Rideau canal trip completed

[Two killicks]

Good day
We just got back from a 14 days trip on the Rideau canal with our 21ec, what a trip!
The weather was perfect, the tug performed well, the canal is a beautiful place to navigate as well.

The trip was 250 miles long, with 74 locks completed. We are very happy with the enclosure, for us, it's a must to have for sun and water protection. We brought the zodiac and the outboard for the first leg of the trip, but we find that it use to much space on the boat, so we left it in the truck for the remainder of the trip.

We found that the boat is big enough for the 2 of us, we never felt that we needed a bigger boat, but I must admit that moving the luggage from the cabin to the cockpit at night, is a bit annoying. To resolve this, we will remove the fridge and put some shelving instead for our clothing. The space behind the fridge is worth it too. We only use the fridge to cool beer and pop can anyway.

We stayed 10 night on the hook, and the house battery never gave up on us. the only thing that made us come back to the marina was the water fill up and toilet pump out every 3 days or so...

The only issues with the boat was: I noticed a loose belt (impeller belt), the packing gland was leaking a little too much and got this adjusted and the toilet in the wet mode was sending the water in the tank instead of filling the bowl, and it smell really bad outside the boat thru the vent when we operate the manual pump, I wonder why, it never did this before...

The boat sipped 1.75 liters of fuel per hour at 2400 rpm (5.5 kts) (fully loaded for a 3 week trip)

In conclusion, we love our boat more and more, it is easy to maintain, and to maneuver this boat in close quarter is a joke, we came to the conclusion that the boat size is more like a combination of boating and camping all in one. we would not live onboard for an extended period, but for summer vacation, it suit our need quite well. I was tied next to the Ranger tug 25sc "Riverdance" in Kingston, what a difference in size... We would love to do the Great loop one day, the 25 seems very appropriate for this sort of trip.

 

[BeaconBluff]

Pat:
Sounds like a great trip. We cruised for 6 days on part of the Rideau in July and loved it. We really liked the lakes and how clean the water was. We are planning on trying part of the Trent-Severn canal next year - several other boaters on the canal said it was great.
We installed a holding tank vent filter and that remedied the smell when we flush the toilet.
My wife and I just got back from the Thousand Islands in NY/Canada where we spent a week living on the boat. We just love that area and go back every year.
Best wishes for future excursions.
Rodney

 

[Two killicks]

Hi Rodney, thanks for your reply, we really liked it too big Rideau lake was so clear as you said, we loved it too. We are planning to do the Trent Severn canal too and we did not get a chance to do the thousand island trip yet. Next year we hope to participate in the North Channel trip that are organized for the ranger tugs owner. This year they were going up the trent and the Georgian bay. I learned a little too late that the trip was organized, Otherwise we would've gone with them...

Thank you for the tip about the Vent, I will try this.

Cheers