On Monday morning, Andy took the pump up to Peter to try and fix or order parts, we also requested that he order 2 complete Jabasco toilet repair kits, which we will need for our loop trip next year.   We then went to the hardware store for some vinyl tubing so that Andy could replace the line on our shower sump pump.  We also went to Foodland and did some reprovisioning.  In the evening we drove over to Lakefield to meet Wendy and Jim Coyle, they are the harbour hosts on Clear Lake- we had first met them in Delaware City in May of 2016, and had subsequently stayed at their dock for a few days in July of 2016.  We had loaned them some of our charts for the rivers, as they had not done that portion of the loop until last fall.  We had a lovely dinner on the patio of the Canoe & Paddle- I had a coconut chicken curry which was very tasty, and cracked canoe beer.

On Tuesday, we learned that our pump and toilet parts were on back order, with no timeline as to when they would be shipped.  We decided that we had already spent almost a month of our vacation with our electrical issues and didn’t want to wait for these parts, so we made the decision to start vacation, with only the one working head.  We spent part of the day washing the outside of the boat, removing more of the dirt and black streaks.   On Wednesday morning, we filled up with water, diesel and pumped out.

We moved on to the Buckhorn lock and were through by 9:53, we proceeded  to Lovesick, followed by Burleigh falls, Young’s Point and arrived at Lakefield- Lock 26 at 1:15.

We had gone through 4 locks and traveled a total of 22 miles.  We tied up on the long grey line above the lock, where there was only one other house boat.    We walked into town to the Foodland for a couple of items.  Around 5:00 we moved our boat to the blue line, as a group of 7 cruisers were coming in, and they wanted to be located together.

We later learned that these boaters were from Mitchell Bay, near Lake St. Clair—they had trucked their boats to Beaverton, on Lake Simcoe and were travelling as far as the Peterborough lift lock.    In the evening, some of the group came by, with questions about the Loop, as they had seen our gold looper flag.   We answered their questions, and many of them came aboard for a tour of our living space.    Andy also gave them a demo of the Moor Fast aka Happy Hooker boat hook.

In the morning, our boat, a boat going to Rice Lake, and three of the Mitchell Bay boats went into the lock.  We were told that the five of us would continue in this grouping until we reached Peterborough.

We were through Lock 26 by 9:35, followed by Sawer Creek at 10:00, Douro, at 10:27 and Otonabee at 10:55.  These three locks had dam construction going on, so had no places to tie up.   There were lots of wildflowers along the canal, especially these black-eyed Susans.

Our next lock was Nassau Mills and we were through it by 11:15.  All five of these locks were ready and waiting for us, so our transition had gone rather quickly.  We arrived at the lift lock at 11:55, but needed to wait for the  lift  coming up.

Here’s our view from the lock:

here’s a picture of the captain tied off,

We were through this lock by 12:45,

And then were on to Lock 20 at Ashburnham.  We had to tie up and wait again as a tour boat and some other vessels were scheduled to lock through shortly after 1:00 so the lock was set up and waiting for their arrival.

We were finally through by 1:55.  At this point our group of 5 had to break up, as this was the end of the line for 3 of the Mitchell Bay boats, and the Rice Lake boat was going to stop at the marina for fuel.   We continued on to Scotts Mills lock and were through by 2:15.   It had taken us 5 ¼ hours to go through 8 locks and travel 10 miles- a good workout!

We had originally thought that we would stay at Scotts mill  for the night, but this lock also had major construction happening on the dam portion of the lock, so we decided to continue on.  It was 37 miles to the next lock in Hastings;   we followed the Otonabee River, and then had to cross Rice Lake.  Our lock mates, that had gone to fill up on fuel, passed us before we reached the end of the river system.  Around 4:30, we called ahead to the Hastings  lock to let them know that we had planned to tie up on the grey wall, but wouldn’t be there before they closed for the day.  They agreed to leave a washroom key for us between a set of doors, so we would have access to the lock washroom.    It has been a sunny day, but black clouds were starting to build in the direction that we were headed. About 3 Km from Hastings, while we were in a relatively narrow marked channel, the wind started gusting.  Andy was having issues keeping the boat within the markers.  We arrived at Hastings at 6:00, with the winds still blowing quite hard.

A fellow boater assisted us with tying up.  About 15 minutes later the weather system had passed and we were able to bbq for supper.  I watched a fellow at a house near where we were parked, move his plants around into the sun, but as soon as it was dark, he moved them very near his house.

I also watched these black birds eat the berries on this tree, by morning very few of the berries were left.

On Friday, we moved over to  the blue line to lock through by 9:00,

the bridge was opened, and they let us into the lock, but we had to wait for another boat, so didn’t get through until 9:35.    We then had about a 14 mile run along the Trent River to get to the next lock, saw some more wildflowers  along the route.

At Healy there are 3 locks, the first two are in a flight, meaning you get out of the first one and go directly into the second, with a total drop of over 50 feet. Lock 15 is about 500 meters farther along the channel.  We were out of these three locks by 11:50.  We proceeded on to Crowe Bay locks, and were out by 12:25, following this we reached Lock 13- Campbellford and were through shortly after 1:00.

We had traveled about 20 miles and gone through 6 locks, another good day of locking, our only issue was in the Crowe Bay lock, where the wind was pushing us towards the port side of the lock, but Andy was able to back up and we were able to tie off on the second try.  We continued on to Old Mill Park, where we had booked a space on the wall for the weekend.

On other occasions when we had tied up here, both lock walls had been full—when we tied up there was only one other boat.  We tied up near the Trent Hills office, so that we would have strong internet, and be close to the washrooms, water and electricity.

After lunch we walked to the Stedman’s store and picked up a few things, we also walked over to the bakery, however they had just closed as it was after 3:00.  I mailed a card to my mother at the post office and we returned to the boat.  I had a nap, as  at one of the locks I had overstretched and  my lower back was acting up , this along  with all the sun from the morning   had tired me out.  We had a late supper and went to bed after 10:00, but I wasn’t able to sleep because of back pain.

Where did July go?  It’s hard to believe that it is now August 1^st.  Andy made scones this morning, and I enjoyed them with peanut butter and the strawberry jam, that Helen had given me a few weeks ago. Around 11:00, Brian and Helen arrived from Bancroft for a visit; they had brought some small tomatoes and corn.  We walked over to the patio of the 52 North pub and grill, the patio overlooks the Trent Severn waterway.  I enjoyed a reuben sandwich and salad.  We visited a little at one of the picnic tables in the park.  Since it was a hot day the park was bustling with lots of groups playing games- something resembling cricket, flying drones, getting their pictures taken with the huge Toonie   or in front of our boat and having picnics.  It seemed that as one group vacated a picnic table or area, another group arrived.  It was busy in the park until 9:00.    Once again I had trouble sleeping in the bed, and spent the night in the salon, with my head and knees propped up with pillows.  I finally moved into the bedroom at about 4:30 and slept there until about 7:30.  I woke up to rain, and it has continued for most of the day.  There have been very few people in the park today, I saw one group come and start setting up their picnic, but it began pouring, so they packed up and left.

We plan to continue down the Trent starting tomorrow morning, and hope to make it to the Thousands islands and Brockville by next weekend.

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!

.

We  left Winnipeg at 5:30 a.m. on  June 27^th and drove for as far as Wawa the first day,  we stopped for Coffee and  gas in Dryden and  Nipigon- where  I was able to have a visit with my friends Teresa and Maureen  in the Tim Horton’s  parking lot.  The second day we started out early again and drove through to Buckhorn arriving just before 4:00. We spent the night unpacking the car.

