August 3-6

We remained at Couchiching on Wednesday, and just relaxed.  Saw a boat name  that I liked.On Thursday morning we locked through by 9:45 and then traveled 14 miles through Sparrow Lake and then the Severn River to the  Swift Rapids lock.  It was a blistering hot day and we decided to stay on top in order to get a little bit of breeze.    We tied up on the dam side of the lock but moved to the front of the blue line after 5:00, so we would be the first ones through on Friday.   We were joined by Dave and Claudia on Stillwaters II several hours later, as they had come from Orillia.

On Friday, we locked though by 9:17.  This lock is referred to as the giant, with a 47 foot drop. Even though this place was called Swift Rapids, there was very little water flowing over the dam, likely because of the drought  that has been affecting this part of Ontario.

The admiral had a bit of a mishap when she pushed the boat away from the lock  wall, she put the boat hook handle into the window and it cracked.This was the same window pane that was broken back in April, so it’s going to get replaced again.  We once again followed the Severn River until we arrived at the Big chute.

 We tied up at the dock, so that we could watch other boats go through before we moved to the Blue line.   We also wanted to connect up with Mike and Franziska, as they were driving from Owen Sound so they could watch us do the chute.   The way the big chute railway works is that you pilot your boat onto a specially designed railway car, that has several slings and straps in order to carry a number of boats across land and deposit them in the lower basin.The railway lift can carry up to 110 tons and boats as long as 100 feet,  they tend to load the big boats and have the props hanging out over the car.    David and Claudia on Stillwater II, went through first with another boat and we watched from the blue line.

Then it was our turn, here’s the view from the blue line of where we were going to join up with the carriage,and the view down the hill to the lower basina smaller boat went onto the carriage first  and we followed behind on the left,  the sling came up and we were rocking above the carriage.Here’s a series of pictures taken by Mike and Franziska from the ground.

Here’s my view from the boat. The ride across the road and down the rocky ridge only took about 10 minutes and then the carriage and slings were released and we floated off the carriage.  Truly amazing and a highlight of the loop and the TSW.  Claudia had videotaped it but the files are too big for posting on the blog– will be great memories of this day.After tying up ,we went for lunch with  Mike and Franziska,we also had ice cream, it was Chapman’s which we all agreed wasn’t as good as Kawartha Dairies.

Since a thunderstorm was predicted for the afternoon, we opted to stay on the lock docks for the night.  It did rain, for a total of about 15 minutes not the downpour that the area needed.

On Saturday morning, we left the dock shortly after 9 and headed towards lock 45 at Port Severn the last lock on the Trent Severn Waterway.    We passed through Gloucester pool and by some very nice cottages/homes.

We had to go through another narrow channel,where we would have had to meet another large power boat, but Andy stayed back in a wider area and waited for him.  We arrived at the Port Severn lock 45 and went in right away with another boat.  The lock was extremely busy and was much smaller than the other locks so it could only take 2 large boats at a time.  Once we were through at 10:35, we pulled into Georgian Bay and dropped anchor, in order to wait  for Still Waters II.  They had to wait for several lock downs  before it became their turn.   We crossed  Severn Bay and pulled into  Queen’s Cove marina in Victoria Harbour at 1 pm.

July 31- August 2

We left Bobcaygeon on Sunday morning shortly after 9 and crossed Sturgeon Lake,  it was a fairly busy day on the waterways, since it was Sunday of the long weekend.  We were through Lock 34 at Fenlon Falls by 11:40. We entered Cameron Lake,  and continued to Fells Bay, where the Edney cottage was.   We anchored out, and used the dinghy to motor into shore.  We likely hadn’t used the motor since late December and it needed a bit of a workout.We stopped and visited for a couple of hours with Mike’s relatives.Mike’s uncle Byron and a couple cousin’s came out to the trawler in a powerboat.  When we were ready to leave, Mike joined us for a ride up to the next lock at Rosedale,which was only a couple of miles away.  Sydney and Franziska joined us at the lock and actually locked through with us.Not too exciting it was only a 4 foot drop.  We tied up at Rosedale Lock 35 at 4:30  for the evening.

