We left BYH on Thursday  morning and moved to Buckhorn lock wall.  We didn’t plug into power until about 3:00, as we wanted to see if the solar panels would charge up the batteries.  To keep busy, I stenciled “On Business” onto our life ring, and then painted the inside of the letters blue.  I also  did some weeding around the lock building, in the late afternoon, I played photographer, as Parks was  having a bench dedication for a long-term lockmaster—Pat, who had passed away in 2019.

  That evening we went to the Cody Inn for supper.

On Friday, we locked through with another boat, when the lock opened around 9:00, we followed them through  Lovesick, Burleigh Falls, Youngs Point, and finally tied up at Lakefield lock 26 around 1:15.  We stayed there for 2 days.

On Saturday, afternoon we walked into Lakefield to pickup a few things.  We also stopped for ice cream- our first since coming to Ontario—it was not Kawartha but Central smith.  I tried a new flavour Lemonade lavender—very refreshing. When we returned to the lock,  we met loopers Bill and Margie from Florida,  we spent several hours showing them potential anchorages and places we had stayed in Georgian Bay and the north channel. On Sunday morning we toured the Crustacean, 42 foot Grand Banks, and Margie and Bill came aboard and looked at our boat as well. I walked around the lock station in the morning and took pictures of the garden as well as these purple irises, and the boats at the lock.

My neighbor from home had sent me some pics of my irises and roses.

  When we left on June 1^st, there wasn’t even a bud on the rose bush- it must really like the heat and rain that Winnipeg has been experiencing.

 Just before 11:00 we untied and followed Crustacean  to Young’s Point lock, it was raining off and on all afternoon.  Once we were through Hell’s gate, they turned and went to explore Stoney Lake.  We continued on  through Burleigh Falls and Lovesick locks, arriving at Buckhorn at 2:15, once through the lock we tied up in front of “Just Wright”.  We hadn’t seen Roy and Dalaina since last September, when the pulled their boat and drove back to B.C.  We had happy hour and caught up on what we had been doing over the winter.  After supper, we invited another couple, Andy and Stephanie from Colorado, who were on a houseboat rental to take a look at the inside of our boat.  Sometime in the future, they would like to do the Great Loop.  Andy gave them some advice on boating and what to look for in a live-aboard boat.  After they left, we played cards, like we do most nights—I have not won a game yet.  It started to rain again once it got dark and rained through the night and was still raining in the morning, as well as a bit breezy.

On Monday it rained most of the day, in the afternoon we had a crib tournament with Dalania and Roy. We learned from all the rain, that the design of our canopy needed some alterations, as water just pooled on the canvas around the solar panels. But the rain didn’t stop the Canada geese from being around, there were 4 adults and 40 small ones hanging around the lock.

 On Tuesday morning, Just Wright left through the lock, they are headed east to Montreal.  After a walk to the grocery store and liquor store, we headed over to BYH to fill up our fuel tanks.  We showed them the problem with the canopy.  We went into an empty slip and several people came to take a look.  It was eventually decided that we needed three more bars that were slightly hooped to make the water flow to the end of the canopy.  Tuesday night after taking the crew from Crustacean grocery shopping, we drove to Lakefield to do a load of laundry.

On Wednesday, Cindy and Amanda came and added the 3 new bars,

Later in the afternoon  Todd came and tie-wrapped the solar panels to the canvas. We are still waiting for the final part for the solar setup- hopefully it comes on Thursday. We went out to Home hardware to pick up pipe insulation to put around all the exposed support braces.

In the evening we drove to Bobcaygeon for our first Kawartha ice cream, right from main location.  I had coconut and Andy had salty caramel truffle. 

When we got back to the boat, we invited Jo and Ken  over for a drink.  We had been parked next to them at the marina last year for several days.

In the morning, Cindy and Amanda returned to the boat and moved some of the snaps on the canvas, as now with the extra support bars, they didn’t meet up.  In the afternoon, Andy and I put the pipe insulation around the support bars, where the weight of the solar panels could damage the canvas.    Andy was having issues with the Renogy M1 monitor and after conferring with Karl several times, he has decided to turn it off, and only use his phone for monitoring the batteries and electrical system. Our Blue-tooth solar monitor accessory was not in today’s mail. We have made the decision to leave in the morning and head to Bobcaygeon and beyond, likely will stop in Rosedale. It has now been 15 days since we left home, and Georgian Bay is calling. We checked in with the Port of Orillia about getting dockage next weekend, but because of Christmas in June festivities, they are completely booked up. Will have to pass Orillia, and the great chelsea buns at Wilks bakery for now. Andy also called to Henry’s fish restaurant, and they will be opening as of June 27, so we will get the opportunity to spend a night there. We just found out that the Solar monitor accessory is out of stock until July 9- so I’m glad we decided not to wait any longer for it.