July 26 and 27th Lake Simcoe

July 26th
We moved from the marina in Sunset Cove to Lock 40 for the night in hopes to cross Lake Simcoe in the morning.  It was quite pleasant at lock 40 and no raccoons!  Jim spent the day fishing, Ashley spent the day reading, and I spent the day cleaning and watching Jim fish.  The Lake was reported to have 6' waves so we waited hoping it calms down for tomorrow.

July 27  Today is the Captains birthday
Crossing Lake Simcoe was a wonderful day for this trip the lake was calm and sunny.  Fueled up and pumped out once we got across as Orilla does not have these services.  The plan is to spend 2 days at Orilla Marina though it is stay 2 days get the 3rd for free we are hoping to make up some time. The time spent here will be restocking the galley and a ton of laundry.

July 28th and 29th
Will as it turns out we took advantage of the free 3 rd night stay.  This morning was stormy and we had not realised at the time that this is a holiday, civic day is monday and a long weekend for Canada. Sort of our Labor day weekend.  So once again we will  be traveling on a weekend as we need to get moving this one day on 2 days off is really killing our schedule but at least we were lucky to get a slip THIS weekend.  Tomorrow morning we will head out of Orilla and hopefully stay at a lock wall, ideally we are hoping to stay on the wall at the Big Chute.  If that doesn't work out we will either anchor out there or if time allows, we can head into Midland on Saturday.  Our reservations are for Sunday and Monday but the harbour master said he would make room for us even though its a busy long weekend. Bay Point Yachting Center, they are AGLCA sponsors and offer a loopers discount.  When I made the reservations for a slip I asked if they had laundry facilities (on site) as the last 2 places did not!  Orilla it was a 1/2 mile walk up hill to laundry and as I said I had a ton, well now its tons.  This is the first time we have had an issue in locating a convenient laundry.

hmmm they must know something about the weather

A storm is coming in, glad we stayed at the lock.  Hopefully Lake Simcoe will be calm tomorrow.

These nasty things are called Snappy's they are a version of a Hot Dog very popular in the Oswego area.  We did not like them a pork veal mix.  I had them in the freezer and when jim ran out of bait I sugguested he use them.  The fish didn't like them either.  Sorry Mike I was planning on serving them to you next time we saw you.

 just hangin tight at lock 40

This beautiful old boat was in the movie Absence of Malice with Paul Newman and Sally Fields.  This couple from New Zealand have a 2 year travel plan to take her around the east coast canals and rivers of Canada and the US.

Heading towards Lake Simcoe, train overhead on the railroad bridge

The Port of Orillia

Well that is a heck of a name for a band



Orilla is a nice stop lots of shops, they have a really good used book store,  a couple of ice cream shops, one right across the street from the marina a 24 hours grocery store just a block away the LCBO is right there as well and many resturants in town.  I highly recommend Studabakers for really good pub grub. Oh, there is also an excellent bakery in town as well.

July 24th The Trent Canal and the Kirkfield hydraulic lift lock

                                                                            Whats ahead?
The Trent Canal, 6 miles long with a speed limit of 5 mph, believe me you will not want to go much faster as it is very narrow with overhanging trees and rock shelves lining the sides not much room for on coming traffic or drifting thoughts here.

Whats behind us,  Salt n Sand they are bigger and their draft (depth) is 1 foot deeper than SweetPea.  If you have a draft of 5' or more you have to sign a wavier to enter the Trent Canal.  We are 3'10" and Salt N Sand is 4' 8".

We made it out safe and sound, now we are at the marsh lands of Mitchell lake still keeping an eye out for deadheads (branches and debris sunken just below the waterline)

The Kirkfield hydraulic lift lock 2nd in size to the Peterborough, there are only 9 locks of this type ever built.  The other 7 are in England, France and Belgium.  This lock lifts or lowers 49' the Peterborough lifts or lowers 65',  I have got to say going down one of these locks is quite thrilling, when going down you enter the lock and it looks as though you are going right off the edge.  Here we watch Salt n Sand lock through they will drop 49' really quickly, as they go down the other tub or pan is coming up with boats from the otherside.  You can see we are at the same level as the boats before they drop.

Here they are still dropping.

And out they go.

Now its our turn!

We thought it was really cool.

The hole in the wall....yup we fit.

At the end of our day we spent a night at Sunset Cove Marina with Rich and Carol we ordered pizza and shared our days experience.  As it turned out Salt n Sand hit bottom 3 times along the way, theres the difference a 1 foot makes.

Fenelon Falls saved by Gold Loopers

Nice boathouse ay?

Busy busy at Bobcaygeon tight squeeze

Honey I'm HOME!

Cooling down in your back yard.

A great place for the kids to hang out and cool down.  We had fun watching them jump from the cliff.

It was a weekend and a hot one at that, all the marinas that could handle a boat our size were all filled up for the weekend and unfortunately for us the walls were as well.  Late in the day and no where to go as we were heading into Fenelon Falls we passed a gold looper dock to the side right before the falls we waved and continued on.   When we reached the lock that too was filled up, now what?  We got a call from the looper we had just passed they said the upper lock was filled as well BUT if we wanted we could raft up to their boat for the night with 50amp service as well!  As it turned out Barbara and Norm Newton had finished the loop in 2001, their boat Beta Omega a 42' Hatteras is on their dock at the house . We enjoyed the night with the great company of Norm and Barbara it was very generous of them to allow us to raft up to their boat.  They said we could stay as long as we wanted but it was time to move on.  As we were leaving in the morning they told us to tell our looper friends that if they are in the need of a dock for the night it is available. By the way anyone looking for a looper boat Beta Omega is for sale and she sure is pretty.  If you would like the phone number to reach Barbara and Norm e-mail me and I will send it along to you.