On Monday, we left at about 9:15,  and went through our the narrow Trent Canal into Balsam Lake.    Balsam lake is reported to be 857 feet above sea level and the highest point on the TSW.    This is also the highest point in the world that a boat can reach from the sea under it’s own power.  From now on all our locking will be in the  downward direction.    We saw these cottages on Balsam Lake. Leaving Balsam lake we again entered a very narrow rock cut through the Canadian Shield, and ended up meeting 3 boats– very tight quarters!and came out in Mitchell Lake, another portion of the narrow Trent call took us to the second lift lock at Kirkfield Lock  at 11:00.

Here’s the view of the empty red chairs from above and below. It was a quick trip down, and only took a couple of minutes to go down 49 feet.     We then entered Canal lake, which is quite shallow and weedy.      We  went through the Hole in the wall bridge.Upon exiting the lake we entered the Talbot river, which took us through the Locks at Bolsover,Talbotand Portage.We decided to spend the night at Portage #39, and  tied up at 1:45.  We were the only boat on the upper  wall.  Andy amused himself with fishing in the evening after he changed the oil on the two engines.     We heard someone calling our names, and saw Living life, Loopers  from Peterborough, go through the lock.Here’s the view from the boat in the evening.On Tuesday we locked through Portage at 9:20, and then Thorah at 9:35 and finally Gamebridgeat 10:00.  We entered Lake Simcoe at 10:10, here’s the breakwall.I was a relatively calm morningand  we were across the lake before noon.  We then entered the narrows shortly after noon,to get to  Lake Couchiching.  In places the marked channel was narrow, with many rocks encroaching .We entered another segment of the Trent canal and were stopped for over 45 minutes  waiting for a train  to cross   the swing bridge at mile 209.The train took over 8 minutes to cross the bridge and then two bridge tenders appeared to be inspecting the bridge prior to opening it.    We arrived a Couchiching Lock #42 at 2:10and decided to stay on the top, to get some breeze.  It is approaching 35 C outside and is  unbearably hot, the captain put the generator on, so that we can run the AC.  That hasn’t happened often on this trip.  Check out the whirlpools, these are found just outside this lock.We met some people in boats surrounding us, and saw a looper boat lock through.   We went for a swim off the back of the boat at 6:30 to cool off.   This lock has showers, so I gladly paid the $3 to get clean in the morning.  We plan to stay here for 2 nights, as we want to be at the big chute marine railway Lock 44 on Friday as Mike and Franziska are going to meet us there and take pictures as we cross.

July 28-30

On Thursday morning we continued with cleaning the outside of the boat, in places we normally can’t reach when we’re in the water.  At about 10, Brian and Helen from Bancroft stopped by as they were en route to visit their son for the weekend.  We went into Buckhorn for breakfastand returned to the boat at about 11:30.    The props were ready by noon as promised,around 1:15 we were splashed back into the water.  We decided rather than going up to Bobcaygeon in the afternoon,  and likely not getting a spot on the wall that we should wait until morning.  We tied up on the wall by the gas dock at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour.  That evening we sat with David and Claudia on the beach and took in the scenery.  I saw this beaver swim by at dusk.Early  Friday morning, this plane landed on Buckhorn lake, and taxied to the gas dock near us.  It was there to pick up a set of props that were being sent somewhere.At about  8, we decided to leave and make our way to Bobcaygeon, a  17 mile trip, through Buckhorn and Pigeon Lakes.    Here’s a few of the lakefront homes.I liked this assortment of chairs, especially the large one for a friendly giant?We were through the Bobcaygeon lock  and tied up to the upper wall by 11:15.

