Smiths Falls to Davis Locks

Le boat in Smiths Falls for rent

After landing in Smiths Falls and spending the night tied up at the city park dock, we were relieved that the troublemakers that gave us so much entertainment the night before didn't bother us any more.

In the town there were 9 "Le Boats" tied up along the wall. We found out that this is a rental business and believe it or not this is what their website says:

Never been on a boating holiday?

Be the captain of your own boat. No license or experience is required. It's that simple! You come aboard and we show you everything you need to know during a briefing and demonstration. Then you're off enjoying your boating holiday. It's like driving a car, but much easier and more relaxing!

That's what THEY say about renting a boat and driving it yourself. Scary thought, but there is a new company offering to let you do just that. They have everything from a 35 foot to a 50 footer which has 5 staterooms (bedrooms) and 5 heads (washrooms in layman's terms). I did a search for the cost for 7 days and found it ranged from $6,200 to $9,300 plus fuel and mooring fees.

We travelled through a few locks with them. It was a bit worrisome as their "Captains" were not too confident or educated on the locking procedures and some tended to drift a little too close to the neighbouring boats. As we boated through some of the very shallow and narrow canals, they went on the wrong side of the buoys. They have diesel engines but a Jet Boat Propulsion so no props, saving them from bottoming out in the shallows.

Leaving Smiths Falls (I always thought it was spelt Smith, but it has an "s" on the end) we passed through the Poonamalie locks which was the beginning of our trip that took us through an unpopulated section of the canal. This particular lock is in the middle of an artificial canal channel that cuts off a particularly winding part of the Rideau River. It's a very quiet lock and the following channel is very narrow. We had to pass a couple of boats which made for slow careful maneuvering.

Along the way we saw a couple interesting visuals on the shorelines.

There were times when we wondered where our route should take us, but it was unanimous that we should ignore the buoys that seem out of order. This particular one was in mud.

The winding channel made for an interesting cruise through this part of the Rideau Canal and we wondered how they ever plotted this route over 200 years ago.

After passing through this part of the canal system we entered the large lake section that included the Lower Rideau Lake, Big Rideau Lake and Upper Rideau Lake. Later in the day we decided to visit Westport for a lunch stop. When we pulled into the harbour there was no place to dock so the Captain managed to get us turned around and we went to a small bay and anchored out for a lunch of fresh veggies, cheeses and dips. A feast fit for far more than the 4 of us. When we pulled the anchor up, it was covered with weeds and silt. It took Jan, Cynthia and Swabbie a long time to clean all the gunk of the anchor. Cynthia mentioned that she hadn't played in that much gunk in a long time. More proof of the state of the canals and lake bottoms this year.

We passed through the Newboro lock and then headed down the lake passing an island called Goat Island that is owned (partially) by Craig's family. Although there was no one home, we blew the horn just to say that we did.

Goat Island

Chaffey lock was next and as we boated through this tiny town towards the lock, we saw lots of small boat houses and docks packed with large boats tied up for the evening. It was almost 5:30 pm as we neared the Davis locks where the park staff were holding the lock open for us to lock through for the evening. We were not paying attention to the time and when we arrived at Chaffeys they told us that closing time had passed but the lock staff stayed to get us through that lock. We were so appreciative with their willingness to work later, just for us. Good thing they stayed because there was no dock space at the top of Chaffeys for us that evening, enabling us to carry on to the Davis lock.

We arrived at the Davis lock and tied up for the night. Captain Paul donned his bathing suit (again) and his new "Dive Goggles" to do an inspection of the props and clean the gunk off - Yes, once again!

There are lots of boaters posting comments about the weeds in the waterways this year and we are experiencing it first hand. It does cause havoc with your props.

The evening was quiet and called for unloading the dingy and letting Swabbie have some fun. He took us for a spin, full throttle of course, around the lake checking out the cottages and cute islands. The lake didn't have many cottages, so the purpose of the outing became all about speed and letting the wind blow off the cobwebs. This is swabbies Happy Place.

We had lots of rain, accompanied by thunder & lightening throughout the evening but we all slept through most of it. We were safe and sound in Out To See III.

Tomorrow we head out for Kingston and get to travel through the largest locks.

The Hallman Experience: Trying to pull into a cute town with a marina finding out that there's no room to dock.

Solution: Use the VHF radio to call on channel #68 for guidance first.

Can't wait to do Jones Falls and Kingston Mills locks tomorrow!