Our new electronics tech called early on Monday to say he was going to be delayed and wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday, so we spent most of Monday putting stuff away, and discovering what had been left on the boat from the previous summer.  We also drove up to Kingston to visit with Marg and Mike and to pick up our new CQR anchor- we had a nice visit on their front porch, and let with a Bok Choy cabbage from Marg’s garden.    That evening we switched out our Fortress Anchor for the shiny new CQR. On Tuesday, once the techs arrived, we vacated the boat (a 35 foot boat was not large enough for 4 of us to socially distance.)   We drove up to Bancroft to visit Brian and Helen, and stayed the night.   While in Bancroft we were also able to visit with Brian and Muriel, who dropped by. It was great to get together with friends.  We had our first taste of Kawartha ice-cream, as we had stopped at the Kawartha store to pick up a 1.5 Liter of Salty Carmel Truffle for dessert.  We did some provisioning in Bancroft as they have more of a selection of stores than in Buckhorn.  We returned to the boat on the morning of July 1^st, to get the deficiencies list from the electronics techs, before they returned home.  We learned that the Garmin electronics had not been installed correctly and several pieces were missing and needed to be ordered.

On the morning of July 2^nd, it was time to tackle some of the dirt on the outside of the boat; I started with the upper deck and worked my way around the gunwales. In the early afternoon, we filled up with water and some gas, as we were headed to Balsam Lake for the weekend. We travelled 28 Km as far as Bobcaygeon and docked on the lock wall.  We went up to the lock to observe how locking worked, as we had read that it would be touch less locking, meaning that the Parks Canada locking attendants would not be able to touch our ropes.  Andy talked to the lockmaster there and got some additional pointers as well as a recommendation for take-out food.  We opted for Fish and chips from just the halibut.   On our way back to the boat, we ran into a couple with their daughter.  They stopped us and asked if we were from On Business.  As the conversation progressed, I learned that Martin follows my blog, and likely knew more about my last post than Andy.  Martin and Kim are from Warkworth, but have recently bought property in Bobcaygeon.  I was absolutely thrilled that someone besides family and friends in Winnipeg actually reads my ramblings, and that he was able to pick us out walking along the lock wall.  After we were done eating we visited a little with the people on the houseboat docked beside us.  We received a phone call from my sister Maxine, informing us that my 90 year old mother had fallen and had broken her leg, because of her underlying health issues she was not a candidate for having surgery to have a pin inserted, so will be confined to a brace and not allowed to put any weight on it for the next 3 months.  This was really upsetting news- I haven’t seen Mom since last fall, and even now, visiting is very limited in the long term care home where she resides. Our next issue of the evening was that our inverter would now provide power to Andy’s CPAP machine, which was odd, because he had tested it earlier in the week- hence a sleepless night for both of us.  In the morning we decided to call Buckhorn Yacht Harbour to see if we could return, so we travelled the 28Km back to Buckhorn.  We then packed up the car and drove to Glen and Julie’s on Balsam Lake.  Friday was our 10^th Wedding Anniversary; we had many adventures in the past decade and hope to have many in the future as well. Saturday afternoon was hot- so Julie and I went into the water and just puttered around to stay cool.

Julie bbq’d for supper and we had steak, Portobello mushrooms, asparagus and baby potatoes, with Kawartha for dessert.  My friend Anja had given me a 3L flask of wine as a retirement gift, and this was the perfect occasion to open it- the wine was fantastic!  After dinner we played the domino game that we call chicken leg- a great ending to a day that started out crappy.

On Sunday morning, Julie showed me the finer points of kayaking and the two of us paddled along the shore of Balsam Lake.  This was my first time, so I was a little apprehensive, but we were in relatively shallow water, so if I was to tip it I’m sure I could have swam or stood up.  We paddled for about an hour, with no mishaps.

On our return to the dock in front of their house,  Julie showed me how to get out, and I did with only getting my feet wet.

Julie then proceeded to pick up my kayak to take it out of the water, and swung it around clipping me in the head, which caused me to lose my balance and I tumbled into the water, just missing the dock that housed their sailboat.  So I did go for my second swim in Balsam Lake.  We stayed for brunch and visited some more.

Julie has taken up some very interesting crafts in retirement and the framed pictures are truly amazing, and Glen continues to improve his Harmonigraph outputs.

  Mid afternoon we drove back to Buckhorn to our very hot boat.   I tried to log on to my computer, but it wouldn’t boot up, not sure what is wrong.  On Sunday morning, we took the boat out into Buckhorn Lake, as we wanted to practice with our new anchor and apparatus for a bridle. Just after noon, we moved the boat to the Buckhorn lock,

and got a spot with power, there is a 2 day limit at the lock, so we need to move on Tuesday. On Sunday afternoon, Brian and Helen stopped by as they were going to the nearby strawberry farm.  Helen brought us a pint of fresh strawberries and they were amazingly fresh and sweet, we enjoyed them after the Chinese food that we had ordered from Cody Inn, a nice treat.  I gave my computer to Brian to take back to Bancroft, to see if it could be repaired, I have a new computer waiting for me in Winnipeg, that I had bought myself  earlier in the year-  I hadn’t brought it along, as who needs 2 computers.

On Monday morning we walked over to the Hardware store so that I could buy a get well card to send to my Mom.

The weather here has been consistently over 30 every day with very little air movement.  Thank goodness for power and air conditioning.   We met another member of AGLCA at the locks on Monday, Wayne, the iceman, and Lori from Ingersoll. We had a good visit with them and learned that it wasn’t as difficult as we had previously been told to go from Manitoulin Island to Tobermoray. I called one of my sister’s for an update on Mom, and was given a number at the nurse’s station where I could call to talk to her.   At about 1:30 on Tuesday we left the lock, as our 48 hours was up.  We went out to anchor near the point, to again try the new anchor and bridle system.  All went well, and Andy pulled out the fishing rod to try his luck.  About 15 minutes later, some very dark clouds appeared on the horizon followed by some thunder and lightning. Very soon after that it started to pour and the winds picked up creating whitecaps on the lake that earlier was flat like glass.  We both got soaked.  Andy went to the front of the boat to see if the anchor was holding, as it was raining so hard, we couldn’t tell where we were, and weren’t sure if the anchor was dragging.  On his way back to the lower helm, high gusts of  wind blew his prescription glasses, along with the chain that was there to hold them right off his head  several feet up in the air and then into the water.  Andy said to pull up the anchor, and it came up with about 20 lbs of weeds.   We turned toward Buckhorn Yacht harbour and were directed to tie up in a vacant slip.  By now the storm had passed. On Wednesday morning, we got a text from the Electronics tech that he wasn’t able to come to do the additional repairs, so we continue to wait.  I’ve been tempted to rename our boat- “Electrically cursed”, we have now been here for almost two weeks and have moved a total of about 60 Km- not the way I had envisioned our first 2 weeks of vacation.  With the absence of the electronics techs, that gave the BYH techs the opportunity to do some additional checking of our batteries, as well as changing some belts on the engines.  We drove the 85 Km up to Bancroft to visit with Brian and Helen again.  We wanted to pick up a few items at the drug store and hardware store.  Had a lovely lunch and visit, as well as washing a couple of loads of clothes.  We wanted to be back in Buckhorn by 3:00, just in case we needed to move the boat out of the borrowed slip and back to the loading dock.

