Brian H arrived from Bancroft on Saturday to keep Andy in check while I was away, he brought with him a sturdy new step for the boat that Brian V had made. Andy and Brian took me to the airport early Sunday morning for my flight to Halifax, upon arrival there I was met by Christine and Graham Williams. Graham is my Eastern Star counterpart- I am the representative to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in Manitoba, and he is the rep from there to Manitoba. As Christine drove to Truro, I got to know a little about them. We stopped for lunch, and then checked into the hotel, which would be home for the next 4 nights. Later we went out for supper, with a couple more Star members. On Monday morning, I registered, and then went for pictures at some point, and to a Grand Representative’s meeting. That evening at the informal opening of the Wishes do come true Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, I was introduced along with lots of other people. There was an amazing group in attendance from Manitoba, included in the picture is a PGM of Nova Scotia, that was initiated into O.E.S. in Portage la Prairie.
The next few days we spent in meetings, watching how this Grand Chapter conducts business and comparing it to what we do in Manitoba. On the Tuesday night, there was a western themed banquet, followed by line-dance instructions. On Wednesday night was the installation of the new officers, following that was a reception.
On Thursday, Christine and Graham took me to their place in Dartmouth, so they could drop off their stuff, we then toured around Darthmouth and Halifax, before they took me to the airport to catch my 5:40 plane back to Ottawa.
While in Halifax, I tried some local wine, cider and food- donair, when I got back to Ontario, I also found donair flavoured chips in the grocery store.
While I was away, Andy and Brian did some playing in the dinghy, going all the way to Long Island lock one day and then up to Burritts Rapids the next. They had to replenish the gas in the dinghy when they got home. They were also stopped by the OPP, and questioned on a number of things—only got a warning, no fines. The crew from Hurst marina came up with a plan to fix and reinforce the solar panels on the bimini and also put a filter on the black water tank. All this work was completed on Friday.
On Saturday morning after paying the bill, we set off for the next lock which was Burritt’s Rapids, arriving at 1:30 and obtained the last spot that had power.
On Sunday, we continued on down the rideau, passing through the 3 locks at Merrickville, we couldn’t stop because of high water the docks were not available for use. So, we continued on to Kilmarnock and went through the lock and tied up. We spent 2 nights there and had a good visit with Fred and Helen from J’ai Fini, which we had met last summer up on Georgian Bay.
On Tuesday morning, we left and travelled to Smith Falls, and tied up on the wall with power. Tuesday was hot 34 feeling like 44, we were glad were able to run the fan and AC. Jamie and Sheri, boating friends from Victoria Harbour stopped by for a visit, as Sheri lives in Smith Falls. We went out for supper at the Lockmaster’s Tap house, which is nearby, and ran into new boating friends that we had just met in Burritt’s Rapids. Tuesday night there was a huge thunderstorm with winds, and in the morning several trees had been knocked down in the park. Wednesday, Sheri came by and took me grocery shopping for a few things, when we returned to the boat, we had finally heard from Karl, who was suppose to come and install our new alternator—he wasn’t able to make it. So, we rescheduled now having it done in Kingston on Sunday afternoon or Monday. We will stay in Smith Falls another night and then head quickly down the Rideau, to ensure we are close to Kingston for the Sunday bridge opening. My knitting project has had a bit of a setback– I somehow managed to complete the 4 rows of pattern the wrong way, so I am learning to unknit– slow process, and I don’t feel like doing it in this heat– it will have to wait for another day!
With regards to my title—we have seen various locking methods on this trip, we’ve used cables in the TSW and now the Rideau, we have hovered and not tied up at all in the Iroquois, we used bollards in the American -Eisenhower and Snell locks, we’ve had long dirty nylon ropes thrown at us for the 2 Beauharnois locks in Quebec, and then we had the 2 locks in the Quebec Waterways, that had docks to tie to within the locks. Lots of variation- they all work- some better than others! The most grueling of the locking to date were the 8 step locks we did in a 3 hour period in order to reach the Rideau Canal and downtown Ottawa.
Didn’t leave Crysler Park, as planned, still very windy and rain showers every couple of hours. We walked over to the Upper Canada village-told it was about a mile away—sure seemed a lot more than that. Upper Canada village is a world renowned village of heritage structures of the 1860’s. We toured a saw mill which was still able to cut logs into planks, as well as a blacksmith, shoemaker, bakery, wool factory with working looms. There was also a church, masonic lodge and various other buildings. We did not visit them all as we were tired from our walk over. We did stop for lunch, and bought some bread that was made in the village bakery- very thick and dense, as they did not use yeast. On our walk back to the marina, we encountered a shower, and hid under a tree until it passed, farther up the road the harbour master in a truck saw us and gave us a ride back, which was great as we encountered another long shower once we were back at our boat.
On Saturday, with the winds subsiding, we left the marina at 7:30, headed east on the St. Lawrence to the American locks. These locks cover about 9 miles with the Dwight Eisenhower lock on the western end and the Bertrand H Snell lock at the East end. This pair of locks were built to bypass the Long Sault dam. The locks on the Seaway can accommodate ships of 740 feet and beams of 78 feet. We arrived at the Eisenhower lock and tied up to the lock structure, as there was no dock to tie to. Andy called the lock, and an employee came out to collect our fee ($60 Cdn for the 2 locks). We were told that they could take us into the lock shortly, but we would be held for a short time, so that we met a Tug in the 9 mile Wiley-Dondero channel between the locks. Once in the lock, we tied up to a floating bollard, and waited until about 10:00 when our locking down began. We dropped over 40 feet in a matter of minutes, and were out of the lock by 10:08. We then proceeded down the channel for our meet. When we arrived at the Snell lock there was a huge boat approaching, and since pleasure craft are low priority, we bobbled out in the channel. There was a mooring ball that we could have tied to, but once we checked it out, we decided not to. We continued to wait, shortly after 11, the lock called, and said they would take us in, once the ship had left the lock, around 11:20, the ship departed and we made our way in and secured ourselves to a bollard, for another 40 foot drop. We were out of the lock by 11:35, and departed U.S. waters. We continued on to Cornwall which was about 8 miles away, on this part of the St. Lawrence the current was about 7.5 mph, so we were being pushed by river. We had to go around Cornwall island, and then back to the west to get to the marina. We were tied up shortly after 12:45.
We were quite a distance from the marina office, and asked it we could move closer, and were given another slip assignment. In the afternoon, we called a cab and went to Walmart and the LCBO to reprovision. For dinner we ordered Pizza, we had heard on CBC earlier this week about Cornwall-styled Pizza, and wanted to try it out. We were told that with this style of pizza, all the toppings except bacon are under the cheese. The pizza was very good and filling, although the crust was thicker than we prefer—we both ate 2 pieces, so will have leftovers for a few days. On Sunday we walked to the nearby mall, most of the stores were empty- very depressing.
