On Tuesday, the technician came down to the boat, and started changing out the inverter, it took until the end of day Wednesday for him to complete this task.  On Wednesday, I spent part of the day washing the boat and cleaning off some of the black streaks. I heard noises behind me, when I was on the swim platform and had this family of ducks watching me.

  On Thursday the technician began doing some of the work needed for our other electrical issues, he returned Friday morning for another hour for some of  the setup on the instrumentation.  We left Penatang at 10:30 and arrived at Victoria Harbour just before 1:00.  We wanted to do some re-provisioning and knew that the Foodland and LCBO were within walking distance of the marina.  Since we were Dock Link members we were able to dock for less than $40 for the night. It was a hot day, so we also wanted to be plugged in to shore power so we could run the AC.  We visited with the other members on A dock, some of which we already knew, as we have been to Victoria Harbour almost every year that we’ve been boating in Ontario.  We ordered take-out from the nearby restaurant as it was too hot to cook.  On Saturday morning, instead of going back to the waterway, we decided to stay another night in Victoria Harbour, we bagged up our laundry and went to the nearby laundry mat (about a mile walk), we again spent the evening talking to the dock A members.  On Sunday morning, we pulled out at 8:00 headed for Port Severn, we were through the lock by 9:30, we arrived at the Big Chute at 10:30.  There was about 12 boats waiting to lock through at the bottom and many on top as well, and there wasn’t much dock space- we ended up tying up to a floating dock, with no  shore access.  We soon learned that the Chute had been inoperable since late Saturday afternoon, and there would be no boats moving on Sunday.

Later that afternoon while trying to run the AC , we got a fault error, and the inverter did not seem to be working.  Andy contacted the technician, and it was decided that we needed to return to Penatang, because something wasn’t right. On Monday morning, we left the Big Chute and headed for Port Severn.  There was a strong wind warning on Georgian Bay of 50 km gusting to 70.  The lockmaster told us that we should tie up rather than going through the lock.  So we spent the day playing cards and reading. We also watched the recovery of this boat across the canal that had sunk during the Sunday storm.

We woke up on Tuesday, the water was very calm, very different from the previous day.

  There was a lineup on the blue line, and we got through on the third lock, so were out of the lock by 10:10.    We arrived in Penatang at 11:35, coming into the harbour, our electronics were shutting down and low voltage errors were coming up on the screens.  Around 3:00, the technician came and checked out our latest electronic issues, by 5:00, he had added a battery switch, that should correct our Port battery issues.  Andy talked to the marine repair shop to see if they had an electric marine toilet pump, but they didn’t.  He called Buckhorn YH, and they have the pump that we need, so our aft head will not be repaired until we get back to Buckhorn.

On Wednesday morning, we left Penatang at 9:20 and headed to Victoria Harbour, we wanted to fill up with diesel and get our forward head pumped out.  Our Dock links membership gave us a 5 cent discount on gas.  With our 2 stops at Queen’s cove, our savings have paid for our Dock lInks membership.  We left Queen’s Cove by 11:15 and arrived at Port Severn by 12:10, and were through the lock by 12:25.  We went on to the Big Chute, where it started to rain.  We were through the Chute by 1:45, the rain continued to fall and it was still raining as we went through Swift Rapids at 3:30.  We decided to tie up at the top of Swift Rapids, and stay there for the night.   We had gone 33.5 miles for the day.  Thirty minutes after we had tied up the sun came out and we sat on the aft deck.

On Thursday we left Swift Rapids at 8:25, and were through Couchiching lock by 10:35.  We arrived at the CN railway bridge by 10:45, and a train was traveling across the bridge. 

On  Friday we got up and changed one of the  bulbs on the front running light, not an easy endeavor as it took almost an hour to complete this task.  We then fired up the engines and started our trek to Balsam Lake.  We went through a couple narrow channels, passed  through Mitchell  Lake  which is full of tree stumps.  We arrived outside of Glen and Julie’s house around 10:15  and put the anchor down with a float and  bridle.  We are anchored about  150 yards from shore.

On Saturday morning, I went for a walk with Julie and Opal ( her son’s dog) in Balsam Lake provincial park,

Once we returned, I put on my bathing suit and swam out to the boat, and back. Glen brought out his 1950 British  AJS  (Albert John Stevenson) antique motorcycle and started it up- amazing! A bunch of people from his antique motorcycle club were riding up to from southern Ontario for a ride to the Kirkfield lock later in the day, and he was going to join them.

We’ve had some news from home; some good, some bad.  A couple of family members  have health issues and are recovering or seeking treatment.  On the bright side- my 14 year old great niece won the U-19 Manitoba junior girls golf championship earlier this month- great job Crystal!