We ordered Pizza for supper, as it is too hot to cook. On Thursday morning we heard back from the electronics technician and he won’t be able to come to our boat until Tuesday July 14^th.  We talked to Peter at Buckhorn, and decided to go back to the lock wall for the next two days while it is going to be in the high 30’s so that we would have power. We moored next to this picnic table, one of the lock attendants had made it from some of the old lock wall boards that had recently been replaced.  A very solid table!

We spent most of the day indoors, working on a few little projects and cleaning up.    That evening 4 boatloads of kids came to the lock after it closed and used it as their swimming pool—I heard one of them say that the water was 84F.

At one point Andy had the bright idea that we should try to plug his mask directly into the inverter using an extension cord, and it seemed to work.  We then decided that rather than waiting around for the electronics tech to come to us, that we would go to him in Penetanguishene. Later Friday afternoon, Brian brought me what was left of my laptop—the Hard drive, which was now encased in a laptop hard disk drive enclosure.|He told me that my motherboard was completely fried.  I attached my old Hard drive through a USB cable to Andy’s laptop and after a 20 minute uploading exercise, was able to see my files and picture.  What a relief that everything was still accessible.  Once we’re home in the fall I will transfer the important files and pictures to the new laptop.

 We decided that we would leave on Saturday morning on our journey to Georgian Bay– we were up at 5:30 and left Buckhorn lock by 6:30 headed for Bobcaygeon.  We were there for the first lock up at 9:00, and were through by 9:25.  It was very overcast with some dark clouds.  This was our first lock of the year, with the new “no touch” rules from the Park’s Canada attendants.  Andy drove into the locks from the lower helm, and grabbed a cable near the mid-ship, whereas I stood on the back swim platform and secured the stern.   Once we had locked through I would go up to the upper helm and turn on the keys so that Andy could switch to driving from above.  It seemed to work well.  Our next lock was Fenlon Falls, and again no issues—because the weather wasn’t the greatest, we seemed to be the only ones moving on the water. Since the US-Canada border is closed, there are no Americans or Loopers on the canals yet.  Part way across Cameron Lake enroute to Rosedale Lock, the skies opened and it was raining so hard- you couldn’t see very far ahead.

  Once we got to the lock, we were going to pull to the side and tie up, but the lock attendants had the lock open and were dressed in rain gear, so we felt obliged to go through.  We continued on and were through Kirkfield at 2:00 with more rain, entering Bolsover I had fully extended my boat hook to grab the cable when the wind started to pick up, and I   somehow got the handle stuck in the stairs down to the swim platform, making a huge bend in the handle.  Oops- at least I didn’t lose it overboard, like other years.  We were out of this lock by 3:05, Talbot at 3:45 and were at the top of Portage by 4:00.  Six locks and 59 miles were enough for our first day.    We had a peaceful night as the only residents of Portage lock #39.

Andy was able to make a shorter but useful boathook out of the mangled piece of aluminum that I gave him.

On Sunday, we proceeded through locks 39, 40 and 41,

and reached Lake Simcoe at 10:25, we then had the 15 miles to navigate before reaching the Atherby Narrows and Orillia.  We continued on and crossed Lake Couchiching, and arrived at the CN railway bridge by 1:20.  We honked the horn, and the bridge attendant was out almost immediately, and we were through the bridge within 5 minutes.  This was by far the quickest we have ever been through this bridge.  Must not have been any trains in the area, as we have waited more than an hour on other occasions to get through.    We stopped and tied up for a lunch break at Couchiching lock, and proceeded through the lock by 2:45.  We arrived at Swift Rapids at 4:45, and decided to stay on top for the night. We had gone through 4 locks and travelled 44 miles.   We were visited on numerous occasions by a flock (about 25) Canada geese that came out of the water to eat the grass.  I chased them, Andy chased them as well as a person that was fishing—they are such messy creatures, leaving droppings everywhere. 

On Monday morning, we were sitting on the Blue line and ready to go at 9:00, when the Parks Canada crew arrived, they come in by boat, as this is a very isolated lock station.  In this lock which is a 47 foot drop, I tied onto the bollard, and Andy tied onto a cable.  All went smoothly and we were out by 9:25.   We arrived at the Big Chute Railway at 10:20, and had to wait for a work barge to go down the chute first, before it was our turn.

While in the lock one of the lock attendants mentioned that it looked like our starboard prop had a ding on it.  We were out of the Chute by 10:55, headed for Port Severn.  There were some dark clouds, and the wind was picking up.  At Port Severn we tied up on the grey wall, so Andy could check with the lockmaster whether a port of starboard tie was preferred.  He said it was up to us.  Andy was unsure because of the direction of the wind, it we would be able to hang on to our preferred starboard tie.  We decided to try it as  our dinghy impedes us doing a Port tie-  it’s not impossible , but I would need to be standing under the dinghy when I’m trying to grab a cable.    Our starboard attempt was successful, as the wind had died down slightly and we were out of Port Severn lock by 12:20 and into Georgian Bay.  Once in the Bay we had 2 to 3 foot waves

out in the open water, these decreased to less than 2 foot waves once we were south of Beausoleil Island.  We entered Penetang Bay and were tied up at Harbour West Marina by 2:10.    In total we had gone 28 miles today, with 12 miles of it on Georgian Bay.  The plan is for the electronic technician to work inside the boat for the next day of two, and if the weather is nice we will do some cleaning on the outside of the boat, so that we are not in the way.

We’ve been to Penetanguishene in the past, as we bought our first boat, a 37 foot  Carver  from  here in 2009, and had it shipped to Winnipeg.  My garden on the boat is doing well, the tomato has lots of  flowers and a few very small tomatoes, likewise for the hot pepper.  Hope my garden in Winnipeg is doing well too.

I will blog again, once  I know the status of what we are doing and where we are going, our Garmin In-Reach at this link, will indicate where we are, or have been ( provided we remember to turn it on while we are moving.) password T&A2019

https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/share/BYK46   

It’s been months since I added to the blog, and so much has happened……

At  the end of September, Andy had surgery for his hernia yet again- time# 3.  All seemed to go well, but the wound would not heal.  In late November, he started going to our local walk-in on a daily basis to get it cleaned and bandaged.  After talking to the surgeon and his family doctor, he was referred to the wound clinic on Marion street, and went there daily.  In  mid- January, this was switched to every second day.  In early February, the wound started bleeding, and Andy was hospitalized overnight.  He was released the next day but was re-admitted on the weekend for an additional surgery to remove the infected tissue.

  Once released he was back at the wound clinic for his daily bandage changes.  In the beginning I was calling the new hole a crater it was 9 cm across by 4 cm down and 4 cm deep. By early May it had finally closed up, and this chapter is over- or so we hope.

Other excitement:  Brian and Helen Vermeersch from Bancroft came for a visit in August, and Glen and Julie Cavers passed through Winnipeg twice, on their journey to BC and the Yukon in September.

Once again we hosted the McMorland Family Christmas party, and had about 35 people in attendance.

On February 7th , I turned the big 60, and was surprised by my husband with (  two cakes

and  a come and go party) as well as a  1 week trip to Vegas  on February 23^rd.   But there was an issue—Andy’s  latest surgery was on February 16^th– so he couldn’t come with me, and we couldn’t get the ticket and hotel refunded.  I made many phone calls trying to convince someone to come along, but no luck until the Friday the 21^st, when one of my co-workers, Anja Richter said yes.  We had a fabulous time, and walked over 100 km on the strip.  While in Vegas, Andy booked us another trip to Vegas in January of 2021, for the Meridian Cup (Curling). Hopefully we will get to go together this time.