On Monday morning, we fueled up the boat before leaving, as diesel was 2.05/L, which was the cheapest we had encountered. We followed the St. Lawrence and made our way to Valleyfield Quebec for the night. Huge marina, but there was no one around on a Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning we left Valleyfield at 7:40, as we had to go through the Larocque Bridge at it’s 9:00 opening, we were there about 20 minutes early, and were able to pass thru at 8:50 as it was opened for a ship travelling in the opposite direction. We then proceeded to the St. Louis Bridge for it’s 9:45 opening, once again the bridge opened a little early and we were thru at 9:35, then it was off to the 2 Beauharnois locks for our 11:00 and 12:00 reservations. We tied up at the upper lock by 10:40 and waited, finally at 11:20 we got in touch with the lock and they said there would be a slight delay. By 11:30 we were in the lock- here they threw us long nylon ropes to secure us to the lock wall. The second lock was similar and we were thru it by 12:40. We continued our crossing of Lac St. Louis, skirting around Montreal and the entrances to the St. Catherines, and Lachine channels.
We continue on to Ste. Anne de Bellevue, which is found on the western tip of Montreal island. Here we tied up for the night. It was June 23rd, the eve of St. Jean Baptiste day also known as Quebec’s National Holiday.There was entertainment at the town centre, which was only 100 meters from our boat. We walked around the town on several occasions, and sampled Ice cream, gelato, pasties and amazing bread from the Darling Boulangerie. We stayed a second night, and once again there was music nearby.
We met Robert and Claudette, Gold loopers who are the harbour hosts for Montreal. On Thursday afternoon we went through the lock, which actually had a dock inside, that we tied up to. This was a first. Ste. Anne’s claims to be the busiest lock in Canada, and typically rafts a number of boats together when they fill the lock. In the middle of the afternoon, we locked alone and headed across the Lake of the 2 Mountains towards the Carillon lock, we passed by the huge church in Oka. The Carillon lock is impressive with a 200 ton guillotine gate and a lift of 65 feet, it too had a dock within the lock, so made the lift relatively easy. We locked up with a cruiser and a sailboat, on Friday morning. This lock was beside a huge park setting, and the old lockmaster’s house was on site, turned into a museum, but wasn’t open while we were there.
Once we were out of the lock we continued down the Ottawa river to Hawkesbury and tied up at the municipal dock, we then walked into town to buy a few groceries. We spent the night and left around 9:30, we were still 60 miles from Ottawa, and wanted to get a little closer and anchor out for a night. We found a lovely sheltered spot behind Dube Island, near the Quebec shore of the River. Andy took the dinghy for a little ride, and dipped my body into the Ottawa river, as it was very hot.
On Sunday we left the anchorage around 2:30 and continued the remaining 30 miles to Ottawa—we couldn’t tie up at the blue line on the lock until after 6 pm—we arrived there at 6:45, and spent the night. Until it was dark, there was lots of boat and people traffic around. On Monday morning at 9:15, we were joined by 4 other boats, to begin the 8 step locks. There was a 45 foot Meridian, that took the Port side, and we took the Starboard position in front, a couple cruisers were behind us, and a metal boat was rafted in between them. Instead of 8 locks, they combined a couple so we only actually locked through 7. We arrived at the top at 12:20 and tied up along the canal at a spot near the McKenzie King bridge with power. We noticed that the number of Boats tied up in Ottawa for Canada Day was very sparse, I counted only about 10 boats, Ten years ago when were last here, the place was crowded with boats on both sides of the canal.
I made a trip in the afternoon to the Rideau centre to look around. On Tuesday, Andy and I went back there for lunch and to do some reprovisioning at Farm Boy. We had to return in the late afternoon to the Bell Mobility store, as both of our cell phones stopped working. We were told that someone had put two new I-Phones onto our account earlier in the day. We talked to the fraud department, and had our Sim cards swapped out, so that our phones would work again. In the early afternoon, I had received an email asking to activated my ESIM, I had taken this to be spam, but it is likely when the fraud had started.
On Wednesday, Canada’s 159th Birthday, it was hot and muggy, we took a taxi to the National War Museum and spent over 4 hours touring it.
When we were ready to leave it was pouring outside, and all the people at the Canada Day festivities nearby, had moved inside of the museum. When the rain let up, we walked to the O-train station and returned to Rideau Centre—this too was a zoo, as all the people who had come to parliament hill for activities had moved indoors here, to get out of the rain. After having lunch at the food court, we walked back to the boat, when there was a break in the weather.
The weather caused a cancellation of all Canada Day activities and the evening fireworks. On Thursday, just after 9:30 we started up the boat, and headed down the Rideau canal—we needed to wait for the Pretoria lift bridge, we passed by Dow Lake- there were hardly any boats tied up there, we went through the locks at Hartwell, Hog’s Back and Black Rapids. We had originally hoped to tie up at Black rapids, but because of the rain storm the previous day, many of the docks were underwater, so we continued on to Long Island and went through the 3 locks there, and tied up by 2:00. In total 8 locks for the day, we will stay here 2 nights and then continue on to Hurst Marina, where we will be for a night, so that I can catch my flight Sunday to Halifax for the Grand Session of Nova Scotia and P.E.I. I will return to Ottawa on Thursday evening, July 9th.
On Thursday afternoon, we had a huge thunderstorm around 4:00, with wind and heavy rain- I heard a bang, and didn’t realize until the following morning that one of our solar panels had been lifted off the sundeck cover and landed on top of the one beside it. Andy did some minor repairs with tie wraps to hold it in place for the short term.
Once I return from Halifax, we will continue down the Rideau and then return to the Trent Severn waterway– this is all familiar territory, as this will be our 3rd time down the Rideau, so we may try to go at a relatively fast pace– we need to be in Kingston on a Sunday, as that is the only day the Bascule bridge is open.
We had very calm waters and we went the 60 plus miles across the Bay of Quinte to Kingston. We tied up the first night at Cedar, the first of six island docks that we visited in the Thousand Islands, using our Parks Canada mooring pass. The next day travelled to Georgina Island, and tied up near the Thousand Islands Parkway bridge, on the tour boat route- needless to say we got rocked at regular intervals from their wakes. That evening, we help some boat newbies tie up to a dock for the first time- they didn’t have a clue what they were doing. The next morning, we were entertained by 7 young people tied up to another dock at Georgina. Several of the young women, sunbathed nude most of the morning, whereas one was lily white, and hid under an umbrella.
Karl, our electronics tech showed up in the afternoon for an assessment of what we need done this summer. He ascertained that our Port alternator needed to be replaced. It was installed in 2009, so it had served the boat well for the past 17 years. There were a few other things on the list, and Karl will try to order and replace the parts prior to us leaving the islands. We moved to McDonald island on June 5th and stayed there until the morning of the 8th. This island has camping as well as Otentiks, so is very busy. It is also the closes island to Gananoque, so a lot of the locals come out on weekends, and kayaks circle the island.
