It was a pleasant and quiet night in between the two Smiths Falls Locks (29A and 31).  We got off to a moderately early start, but Smiths Falls Lock 31 had a very large cruising vessel coming out of the lock as we approached.  The beam of the cruising vessel was nearly as wide as the lock chamber - and so long it needed to fold up its bow (!), and then squeezed by us and the other boats, waiting to lock through in the opposite direction.

Once we got through (up 8.5 feet), we followed the somewhat winding path of the Rideau River that joined up to the Poonamalie Cut, and locked through the extremely idyllic pastoral setting of the Poonamalie Lock 32 (up 6 feet).  When I commented to the lock master that it was such a beautiful place to come to work - he said, "That's why I've been here for 15 years."

The Rideau River continued in a winding fashion after that until it joined the Lower Rideau Lake, which then joined up to the Big Rideau Lake.  The lake region here seems like a vacation summer home paradise – with lots of large and small cottages nestled in and amongst the trees, many with their own docks and boats.   On Big Rideau Lake we encountered curtains of torrential rain – so hard that we had to stop in place for a while until it subsided.

Big Rideau Lake is joined to Upper Rideau Lake at the Narrows Lock 35 (up 3 feet).  Upper Rideau Lake is the highest point of the Rideau Canal route at 407 feet above sea level.

After traversing the length of the Upper Rideau Lake, we arrived at the very picturesque Westport Harbour Marina.  Westport was a very pleasant little town with lots of shops and restaurants as well as a Post Office modeled after the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.  

This area of Ontario has had a bit of a drought the last month or so and the depth of the Rideau Canal has hovered at around 4 feet, 9 inches – a concern to us because Salty’s draft is 3 feet, 9 inches.  Along with the lower water levels, the weeds and water lilies have flourished – very pretty to look at, but they can and do clog up the sea strainers at the inlets to the water cooling systems for the engines and the AC units.  The visit to Westport, which seems plagued with weeds and aquatic growth, nearly half-filled our strainers.