July 7-14

We left Buckhorn around 7:00, and traveled North and West. Here’s our route and distance home.  We were talking with Herb Seaton earlier in the week, and said it was almost the same distance for us to go home as it is to go to Florida.

We stopped for gas in North Bay around 10:30, and  arrived in Sudbury just before noon.  We found cousin Betty’s building and had a look around, we then went to  Tony V’s pizza place for lunch.  Here’s a picture of Betty and I in front of her building. 

Then it was back on the road,  we checked into a hotel in Sault Ste. Marie  just after 5:00.

In the morning we left at 6:30 and made our way to the International bridge. There were a few boats in the harbour waiting for the locks.

We didn’t have to wait long at the border.

We were following the Lake Superior Circle tour route under Lake Superior.

We went through Munising which is famous for the pictured  rocks.  

 

We continued on through Marquette, where the Lake was very calm.

By  2:00 we were in Superior Wisconsin,  I saw boats in this marina,

and also the SS Meteor, a whaleback ship on display.

The Captain continued to drive westward, having traveled through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the traffic was busy at times.

We reached our port of Entry into Canada: Sprague at 6:47,  we had been in the USA for just a little over 12 hours. 

We arrived home at 8:30 E.S.T,  which was actually 7:30  C.S.T.    After unpacking I went to my garden, and saw that it was a jungle overgrown with weeds.    I spent a good portion of Monday, pulling the weeds and leaving the vegetables, and it now looks like this.

It seems like the bunnies enjoyed my carrots and beets, squash as there are very few of them left in the garden,  most everything else survived.

I went to work Tuesday thru Friday, and it was tough, after being away over 5 weeks.  Lots going on at work, and we got our first  17 harvest samples from Ontario on July 12th, which is the earliest we’ve ever received wheat.  So the madness at work begins!!

The weather has been very hot, with heat warnings most of the week.  I had a dental consult appointment regarding my root canal that wasn’t finished before holidays because of the crack.  The dentist is going to continue with the root canal therapy in the upcoming week. I also reviewed the 2^nd proof of the cookbook that I was working on in May,  it will be printed later this month so it’s ready for the family reunion in August.  Here’s the link to the cookbook cover  V4137cover.

I brought home some of the curtain panels from On Business, and hope to sew new curtains over the next few months.  Andy will likely travel back to Buckhorn sometime  later this summer or in the  fall to talk to the technician about some new electronics, as well a surveyor will be giving the boat a once over, as we need a new survey for our boat insurance.

Our 2018 boating season has ended, and so will my blogging for now.

July 2- 6

There were about 15 very large Looper boats tied up in Campbellford by nightfall on July 1^st, all wanting to go through lock 13 in the morning. Here is a picture of some of them on one side of the canal.

We left the dock at 7:30, hoping to be the first boat on the blue line, so that we would lock through first.  We were soon joined by several other boats, and by the time the lock opened at 9:00, there were about 9 boats waiting.  We did get through with 3 other boats, Voyager, Nellie May and Rpad after 9:30.  It seemed that the lockmaster was a little overwhelmed by all the; traffic that early in the morning.   We stayed in this grouping through locks 13,14,15,16 and 17.   I had one mishap in one of the locks and lost hold of my rope, so that the bow swung out.  Not a good thing.  Glen was able to keep hold of the stern, and with Andy’s help we were able to get a bow rope attached again.  Mishap number 2 for the day, while I was down in the galley making lunch, my boat hook went  for a swim when we hit a big wake, but I hadn’t noticed it missing until I needed it for Lock 18. We arrived at Hastings at 2:10, and because it was so hot opted to stay at Hastings Village Marina, so that we could plug in and get AC. As well a thunderstorm was in the forecast and we got thunder and rain around 5:00.   That evening we went out for supper to McGillcafey’s Pub with Glen and a couple of his friends, Rudy and Kay.  The food was good and so was the company.

We left Hastings just before 7: 00, as we had watched 2 of the larger boats leave a 6 and 6:20. We had about 40 miles to go, crossing Rice Lake  which was very calm, and then follow the Otonabee River

until the next lock.  We reached Scott Mills Lock 19, after 10:30 and then went through Lock 20.  We were out of the lift lock by 12:30;

we locked up with one small run- a-bout.  We got through Lock 22 by 1:30, and were through Lock 24 at 2:20.  Our guest on board, caught a few winks while he could, as handling the lines is more strenuous than driving the boat.  It was great having another pair on hands through the 30 locks!!

We had decided to stay a Douro for the night, as it had showers and a tiny library.  We celebrated out 8^th anniversary here, and had a nice dinner and wine.

 

On Wednesday morning we left Douro at 8:50, as we only had to go about a mile to Lock 25.  We continued on through Lakefield and then arrived at Young’s Point at about 11:00.  We stopped at the Young’s Point trading company for Kawartha ice cream—I was reminded by some friends that I hadn’t included our ice cream trips lately.  We did have Kawartha several times while in Trenton, because it was  conveniently sold right at the marina.  While at Young’s point we encountered Herb Seaton, who we had previously met in Tarpon springs where he is the harbour host for AGLCA.  We had also seen him last summer on the waterways near Swift Rapids.    He joined us for ice cream .