There are also several birds around- lots of Swans and herons, and various flowers.
On June 8th, we docked the boat at Gananoque and walked up to the local Metro for some provisions. We then moved to Camelot island which has a view of the Canada/USA border-Grindstone island is about a ½ mile away. We stayed at Camelot for 3 days, watching the border security boats run along the border and helicopters overhead. Didn’t see any signs of an invasion from our southern neighbors. We did see this old ship go by on one evening while we were there.
We moved back to McDonald on June 11th for the weekend- this island has garbage, recycling as well permitting the use of generators- only 4 of the islands have this designation. To keep busy on the boat when we are docked, I do a lot of reading, play cards, or sudokus and have been working on my knitting project that is approaching 14 inches long- so the back portion is almost half done. Here is a glass tour boat that I’ve only seen go by McDonald.
On June 15th, we moved the boat to Mulcaster island, as Karl had some of our parts and was planning on coming out to install them.
Karl called on Monday and said he was having truck issues, so couldn’t come. We stayed on another day, but when he called at noon Tuesday, saying he still couldn’t make it, we decided to move on, Karl will try to connect with us on the Rideau, as he lives near Ottawa. We went 1 ½ hours to Grenadier island and tied up.
On Wednesday we left Grenadier around 7 and started down the St. Lawrence, passing, Brockville, and Prescott and Cardinal.
We arrived at Iroquois lock around noon and tied up waiting for our 1:30 reserved time to go through. This will be the first of 5 St. Lawrence Seaway Locks that we will have to traverse in order to get to the Ottawa river. This one is in Canadian waters, whereas the next two- Eisenhower and Snell will be on the American side. We were joined on the dock by a power boat- Grand Serenity and a sailboat- Reberth. In the lock, the power boat and ourselves just stayed in the middle of the lock, whereas the sailboat tied up to the wall as the wind was turning him sideways. The drop was less than 5 feet.
Once out of the lock we continued down the St. Lawrence past Morrisburg, to Crysler Park marina where we tied up for the night. I did several loads of laundry, and some tidying up. That evening, I had my monthly book club video call. We had originally planned to leave Thursday morning and continue on to Cornwall, however the weather- rain, winds to 70 Km/hr and potential tornadoes kept us in place. There were huge whitecaps on the St. Lawrence. At 8 PM it was still raining. with a very black sky and blowing, unsure if we will be able to leave in the morning. We’ve changed our reservation by a day already for Valleyfield Quebec, really hope to get there for Saturday night.
We survived another winter in Winnipeg, which seemed to last forever- we had snow fall in early May. Andy had a knee replacement in late November and recovered from it. He was in the hospital for a total of 9 hours. I kept myself busy by crafting, puzzling and participating in activities within the building. In early May, I was tied for 1st place for photo of the year, with this pic that I took a few years ago.
Our initial plan for this summer was to take the boat to the Maritimes- however if you’ve followed this blog over the past 11 years, you will know that are plans don’t always work out. The craziness in the middle east has almost doubled the price of diesel, so has put this trip out of reach. Instead, we plan to go down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and then up the Ottawa River to the Rideau canal. I will be flying to Halifax for the Eastern Star Grand Session in early July, as I am currently the Grand Representative to Nova Scotia and PEI in Manitoba.
We left Winnipeg on May 16, making stops in Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie, before arriving in Bancroft on May 18th Victoria Day. Traffic on the highways over the long weekend were relatively light, there was still snow in the bush along the north shore of Lake Superior in places.
We visited on Tuesday with the Vermeersch’s and then went to the boat on Wednesday to unload the car and get our new dinghy and the davit system installed.
On Thursday, the boat was launched, but because there was mechanical items to be done, we did not go to Buckhorn. I tried to track down a package from a yarn store in St. Catherine’s, Canada Post showed that the package was delivered, however the Yarn never showed up in Vermeersh’s community mail box. I contacted Canada Post by email, and talked ( AI bot) and got no helpful answers, I then went to the Bancroft Post office, and they gave me a number for customer service live person. Still not resolved, I contacted the yarn store and they will be putting in a claim on my behalf—they will also try sourcing more of the yarn. If they can’t get it, I will be knitting a two toned shrug.
On Friday morning, we arrived and finished unpacking the car and groceries that we had purchased. We went to find out the status of our canvas repairs, and learned that they had not been done, and likely wouldn’t be done until the following week. We were upset, as the canvas shop had the pieces since October. We took back the pieces and put them back on the boat, because of some ripped zippers—I will be busy on a warm day with a needle and thread to get us through the season. We went back to Bancroft for another night,
While there, we got our new Starlink Mini to work, by actually talking to a live person, who was able to access our account and make changes, that were blocked to us when we were using the app.
On Saturday, we fueled up the boat with diesel and also bought some gas for the dinghy motor. We then proceeded to go through Buckhorn lock around 9:30, and continued on through Lovesick, Burleigh and Young’s Point. Just before we arrived at Young’s, the predicted rain began. We went another 45 minutes and arrived in Lakefield around 12:30. We tied up and plugged in and pulled out the heater, as we were cold and wet. It rained most of the afternoon and evening. We remained in Lakefield on Sunday, it was still cold and misty. We walked into town to the Hardware store and grocery store and then returned to the boat and continued putting stuff away and familiarized ourself with the dinghy davit system.
We left Monday morning at 10 when the locks opened and made our way through: Lakefield, Sawer Creek, Duoro, Otanabee, Nassau Mills, Peterborough lift, and Ashburnham where we tied up just after 2:00. A big day for us 15 Km and 7 locks Good news—I got a text from Helen, and my yarn has been found. Yipee. On Tuesday, we got up and went through Lock 19, Scott’s Mill shortly after 10, we then followed the Otonabee river to Rice Lake and crossed it to reach Hastings Lock 18, we were through and tied up by 2:40. Encountered wind on the Lake but it was sunny, and I read a book while the captain drove. Approaching the lock, the winds and waves increased and it was very rocky. Winds persisted into the night, gusting to 46 km/hr. We were tied up in calm water by the lock.
We left Hastings at 8:30 , and travelled up the Trent River to the flight lock of 16/17 arriving there just after 10:00, we then proceeded to 15, where we saw a young white tailed deer swimming in the water. We continued through 15,14 and 13 and arrived at Old Mill park around 12:30.
After docking, I went to the office to find out if there was anyone in the area that did canvas work—as I wanted to get our screens on the flybridge repaired professionally if possible. A business was suggested and they were a 5 minute walk across the Bridge, so I dropped the screens off, to be picked up on Friday morning. The business was next door to V&S so stopped in there to browse.
