Clockwise
from top left:
This beauty is
a 1974 Trojan
Sea Raider; the
green marker
aids boat
navigation;
a veil of water
at Jones Falls;
Dave makes
good use
of his charts.boat mechanics do the job? After what
seemed like a long few minutes, the boat
trailer was unhitched, and we drove away
leaving the boat for repairs with a tired and
disappointed Dave saying, “Keep an eye out
for the horn.”
LAUNCHED!
Although we never did find the horn (we
bought a new one) happily, two days later
our boat was ready, and our trip began. We
had an amazing time cruising the Rideau
Canal from Big Rideau Lake to the St. Law-
rence at Kingston.
At almost 50 years old, our beautifully
restored 1974 Trojan was noticed and
received attention wherever we went.
We had made the trip from Ottawa to Big
Rideau Lake two years earlier, and our goal
this time was to complete cruising all 202
kilometres of the Rideau Canal. Nineteen
kilometers of it are man-made locks and ca-
nal cuts, while the rest are natural waters.
Boat traffic in many of the waterways,
locks, marinas and docks was heavier than
we expected, as it seemed many other
boaters chose the last week of August and
the first week of September for boating
trips as well. Fishing boats, pontoon boats,
houseboats, big cruisers, small cruisers, all
were enjoying some end-of-season time on
the water just as we were.
There were some challenges of course,
including a tornado warning; extreme tem-
perature shifts; the GPS failing to work,
and finally, the fact that turbulent water in
some locks was a little scarier than our last
experience two years earlier. But in the end
it was all worth it; we had a wonderful time.
Would we do it again? Yes, indeed. n55