on the side observing the boats coming through and she was from North Dakota but has lived in Toronto for 10 years. People are here working and living from all over the world.

Before we went under a railroad bridge we passed a paddling club... they slapped their paddles on the edge of the boat and raised them high in the air for the picture but I missed it....so they repeated the move and doggone it I thought my lens was open but it was not!

Then we came to what I had seen in pictures and was so looking forward to... The Stairstep Locks on the Rideau Canal and the way you get into Ottawa by boat. These locks are tucked between the historic Parliament Buildings & the Chateau Laurier Hotel.  Once in Locks 1 through 8 there is no stopping to rest or tie up.. once you are in the 1^st lock you must complete the flight.

We tried to get on the “blue line” where you wait for lockage outside the locks.   But it was full so as we were kinda circling wondering what to do, a very nice French Canadian aboard “Splash” waved us up to his boat which was first in line to enter the lock. We rafted with him …. his young son caught my line when I threw it and did a great job of tying us tight. The captain of "Splash" said we would probably be waiting an hour which was fine with us cause we were hungry for lunch. Turned out this man had been to Cape Hatteras near New Bern.

So we waited at the bottom of Lock 1 for boats locking down... turned out to be only one boat. Then the gate opened and out he came....

The lock master came by each boat waiting and told us to go first into the lock... first means you will get to be up front where the turbulence is when they flood the lock to raise the water level.  Miss gg was against the port wall.. the sun was in my eyes & it was difficult to see the second cable from the front that I had been told to grab. So the very nice lock lady stood by it... in another lock I couldn't even catch it and another Canal staff guy pulled it over for me to wrap my line around it... another time I dropped the cable entirely during the locking process and had to call the guy over quickly... he ran and I threw him my line! Whew!

There were crowds at each lock watching today.. fun talking to them.. all had questions when they saw our American flag... we fly the Canadian flag also at midship on our mast.

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Here the Lock 1 gate is closing and you can see we are jammed into this lock with a boat (unseen here) beside us and one behind us and another beside it. There is no space to let go of a line even with fenders down on all sides of all boats... sometimes damage is still done to a boat.

Here are some pictures of the locks being hand cranked exactly as they were in 1832 when the canal opened.

Here is the view from the top... we came up all these locks today. Another looper first mate here said she never knew work until she did these 8 locks! We did this in 86 degree heat with NO breeze blowing on you once you are in the locks until you get to the top. I have never been so hot in my memory nor so long in the bright sun light... took us 90 minutes & I was sure I would be a in a puddle by the top, cause don't you know, Sugar melts! :-)

We were early enough to find a free spot on the wall in downtown Ottawa with electricity. There is a 2 night limit for most folks but the park officer said we could stay for three nights giving us two full days to explore here. Our boat is beside a walking and bike path so many have stopped to chat... got an invite for “Docktails” at 5p with another looper boat but turned him down to go meet our friends from “Q's Cabin” arriving soon after us.  We walked down to meet them and take pictures of their ascent up the flight of locks.

Walter took this photo of all the boats lined up on this night on the docking wall.

We will recoup tonight and begin to discover this International city tomorrow.. so much to see....

The blog is late tonight because a lovely young couple who live in Ottawa stopped by on their nightly walk.  They wanted to know about  Walter's neat invention of a boarding ladder... they are both engineers and have a sailboat on the hard (dry dock) and had sailed some parts of the Loop.  While they were here Loopers on the boat just ahead of us from FL stopped by... we invited them all to come aboard and sit on our sun deck and chat....and yes it is well past the old folk's bedtime but we so enjoyed their company!   It was fun to meet these new friends.