In the late afternoon, we walked over to the Royal Canadian Legion, which was nearby for a drink, and met a lot of nice people—pretty busy for a Wednesday afternoon.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped at No Frills for a couple of things. Weather was warm with just a light breeze. On Thursday night, Brian Hayton from Bancroft, came for the evening, we also hosted Steve and Dodie Sharp, boating friends for supper and a visit. On Friday, while I went to do laundry, shopping and pick up the repaired canvas, Andy and Brian repaired the wiring for our anchor light. They also played with the dinghy in the canal.
Later in the afternoon Heart Tug arrived at Campbellford, and we visited with them. In the afternoon the winds picked up, and it was a very rocky night. On Saturday morning, we went through 6 locks and arrived in Frankfort, in the afternoon. The spot under the willow tree was taken, but we parked nearby.
On Sunday, it was again a little windy, so we stayed put- not a single boat came through the lock. We walked over to the nearby park for ice cream and showers. On Monday morning, we set off for Lake Ontario, going through 6 locks before reaching Trenton. Was a warm day, there was some wind and waves in the Bay of Quinte.
We stopped at Crates Marina in Belleville for the night. We will be heading towards Kingston tomorrow.
We left the boat on October 9th as planned, spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Bancroft—I had more KIC-20. We then travelled around Ontario and visited with friends and family. We attended Caitlin and Christina’s wedding in the beautiful Elora Mills. It was absolutely amazing. We then started home, visiting more friends along the way. We arrived back in Winnipeg on October 24th.
This fall was also a sad time, three very dear people passed away. A good friend from Eastern Star/Job’s Daughters that I knew for over 47 years- Louise who was 103. My former boss from the CGC- Phil who was 93, and my cousin- Maureen, who died in a car accident . They will be missed.
Andy will be having a knee replacement in late November, so there will be very little travelling over the winter. I going to need a big knitting or sewing project to keep me occupied this winter!!
On September 1st we left Shot gun Bay and moved to Indian Harbour for the night. On Tuesday we moved on to Frying Pan bay, at the north end of Beausoleil island, we were able to snag a spot at the dock. By nightfall there were about 10 boats in the bay. On Wednesday morning, we heard from Tom and Peggy and learned that they were at Cedar Springs docks on Beausoleil, so we moved there, going through the Big Dog channel for the first time, least water we saw was 4 feet. We arrived and tied up and had a visit with our friends, before they returned to Queen’s cove marina.
We ended up being tied up at Cedar Springs for 4 nights—Thursday night and Friday there were gale force winds for the area, with winds expected as high as 90 km/hour. We put on extra ropes. On Friday morning around 7 a boat that had been anchored in Chimney Bay showed up—it took us and another couple to help them tie up. That morning, while I was tightening up the straps on our lounge chairs, one of them fell overboard and quickly sunk. On Saturday when the winds had subsided, we tried to retrieve the chair with a boat hook, without any luck. I then decided to put on my bathing suit and see if I could dive down to get it—this also didn’t work, and the water was frigid. Dave, on the next boat, had an endoscope that could be used underwater- so Andy and him were able to view where the chair was and by using 2 boat hooks taped together, were able to go down the 16 feet to pull up the chair. The waves diminished by Sunday morning, so we went to Victoria Harbour for the night. After multiple days of wind and waves on Georgian Bay we decided to move back into the Trent Severn for the remainder of our time on the boat.
We spent 3 nights at Port Severn and went to Christie Mills for dinner on Sept 10th for their $10 wings special, we moved to the Big Chute for the night of the 11th, and then on to Swift Rapids for the weekend, met some very nice boaters from New Brunswick around the campfire on Sunday night. On Monday we moved to Couchiching lock for 2 nights, had to wait for the train bridge to open before moving to Orillia for 3 days. Steve, came over and diagnosed our Generator leak. After ordering parts Dillon replaced the filter and tightened up the hose clamps.
He also looked at the Port engine, and suspects that we may need to replace the turbo. While in Orillia, we reprovisioned both food and wine and had KI- 16.
We were thankful to have power, as the nights are becoming chilly. On Saturday morning we left Port of Orillia crossing Lake Simcoe, which was a little bumpy at times, we arrived at Gamebridge around eleven. We then proceeded through the set of 5 locks alone and decided to stay at Bolsover. We did see one other boat- a rental that went as far as Lake Simcoe and then turned around. At Bolsover the bathrooms have been updated, and a shower added—definitely some of the nicest lock washrooms on the Trent.
On Sunday we continued along the Trent, going through the Kirkfield lift lock and Rosedale. We stayed at Fenlon Falls for the evening and plugged into power. Around 11pm, we had a thunderstorm followed by rain on and off most of the night. We locked through the Fenlon lock at 10:00 in the rain when they opened and continued on to Bobcaygeon, we were through this lock around noon. Around 12:30 the rain finally stopped, we arrived in Buckhorn at 2:00 and tied up at the lock wall, having travelled 4 hours and about 34 miles. On Tuesday Brian Hayton, met us at the lock with our car, he is joining us for a week on the boat. He had brought along a couple of boxes that Andy had ordered on Amazon—a new captain’s chair and pedestal. In no time, they had it installed.
I drove to Foodland and picked up a few things, and returned to the lock. After lunch we went to Buckhorn Yacht Harbor to transfer a few things from the boat to the car, we also left the old captain’s bench at the marina. After parking the car, the three of us returned to the lock wall and tied up, we also plugged in to power for the night. We had several rain showers in the evening and through the night. On Wednesday morning, we locked through and went to the Lovesick lock, where we locked through and tied up on the wall. Andy and Brian salvaged dead fall from the bush so we could have a campfire, as it was a lovely evening. We again had a few showers through the night. At 6 AM Thursday, we were awoken by stuff crashing in the kitchen— we thought that maybe Brian had fallen out of bed. I got up, turned on lights and everything that was on the map table had shifted onto the floor—I also noticed that the screen on the oval kitchen window had been pushed in. Andy and Brian went to investigate, and found part of a banana and small foot prints—we believe belonging to a racoon that must have come in through the window, and left with the banana. We will not leave any windows open on our next visit to Lovesick. We later learned from one of the lock staff that the raccoon has tried to break into many boats, and is referred to as “Robin Hood”, because of it’s thieving.
Just before 10, we left Lovesick and headed to Burleigh Falls lock, we had a 28 foot drop and were out by 10:30. We proceeded across Stoney and Clear Lakes to Young’s Point and tied up on top before noon. In the afternoon we went shopping to the General store and bought a few things including Kawartha and to the Lockside trading post. It was overcast most of the day, and we had another rain shower around 4:00. We treated ourselves to KI-17, KI-18 and KI-19 over the next few days to empty to Kawartha container. On Friday we went about 8 miles and tied up at Lakefield, where we were able to plug into power. We walked into Lakefield in the afternoon and did some shopping. On Saturday, Andy and Brian, put an exhaust fan in, which entailed cutting through the fiberglass in order to vent it out from the kitchen. By using a jigsaw and Dremel tool they were able to cut a large enough hole for the fan. They also removed the Kenwood 5 CD changer that no longer worked, and replaced that opening with screen, as a vent for removal of the hot air. Brian also installed a switch for turning the fan on and off. In the afternoon the guys walked back into town to get a few more groceries & beer. We’ve been playing more cards while Brian has been with us, as well as the guys play cribbage. The weather today was partially cloud but warms and I was able to wear shorts again. The leaves are changing colours on the trees and falling- very beautiful, they are clogging up the locks and appearing in some of the old guy’s crafts.