He is repeating the loop again this year in order to acquire a platinum burgee. We informed him that there were many loop boats behind us, so he followed us out of Young’s Point,

through Burleigh Falls, Lovesick and on to Buckhorn.    We met the Kawartha Voager, just after passing through Hell’s gate.

 

We got through Buckhorn lock shortly after 3:00, but there was currently only space on the wall for one boat, so we let Herb have it and we moved on to Buckhorn Yacht harbour.  Once we were tied up near the fuel dock, Andy and Glen went back into Buckhorn with our car to see if Herb needed anything.  The three of them later returned to  our boat for supper.  When we took Herb back to the lock we stopped by the Ice cream shop and had Kawartha ice cream again.  Twice in one day– We’re in heaven!!;;

On Thursday morning, Andy went and picked Herb up at the lock, as he wanted to talk to canvas people at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour about replacing some damaged canvas. Andy and Glen then drove to Trenton, so Glen could pick up his truck.  While they were gone, I cleaned the upper helm and pulled the canvas over it as a thunderstorm was predicted later in the day.  I also de-frosted the fridge, and started packing things for storage, as well as things we want to take back to Winnipeg.  With only having the one boat, we will be able to leave more things on the trawler.  Shortly after 1:30, Andy returned.  At about 3:00 we left for Bobcaygeon, as I wanted to do a couple of loads of laundry, so I could leave the bedding and towels on the boat, rather than taking these items home.  Herb came with us to Bobcaygeon.  They dropped me off at the laundry, and then Andy showed Herb where the Kawartha dairies was located  ( and had ice cream) as well as they visited Settler’s village.  They picked me up shortly before 5 and we drove back to Buckhorn,  when we dropped Herb off at the lock, I realized I didn’t have my purse—so we drove back the 24Km to Bobcaygeon, and lucky for me it was  on the bench where I had been sitting waiting.  We came back, dropped off the laundry and then went to Herb’s boat for docktails.  We were joined by loopers from Karen Ann and Coconuts.

Today, Friday, we will spend the day, doing more packing and cleaning.  Brian and Helen stopped by this morning for a short visit.  We plan to leave Buckhorn in the morning, have lunch in Sudbury with cousin Betty and then on to Sault Ste. Marie for the night.

 

June 29-July 1

On Friday we went to the Marina office in the morning and picked up our registration packages for the  AGLCA seminars. Shortly after the seminar started, to our surprise Roxanne and Wayne from Brockville walked into the room.  They had signed up for the seminars on Monday morning. Kim Russo, the director of the AGLCA chaired the seminars,

and made several presentations herself. The seminars covered the topics of Life of a lockmaster, an overview of the TSW, travelling in Georgian Bay, and finally a talk on how to sell your boat.  There were almost 100 current loopers in attendance.

That evening we went out for dinner with Roxanne and Wayne to Tomassos,

although we had only met them a week ago, it is amazing how well we get along, especially Wayne and Andy.  They are in the process of looking for a boat, and hope to loop in the next year or two.  Who knows maybe we’ll end up seeing them when we loop again in 2020. Being this close to the Trenton base, we had planes flying over the marina quite frequently.

On Saturday morning, we were awoken at 5:15, by a thunderstorm, Andy rushed out of bed when he heard the wind coming up, as we had left the chairs out on the back deck, after last night’s nightcap with Wayne and Roxanne.

On Saturday, the seminar was more geared to people planning to loop, and there were 80 people in attendance.  The topics included an over view of the entire loop, how to buy a looper boat, special information for Canadians,  a talk about Marine electronics, and 4 gold loopers talked about their individual trips and the associated costs.  Andy and I spoke about our trip just before lunch.

 

The presentation went OK, however I was having issues with the computer remote- it was advancing slides  without me touching the forward button. I spoke first, and then Andy spoke at the end about our costs, and myths.  In the afternoon Nancy and James and their children from living life, spoke about their loop.

 

We  had met them before they had started in 2016 and then again last summer.  It was great to see them again.  After the session was over, a number of people currently doing the loop, came up to the club house and Andy and another boater from  the Barrie area showed people their favourite anchorages and channels to use while exploring Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

Just before 6, Glen Cavers arrived, he is going to come up the TSW with us.  Andy will drive him back to Trenton, once we arrive in Buckhorn. That evening Glen drove us to Bellville for supper.

We left Trent Port Marina at 7:25  and arrived at lock 1 at 7:50, we had to wait until 9:00 for the first lock up.  Glen and I handled the ropes for locking and Andy drove the boat.

We were joined by a gold looper boat called coconuts.

We were out of lock 1 by 9:20, lock 4 by 10:35, Lock 10 by 3:10 and lock 12 by 4:15.  We were tied up at Campbellford municipal dock by 4:25.  Making a new record for us on the Trent by passing through 12 locks.  It was a really hot day, and lots of people were playing in the water.

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!