We connected up with Dave and Claudia, who had driven over to check out the town.  Our first agenda item was to find the Kawartha Dairy plant, We got directions, and walked over for more Ice cream.  There is a definite pattern when Loopers  visit small town Ontario, find either the Ice cream store or the bakery for butter tarts. This was a small!  We then checked out the Bigley’s shoe  and clothing stores,  the shoe store is  huge and housed in this old bank building.In the afternoon, I went in search of the laundry mat, and also found the bakery  so I bought butter tarts, I would have bought fresh bread, but they don’t bake bread which I thought was odd.

We later ran into Randy and Judy, the hillbilly campers we had met at Lock 26, they were  across the canal from us, and were headed South.  We made plans to go to Shakespeare in the park at 7:30 for Taming of the Shrew. In the end they weren’t able to make it, but Andy and I walked to the Kawartha Settlers Village to watch the performance.  Since it was more than a 2 mile walk, we had opted not to bring our lawn chairs, so we sat on a rock.  Not that comfortable, and the story had been altered to be in Toronto in 1989, so didn’t make a lot of sense.  We weren’t that impressed and only stayed about 45 minutes before we left for the trek back to the boat.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer’s market, located at the fairgrounds—only a couple of blocks from the boat.  We bought some bakery items as well as farm fresh veggies.  Tonight is midnight madness in Bobcaygeon with shopping until Midnight in the stores,  but it was also Lock madness during the day here, boats were moving steadily in both directions from the time the locks opened until they closed at 7pm.  Lots of jockeying for spots on the wall- we’re glad we came yesterday.  Our friends Dave and Claudia did get back into the water today, one week after the incident with the house boat, however when they passed through Bobcaygeon, there was no room on the wall so they continued onward.

Around 11 Mike and Franziska Edney, stopped by. Mike was a research scientist at the CGC until  his retirement.  We had been in contact recently as we planned on meeting, at the big chute. The Edney’s were in town for a family reunion, and invited us to Mike’s  uncles’s Birthday celebration at  Kawartha Settlers Village, where his uncle had been one of the founders.  We walked backed up to the village, and met a few of Mike’s relatives.  We were then invited to stop by the cottage on Cameron lake, which is between Fenlon Falls and Rosedale  on Sunday.  While at the settlement we toured the  buildings  I liked this water feature  and wondered if we could incorporate something like it in our pond back home.

On our way back to the boat we took a detour to KD, and had more IC.  I think I may have reached my limit today, however I’m sure Andy will still be looking for the Ice cream  at our next stop.  We thought we should check out the midnight madness shopping , the streets  were full of people and there were sales to be had.  There was live music on the other side of the canal as well and fireworks at 10,    I got a tattoo today  on my arm so I can remember our time along the TSW.  What do you think?

Answer to my question from July 15 blog   – It is a tower for hanging up  fire hoses, as the front of the building has signage saying it is the fire hall.  Thank you Daryl for all the guesses, and for Linda reminding me that I hadn’t posted the answer.

July 24  to July 27

Jim took us on a tour of Clear and Stony Lakes-here’s a church on the rocks, which only holds services in the summer as well as on  May long and Thanksgiving.– there are some amazing homes/cottages,including this glass house.In one place on the lake, instead of rafting together, everyone just parks on the sandbar and goes swimming.That evening we went to Stoney Lake Market at Crowe’s Landing for dinner with 2 other couples.  Excellent food and then we stopped at Craig and Holly McFarland’s Road house.  Interesting concept they have built a one bedroom with bathroom house, with several outdoor living spaces and gazebos.  The 3- car garage is being built next, and is partially framed.  The house will be the last to be built.