We left Lakefield and went to through Youngs Point lock and stopped for lunch. Andy and Brian went to the Lockside trading store and Brian bought a knapsack bag that he gave to Andy. We then carried on to the Burleigh Falls lock and went through to the top. We tied up for the night, and had a fire once it was dark out—nice evening, clear with lots of stars out.
In the morning, we left shortly after 10 and went to the Lovesick lock and went through, then we were off to Buckhorn, and locked through around 1130. We arrived at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour before noon, and tied up in one of the empty slips. For supper we returned to Cody Inn. On Tuesday we drove to Bancroft to drop off Brian, as well to visit with Brian and Helen, and do some other chores. We returned to the marina shortly after 2:30, and had visitors about 30 minutes later. Andy’s brother and sister-in-law were staying with friends nearby and had dropped by for a short visit and to see our summer home.
The weather is still relatively nice for this time of year—so we plan to stay on the boat for another week on the TSW and travel between Buckhorn and Rosedale. We will have the boat pulled out in BYH around October 9th. We will then spend a week visiting friends, before attending Andy’s niece- Caitlin’s wedding in Elora Mills on Oct 19th. We hope to be back to Winnipeg about October 24th.
Steve, the mechanic came to the boat on Monday afternoon and got rid of the knocking noise on Monday afternoon. We left on Tuesday morning and crossed Lake Couchiching to the lock. We only had about a 15 minute wait for the train bridge, along with 3 Looper boats. We tied up at the lock and let the 3 boats go through. There was a bit of a delay for them as there was some small branches caught up in the lock mechanism. Once it was repaired, we waited about an hour and went down in the next locking. We travelled as far as Swift Rapids and tied up on the power wall, as it was again very hot, and we wanted to run the AC or fans. In the morning, we locked down at 10:30 and went on to the Big Chute, and locked through by ourselves. We continued on to Port Severn and tied up at the wooden dock. On Thursday morning I saw this heron sleeping very near to our boat.
We went down on the 9am locking, and headed to Queen’s Cove in Victoria Harbour, while Andy was getting the fuel topped up, I walked to the nearby Foodland for a few supplies.
We continued on to the Cedar Spring dock on Beausoleil Island, arriving at 12:15. We could smell some diesel in the boat, so Andy contacted Steven, who said he could meet us in Honey Harbour on Friday to take a look.
Later that afternoon we helped a boat “Evalyn Jane” in from Clayton NY, with Dale and Jane. We visited with them on their 37 foot Albin. The next morning, we showed them some of our favourite anchorages and were joined by Mike and Candy from “Next Adventure”, who are Aussies traveling around Canada. We met Steven around noon, and he was able to stop the small drip of fuel, and then we were off. We learned from Dale that they were going to Monument Channel, so we met up with the two boats there. It was hot, and we both went in the water for a swim. Jane invited us over to their boat for drinks around 5 Pm, this was the first time we had been in the dinghy this year, and Andy rowed us over. We spent a couple hours visiting, before we returned to “On Business”. We couldn’t get our Anchor light to come on, so put a battery operated light on the boat for the night.
We planned to leave the anchorage by 9:30 and head in to Henry’s restaurant on San Souci island for lunch before continuing on. After lunch Dale and Jane decided to head up to Parry Sound for the night, we went to Spider Bay, and Mike and Candy were going to make their way Eastward and back to the Trent. Andy worked on tracing the anchor light wiring to determine where the connection was faulty, and repaired it. We decided in the morning to go up to Big Sound Marina in Parry sound, we left around 9:00 and followed the south channel, we needed to make the 11:00 opening of the swing bridge in order to get into town. At times it was quite windy on the trip up the channel. We went through the bridge with one other boat, and arrived at the marina by 11:30 and tied up. I did some laundry and then we walked 1.4 miles to the farmer’s market for some fresh produce. On our journey back to the boat, we found a taxi to take us back. We had drinks with Dale and Jane on our boat, and were invited to visit them next summer on our planned voyage to Halifax, they live on the St. Lawrence River on Grindstone Island. On Monday we left Parry Sound at 10:45 and travelled a couple hours and anchored behind the Jone’s Island lighthouse. We stayed two nights, as Tuesday had intermittent rain and wind. Andy did some maintenance, and filled up the small propane tanks. Around 4:00, a second sailboat joined us in the anchorage, and a little later 2 people in a dinghy stopped by: they were the couple, Liz and Graham who we had bought “On Business” from back in 2014. What a small world!
On Wednesday, we left the anchorage at 8:00 and proceeded past Snug Harbour and continued on to the Shawanaga inlet, we passed Hopewell Bay anchorages and proceeded into the bay behind Stair Island. We were the first boat there and by nightfall, we had been joined by 3 other boats. During the day, I changed the fender covers, to the new ones that I had sewn over the winter out of sunbrella material. I had got this idea from Brenda, who I had met in Thunder Bay last summer. She claims the sunbrella covers can last several years. I was changing my knit material covers on an annual basis. We’ll see how these last.
On Thursday morning, we left around 8 am and proceeded through the Hang dogs, through Alexander Passage, and through the Norgate rocks. We arrived in Britt around 11:30 and tied up. We went for a walk to St. Amant to pick up some fruit, however our first stop was Ice Cream on the Rocks KI-15. I tried one of the new flavours for 2025 called “Constellation” – it is described on the website asa rich chocolate flavor swirled with caramel and speckled with cookie pieces, inspired by starry nights. It wasn’t bad, but Coconut is still my favourite. In the late afternoon, Graham Lacey, the former owner of Wright’s marina stopped by for a visit.
We left on Friday and took the outside small craft channel up to the French River Main outlet; we proceeded up the outlet to the north end and MacDougal Bay. Here, we met Jamie and Sheri who were on Jaime’s 36 Monk called the 3 J’s. We anchored, and it seemed to hold, but then we started dragging and moved to a new spot. The wind was coming up the channel from the south and between the wind and waves we were not very comfortable with this anchorage. Around 4 pm we decided to move to Obstacle island, which had more shelter from the winds, it was a place we had been at in the past.
We spent a pleasant night there, we did encounter a few fishing boats going near us in the anchorage, but their wake was relatively small. On Saturday we decided to stay put, and Jamie and Sheri dinghied over and we had a visit along with beef barley soup that I made, and planned our next day. They also dinghy’d to the Parting Channel which was about a ¼ mile from our anchorage—it is very narrow and involves a sharp turn. They guys checked the depth and it was well over 6 feet, so sufficient for both of us to pass through.
