Slow Boat

We have a winner! Scott Berger correctly guessed that the "iceberg" we sighted on July 2 was, in fact, foam.

BUT there's more to the story.  It's not pollution. Nope!

The rafts of foam were drifting below a hydro dam next to a lock on the Rideau Canal. Water falling over the dam whips naturally occurring organic compounds into foam.

Here's more info, if you're interested. For his quick and correct answer, Scott will receive a genuine postcard sent by good old-fashioned snail mail. Give that man a round of applause.

Canal Closed for . . . What?

What IS it?

Here's your new SlowBoat "What IS It?" challenge.

After we passed through Nicholson's Locks on the Rideau, we traveled through a narrow cut.

The passage made a sharp turn at the end.

We came around the corner to see some orange fencing and the highly dismaying message, "Canal Closed."

Slow Moving Steel Vessel

Beyond the barrier,what looked like a construction vehicle churned through the water.To my eyes, it looked like one of those machines that roll fresh asphalt, pressing it nice and smooth.

But hey! The surface of the water hardly needs flattening.  (On the canal, at least. In a future post I'll talk about the surface of the Ottawa River, churned by the wakes of hundreds of morons . . . I mean fellow boaters . . . passing us at the speed of sound, raising three-foot wakes that rattled the wineglasses and shook the books on the shelves. Tsk!  A water flattening device would have been VERY handy.)

So, back to this mystery machine. What IS It?  (And how did SlowBoat get past the "Canal Closed" sign? 'Cause you know we made it to Ottawa!)

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