Anja found some deals on tickets, and we were  continuously on the go, also took a trip to the Grand Canyon.

I only lost $15 on the slot machines, because that’s all the money I put into them.

Another really exciting event was that once I was 60, I was no longer going to be penalized on my pension, so  I put in my intention to retire, once I used up my vacation credits over the summer- I will be a retired person in early November.

Our summer plan was to take the boat down the St. Lawrence to the Maritimes, down the East coast to NYC and then back up the Hudson and NY canal system.  It was going to take about 3 months.  We had information to friends who had done the “ Down East Loop” last summer, and Andy started studying the routes.

However Covid-19 hit, and the world has become a different place.  Since March 17^th, I have been working mostly from home.  I was assigned the job of sample triage for the Grain Research Lab, so was going into work 2 or 3 times a week to deliver samples to the appropriate labs for testing, and scheduling my staff to come to perform analysis on critical samples related to the shipment of export grain cargoes.

Andy turned 70 this year but no party as it was early April-so it was just the two of us.

He embarked on a  couple of Covid projects while I was working at home- the first was to build this lighthouse which sits in front of our house.

 The fence between us and our neighbors needed to be replaced, so Andy hired his nephew Mike, to assist in this project.

Following that to keep with social distancing protocols, he decided to add a 6 foot addition on our back deck , and again had some help from Mike.

The addition has been used most Tuesday’s since, as our golf group comes back to our place for supper and drinks  after playing 9 holes.

My original last day of work was slated for June 5^th, but this got amended to June 26^th. So I am currently trying to finish up a bunch of tasks, clean up my office at the lab, clean up my office at home, as well as the rest of the house, weed the garden, and pack—not  a short list!  It has been raining alot lately so the garden is in good shape, and we should get out of Winnipeg before  the mosquitoes start hatching….

The Plan is to leave  early on June 27^th, and start the drive to Buckhorn. Arriving there late on the 28^th.  We will have a couple of technicians on the boat on the 29^th and 30^th, who will try to complete   upgrades that didn’t happen during the 2019 electronics debacle. ( Of course this was scheduled to happen in early June of 2020, but got delayed because of  Covid restrictions).  On the 29^th,to ensure social distancing we are driving  to drive to Kingston to pickup our new CQR which Andy ordered early this week as a father’s day present for himself.

We hope to leave Buckhorn  as soon as we get the green light that our electronics and compass are working as they  should.   We will take our time traveling through the 28 locks on the TSW to make it to Lake Ontario.  Some of the locks have restrictions on mooring, as the sites are under construction, but we will have lots of choice.  We have always rushed through this area, as I had a limited amount of vacation- but not this summer- our only restriction will be that the boat has to be back in Buckhorn before Thanksgiving as the locks close then.

So our summer boating plan is to be confined to Ontario canal systems and possibly  parts of Quebec and the St. Lawrence River- we’ll see where the water takes us–  dependent on Covid restrictions.

Here’s a view of what is keeping me sane (Thanks to Glen Cavers)…….

Will blog again, once we’re on the water……….

On Thursday morning, Wayne and Roxanne came to Buckhorn lock.  We had decided to stay at the lock for one more day, plugged into power as it was extremely hot out.  So we travelled to Bobcaygeon by car, so that Roxanne and Wayne could see some of the boats being used by loopers.  In Bobcaygeon we saw the  Blessing, the looper boat from Winnipeg, which I had seen lock through Buckhorn the day before.  We also saw Late harvest-  James and Mary Jane-loopers from Orillia, that we had originally met at the looper meet in Trenton in June of 2018, they are very close to becoming Gold- only another 50 miles.  Roxanne and I went through some of the Bigley stores looking at shoes and clothes.  Our next stop was our favourite place in Bobcaygeon—Kawartha Dairies ice cream plant.  We all enjoyed dishes of ice cream of our favourite flavours.

We were then off to Fenlon Falls to check out the boats that were there. Here we saw a custom order- grey and white boat called Vision- ( we had previously seen it on the lock wall at Bobcaygeon )

I think it was 50 plus feet, and had everything- including a laundry room in the lower level and a head in the pilot house.  Roxanne and I checked out several of the stores, and we met the AGLCA harbour host in the water street store.  On our way back to Buckhorn we stopped at the Kawartha country wines and picked up a couple bottles of fruit wine- they also had gift items, jellies, preserves and ciders-and free tasting.

We spent part of the afternoon resting in the boat.  For dinner we went to Cody Inn for Chinese food with Wayne and Roxanne

On Friday, we had to leave Buckhorn lock, as there is a 2 day limit.  At 7 that morning we drove over to BYH (Buckhorn Yacht Harbour) to confirm with Peter, that we would be bringing the boat back there later in the day to be pulled out and put up on the hard. Andy and Peter also called the electronics technician to find out his plans for addressing some of our deficiencies. He said he would schedule the work later in the summer. We returned to the lock, and once Wayne and Roxanne arrived we locked through.  We had decided we would go through a couple of locks to let them see how locking on the TSW worked.  With a little direction from the captain, Wayne graduated to seaman first class, and was put in charge of ropes on the stern.   Roxanne observed and critiqued as any Admiral in training should.

After locking through we crossed the lower Buckhorn Lake, then proceeded through Lovesick- Lock 30

and then on to Burleigh falls.

We ended up anchoring in Clear Lake for lunch, this consisted of a mixed grill—as I wanted to bbq all the meat that was left in our freezer.  At 1:15, we pulled anchor and reversed our course.   We saw this police boat that had pulled over a runabout—it looked like they gave the boy on the boat a t-shirt, as he was caught wearing a life jacket.  A rare sight!

We have seen many boats, overloaded with adults and children and not a single life jacket in sight.  Once we got to Buckhorn and had locked up- Roxanne and I jumped off the boat.  Both our cars were at the lock and we drove to BYH, to meet On Business at the gas dock.  By this time the winds had picked up and it was a little rough on the lake.  We tied up and had the 2 heads pumped out, before moving the boat to a transient slip, where it would stay while we packed. Friday night I listened to the AGLCA pod cast, where our friend Dave Fuller was talking about the Agawa Canyon train trip that they had taken from Sault St. Marie.  He gave a shout-out about Andy and my recent adventures in Lake Superior.  Thanks Dave!

By about noon on Saturday, everything that needed to go back to Winnipeg was in the car, and items in the boat had been stowed away.  We went to Mainstreet Landing for lunch as we were meeting Jim Coyle there.  We had first met him on our loop trip in Delaware City, and had stayed on his dock on Stoney Lake when we passed through in July of 2016.  He will be  completing another portion of the loop starting this fall in a new boat.  After lunch we drove to Bancroft, on the way we stopped for our last taste of Kawartha Ice cream for this season. We visited with Brian and stayed the night.  We got up early Sunday morning and started the drive westward.  Andy drove passing through many towns that we had been through by boat, on Georgian bay, the north channel and east side of Lake Superior.

We arrived at Wawa and checked into a hotel for the night.  Monday morning we got back into the car and continued, there wasn’t a lot of traffic, but we were stopped numerous times for bridge or road construction.

We stopped in Marathon and went to the Napa store to redeem our $500 gift certificate plus, on filters for the boat. We passed by the continental watershed divide and I took this picture.

Later we entered the Central time zone

and there was also a sign board depicting the original route of the Trans Canada highway.