Beta Omega shes For Sale

July 21st Lakefield to Lovesick Lake Ontario

Today was extremely hot for Canada, in the 90's with lots of humidity and even hotter down in the locks with no air.  Lakefield marina was a pleasing site, we all took a swim as soon as we tied up for the night, since the water was so refreshing I thought it a good time to give a scrub down of the hull at the waterline.  Really I just didn't want to get out of the water, one side got done anyway.  This is a great stop,  there is a butcher shop, a deli with some gourmet items as well as a Greek restaurant which we ate at all a stones throw away.  

Click on the photo for a larger view

On the lock walls as well as at this marina people can spend their vacations traveling in their small boats and camping out along the way, here 2 boats traveling together with children pitch the tents for the kids and the adults get to sleep on the boats.

90 degrees and dreaming of snow?

Private dock for your plane

Saint Peters On the Rock Anglican Church on the Hells Gate Passage.  You can only get to church by boat.

The scenery is getting prettier as we go through Hells Gate as promised,  they say this is what we have to look forward to in the Georgian Bay.

 Lock 30 (upper) Lovesick Lake Lock,  we spent the night here and the sunset was beautiful.  However, as warned in the cruising book the raccoons WILL be on your boat at night.  Make sure if you stop here to close all the hatches and windows.

The refection of the sunset on the buildings across the lake.

Jim doing double duty,  fishing and watching the sunset.

It was worth the visiting raccoons in order to have this spectacular view.

Trenton to Peterborough Ont.

Its been 5 days without Internet so here goes...

We left Trenton on Saturday morning as planned Ashley (our daughter) is now aboard.  We spent our first night on the Trent-Severn on a lock wall at lock 10,  that's alot of locking and only traveled 28 miles.  It was nice to have an extra person aboard for locking especially for the captain.  It was a nice quiet stop very isolated.

The next morning we went through locks 11 and 12 and had a quick stopover at Cambellford for ice and photo op.  We continued on and spent the night at Hastings total 8 locks for the day and again only traveled 23 miles.  We were surprised to find NautiNell on the lock wall at Hastings along with 2 other loopers, Simple Interest and Happy Hours V another nice stop.  In fact we liked it so much we spent 2 days,  they have a LCBO (Liquor Beer Store) and a few restaurants as well as 2 ice cream shops.  There is also a hardware store, bank and post office.  It was quite warm while we were there so we tested the waters,  surprisingly warm. While we were here Jim decided to get a fishing license as it is Fish haven, well it seems everywhere we are traveling.  Unfortunately the store that sells fishing licenses closed the weekend earlier so that was put off.  We then decided to take the dink down and go for a ride but the engine was acting up, Jim was lucky enough to find someone to come and pick up the motor and service it the same day so we could move on.

 The next day we crossed Rice Lake with NautiNell only 1 lock today and we landed at Peterborough on another lock wall west side of lock 19 Scott Mills.  Again a warm day requiring a dip before taking the dink down and head across Little Lake (really little) to Peterborough and tie up to NautiNell who was on a town dock in the Harbour.  We walked into town had lunch and ran into Inconceivable(Fallons) on the way back to the dink.  Since the Fallons were on their dink and ours was work really well the guys decided to have a little race.  Well, I knew they would win as they had alot less weight in their dink but .......we ended up getting swamped we got soooo wet, the PFD's inflated and Jims ego was maybe a bit bruised.  But, wait till next time when only Jim is in the dink it could be a closer race. 

This sign on the waterway informs boaters of the services available in town.

We decided to take advantage of some of the services in Cambellford

Cambellford photo op. this is a Canadian coin known as a tooney

The Canadian park service does an excellent job with the maintenance

This was really cool, the waterway goes right into town between to roads.

When the motor stalled it was not a BIG deal until... Jim turned around and saw he was drifting towards the cables that rope off boaters to the dam.

I have never seen a black squirrel before, but thats what they have here.

NautiNell was leading the way but as we were approaching a tricky and very narrow channel he let us take the lead.  What a guy! We had the charts for the area.

You never know whats around the next bend.

Jim taking a dip, the water was very warm.

Ashley on the Peterborough Trail and bike path SweetPea in the background at the marina. (the one with all the fenders hanging down) ugh!


The next morning we moved over to the marina by 9am to plug in, take on water, get a pumpout and check out the city  (Population 80,000.)  We ended up seeing the new Harry Potter movie in 3D it was really good.  We walked back to the boat, I defrosted the fridge Jim went to the grocery store for water, ice and he picked up some fish.  Their is a concert tonight at the park right off the docks so we will be entertained.  Tomorrow we will head out, the next lock awaits and it is an interesting one to say the least its a lift lock.

I almost forgot to mention our uninvited 1am visitor at Hastings.  We were woken up at 1am by a big thud in the cockpit.  We all got up, Jim yelled get off my boat!  Outside there was a very drunk young (early 20's) girl, drunk as a skunk.  She wanted to know if we could have a party.  Jim repeated his last comment, as she stumbled off the boat and back on the wall, she said you can come party with us?  Jim just said Now stay off my boat.  Later I thought maybe he should of said,  the guy down on the first boat is having a party?  But then again, maybe not.  Mike was probably asleep as well.