On Sunday we moved went thru the Parting channel to the north end of Fox Island Bay- we had sufficient depth, but again there was a fair bit of wind from the south coming up the channel, we were rocking a little. Around 5 pm the winds died down and we had a restful night. On Monday, it was still calm in the bay, but we knew the wind was howling in Georgian Bay. We did experience some of the wind in the open areas. We arrived at Wrights marina around 11:30 and tied up. Jamie and Sheri went to the St Amant marina farther up the river, but did come by in the afternoon for a visit.
We met David and Robin on Daisy Jane 2, which were located on our dock, they had been waiting since Saturday for a weather window to cross over the Bay to Alexander Passage. The guys agreed to buddy boat if the weather was favourable. Robin gave me some tips on how Wind finder works and well as some tips for my iPad. They are very interested in going around Lake Superior, so we told them some of our tales. On Tuesday, the weather did not look something we wanted to tackle- so David and Robin crossed alone. Robin emailed and said they waves were 3 foot plus. We will try to cross early tomorrow with the 3 J’s , and go as far as we can. Andy worked on some of his woodworking projects today.
We left Britt shortly after 7 am in the fog, once we got out to the open bay near the lighthouse, the fog had dissipated. The 3 J’s followed us through the Norgate rocks and on to Alexander passage, we then went through the hangdogs and Shawnaga inlet and on to Port au Barril. We turned up into Parry Sound and arrived at the marina around 2:00. About an hour later, we took a taxi to Walmart to buy some groceries. Around 5:00 I walked to the Bearly used bookstore—what a place—books everywhere- there is some order, but very overwhelming. I came home with a couple books.
For dinner we walked to the nearby Boston Pizza. It rained throughout the night, and there was some high winds as well—we were in an inside slip, with boats all around, but the boat rocked a fair bit overnight. When we got up we talked about taking the 11 am bridge opening- but the rain stopped just before 8—so we rushed and got through at the 9 am opening. We went down the South channel and arrived at the Sucker Creek anchorage, where the 3 J’s were. This was our first time in this Massassauga Park anchorage. We went to the far end of the bay, and anchored in about 10 feet of water. In the afternoon Jamie and Sherri came over. Jamie helped Andy to get the Lehr propane motor going, however they were not successful- we hadn’t used it for several years- so they suspect that something has likely rusted inside, as it wouldn’t fire up even when the spark plug was changed. Jamie and Sherri stayed for supper and more visiting.
On Friday morning, we followed the 3 J’s out of the anchorage—they were going back to Queen’s Cove in Victoria Harbour, and we were moving to another anchorage called Shot Gun cove, close to Port Rawson.
We arrived and there were 3 boats rafted in one bay, a main ship and a sailboat. We proceeded to the far end of the bay and anchored in 10 feet. Andy worked on sanding and adding a coat of Cetol to the oars for the dinghy, and I did a little cleaning and then started reading a book. We stayed put for Saturday and Sunday, doing a few jobs on the boat, and I continued reading. We plan on leaving this anchorage on Monday September 1st and start heading towards Beausoleil island, and eventually the Trent Severn Waterway.
Made it to Barrie for our bus, but it was running late. We got on at 1:15, bus was full, so we sat across the aisle from each other, we made our connection in Sudbury around 6:00. Then it was on to the Sault Ste Marie, we arrived there around 11:00 and were let off with our luggage. Our bus and driver arrived around 11:30. There had been a couple of road washouts on Hwy 17 on Wednesday night near Wawa and Montreal River, so our driver had to take a long detour through Chapleau the previous day, and was late returning to the Soo. He said that there was one-lane traffic in these spots now, so we would be going the normal route. There were not many people on this bus so we each got a pair of seats to try and stretch out on. At one point during the night, the bus driver slammed on the brakes, to miss a bull Moose on the road. We got to Thunder Bay around 9 am, and Teresa was there to meet us and take us to our vehicle at McKellar marina. We went for breakfast at “stacked” and then it was the 7 hour trip to Winnipeg, arriving home around 6:00.
We were kept busy during the week with errands, doctor’s appointments and visiting in our apartment building. I also was able to buy Kawartha Ice cream at Sobeys for the first time- KI 7,8,9 Yipee!
On Friday morning, we left by 9am for the 500 Km trek to Swan River. We went to my sister Maxine’s place and had a visit, for supper we met my sister Heather and went to the Timberland. Town was busy as it was Rodeo weekend. We visited with Heather at her condo and returned to Maxine’s for the night. Saturday morning the 5 of us went to the rodeo pancake breakfast at the veteran’s hall. Andy and I did some shopping in town, and returned to Maxine’s as we had to leave for the wedding by 1:00, as it was at Coral and Michael’s farm just inside the border of Saskatchewan. It was a hot day with blue skies- perfect day for an outside wedding.
Following the ceremony, people moved to Michael’s parent’s property for some visiting followed by the reception and dance, which was being held in the machine shed for 324 people. On several occasions during the reception- local home brewed tea was offered in shot glasses to those who wanted to try it, I sampled something called Lemonade, and Apple Pie. We sat with my nephew Chris and his wife Jen, along with Gord’s sister Wilma and her husband KD, and my nephew Craig’s (father of the bride) neighbors Mary and Blair Martin– who are related to our apt property manager- Small world!
We left around 10:00, but I’m sure the reception went on for many hours, I saw some videos a few days later of some Ukrainian dancing- so I believe it was a late night.
On Sunday morning, we left my sisters before 7 am for our trip back to Winnipeg. Once home, we went to St. Vital mall, as both Andy and I were having MTS mail issues on our devices- we have decided to switch to Gmail over the next few months. We packed up the car for our next adventure- a road trip to Orillia. On Monday we got as far as Marathon, and stayed at the Travel Lodge there. Next day there was a lot of road construction between the Soo and Sudbury, so a little slow going, we did arrive in Orillia by 6:00. Two long days of driving for the old guy.
We touched base with the diesel mechanic, he said that the injectors on both engines needed parts, and that they had been ordered, but not yet arrived. So, we are in a holding pattern in Orillia, the engines are in pieces, so we can’t go anywhere, so KI 10 had to finish the tub in our freezer, to fill it up with meat. On Thursday we decided to drive over to Buckhorn and check in with the marina, where we will be putting the boat up this fall, we then travelled to Bancroft and spent the night at Brian and Helen’s, and took them out for their upcoming anniversary KI 11. On Friday Brian drove us back to Orillia, and then took our vehicle to store for the next couple months. Andy checked in with Steve, the diesel mechanic and learned that our parts were in customs—so we will continue to wait. It is a long weekend, so the earliest the parts may be delivered is Tuesday. We will keep busy by doing some jobs on the boat—touching up the teak railings, and cleaning the exterior, some time to explore and more KI 12 & 13 & 14. It was hot before we left to go back to Winnipeg, so I invested in a rechargeable Blue & Gold camping fan—which is getting lots of use. It has multiple speeds, light and timer.