  We reached he Manitoba border at 6 pm,

and encountered more road construction,  we arrived home shortly after 8 pm.  After unpacking the car it was almost 10-Another long day! In the morning I called in to work to say that I was back in the city- but wouldn’t be in until Wednesday.  I spent Tuesday doing cleaning, laundry and weeding my garden.   Back at work on Wednesday, I found that Cheri had everything under control regarding the harvest.   There are lots of changes at work with many new people, including a new Director for the Grain Research Lab.  It will take a few more days to catch up on all the emails- but I have no other plans for being away from work over the next few months.  On Friday morning, Andy received the news that his next hernia surgery is scheduled for September 30^th-I truly hope they get it right this time!

We left Queens Cove shortly after 9:00, Andy had made pancakes for breakfast.  Teresa said goodbye and left by car.  It was relatively calm going across Hog’s Bay towards Port Severn, Andy was happily explaining the duties and how the headsets work for our new deck hand, and somehow missed a turning point marker- we went by several markers  before he realized, so we turned around and backtracked.

  We got to Port Severn around 10:30 and waited for an opening—because this is the smallest lock on the TSW- they seemed to be taking only one big boat through at a time.  While we waited the skies opening and we got drenched.  Iain caught a Bass in the channel, but it didn’t make it into the boat.  When it was our turn to lock through it was still pouring—Iain and I looked like drowned rats.  Andy suggested that we tie up once through the lock and wait for the rain to stop.  I said no – that we should continue, as I couldn’t see out of my glasses because they were wet and steamed up- so I likely couldn’t find the cleat to tie up to.  I think in all our years boating that this was the first lock we had done in the pouring rain.  I guess the new first mate needed to be christened, and what better way than getting the toughest lock, because of the current and it’s size out of the way first in the pouring rain.  Iain started singing songs with sunny days in them and the weather seemed to improve.

We got to the Big Chute marine railway lock, just before noon, and the weather had cleared up considerably.

We locked through quickly with 2 run-abouts and 2 PWC- we were put on the back with our props hanging out.   Iain seemed to be impressed by how this lock operated- and he and I were relieved of rope duties- we only had to pull up the fenders, so they didn’t get caught in the slings.

We were through this lock at 12:20.  Then it was on to Swift Rapids, which is the biggest lock with a rise of about 43 feet.  Andy was telling Iain to grab hold of the bollard to tie up to- however Iain didn’t know what the bollard was or how it worked. Andy finally went to the back and showed him what to do.   Once through we tied up on the grey line by 1:45, as we had decided this was likely far enough for Iain’s first day.

We also weren’t sure if there would be space at Couchiching- so better to have a spot than not.  Andy had a conversation with the lockmaster about fishing, and was told it was frowned up while staff was around.  In the afternoon, we had seen a boat near the locks fishing and the lockmaster came over the loud speakers telling them that no fishing was allowed within 30 meters of the lock. We met Rick and Larry – Loopers from Sioux Falls SD and invited them for docktails at 5:30.  We had a good visit with them and Andy shared some of his knowledge of what they should expect in Georgian Bay.  At 7:00, a group of people showed up with fishing rods, coming in off the road near our boat—Andy told them that he had been told that fishing wasn’t allowed at the locks, so after some discussion amongst themselves- they decided to leave. Later in the evening, Andy did drop in a fishing line to see if his luck had changed and caught this little one—that fit into the palm of his hand.

We left Swift Rapids at 8:50 the next morning and continued down the Trent,   saw this cottage with a CN caboose as one of the outbuildings.

Passing through the Couchiching lock, there was only one other boat going eastward, but there was more than a dozen waiting to lock through to the west.

Once through we had the railway bridge to wait for- and we ended up waiting less than 10 minutes—the quickest we’ve ever gone through this one.  Iain claims he called the president of CN to ensure that it would be ready for us.

We continued on across Lake Couchiching, and Andy let Iain drive for awhile,

but after his time at the wheel he felt he needed to rest.

We continued on and reached the Port of Orillia by 1:00.  They tied us up on the farthest dock from the main office—so we got a little bit of walking in that day.

Andy and Iain went to the Metro store to pick up a few things, and I did some laundry.  That evening we went to the Golden Wok for dinner, and then walked up to Wilks bakery to find out what time they were open on Monday morning— 9:00 too late for us as we wanted an early start in order to cross Lake Simcoe- so no Chelsea buns for us. Near the marina office they had this replica of a fish weir

, as well as sailboats  ornaments with different painted masts.

We left Port of Orillia at 7:45 and were across the very cooperative- flat lake and at the breakwall by 9:50.

Iain and I then had our hands full as we went through the 5 locks of Gamebridge, Thorah, Portage, Talbot and Bolsover.  There was still some work being done on shoring up the canal system and a new dam.

I also saw a canola field and some hay bales along the shore.

We were out of the last lock by 12:35.  We didn’t wait very long for any of the locks, as Iain claimed he had call  his connections to ensure they would be open for us. Iain had scoobie snacks (typically pretzels, pepperoni, fresh peas or chips) and 0% alcohol beer while he manned his station at the back of the boat.

We arrived at the bottom of Kirkfield at 1:45 and tied up.   We played a few games of Shanghai in the afternoon-  Iain seems to have the game figured out and has bushwacked Andy and I a number of times.   We saw this canoe  go through the lift lock.

Our friends Glen and Julie from Balsam Lake came for dinner.

While we were having appetizers on the back deck, I noticed this bird in a tree- we’re thinking it might be some type of crane.

We had a great visit with them, telling about our travels since we had seen them the previous month.

We went through the lift lock at Kirkfield at 9:30 in the morning and then proceeded through Rosedale and Fenlon Falls. One of Iain’s favourite sayings – was telling the captain- steady as she goes, and reporting that all was well on the starboard side of the boat.   It was a little breezy on Balsam, Cameron and Sturgeon Lakes, and the wave built as the day progressed.  We arrived in Bobcaygeon at 2:45 and locked through and tied up.  We are in houseboat rental territory, so were surrounded by them.

Around 5, Iain and I went in search of Kawartha ice cream- Bigley’s have opened an ice cream shop with a logo that says Happiness is ice cream and new shoes.  I had ice cream, and Iain had a milkshake. We checked out a couple other stores before going back to the boat. In the evening we played more cards—I believe we finally let the captain win a game.  We discussed the training that Iain had undertaken over the last 5 days and I believe the captain sees potential and that Iain should  become a first mate.

We left Bobcaygeon at 7:15 and headed across  a very flat Pigeon Lake

and Buckhorn lake.   We saw some bridge construction going on at this road.

Andy had called Buckhorn Yacht harbour and they had no room on the gas dock- so we proceeded on to the Buckhorn lock—Andy called ahead and was told there was one spot near the lock, which had power- so we speeded up in order to get it before someone locked through.  We were tied up to the lock wall by 9:30.  Once again we ran into Tom and Julie Van Hall from Sum Escape—we had last seen them in Little Current on our way down to Lake Superior about a month ago.  After an early lunch- Andy and Iain left

– Andy was driving Iain as far as Orangeville where Teresa was meeting them.   I did some cleaning in the boat, and then started packing up stuff that could be stored until next year.  When I took the recycling out- I noticed this boat coming  into the lock

— another looper couple from Winnipeg,-  what are the odds of that happening?   We had met Jay & Barbara a  few years ago- when they came to look at our Carver that was for sale in Winnipeg Beach.  They will complete their Loop once they get back to Tennessee.

