Nice 4 day run on boat....
BellevilleMXZ
Member Posts: 732 ✭✭✭
Left Friday Morning , encountered some big rollers,at edge of Lake Ontario then poked around the Thousand Islands and came home this morning......still pretty big rollers in spots. Those 4 footers make me nervous.
Poker run on Saturday was great, nice to see the big stuff running. Was quite windy at times , so they weren't running as fast as last year. Boat worked great! First decent trip this year. Man these things like the fuel when u push them!
2005 Rinker 270 FV Volvo Penta 5.7Gi
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Docked at friends place for the weekend, Howe island in the channel......great place. Buddy put almost 600L through the H350 on sat! Yowwza!
We just completed a 6-day trip up the Rideau to Westport and back. Returned Monday evening around 8pm.
When coming into Kingston we stopped into Confederation Basin on Monday around lunchtime. The city was buzzing with the Eclipse watchers. Had a brewski and pub grub at outdoor lounge area. Quite windy on Lake O so we cruised down around Wolfe Island, over to Cape Vincent.
By the time we stopped and stretched our legs and let the animals do their stuff the water looked much better and we had a beautiful 1 hour cruise back to home port of Henderson Harbor, NY. Sunset was beautiful on our backs; the admiral liked that ride much better than what it would have been cutting the 3-5 footers we would have experienced earlier.
Saw your post regarding friends H350. That would be quite upsetting with a new purchase. Loving our 2006 300....purchased her from a couple in Port Colbourne last August with 91hrs. After recent trip showing around 138hrs and running like a top! Burning around 10.2-10.5 gallons/hr.
2 SeaRays joined us on the trip. One was a '98 290 and one was '02 300. All 3 boats burning nearly identical fuel. We have 5.0s and both of them have 5.7s
@RustyS....done that trip many times. Really a fun trip to make. My Rinkers were all purchased at Len's Cove on the Big Rideau. For 25 years I lived on the Rideau River another 60 miles upstream! You went through a lot of really neat locks to get to Westport....and some real narrow channels - beautiful scenery and some nice quiet stretches of river through farmland.
BTW, how did you like the slalom course through the channel markers on the River STYX leg. We slalomed that with my 360 at 35mph LOL
We cruised at around 28-32mph most of the time @Michael T. It is quite the slalom course though. Wind was blowing and probably 2 footers when we were coming through. I was always the 3rd boat in line with my buddies; had to keep an eye ahead. One time I fell back and did get up to 35mph on a long straightaway.
My friends went up to Brockville end of last season while we were boatless searching for our Rinker. We frequent the Parks Canada islands also. Already planning a trip for next season to your home town and their owned islands. We love the area!
Have been following the forum since owning and nice to see you back active and knowing your health is well. Enjoy your upcoming travels!
Sounds like a great trip!!
We started this back in '09 with a 23' Wellcraft Eclipse cuddy, sold that and bought a Larson 274 Cabrio in '11, sold that last year and upgraded to the 300 EC last year. The wider beam, twin motors, and space makes the extended trip a pleasure compared to the 8.5 beam.
You have to experience the Thousand Island Area on the St. Lawrence River, Eastern Lake Ontario, and of course the Canadian canals. Truly a beautiful boating area. Has been a little tough this year with the extra high water levels, but usually able to plan a trip without much weather interference.
Get them drives on @rasbury! Looks like you will be getting her wet again pretty soon!
@RustyS..... you should recognize these pictures. These locks are between Kingston (where locks enter the St. Lawrence) and the Big Rideau (Westport) where I believe you ended up.
The pictures don't show adequately how narrow the channel can get. A lot of "pucker time" for me - a guy with a new Rinker EC 360. LOL
Top picture shows one of the many narrow points in the system. beautiful but scary! Next down is the lock that always worried me the most (I think it was at Opinicon Lake) as the water was so high in the lock that the fenders did not want to stay in the water. I was always afraid of swapping gel coat with the granite sides.I have seen guys put their boats right up on land at this lock! The third from the top shows the approach to the same lock from up-stream. You will probably remember coming out of (and going into) and then crossing into the beautiful "pool" between the locks. The last picture was the boat moored for the night below Brewer's Lock. The up-river (above the locks) is notorious for super fast water flow as there is a spillway right beside that lock - you can see the spillway in the left background of the picture. My Axius "skyhook" was working overtime there one time as there was no space to tie-up at the approach and I had to hold position.
I'm sure most of you guys would love the trip as there is water and 30 amp. as well as restrooms/showers at most locks.
@Michael T: Yes; some of those channels do get quite narrow! We met some 35'+ boats in them going up through on Lake side of the Newboro lock. And when you see the "sound horn" signs you know there is a tight turn and narrow channel just ahead.
There are some areas by the blue-line docks on upper side that are quite swift with current as you state. A couple of times we chose to not tie-up to blue-line dock and wait for doors to open. Dancing around 2 other 30' boats without Axius or a thruster got interesting more that once. Once the bow was in the wind all was good except the Admiral in your ear....Lol!
The 2nd pic is looking down off Jones Falls. There are 3 locks in a row, then the pool, and 1 upper. We have a pic of the same looking down off the middle lock; quite beautiful! The 4"-6" of wall for your fenders to bump against is very pucker worthy as you state! It's like floating on land and terrifying!
@Rasbury: the homes you are referring to in pic 3&4 are lockmaster houses and were built in early 1800's when the canal was built. Some of these were fortified and constructed with areas to defend against us Americans should we attempt an invasion to destroy. I believe the technical term was Blockhouses. Very interesting history with the entire canal. Fortunately we made peace and the canal remains in existence today.
Also, @Michael T: Opinicon Lake is on the lower side of Chaffey's lock. The Opinicon Hotel has been restored over the past 2 years and is now open. Everything is beautifully done with manicured lawn and landscaping. New construction is underway building a pool and addition to the main structure. They also have cut a channel and have about 250' of wall with power, water, and fuel for overnighting. These improvements has made Chaffey's one of our favorite overnight areas!
2018 Cherokee 39RL Land Yacht (Sorry...)
@RustyS I have been through each of the locks from Kingston to Westport 12 times and not a scratch on the either the 2013 EC 310 or 2014 EC 360......luck o the Irish.....and Axius LOL.
Have however seen some wicked bang-ups including a beautiful Rinker EC 360 that went sideways (literally) in a lock approach and rode right up onto the approach tie-up docks. It rode back down and across the channel about 15 feet behind our new EC 360. The lockmaster walked up to us and said "I know you were here first but I want to put him in the lock first, any disagreement? "HeII no" was my reply. He replied, "That way you will be out first too and can get out of here before he starts-up!"
P.S. "googled" Henderson N.Y. great looking area and right near the best parts of the 1000 Islands!
The Rideau has a free App as well; very handy when you are out and about to get quick stats and information.
I relied on a new Simrad GO9 XSE we purchased and installed earlier this year with preloaded Navionics charts. Everything was right on the money except the channel coming into Westport.
I realize paper charts should be on-board; we haven't purchased any for this yet and after a few trips we are pretty comfortable.
Nice , thanks for the info!