On Monday we pulled out from the dock and said goodbye to Jim and Wendy—but it wasn’t really good-bye.  After leaving the dock the Port engine quit a couple of times, so we came back to the dock to check out our problem.  We had sucked up a  weed suppression mat and it had  wrapped around our prop, shaft and strut on the Port engine.  Jim had said at one point that he thought the original mat was 27 feet X 9 feet, but wasn’t sure if that was the one we had taken off the bottom.We plugged back into power, as it seemed the Port starting battery  wouldn’t turn over.    The Captain put on his swim trunks and dived under the boat multiple times, attempting to cut off the mat.Andy tried an assortment of cutting tools, including serrated knives, scissors, blades and a saw.  He made some progress but after diving under the boat for 6 hours and more than 200 times he was exhausted.  We timed him and on a number of occasions he was down for over 40 seconds, pretty good lung capacity for an old guy that used to smoke.  I tried it a few times, but didn’t like being under the boat.  By 2 pm, we started calling around to find a diver who could finish the job.  In the mean time, one of Jim’s neighbors- Clay, stopped by who also had diving gear and agreed to go under the boat.   It took Clay about an hour to remove the remaining mat, which was so tightly bound, that it seemed to have melted around the shaft.  We had also replaced the Port cranking battery, so that we could be on our way again.

On Tuesday morning, Jim created a new business called Tow-Boat Mariah,using his ski boat,  he  pulled us out from the dock, well away from any other weed mats.  We were finally on our way at 8:45.  We had planned to spend one night with Jim, Wendy, Daiquiri and Martini, but ended up staying 4.  They were the greatest harbor hosts, we have met to date!

We went across Clear Lake, through Hell’s Gate, where the channel is narrow and the rocks big,and up to Burleigh Falls Lock 28 and were through it by 9:50.   We went a couple more miles to Lovesick, this lock is unique in that it is on an island,

we were through this lock by 10:10, and continued another 6 miles to Buckhorn lock 31, we were through by 11:45

We tied up on the upper wall, as they have power.  We contacted Dave and Claudia, whom we had met earlier on the Loop in NY state, we had heard they were in Buckhorn as they had been  run into by a House boat on Saturday and needed some repairs to their fiberglass.   We met them at Andy’s favourite hang out- the ice cream store and had a great visit  for well over an hour and exchanged information on our loop experiences.  I tried a new Kawartha Dairy ice cream flavor—Sweet heat—the hot pepper  caramel sauce—Of course it was a hit with me, however the server at the store said that it may be taken off the market, as nobody likes it. I’ll have to try it again at our next IC stop.

We went for a walk near the lock and found the Buckhorn Buck,we also found this memorial to members of the military who had lost their lives in Afghanistan. On Wednesday morning  July 27,  we got up early and left the lock wall by 7:30, our destination was Buckhorn Yacht Harbour.  We had decided that the boat needed to be  pulled out to check on the props, as besides the struggle with the weed mat on Monday, we had also had an incident with a log, about 4000 miles ago on the Tenn-Tom river, and although there wasn’t a vibration, we wanted to ensure the props were in good shape.  When they pulled us out we were originally sitting next to  StillWater II, but were later moved further into the lot, as we were blocking the boat launch.  So much for our  2-boat Looper Rendez-vous at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour. They did find some issues with the Port prop, and we are having it repaired and re-balanced.  We  hope to be back in the water  Thursday at some point.  We spent some time today cleaning the hull—it didn’t look too bad for having gone 6700 miles without being taken out of the water.   For supper tonight, Dave & Claudia joined us at Cody House —great Chinese food!  Dessert was at a store  farther down the road –Ice Cream again– Sweet Heat for me. We met another boater this evening, who  explained that our Hull ID: OYE35023b585 indicates that it was made by Overseas Yacht East, and that it was manufactured in May of 1985 as noted by the trailing 585.  OYE apparently made all the hulls for C&C.  Tonight we sat at the beach at the marina and watched the waves come in, until the mosquitoes started buzzing around.  Another great day on the TSW!Our next destination is Bobcaygeon, 17 miles down the TSW – the home of Kawartha Dairies!