Our vacation is almost over- we will be leaving for Winnipeg on Monday after speaking  with the electronics technician and boat mechanics.

It was a hot day and very muggy, a rain shower at 1:00 was a bit of a reprieve from the heat. At about 2:00- Roxanne and Wayne arrived, friends that we had met last summer in Brockville.  They are staying at a B&B  near Buckhorn and will be spending a couple of days with us touring around the Kawarthas and looking at looper boats.

We visited until Andy got back at about 5:00, and later had supper.  The sky got black again around 9:00 and we had another longer shower, which cooled things down slightly.  Roxanne and Wayne  left around 10:00, after much red wine was consumed.

We got up and pulled out of Britt at 7:35.  Andy maneuvered us through the markers for the Norgate rocks

and we entered the Alexander passage.    Just before reaching Snug Harbour, I  saw another cell tower disguised as a tree—they really stick our because they are so tall.

When we got back out into bay  – the next challenge was the zig-zaging through the hang-dog reefs. With the higher water on Georgian Bay, ( up 1.6 meters above chart datum)– there wasn’t as many rocks on the surface – but they are still there.

My repeated requests for fresh fish has not gone unnoticed- Andy suggested that we go to Gilly’s for lunch.  As we passed by Snug Harbour- we took a look at the public dock and it was full- so we continued on.

There were a number of work boats on the water today, and I’ve included pictures of a few of them.

I never get tired of taking pictures of lights and lighthouses so I have included them in the order that I saw them. Byng Inlet,Port au Baril,

Snug Harbour, Jones island– all red and white but no two exactly the same.  Near the channel going up to Parry Sound we saw the  Island Queen tour boat.

We followed the small craft channel and checked out an anchorage in Echo Bay, where  2 boats were anchored.

  Since we were so close to Henry’s fish restaurant- Andy suggested we stop there for the night, as a thunderstorm and rain was in the forecast. 

For dinner we had deep-fried Georgian bay shrimp (smelts) and then pan fried pickerel, which was absolutely amazing and well over-due.  We had been to Henry’s in 2016, and the food was so-so—the restaurant was closed in 2017, when we were up this way.  It now has new owners- the food and service was great.  We were happy we were tied up for the night, the winds picked up after midnight, and we had a thunderstorm around 3:00 a.m.  I  had just fallen back to sleep when I heard an alarm going off—it was an Amber alert on Andy’s phone.   

We left Henry’s at 9:30 and continued down the small craft channel, we went out towards Georgian Bay in order to traverse the O’Donnel rocks.

We checked out anchorages in King’s Bay

and in Indian harbour.

We then took the Monument channel to get out of the wind and waves, and went by an anchorage that we had stayed at in 2016.    We moved up the Musquash channel and found Bone Island.  A portion of the island belongs to Parks Canada- we tied up to the large T-dock on the south side of the island at 12:50.

The dock did not extend to land- so there was no shore access, but we had the dock to ourselves.  The weather had been cool all day with 15 knot winds, so we were happy to be tied up and sheltered.

The wind remained brisk all afternoon and it changed from sunny to overcast, and then back to sunny.  I saw this pair of turtles on the rocks.

Andy pulled out both fishing rods and tried to catch dinner with no luck.

On Friday, we got up lazed around and then I did a little cleaning, Andy tried fishing again.

A sail boat had  anchored out near us.

We left the docks around 10:00, followed the small craft channel, and went across the top of Beausoleil island, through Honey harbour and then across the bay to Victoria harbour.  The wind was still quite brisk in the Bay, but not as bad as the previous day.  We arrived at Queen’s cove at 12:30 and tied up. Iain and Teresa arrived around 5 and we visited and then went to Queen’s Quay Pub for dinner.  Afterwards we played Shanghai until almost 11pm- way past our normal bedtime.

On Saturday morning , Andy, Iain and I will start moving up the Trent towards Buckhorn.

We left Blind River at 8:00, it was a little blustery with larger waves than I like for the first hour as we traversed  open water.  Once Andy headed between islands, we had some relief from the waves.  We passed by John Island, through the Detroit cut, and the Croker islands.  We saw several sailboats on the water, some  with their sails up.

We arrived in Little Current and docked on the wall at 2:10, having gone over 50 miles.  After we had tied up a couple came by and the woman asked if I was Twylla.  It was Jim and Marti Hart, from Cedarville MI, who Andy had met in 2015, and we had both met in 2017 here in Little Current.  Later in the afternoon we walked up to the grocery store for a few things, and then met Jim and Marti for docktails.  Later while making supper, I ran out of propane for the stove.  Andy changed to the  partially full reserve tank. I checked with the marina staff, and was told that Shell had a re-filling station.

On Sunday Andy called Shell, and was told they did re-fill tanks, so we pulled out the cart and dragged the tank up the hill to Shell.  Once there we were told that they don’t fill, but rather exchange tanks- which was fine with us.  However they didn’t have any full tanks on hand- so off we trucked with our empty tank, back down the hill to the boat.  What a waste- she could have told us that when we had called!!  We lazed around, and then went to marine supply store to see if they had a life-ring bracket that we wanted to use for our 150 feet of anchor rope from our spare anchor.  We then got ready to leave the wall, as we wanted to make the 12:00 opening of the bridge.  It was clear and calm and about 20C.    We met this tour boat,

out in the Bay and a little while later we saw this boat, pulling a flotilla of canoes.

We had been told by  Marti, that on  Saturday there had been  a canoe event between Little Current and Killarney, and these must be the canoes coming back to Little Current.  We went about 15 miles and then pulled into Snug harbour which was already occupied by two sailboats- there was plenty of room and we dropped the anchor around 2:00.    By nightfall a third sailboat had come into the harbour.

On Monday we got up at our usual 5:30, and after coffee weighed anchor at 6:50. As we were leaving, we heard on the coast guard channel, that there was a sailboat near the Killarney channel requesting assistance.  Shortly after 7:30 we came upon Escape Pod who had fouled their prop and were using their dinghy and motor to propel them forward.

We asked if we could assist and they said they were under control—we did follow them until they were tied up at  Rogues Marina.   We proceeded through Killarney

and headed out into Georgian Bay, we met 5 powerboats and 4 sailboats that were headed to the North channel and beyond.

Since the weather was  NOT favourable for the next 4 days we had cancelled our excursion to  the south shore of Georgian Bay—we would have had good weather for Monday and Tuesday, but the winds were suppose to pick up Wednesday night and Thursday, and we would have been stuck somewhere while we waited for a better forecast.   So we had decided to stick with the north side of the Bay, and explore some anchorages that we had not been to previously.

Once past the Bustards, we took the Northeast passage and headed north into the French River system.  It was a very windy route, going around Maggie, Flat, Dorion, Obstacle, Dock and the outer Fox islands. Both Andy and I kept a sharp lookout for the markers, as sometimes they were in the water or perched on rocks. We zig-zagged through the Parting Channel which was very narrow and had markers close together, and a rock in the middle.

At one point the water depth showed 4 feet.  We checked out a number of anchorages, but one already had 3 boats in it, and another had a boat, and couldn’t fit any more.

We went up by Fox island and checked out a bay or 2, but didn’t like where the rocks under the water were situated.

  Saw that someone was having a fish meal- but it wasn’t me.

We dropped our hook at 12:50, west of Vixen Island.

