Our First Post

O God, thy Sea is so great and my boat so small

 

Saturday August 6, 2022, Midland Ontario, Lake Huron Wye Heritage Marina: Well, we finished the Trent Severn Waterway yesterday and went through our final Canadian (Lock #45) at3 PM. We also went through Lock 44 which they call The Big Chute and that was an incredible experience, details to follow. We had another spectacular week cruising The Trent Severn Waterway and all but one day of sunshine, hot and humid weather. Luckily, we planned a down day on the raining day and it was a good call, as we had lots of rain combined with thunder and lightning. No time to be cruising, however a fun time to catch up on boat cleaning. Wow does the boat get dirty quickly and the walls of the locks make a mess of the sides of the boat.

 

Monday August 1, 2022: Travel Day 29, Buckhead ON to Fenelon Falls ON, Total Distance Traveled 29 miles, Total Travel Time 5.5 Hours, 2 Locks : We wanted to get a place on the wall for the evening in Fenelon Falls so we stared out before 8 AM and were the first boat out of the river which worked out well. All 4 boats that left Buckhead that morning that we traveled with wanted to stay at Fenelon Falls. When we arrived that afternoon at Fenelon Falls as we exited the Lock on top there was only room for one boat so being the lead boat it paid off. We only had two locks today and were able to cover a good distance almost thirty miles. We crossed Sturgeon Lake which was lovely and not many houses on it. Easy navigation, sunny bright day and truly little boat traffic as the Civic Holiday was behind us so most folks back to work. The Fenelon Falls lock is located right downtown and so it was a highly active location. The town had a lot of great shops, pubs, and restaurants. We had Docktails on the picnic tables right by our boats and had a fun night with several other Loopers.

 

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Pictures

 No explanation needed

 

Tuesday August 2,2022: Travel Day 30, Fenelon Falls ON. to Orillia ON, Total Distance Traveled 39 miles, Total Travel Time 7 Hours, 6 Locks: We had hooked back up with Nice Goin’ (Kenton and Kathy Nice) who have a Meridian 459 and we have traveled several days with, and we decided to travel together to Orillo and spend two nights as rain was forecasted for Thursday. This was going to be a long day and we had six locks, so we started out first thing. We were fortunately on the top of the lock, so we did not have to wait until 9 AM. I followed Nice Goin’ all day and had an easy navigation day as Kenton did all the heavy lifting. We had several very tight passages particularly through the Trent Channel which was dug out in the early 1900. It was only thirty feet wide in places and we are fifteen feet wide, no way could you pass another boat in the channel. Spooky at times as you never knew what was around the next corner. Hopefully, I can share a video, (but I will not know until I try and upload this later today). Very pretty lakes and the Trent River. Long day but a good one. We arrived and got settled in and then went to dinner with Kathy and Kenton in a great little spot in Orillia. We had a wonderful waiter and when we asked what they are known for he said” Sarcasm and Steak”, great line.  We spent Thursday doing projects and hanging out, great lay day, rained hard and all night.

 

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 The Trent Canal

Nice set up

Nice little get away!

Trenton River

Thursday August 4,2022: Travel Day 31, Orillia ON. To The Big Chute, Total Distance Traveled 30 miles, Total Travel Time 6.5 Hours, 2 Locks: We started out first thing on Friday and is very cloudy and looked like it was going to rain which was forecasted, but the weather Gods hung with us, and it brightened all day. We had a 9-mile leg to the first lock, so we left at 7:30 to arrive early for the first lock of the day. There were four of us traveling that morning and it worked out great as we locked through together at both locks. We traveled with Yellowstone who is from Montana, nice folks, just did 6.5 knots all day and as I mentioned the day kept getting better. Once again, we crossed two lakes and the Trent River. When we arrived in the early afternoon at the Big Chute the wall was full, so we docked at the floating docks on the opposite side and watched the boats travel over the railway. We had always planned to lock though on Friday so we just hung out there for the afternoon.

The railway is a carriage that has boat (cradle) slings in it, very much like a travel lift. You enter the sunken rail car,  and the slings pick you up, the rail goes up the embankment then over a road, then down a steep embankment and places you back in the river on the other side. Its was fascinating to watch. They bring house boats, jet skis, big boats, little boats, barges, everything. What a fascinating afternoon watching the goings on, it was a fun thing to do. Hopefully with the pictures you get a good sense for the operation, if not I am sure, you can google it.

They were unable to lock over all the boats that wanted to go so there were five boats on the wall that had to overnight. As soon as the lock closed for the night, we left the floating dock and got the last space on the wall. We then spent the night with the other five boats. It was great for us to be in line for an early departure. Shocking surprise we all spent time together that night having drinks and meeting new people. All the boats on the wall were locals, so they had valuable information on Lake Huron for us.   

 

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 Watching the boats on the railway.

Yellowstone

The Original Rail Car

Friday August 5, 2022: Travel Day 32, The Big Chute to Midland ON (Lake Huron) Total Distance Traveled 15 miles, Total Travel Time 6.5 Hours, 2 Locks: We spent Thursday night on the wall, and they had problems with the Dam, so they did not start operations until 11:15 and we went through around noontime. Hopefully, I can download the pictures that Kathy took of us going over the road and down the embankment. It was spooky getting picked up and riding the railway. It was very bumpy and the whole boat shook as you creeped along. It did in fact feel good when we were back in the water and underway. I followed one of local couples who we met the night before all the way to the next lock # 44 which was out last Canadian lock and locked through after a half hour wait and we made our way into Lake Huron. We arrived at The Wye Heritage Marina around 3 PM and filled up with fuel and had a pump out as there are extremely limited services for the next three weeks in Georgian Bay and The North Channel.

Our last fill up was in Trenton two weeks ago at the beginning of the Trent Severn. We traveled 240 miles, passed through 44 Locks, forty-three total engine hours, and used only ninety-eight gallons of fuel so we burnt 2.3 gallons per hour which was rather good for us. There is something to benefit from only going 6.5 knots!

 

Track

 

Up she goes

 Going over the road

Hanging out the end of the Railcar

Looking forward as we go down the embankment

Looking back down from loading after going over the road. Note the wall on the right side of boats waiting to go over the chute

Cheers

 Going down the last section

Almost Floating

Almost floating

Last Lock 

Last Night's Sunset 

One of things about the Great Lakes and the inland rivers here is the weeds and grasses on the bottom. Being used to salt water its all new to us. One thing I have had to do is clean the sea cocks often to make sure we have plenty of water flow to cool the engines  air conditioners and generators.  

 

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Fair winds probable be a while until the next post, we are now off to Georgian Bay!