We left Campbellford Old Mill park before 9:00 and were through lock 13 by 9:25 through Crowe Bay by 10:00 and Healey falls by 10:45, and the Healey flight lock by 11:15.  We then followed the Trent river to Hastings and tied up on the bottom, as there was no room on the top.  They have lovely flowers growing in several canoes here.

 We had gone about 20 miles and 6 locks.  It was Hasting’s waterfront festival, and there were lots of people in town, many having come by pontoon or bowriders.  A lot of the activities including axe throwing and musical performers was taking place across the canal at Hastings Village Marina. 

  We walked around town a little and went for Ice cream.  Around 4:00, some room opened up on the top of the lock, so we locked through and tied up.  We were in front of Grace too, which we had last seen on the rideau.    We walked to LCBO, which is very close to the canal, and purchased more wine and cider.  We then spent some time reading on the back deck.  I saw a guy with a snake around his neck- he said it was a boa constrictor and I saw him drape it around a little girl’s neck—not something I would do!

In the morning, we were up early as our plan was to leave around 6:00 for the trek to Peterborough.  Andy was up and made coffee before 6:00, however he checked the weather and saw that a thunderstorm cell was predicted for 7:30, so we stayed put.   The storm and rain hit about 7:30 and was over by about 9:00, so we ended up leaving around 9:30, it was 40 miles across Rice Lake and down the Otonabee river, it did rain a couple of times, but not for long. 

We reached Scott’s mills Lock 19 by 2:05, we got to Ashburnham by 2:15, but had to tie up and wait, as the Lift lock tour boat was on its way.  We were through Ashburnham at 3:00, and the Peterborough Lift lock by 3:20.  We decided to keep going and were through Nassau Mills Lock 22 by 4:15.

  We decided to tie up here, as there were some dark clouds around us, and we had gone 45 miles.  The lockmaster here, was Kirk, who had been at Buckhorn for a number of years so we had a visit with him once we were tied up.

  Around 5:30 we met Korban, Kirk’s son, and took him for a tour of our boat, Andy even showed him the engine room, and how he checks the oil.   We gave him a few candies from our Campbellford chocolate stash.

  At the end of the day Korban, donned a life jacket, and closed the lock gate- wonder if he want’s to be a lockmaster like Dad.  

 The rain held off until about 11:00 and we had a big downpour that woke us both up.

In the morning, it was just starting to drizzle when we left Nassau Mills at 9:10 and were through Otonabee at 9:35, Douro at 10:05, Sawer Creek at 10:30 and Lakefield at 11:00.  We were tied up under a tree by 11:10 and plugged into power, as the solar panels would be almost useless in the rain. 

I finished reading my book, and did a little cleaning on the outside decks.  Here’s some of the vegetables and flowers growing in the planter boxes.

On Tuesday morning we walked to town and went to Foodland and the hardware store.  We stopped for coffee and a muffin at the ice cream shop.  Didn’t have ice cream as it was Central Smith and not Kawartha.  We came back to the boat, and decided to stay another day, as it looked like it may rain again.  Shortly after lunch we were joined by three boats, which we had previously met a couple of years ago in Rosedale.  One of the boats, Plan Sea, we had recently saw when we were on the Rideau.  We spent the afternoon visiting with them at the picnic table under the shade of the trees- as the forecast was wrong again, and there was no rain in sight.

On Wednesday morning we left at 8:30 and travelled to the Young’s Point lock and were through by 9:30, we then moved on to Burleigh Falls, and were through it by 10:00.  We were in this lock with 2 house boats, that were part of a 7-boat family reunion- we stayed far away from them, entering the lock once they were tied up to their cables.  We then moved on to Lovesick lock and were through it by 11:30. Our last lock for the day was Buckhorn and we were through it by 12:25.  We called Buckhorn Yacht Harbour and tied up by the launch ramp by 12:50.  In the afternoon we asked Pat in the marina office, to print off some papers that we required signed and sent in, so that we could retrieve our medical records, from our doctor’s office.   Andy talked to the service department, and a couple items from our list will be worked on in the morning. I saw this person removing weeds from the marina basin.

We ordered pizza for supper, and went to pick it up in our car. Once again, we caught up on missed Coronation episodes. I picked a dozen ripe tomatoes off one of my Prairie Pride plant, not sure if I will grow cucumbers again next year, as I had dozens of blossoms, but only one cucumber matured.

On Thursday morning, Ralph checked our strainers for weeds, and also found the diesel leak, which was a fine spray coming from a pump fitting.  He was able to tighten the bolt and applied some sealant to stop the leak.  Todd re-arranged some of the cables on our VHF and AIS, so that the VHF radio now appears to be working correctly.  We also spoke to Cindy in the canvas shop, and asked to have 6 missing or broken twist lock fasteners on our flybridge replaced.  We drove to Foodland and picked up a few items.

In the afternoon we drove to Bancroft to visit with Muriel and Brian, as Muriel had just come home from the hospital last weekend, after having surgery.  We had stopped at the Kawartha dairy store in Bancroft, and picked up ice cream, so we all had a bowl.  Before leaving town, we stopped at Brian and Helen’s for a short visit as well.  Upon leaving we decided to go back to the boat, and then drive to Peterborough to look for a car radio, to replace the non-functioning one on the boat.  As well, we wanted to look for a new computer for Andy’s as his has a lot of issues, and is being held together by duct tape.  We were successful buying a computer at Walmart and the radio at Canadian Tire. 

We stopped for supper at Wendy’s, and then rushed back to the boat.  The rain was really coming down, at times it was hard to see out the windows.  We got home at 7:45, which was good, as my book club Zoom meeting was at 8:00 with Helen, Sheila and Jess.

It continued to rain until 9:30 and then seemed to stop, although more rain is in the forecast Friday. We plan to leave this morning, and spend a day or two at the Buckhorn lock, and possibly go back to both of Lovesick and Burleigh Falls for a night ( two of the locks on my list- where we haven’t stayed). We have been on the boat for three months now, I’m ready to go home, however the captain would like to spend another month on the water, and is talking about coming back in November, provided winter hasn’t settled in, to assemble what will become our sundeck cover and solar panel frame. He has asked BYH for a quote on the materials required.