Canadian side St L. Crossing back and forth is not done due to the Customs hassle if you dock at one of the 21 parks

Canada courtesy flag highest, yellow quarantine flag, and US flag starboard stern. Next stop Canada!

Boldt Castle on the St L

Bolt boat house closed, St L is up 4 feet above chart datum.

Marina life

Boldt castle from dock

Pensacola Navy Yacht Club burgee travels to the St Lawrence Seaway

leaky lock

Photo proof of a TC255 getting over 4 MPG at 6 MPH on 1 engine at 1600 RPM. Other engine down but off. Can't steer if 1 engine up. Heavy Cruise Mode with 100g gas and 30g water. Credit to Discovery crew for this technique.

Canadian cows on the Rideau canal, much like on the southern St John river, except they go "Mooooo...Eh?"

Floats above an 'invisible dam' with no superstructure and waterfall, and you go RIGHT of that green spar buoy.

Over 4MPH on one engine @ 1600 RPM burning only 1.5g/hour. 1900 RPM yields 7 MPH and 3.6 MPG but with more wake than allowed in Manatee and No Wake zones.

Locks are often tightly packed

typical Rideau canal entrance canal to lock...shut down one engine if you have two so you don't lose 2 props if you hit a granite boulder.

typical over-lock swing bridge

Hand-cranked gates and valves on the Rideau system

Typical lock 'wall' for overnight docking. All have bathrooms, few have 'hydro' at $9.80 extra, few have water at wall, none have showers. We had seasonal 'locking' unlimited pass but not seasonal 'mooring' (docking) pass for Parks Canada. Also covers docking at their National Parks, which are beautiful.

'Mooring' above a Rideau canal lock 'on the wall' is cheap and unlimited with a seasonal pass (for 'locking' a seasonal pass is also advised for this Triangle Loop was about $230 Canadian for us).

Example of the painted "Blue Line" which tells the lock workers you wish to lock through. There were no VHF radios 186 years ago, so lock workers don't have any. However, you can always call a lock on their cell phone, just like 186 years ago. Don't tie up on the Blue Line even for a 5 minute bathroom break.

Typical Rideau entrance canal into a lock with solid granite to starboard.

Typical Rideau canal leading to lock around a dam and waterfall.

Imagine the work involved with hacking through solid granite and the engineering involved 186 years ago to accurately determine the depth a canal needed to be over hundreds of miles to maintain a 4 ft depth!

typical meeting situation on the Rideau canal system.

Rideau cruising