I did a little cleaning of the back deck- the shad flies had been hatching recently- so there were a few of them to get rid of.  Andy did some maintenance on the battery bank, and checked the oil in the engines.  After our tasks were done we relaxed in the afternoon.  A loon was swimming around the boat in the evening- hope he was having better luck fishing than us.

On Tuesday, we left Vixen Island at 6:40, we had planned for a later start, but we had cozied up to the rocks during the nights and were in 8 feet of water with rocks so close to the boat we could touch them.

To ensure that we didn’t swing any closer to shore, as I pulled up the anchor- Andy had put down the dinghy and was pushing off the rocks with one of our boat hooks- which swung us into the channel.

We went a couple of miles and then joined up with the small craft channel east of the Bustards.  We stopped behind Dead Island  at 7:45 to check out this anchorage.

Andy tried to catch a fish for breakfast, but again no luck.  I may never get a fresh caught fish this summer from any of the great lakes.  Saw this lighthouse in the distance- I believe it to be Key Harbour.

We saw a number of kayakers and canoeists camping on a couple of the islands.

We stopped by Roger’s island to check out another potential anchorage for a future trip- here there where white poles drilled into the rock that you could tie up to.  This island was currently being used by kayakers.

  We met several boats going westward and we  made our way through the channels

– because we didn’t want to get to Britt before noon, we took our time and travelled at < 5 mph.  We saw this  rubber alligator on the rocks

and the familiar skelton which moves around a fair bit at Cunningham’s cut.

We arrived at Wright’s marina shortly after noon, topped up our diesel, pumped out, exchanged a propane tank and bought 5 gallons of oil for diesel engines.  We had gone more than 100 hours, and Andy figured it was time to replace the oil.  So in the afternoon, after I had put some laundry in, Andy with a little assistance from me, pumped out the filthy black oil and replaced it.  When we leave Britt in the morning we hope to anchor out a couple more nights before going to Victoria harbour on Friday to pick up Andy’s cousin Iain who is going to   spend a few days with us and assist  with the locks on  the Trent Severn Waterway.

As we leave Lake Superior, here are ten  facts that I found:

• It is the largest freshwater lake in the world, and holds 10% of the earth’s surface freshwater.
• It was formed when glacial melt water filled a billion year old volcanic basin 10,000 years ago
• A drop of water takes 2 centuries to circulate before exiting the natural outflow- the St. Mary’s River.
• Lake Superior contains 3 quadrillion gallons of freshwater- enough to cover both the north and south American continent in one foot of water.
• the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum approximates 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost on Lake Superior
• It’s average depth is 147 meters (483 feet) with a maximum depth of of 406 meters (1,333 feet).
• The average elevation of Lake Superior is about 183 meters (600 feet) above sea level.
• The average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is 2 meters (27 feet), making it easily the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes. Underwater visibility in places reaches 30 meters 100 feet.
• The average annual water temperature of Lake Superior is 4.4ºC (40ºF). It only very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for hours. The last complete freezing of Lake Superior occurred in 1979, although the lake was almost completely frozen over in 2014
• Climate change is affecting Lake Superior, the coldest of the great lakes. Since 1980 it has warmed 1 degree each decade.  (This might be the case but I didn’t notice– it was damn cold sleeping on our boat during this trip, as our master berth is located below the water line- so we were sleeping on a bed in <5C water)

July 1^st turned in to a dismal day, overcast and intermittent fog.  We went with the marina owner, Brad Buck to Kinniwabi Pines restaurant for lunch.  Food was great.  In the afternoon, we did some reading and a little cleaning.   I learned that   Michipicoten was known for it’s fur trade back in the 1600’s.

The fireworks scheduled for the evening in Wawa was cancelled as the town was fogged in.  On Tuesday Andy went up to the marina office to find out when we might be getting our diesel delivery- unfortunately the fuel truck was out of town, so Brad called up a friend that had a 45 gallon tank to fill it up at the local gas station.  This took a couple of hours to arrange, so I went for a walk to silver falls and took some pictures.

On crossing this bridge towards the fall, I saw this memorial for a fallen soldier.

On returning to the marina, we moved the boat to the gas dock and transferred the diesel to it.  There was a bit of a fog bank, but since we had our track coming up the Michipicoten river, we just followed it back out to the lake.

We had fog for about the next 2 hours, but ran with our radar on- didn’t encounter anyone- but did see this boat in the distance going into another bay.

It amazes me that trees can grow on rock islands, even if there is no soil.

We did notice so far this summer that there is lots of yellow spruce pollen on surface of the water that we have travelled in.   We went about 50 miles and made it to Sinclair Cove and were anchored by 5:30.  We both tried fishing- but still no luck.

On Wednesday morning we got up and paddled the dinghy to shore just after 7:30- we were going in search of the ojibwe pictographs.  Our guide book had said they were about ¼ mile down one of the hiking trails—I would hardly call it a hiking trail, it was more like a river bed, full of rocks, bog and thousands of mosquitoes in the bush.

We walked for about 20 minutes, and still were in the bush- no pictographs to be found, but I did find clumps of lady slippers.

I’ve lifted this pictograph picture and description from a blog- another walk in the park – in order to see what we missed. The Agawa Rocks Pictographs were created by the Ojibwe people over the course of two thousand years though the ones that remain visible are believed to date from four hundred years ago.

We reversed out steps, and took another trail which was suppose to take us up to a lookout point over the bay.  At one point we had to climb up the rocks—please remember neither Andy or I are rock climbers- so this was a challenge, once I got up the rocks, I was already agonizing on how I would be getting down without hurting myself..

Up on the cliff there were massive amounts of wild blueberries,

unfortunately the berries were still small and green.  I got a number of shots of the boat and bay from this vantage point.

The climb down wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, I let the former Queen Scout, lead the way and show me where to place my feet and what to grab onto.

We paddled back to the boat, and left Sinclair cove shortly after 9:30, headed for Whitefish Bay.  Enroute to our next anchorage we encountered depths of 675 feet- amazing!

The wind was light and the water was calm.

We went about 50 miles and anchored behind Batchawana Island in about 10 feet of water.  A South east wind was predicted overnight, and we should be well protected here.  Later in the evening we were joined by another trawler and a sailboat, finally some other pleasure craft.

At 4 am we were awakened by waves hitting our boat from the north, and we had swung around so that we were now sitting in 3 feet of water according to our electronics—a little unnerving!  As soon as it was daylight, Andy took one of our boat hooks to the back swim platform and estimated we were in almost 5 feet of water on this sandy beach.

We decided to have coffee, and then pull up anchor and get out of the shallow water.  We left our anchorage at 6:30 headed for the Sault. We passed several light house on our way back into the St. Mary’s river.

We also met a laker- the Michipicoten in the St. Mary’s channel.

We crossed under the international bridge and called the Canadian Soo lock requesting a lock down.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for another pleasure craft to come out and then were locked through with a tour boat-

We were out of the lock by 12:50, and headed for Bellevue Marina, as Bondar marine still did not have their transient docks in. Saw this boat all decorated up on the Soo side of the river.

Upon arrival we filled up with diesel, water and pumped out.

Shortly after 4:00, Pat and Marcia came and took us shopping, to a laundromat and then we went out for supper to the Whiskey barrel.  The guys had beer and I tried a Thornbury raspberry apple cider which was quite good,  3 of us ordered the fish and chips, whereas Andy ordered the haggis plate.  When we got back to the boat, we had a couple more drinks, and shortly after 10 the fireworks started in Soo Michigan, as it was the 4^th of July.  The fireworks was set off over the St. Mary’s channel,

and the international bridge lit up in red, white and blue.