The mechanics did come to the boat on Wednesday August 6th, and then again on the 8th and will return on the 11th– hopefully for the last time, the injectors have been re-installed, however there is a knocking sound coming from the Port engine so something isn’t right. On Friday afternoon, Andy changed the oil in both engines, so that we will be ready to depart whenever the repairs are complete.
On Business has been sitting in slip A139 in Orillia since July 16th—24 days and counting, we have been extending our stay by 3 days at a time, as the special here is pay for 2 and get the 3rd one free. Didn’t plan on spending a month at the dock in Orillia!! But there are worse places to be—here we have power & showers, which has been useful as the past two weeks have been in the upper 20’s and 30’s, and we had several days of thick smoke from the prairies. There is also a Metro store and Legion within a 5 minute walk, the main downtown along with Wilke’s bakery is about 10 minutes away. This weekend, August 8-10th the Orillia waterfront festival is on- so lots of vendors and music in the park.
On the brighter side- we submitted an insurance claim for our grounding on the shoal in Lake Superior last summer, and it has been approved, so will be getting some money back. I’m hoping my next post will come from a different location—I’m ready for a change of scenery — would rather be sitting at anchor somewhere in Georgian Bay.
On Saturday the 28th, we walked to the Bush Plane museum, which is located on the waterfront in the Sault. Here’s one of the planes, also information on how to become a forest ranger- which I thought might be of interest for Jack.
On our return to the marina, we met up with Pat and Marcia and had drinks and appies at Montanas, which is located next to the marina. On Sunday we left around 8:15 and travelled the St. Mary’s river to Hilton Beach, we did not see a single freighter, only a couple of fishing boats. We stayed here for the night. We had this coyote on our dock, to scare the geese away. It seemed to work, as there was no goose droppings anywhere to be found on our dock. We had a thunderstorm in the evening followed by rain throughout the night.
On Monday we left just after 7 am, and crossed all the open water of the north channel, passing by Bruce Mines, Thessalon, and Blind River. We ended up going up the Whalesback channel and anchoring in Moiles Bay, off of John island. Long day 72 miles in 7 hours.
The skies were overcast, but it was relatively calm. On Tuesday, Canada Day we travelled 37 miles, in and out of fog in order to reach Little Current at 11 am. We walked up to the grocery store and got a few things as well as ice cream ( not Kawartha). In the evening, we met with Betsy and Allan, loopers from Florida, as well as Mike a gold looper from Michigan.
Wednesday was to have very little wind and waves, so we left at the 9am swing bridge opening and went outside of Killarney past the Bustards, but by this point the wind was starting to pick up. We went near the Outer foxes and vixen island, 2 places we had stayed before, but couldn’t get the anchor to hold. We travelled a little further and anchored near Dead Island in mud and weeds and were good for the night. Another marathon day of 69 miles. On Thursday morning, our 15th wedding anniversary, we only had a short 18 miles to travel to reach Wright’s Marina in Britt. Here we fuelled up, had a pump out and refilled our water. For an anniversary gift, I picked out this t-shirt. I’ve experienced both of these choices, and prefer the first one!
We went to Ice Cream on the rocks and had our first taste of Kawartha Ice cream KIC(1) Black Raspberry Thunder& Pralines &Cream. People have asked me how often we have Kawartha- so I’m going to try to keep track this year. We ordered a Pizza for supper, and Sean, one of the marina staff picked it up for us. It was huge, we had it for supper and for lunches for the next 3 days.
We left Friday at 7:45, and traversed the Norgate rocks, followed by the Hangdogs. There was hardly a ripple in the Hang dogs, but you can really see how low the water is in Georgian Bay, as there are many new rocks above the waterline. We continued on as the waves and weather held and crossed Parry sound. At 2:30 we anchored near Falkner island in Spider Bay Saturday, we did a few cleaning jobs—I was trying to rid the boat of May fly carcasses, as we had an invasion 2 nights in a row with them. Also took a dip in the water, as it was quite hot. Finally a Time to Relax!
On Sunday our friends, Tom, Peggy, & Nyla from Water Lily and Randy and Audrey from Heart Tug, came to the boat by dinghy. They were anchored in Echo Bay a few miles away. The day was mainly overcast, with some wind. Rain was to start in the early evening. I watched this loon for awhile and go this picture.
On Monday morning we left the anchorage around 9:00 and continued south east towards Beausoleil Island. We tied up at the dock at Cedar Springs at 1:15. We were the only ones on the dock, but there were a couple of other boats anchored out. Once we had check-in, we went for showers, and got rid of our garbage and re-cycling. My plants are doing well. Have about 10 tomatoes, and the lettuce is almost ready to eat.
On Tuesday we left around 11:30 and travelled the 9 miles to Queen’s Cove marina in Victoria Harbour. We got into our slip A10, which is actually Water Lily’s regular spot. We went to the marina office and paid for our slip for 2 nights, and tried to find out when the electrical work might be scheduled, as the parts that we ordered had been arrived. On Wednesday morning the service tech arrived around 9:00, and by noon he had replaced the external voltage regulator and installed the dc to dc charger. With these additions, our alternators will be able to charge our house lithium batteries while we are running.
To celebrate we went to Queen’s Quay for wings and beers for supper. It was quite hot, so we ran the AC to cool down the boat. On Thursday we went the 9 miles to Port Severn and did our first lock on the Trent Severn Waterway. Will stay here a night or two, we walked over to the Ice breaker, and had KIC (2), coconut this time, also picked up some books from a book sale at the post office.
On Saturday we moved on to the Big Chute railway, and tied up on top at the docks. t was really hot with very little breeze, in the afternoon, we went to the Marina for more KIC(3)- not much of a selection, so I had Chocolate. On Sunday morning Andy called the next lock, Swift rapids to see if they had space at the power pedestals- they did so we untied and arrived there before 11 and took a spot with power. It was suppose to be hot, and we wanted to run a fan or the AC, as the night at the big Chute was extremely hot and uncomfortable. We decided to stay for 2 nights, as there is only one more lock before we reach Orillia. We met with some loopers and the captain pulled out his charts and showed them some of our favourite spots. I have recently read the book- a respectable ditch, about the building of the Trent Severn Waterway between 1833 and 1920. Definitely an eye- opener– so much politics involved, and the ideas for it’s use kept changing, in the early days it was used for moving lumber through log chutes, then they thought it could move grain from western Canada down to Lake Ontario- that never happened. It was used for pleasure craft and Steamers, taking people on vacations. I did learn that Swift Rapids was originally a marine railway similar to the Big Chute. Stewart from the lock, showed me some pictures of what it was like prior to the lock opening in 1965, and where the rail lines used to be. Couchiching was the last lock built.
