Nellie wakes up this morning in yet another beautiful spot, Smith's Falls.
We tested Nellie's 2M, VHF and AIS antennas for both standing wave ratio and impedance. "Spot on," was John's conclusion.
Our nemeses Eric and Christine, who in their canoe have beaten Nellie through the last 20 locks, came aboard and graciously told us their secret: get up early, take few breaks, and paddle until dark. Basically, they're winning through hard work. Yea, no. That's not going to happen aboard Nellie ;-)
Note to self, when scoping out a mooring in a town with "Falls" in its name, stay away from the top of said falls. Okay, some explanation might be in order. The Smith's Falls locks are .3 miles apart. We spent last night at the top of the southern lock. This morning we locked through and, wanting to explore town, docked Nellie against the Parks Canada wall pictured above. So far so good. But then we noticed that Nellie was being sucked hard against the wall. So much so, that the fenders looked like they were going to pop.
Looking around for an explanation we noticed the sign pictured above. In fact, there were two of them: one was in front of Nellie, the other behind her.
What we thought was a nice spot was actually dead center above the falls (at the red arrow above). The water, which is higher than normal, was rushing around Nellie on its way over the falls. It took some doing and some rubber off the fenders to extricate Nellie. Eventually we managed to get her clear but not without significant damage to our dignity.
In the above picture it may not be obvious but Nellie is working the angles. How so? Nellie's tied to a Parks Canada wall. To stay here costs $25 per night. The electric pedestal Nellie is plugged into is on the town's wall. Had we pulled around the corner, a night's mooring would have been $51. So, by staying with Parks Canada and buying our electricity for $7/day from Smith's Falls, we saved $19. It's fun working the angles.
While visiting the Railway Museum we came across this stark reminder of how much it snows up here. John is standing in front of the business end of a track snow plow. It's actually an entire train car that's pushed down the tracks by a locomotive.
The museum's railway station was a piece of the 20th century frozen in time. What does it say when many of their historical artifacts were new when I was growing up?
A new record low today, only 0.3 miles traveled between the top of Smith's Falls' locks 31 and 29A.
Safely tied to a Parks Canada wall--well back from the top of the waterfalls--in the heart of Smith's Falls, Ontario. DBH