The fireworks went on for quite some time and lots of people came down to their boats in the marina to watch.

On Friday morning we got up and left the marina at 7:30 headed up the shipping channel towards St. Joseph.  We saw this ferry going to Sugar Island.

We met two lakers coming up the channel,

and saw a couple of fishing boats. Of course I took pictures of lighthouses and lights.

It was a relatively calm day, ( Just the way I like it!!)

  we reached Blind River marina at 3:15 and were tied up by 3:30.

We went to the office to sign in and pay- they had some giftware for sale, including postcards.  The marina washroom and shower facilities are new.  There are 7 bathroom and  shower stalls in each of the men and women’s bathroom, it also has 4 washer’s and dryers.  There is also an art gallery and museum on-site.  A very nice place and they only charged $1.9 per foot, but we got a 25% discount as they accept our docklinks card.  We move on tomorrow either to an anchorage or LIttle Current depending on the  wind and weather.

We got up and went to the Pancake breakfast at the Seniors hall,

Andy and Elaine got some more visiting in with present and former residents of Marathon.

We then went  to the mall to pick up a few things, and I went in search of a postcard to send Mom. The next item on our itinerary was to drive out to the McKendry’s old “camp” on Little Cedar Lake. 

The trip was a 40 Km drive down highway 17/Trans Canada and then about a 10 minute trip down a windy gravel road and through this gate.

I was told by Andy that the property was acquired in the mid 1950’s, it was cleared one summer, and then in subsequent years the main building and boy’s camp was built, along with a number of out buildings.

In those years, it was a 2 hour plus trip to get to the camp. Since the Trans Canada highway didn’t exist until 1961, the McKendry’s ( 2 adults and 3 kids) crammed into the cab of their truck  and drove the 40 Km over several logging roads to the dam on Cedar creek.  They then had to unpack everything into their boat,which was kept there.  The boat had to be paddled out about 100 yards into the creek before they could put the motor down.  It was then a 2 mile trek down the creek, passing under 2 railway bridges, until they got out into little cedar lake.   They had to go a ways down the lake before crossing it to their camp.  All material for the building of the camp had to be brought in by boat as well- not an easy task.  In the early building years, McKendry’s campe was of 13 on Little Cedar Lake and there was no power or phone- so truly a place for escape and relaxation!

Anne and Mitch Donaldson, who now own the camp,

have down a number of upgrades and extensions to the main building.

Mitch has a collection of old motors, props and other equipment spread out over the property.

They also have some wildlife that hangs out on the deck; the chipmunks were very entertaining as they came for their peanut treats.

Mitch took us out in the boat for a tour of the lake to see all the current camps that exist.  There are now approximately 30 camps, all with power and phone, however the camps on the south east shore are still required to cross the lake by boat, as there is no road.

The creek and one of the bridges at the  entry to Little Cedar Lake.

After lunch and our tour we headed back to Marathon, and passed by the hemlo gold mine.

The plan for the evening was to go to the Legion for drinks and wings, and of course more visiting.  We were some of the first arrivals at the Legion, but it soon filled up.

The kitchen ran out of some of menu items by 6:30.  We stayed until about 9:30 before heading up to the boat.  It’s been great having Elaine here, as we have been borrowing her vehicle each night to go back to the boat- so we don’t have to do the ½  mile trek down the gravel road to the boat launch and marina.

On Friday, Mitch and Anne came to see our boat.  Mitch, Andy and I then went for a tour of the Peninsula given by Leigh, who is a volunteer doing some painting and scrapping.

The boat is a 111 foot tugboat, weighing 261 tons that was originally built for the Royal Canadian Navy in a Montreal shipyard during World War II and called Norton W-31. It  was launched on November 29^th 1943, with a mission was to rescue damaged ships in the North Atlantic ocean, as many German submarines were active along the east coast. In 1946, it was sold to Marathon Paper mills.  For over 20 years, the Peninsula towed huge rafts of 8 foot pulp wood from the mouth of the Pic river to the pulp mill in Marathon.  In 1967, with the decline of the forest industry, the boat was sold to several companies in Thunder Bay.  In 2015, the boat was destined for the scrap yard.  The Marathon historical society, headed up by Stan Johnson, raised 200K to buy it and sail it to Marathon in July of 2018.  It now sits on Cummings Beach, but there are plans to move it to an alternate location in town.

Following the tour, Mitch helped Andy to hook up a new float on our shower sump pump.  We then went downtown for a charity BBQ.

Mitch and Anne had come to the BBQ driving Mitch’s  1946  truck.

In the afternoon we spent several hours at the Marathon museum when we looked at displays and old pictures that had been saved under family names.

  We took Ann and Mitch out for supper, in appreciation for helping with the pump in the morning.  Following supper we went to Gerry Ferguson’s for a few drinks and more visiting.

Jocelyn and Roberta Hanson were some of the new arrivals for the weekend.  Finally- someone I knew- as Jocelyn had been our investment advisor for a number of years.  We returned to the boat, and there was a couple looking at it, so we gave them a tour.

On Saturday morning we did some grocery shopping and then drove over to the Donaldson’s.

At Noon we returned to the boat, as Jocelyn, Roberta and Mitch wanted to have a tour.  At about 1:30, Andy got a phone call saying he had won 3rd prize in a lottery- so had received a $500 gift certificate from Napa ( we can always use more  oil and oil filter or fishing gear) .  After receiving the certificate at the Museum,

we went to Napa but they were closed until Tuesday.  In the afternoon we went to Penn Lake Park, which was where the opening and closing ceremonies for the anniversary  took place.

We  visited with Bonnie and Arnie who travel  on a 40 ft  Land Yacht.  We also drove over to  to Pebble Beach, and brought home a few souvenirs.

For dinner we were invited to the Mitch²– Mitch Johnson and Mitch Donaldson’s who are next door neighbours.  Many  stories were told as well as a discussion on  how to microwave corn, how not to stop your skidoo on the railway tracks, and there was also some reference to the out-house mouse song, but no one could remember all the words or tune.

We had a great time  eating, visiting and reminiscing.  At about 8:30 we returned to the boat to put on some warmer clothes, as we were going to the street dance.  We have leaned this week that as the sun goes down, it get colder and the bugs come out.  Andy met up with some other people who  had only come to town for the weekend activities.

One of his friends lives in Owen Sound, so if the weather cooperates when we get to the North Channel we may jump to that shore.  We left the dance shortly after 10:00 and went to the  boat.

On Sunday morning we cast off at 5:45 destined for Wawa.  We  went by Pebble beach

and Heron Bay, places that I hadn’t seen from the water because of the fog.  It was fairly cool and calm,

but the wind increased a little at about 10:30.  We went by Otter Island, and  saw this lighthouse, which we missed , as we had gone behind the island on our trip up to Marathon.

The waves subsided once we got inside of Michipicoten island, however the wind was still quite cool.  At about 2:00, Andy made the suggestion that he drives from the lower helm.   Andy contacted Buck’s Marine at some point, and asked for a slip for a couple nights as well as an escort into their marina once we arrived.

We arrived at Buck’s marina at 5:00, and were in our slip by 6:20. It was a long day- 11 ½ hours and 109.2 miles but we will be happy to be tied up as  the winds are predicted to increase  as well as rain on Canada Day.  We hope to get some fuel on Tuesday and then continue our trek to Sault St Marie.

Hope everyone enjoys Canada Day!!