We left Swift just after 10 on Monday and arrived in Couchiching around noon, it was very busy and the grey wall docks were full of people going to the nearby restaurant, we bobbled around for a bit, and finally got a spot and tied up. Later in the afternoon we met people on a sailboat, who had come all the way from Norway- they had been in North America for almost a year, and were headed to Georgian Bay.
On Wednesday morning, we heard from the lockmaster that the bridge would be opening shortly, so we rushed to it and were through by 9:35. We arrived at the Port of Orillia and were tied up by 11:15. We heard on the radio that there were issues at the bridge, and it was down for maintenance. Very glad we came through when we did. Once we were settled, I did a few loads of laundry, and later walked to the Metro store for a few things, thank goodness it is close by, as it was over 30 C here. One of the items was a tub of KIC (4) Salty Carmel Truffle. As the afternoon progressed many boats came in, to get power as it was well above 35 with the humidex. Rain and wind was predicted for the evening and Thursday, so I expect many of them to stay.
Later in the afternoon, the Diesel mechanic who is going to do some work while we are away stopped by, so that Andy could tell him what he thinks needs to be done. In the morning David, the electronics guru will be paying us a visit as well. We are going out for supper with Brian and Helen, they will be taking us to Barrie tomorrow to catch the bus for our 20 hour bus ride to Thunder Bay, there we will pick up our vehicle and drive home to Winnipeg, stay there a few days and then off to Swan River for my great nieces wedding.
Over the winter, we enjoyed more activities within our apartment block. Andy had another surgery scheduled in November, and spent a few days in hospital, due to an infection, he spent another day there in early January. We celebrated some milestones in April, the old guy turned 75, and I had previously turned 65 in February, so we had a small gathering in the lounge to celebrate with family and a few friends. We also purchased a new vehicle as our 14 year old car was beginning to show its age. We wanted to buy prior to tariffs being imposed on vehicles, so we ordered it in January for an April delivery.
On May 27th I fulfilled my Eastern star commitment, as chair for one of the luncheons during our annual session. Once that was done, we started packing up the SUV for our trip to the boat. We arrived in Thunder Bay on May 30th, the boat was in the water, repaired props were on, keel had some new fiberglass and bottom paint, and they thought we were ready to pull out of McKellar Marine. But not so fast! We ended up staying 10 nights with our friends Teresa and Maureen, as we had an electrical issue, and kept tripping the shore power breaker. Aaron, an electrical technician spent 17 hours on the boat, trying to solve this issue.
We finally left on June 9th, in the fog, and went to an anchorage we had been to the previous year—we were able to follow our tracks on Garmin. We then moved to another anchorage in Otter cove and spent a couple nights there. I saw these two moose at the end of the bay where we were anchored.
The following day we went to Red Rock Marina, and plugged into power, topped up our fuel and water. Our next stop was Rossport, and we stayed at the dock which we had frequented last year. We went to the Serendipity restaurant in town for their Friday night special- prime rib. On leaving Saturday morning, one of the engines wouldn’t start, Andy started the generator, and put the battery charger on for a few minutes to get it going. We travelled about 30 miles to the Slate Islands, and stayed in two different anchorages, in hopes of seeing the caribou that inhabit the islands—however none were seen.
Upon leaving we once again had an issue starting the starboard engine. Andy was in contact with Aaron from Thunder Bay, we travelled to Marathon, where we knew there were docks, and friends that would be able to help. Mitch Donaldson, came down to the boat, and when linked in with Aaron in Tbay, determined that either the Starboard Alternator, or Battery charger was not charging the starter battery. We went to Napa and bought another Battery; we also bought a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up. Aaron said he would order parts, and come down later in the week to assess and figure out a way to keep us charging as we were moving the last 300 miles across the north of the lake, with no services.
It has been really cold on the boat, we were getting warnings on our GPS system, that the water temperature was between 35 and 39 F. Also there has been several nights with frost warnings- so I had to cover my tomatoes. While here in Marathon, we have been staying with Mitch, to get out of the cold boat. To keep busy while we wait, we topped up the fuel tanks, using Jerry cans, some of which we borrowed from the town office. Typically, they do not allow overnight docking at the town dock, but when we told them we were broken down, they made an exception. We have also frequented the Legion, going for drinks most days, and wing night on Thursday. Aaron came to Marathon on Friday with a new battery charger, and other supplies.
He determined that the battery charger had stopped charging our starter battery, and the external regulator also needed replacing. The battery charger was 20 years old , so actually amazing that it had lasted this long. We couldn’t get a replacement regulator, so Aaron figured out a work around. Aaron returned to the boat on Saturday to finish up.
On Saturday night we slept on the boat, so we could get away early Sunday. We left around 7:30 and travelled 48 Statute Miles to Old Dave’s Harbour near Otter Island. To get to the deep water in the anchorage, we had to travel over a shoal, but the captain maneuvered over, in 6 feet of water or more. We stayed at this anchorage, which was near the old light keeper’s house for 2 nights as the winds on the lake were fairly strong, we kept busy reading, cleaning, playing cards and puzzles.
I was on the look out for caribou again, but once again did not see a single one. On Tuesday morning, we left, and had fog for most of our 64 mile trip to Oakes Cove in Michipicoten Harbour. Andy checked in with Brad Buck at the marina here, but we couldn’t get there as the river is silted in. On Wednesday, we had a sunny day and left around 8:15 for Sinclair cove, which was 48 Miles away, arriving around 1:30. ( Brad sent us this pic of our departure on Wednesday)
We saw people on the beach, and one person actually was walking in the water, as well as several kayakers and later in the evening a fishing boat. We left early (6:30) on Thursday morning headed for the Sault, which was about 80 miles away. There was very little wind, and sunshine for the first 5 .5 hours, until we approached Ile Parisienne and Whitefish Bay, then the wind picked up and we had a good chop, and waves hitting us on the beam.
We arrived at the lock around 2:30 and locked through with one of the tour boats. We got to the marina around 3:00 and filled up with fuel. Andy calculated that we had gone 444 statue miles from Thunder Bay and had used 848 Liters of diesel. We plugged in, to shore power for the first time in 2 weeks. Today it is raining so we are staying in the Sault another night, will catch up on laundry, reprovision and have a visit with Pat and Marcia.
We left Bondar Marina on June 26th, 2024 for our Circle tour of Lake Superior, and arrived back on the same day one year later June 26, 2025. I am happy we did it and got to spent extra time with friends in Thunder Bay and Marathon, but after all the boat issues of the last year my mantra has become: GMOOLS—Get me out of Lake Superior!
Our plan is to spend some time in the North Channel and Georgian Bay, before returning home for a family wedding later in July. We will continue our adventures in August.
Cruising ON BUSINESS 