We left early Saturday morning, after packing the last of the things in the car. There was a gift card for Tim Horton’s on the windshield from  Gisele, a new friend from our apartment building, so we could have coffee and a muffin.  We made it to Marathon by 5 pm.  To occupy myself in the car, I crocheted  snowflakes, we had overcast skies most of the day with rain and fog in places.  Sunday, we woke up early to get on the road, and again had rain and fog.  We arrived in Midland around 5:00, another 11 hour day.  On Monday morning we drove to Queen’s cove marina in Victoria Harbour, we wanted to find out their prices for storage.  We also had coffee with Tom, Peggy and Nyla, on their boat Water Lily. We then set off for Buckhorn, arriving there around 1:00.  The boat was in the water at the launch ramp, we started unpacking the car, and were asked to move the boat to the wall by the gas dock.  We finished unloading and headed to Bancroft, where we were spending the night with Brian and Helen. Brian Hayton joined us for supper, so we got to visit with him as well.  After some grocery shopping Tuesday morning we headed back to Buckhorn to continue with unpacking.  This is our 9th year using the Parks passes, and my 10th year of writing this blog- Yikes- where has the time gone?

On Tuesday night, when Andy went to start the BBQ, it wouldn’t work.  After 14 years our Magma had finally quit.  We drove over to Home Hardware, just before they were closing for the day, and bought a Grill Pro replacement.

On Wednesday morning, we finally untied and headed down the Trent Severn Waterway.  Our first lock was Bobcaygeon, followed by Fenlon Fall, where we stopped briefly to make a LCBO run, and then on to Rosedale.  We shared the night at  this site with this 92 foot boat- Encore.

Our friends, Julie and Glen, picked us up from the lock and invited us to dinner at their place on Balsam Lake.  We hadn’t seen them in a couple of years, so it was a good night of catching up.

Thursday morning, we headed to the Kirkfield lift lock, which had been closed the previous day for inspections.  The work to repair it from the 2022 breakdown has almost been completed. Only one tub was working, and we locked down with one other boat.  The Encore was there, however he had to lock by himself, because of its length and weight. We did another 3 locks before stopping at the top of Thorah for the night.  In the morning we locked through this lock and Gamebridge, and were out on Lake Simcoe by 10:00.  Winds were between 10 and 15 knots per hour,  so a bit of a bumpy ride, with 2 1/2 foot waves. 

We took on fuel at Bridgeport Marina at the Atherly narrows, and then headed to Port of Orillia.  It was great to get off the lake, and we relaxed.  There was an event in the park, so we bought lunch at one of the vendors.

On Saturday, Brian and Helen stopped by on their way home from Barrie.  Just after noon, David, the electrical engineer/magician arrived.  We had a list of issues that we needed addressed, including the external regulator, being reprogrammed, a 12 V socket, Star link install, and source the issue with the batteries not being charged while running.  David spent several hours Saturday, and returned on Sunday to continue. 

On Sunday, I walked up to Wilkies for Chelsea buns and tarts. I saw these street decorations on the sign posts,   I then walked over to Home Hardware to buy some potting soil- I bought 25L of soil and then had to walk back the 9 blocks to the boat, carrying it. But my garden is complete- 3 tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and radishes.

David left Sunday night to return to Hamilton, but since there were still a few more items on our list, he agreed to meet us at the Port Severn lock on June 15^th to knock off a few more.  We stayed in Orillia one more night as the winds were still blowing.  On Tuesday we left at 10:15, and made it to the CN swing bridge, and had to wait for about 45 minutes for a couple of trains.  We dropped the anchor in the channel.  Andy found that something was jamming the gear cable on the starboard side, he investigated and  found that the starboard  turbo exhaust screen clamp  had broke.  He tightened it to get us going to Couchiching, where he could make a proper repair.  The bridge finally swung for us around noon, and we arrived at Couchiching, and tied up.  The first lock of the day was just going down, as the lock staff had been away tending to water and dam issues for  most of the morning.  All the boats entered the lock and went down, so we were alone for most of the afternoon.  We took the time to do a few tasks around the boat; after replacing the broken hose clamp, Andy also replaced our Canadian flag, and cleaned and re-greased the starboard door.  The sun was shining, and that along with the house batteries now charging, while we are running our batteries were at 100%. By nightfall we were joined by 4 other boats. One of which was Heart Tug, which we had first met in 2017, Randy and Audrey gave us some tips on their favourite anchorages in the north channel.

On Wednesday morning we locked through with 2 other boats and headed to Swift Rapids,  we passed through Sparrow lake and McDonald’s cut.

We arrived  just after noon and were able to get close to one of the power posts to  plug in.  There are 5 boats at the top of Swift Rapids.

In the afternoon we put deflectors over the starboard windows, and affixed the Norek PT-35 sign.

On Thursday morning, with the help of Jean  Francois from Felixo, we were able to put a plate under the teak railing  join where it was cracking.  All the boats left and we decided to remain plugged in, as severe weather was predicted for the afternoon. We did some cleaning and encountered intermittent rain showers. We will leave in the morning and go through the Big Chute and then on to Port Severn lock, where we will meet David on Saturday. Our tentative plan is to re-provision in Victoria Harbour on Monday, and then start heading west towards the North Channel. Our Star Link is wonderful- love having internet at my fingertips!