Frying Pan Island Echo Bay Aug 2nd and 3rd

We are anchored in Echo Bay near Frying Pan island, less than a mile or so from Henry's Fish camp.  We had lunch at Henry's yesterday, MuddyWaters was leaving and BlueSkies was arriving when we left.  Best fish and chips, we had the pickerel which in the states we call walleye, yummy.
The fact that we are anchored is something we do not have alot of experience with, so its a big deal to us.  I really do enjoy being at anchor, though, anchoring here is not at all what we are use too in our limited experience.  We are in a smallish cove and there are 21 boats here, there are 3 of us swinging at the center and 18 others on the sides at anchor but tied to trees or rocks at the stern,  some are rafted with others, some by themselves.  It really is quite the site.  Boating here is very serious stuff in many ways,  we now wish we bought our Georgian Bay charts earlier to study them a bit but it is a crash course now.  No pun intended....   We knew it was going to be very rocky, narrow and shallow but WOW.  The boaters in this area know how to enjoy the short season for sure,  they really take advantage of the beautiful cruising grounds, taking off for weekends with friends and fellow dockmates, anchoring out in groups.  Boats rafted together 6 or more is also pretty common.  Lots of swimming and boat toys brought along with them inflatable rafts, lounges,etc, some very serious dinghy's for exploring as well.  We have all been enjoying swimming in freshwater especially Ashley.
Being from New England our cruising grounds are the ocean, though we to have beautiful destinations Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, all of the Cape and Newport RI. but  it is more about marinas than anchoring, and  more about visiting the quaint New England villages and Harbours then the serene natural beauty of nature. 
Well anyway, here we sit in this beautiful cove enjoying our new home for a couple days this was a planned anchorage before we even left the States and it is nice to be able to share it with our daughter but we were also hoping to have NautiNell here along with us.

 Here we are at Henry's Fish Camp you can get here by boat, by plane or by helicopter thats it!  Henry's has a heli pad, we didn't see anyone arrive that way but LOTS of boats and planes.

 Echo Bay anchorage

 Ashley enjoying the sun. water and a good book

Tomorrow we set out for a restock in Parry Sound then head out to Point Au Baril, we are planning on spending a couple of nights in Killarney before we continue on into the North Channel.

Aug 1st Midland tomorrow Frying Pan Island and Henry's Fish Camp

We took a walk into town took some photos of the murals the town is most known for, had lunch at a Deli and returned to do laundry.  Yesterday we ran into Carol and Rich at the marina (Salt n Sand) and they came over for cocktails they are planning on leaving here in the morning.  We will be 1 day behind them.
For some unknown reason my e-mail won't recieve here,  Never had that happen before but we hope it is just something here at the marina?  So, therefore I can not recieve or send e-mails.
Here are some photos of our visit at Bay Port Marina in Midland.

We are in the Georgian Bay!

How do you follow up on something as unusual and exciting as the Big Chute?  Well....Holy Cow we are now in the Georgian Bay!  After traversing the Big Chute (lock 44)  we traveled a ways to the smallest of the locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway, this one is Lock 45 in Port Severn and its the last lock on this canal system.  Once we dropped down the 12' we exit the lock to the Georgian Bay.  This lock being the smallest in length 84' means if you want to travel the entire TSW you must be under 84', an easy task for us.  I must warn, after exiting this lock the cruising guides tell you about the current and the narrow winding channel here,  I will just say it is an understatement,  with all the traffic bogged up at this lock and little room for boaters to tread water waiting to go up,it can be a bit intimidating if larger boats are coming in as you need to head out as there is only room for one boat at a time, and as I said it is a Narrow 25' with a strong current and curvy.
We are now in Midland and will remain here for 2 nights as we are waiting the end of a long Canadian weekend.

This is our first peek at the Georgian Bay

And this is our home for the next 2 nights.

WOW the Big Chute Marine Railway- July 31st

This is yet another milestone of our journey, we have read about the Big Chute in blogs and seen many photos however, to see it in person is an another thing entirely.  We docked at the Big Chute Marina to take in the working aspects of it and to take many photos including Blue Skies on the Chute.  We met up with Larry and Christine at the Rendezvous in Norfolk back in May but barely exchanged a hello until we once again met up with them in Orillia Ontario.  It is fun and interesting to share stories with fellow loopers along the way.

What is the Big Chute you say?  It is not a lock though it is counted as lock 44 in this one you and your boat are transported out of the water on a giant railway carriage over a road and down the side of a rocky hilltop back into the water below. The total drop is 60' and it is the only marine railway cart still in use in the world. Well thats one way to get from the high lake to the lower lake!  It is a site to behold and even more exciting to experience the ride in person.

Here we are at the blue line with Blue Skies we took a walk to check it out.  So we took photos of Blue Skies on the Chute.

 Blue Skies is entering the Railway car.  They are then lifted on straps and the car starts moving up the hill.

 Then over the road to the other side then down the hill and out to the lower lake.

We decided to stay the night and do the Chute in the morning.  This is how the chute rests at night,  just off to the side of the road.  What a site!

Our turn, in we go.  Since we are lifted out of the water Jim asked the lock master if he would take a look at our props to see how they looked.  No harm in asking ay?  He said the bottom looked good and the prop had a small piece of rope on it.  Hmmm Jim had thought there may be something going on below water.

This is at the bottom exiting.

We are heading down the otherside

At the top ........starting down the hill

This is what it looks like on the otherside, we just exited it.

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.