WHAT IT IS LIKE IN A LIFT LOCK

This is a three day weekend in Canada, since Carol & Rich had not made proper hotel reservations; they had to “get out of town”.  They traveled south to Barrie, Ontario on the western shore of Lake Simcoe.  They luckily came upon an event called Kampenfest going on there.  The Fest lasts the whole weekend and occupies an area about a mile and a half long along the shore of Lake Simcoe with more than 400 vendors, 40 antiques dealers, live entertainment, and carnival rides for children. It is operated by the Optimist Club of Barrie who also operate the food concession.  The picture below does not do the event justice, the Fest wrapped around from where the picture was taken to the tall condo buildings in the distance.  The area was clean without papers and other litter on the ground.  Canadians are neat people.

These ponies walked around in a circle and carried children on their backs.  I am sure the animals’ rights groups in the States would have shut it down.

The following pictures were taken by the owners of Sweet Pea.  They show what it was like for me going to the Kirkfield Lock and passing through it.  You can enlarge any of the pictures by double left clicking on them.

Narrow Channel huh?  It is also shallow





At the top







Down I go



Finally an exit

I GOT A BIG HOLE IN MY BOTTOM

Because I am sitting on the hard, I asked Rich to write my blog today.  I have a 2.5 inch hole in my bottom where my port side propeller shaft was pulled out.  Scott at Bay Port Marina told Rich that my propellers had come back from the propeller repair shop and the new shaft had been made.  Scott told Rich that I could be back in the water by tomorrow, we will see.

Carol and I, Rich, worked on developing routes to take Salt ‘n Sand through the Georgian Bay today.   They wanted to be careful to make sure that there would not be any shallow water.  They do not want me to hit bottom again.

Carol and I went for a drive to the town of Penetanguishene, better known as Penetang.  The town is located close to Midland; it is French and Catholic while Midland is English and Protestant.   This is a picture of the church that sits up on a hill overlooking the harbor.

Penetang also had a mural, which is really nice.

Carol and I drove around Midland so that we could get pictures of each of the 34 murals that are there.  We believe we were able to get pictures of 32 of them.  Here are a few more of them.

I AM IN DEEP WATER, AGAIN

July 28, 2011  Dateline Midland, Ontario Canada

Rich drove me into the travel lift today and I got picked up.  The travel lift at Bay Port Marina is just like the one at Canyon Club, except that it can be operated wirelessly.  Yesterday, one of the Big Chute operators commented that the reason I was operating on one prop was because the other prop was tied up with a yellow strap. He offered to cut it, but Jerry and Rich said “NO”.  This is what the operator saw.

Bay Port Marina is a wonderful place.  I no longer tower over the other boats; there are all kinds of Sea Rays here including 60 footers.  It is just great to be among big boats again.  Big boats tell me that when I’m repaired, I will be going into deep water again.  With my nearly 5 feet of draft I really like deep water.

Ken MacDonald, General Manager of Bay Port Marina, outlined to Rich and Carol as well as other Loopers the course to be followed through the Georgian Bay.  Rich told me about it and said that he would start mapping the routes on his laptop so they can then be loaded into my chartplotters.

Carol and Rich went on a tour of Midland, Ontario today.  The city has 34 murals hand-painted on various structures. They appear on store fronts as well as side walls.  Here are somjust a few of the murals that they saw:




On the grain elevator it is 80X250 feet

 
















Note light bulb in light house window



James Playfair who built ships in Midland

Midland railway Station



The people in the doorway are painted too!



Rich thought that this photo of a Canadian Goose statute was an appropriate one.  Notice the sea gull on the goose’s head.  Rich wondered what the sea gull was about to do.

There is a very good lakefood restaurant in Sans Souci, Ontario  on Frying Pan Island called "Henry's" that many Loopers go to. Rich and Carol went to their location in Midland, Ontario tonight.  Rich had the deep fried battered pickerel which was very good and Carol had baked salmon.  The lakefood was excellent and fresh.

WHAT A GREAT DAY

July 27, 2011  Dateline:  Midland, Ontario Canada

This morning I left Orillia at 7:30 AM with Captain Jerry Clayton at the helm.  I had to go through 3 locks as well as the Big Chute Marine Railway and cover 50 miles.  My starboard engine ran well and my bow thruster was strong.  My first challenge was a railway bridge that is usually open except when a train is coming, I had to stay in place for 25 minutes.  The good news is that there was no wind blowing me around.  We told the first lock tender that there was an issue with one engine and I had limited maneuverability. She passed the word on down the line.  I was treated like royalty for the rest of the journey.  I went over the Big Chute and through the Port Severn Lock alone.

Coming out of the Port Severn Lock the current was incredibly strong as the dam was allowing excess water out of the system.  The channel was as wide as my beam and I had to twist through a very tight curve.  Rich and Jerry worked together telling me what to do with my transmission, rudders and bow thruster.  Team work got me and them through it.

The country side is just beautiful on this leg of the trip.  It is Canada as we Americans think of it. The pine trees are tall, the lakes are full of small islands and the lake shores are lined with cottages.  Some of those cottages were more like large houses.

Along the way I saw this cute little boat—neat huh?

Look at this house you will see that it is cantilevered on the left hand side.  Jerry told Rich that the house was originally a mobile home that was supported by I-beams. Later, the trailer was removed and a house built on the I-beams.

View from the top Big Chute

Big Chute is a marine railway cradle car that sits on railroad tracks.  It is equipped with straps and actually lifted me out of the water carried me over a hill and then down the hill on the other side back into the water.  While it carried me all by myself,  it did carry 5 boats on the previous load.

Cables and rails of Big Chute



I saw this moose in the woods.  Have you ever seen a white moose?  Jerry said that this one was a work of art that once stood, with many others, in Toronto.

MONENTS OF TERROR

July 26, 2011  Dateline Orillia, Ontario Canada

There was no posting for yesterday as it was a scary day.  The trip was supposed to be a short 18 miles and 5 down locks.  Most of the journey was on Lake Simcoe and that leg was about 18 miles long.  There was a vibration in the port propeller, but I kept on going at slow speed.  Suddenly, there was a pop and my 2.5 inch stainless steel propeller shaft snapped at the coupler to the transmission.  The shaft and its propeller slid back and hit the rudder.  Water began to enter the bilge through the key way in the shaft.  Carol called for help and Rich accelerated my starboard engine.  They each put on a life vest----did they have one for me----no.  I had to do my part and I did, I got them the 7+ miles to the Bridge Port Marina where Kyle McDonald and his mechanics got on me as soon as I got to the gas dock.  They got to work and pulled the shaft forward stopping the leak.  They pumped out the water in my bilge and got to work on getting me fixed.

Unfortunately, the efforts to get me fixed in Orillia were hampered because none of the Travel lifts here are strong enough to pick me up.  On July 27 I leave for an all day trip to Midland, Ontario, a distance of 50 miles with 2 locks and the marine railway.  Rich hired a captain to join us on the trip and help control me since I will be running on only one engine and bow thruster.  Have no fear, because I can do it!!!

Stay tuned for the update

AT THE TOP OF MY WORLD

July 24, 2011  Dateline Bolsover, Ontario Canada

What a day!!!  I am on top of the world, at least my world anyway.  Today I am at the highest point in the world that a boat can reach if it travels solely by water from the sea.  Before the Kirkfield Lift Lock lowered me 49 feet, I was 840 feet above sea level.  When entering the Kirkfield Lift Lock you get a strange feeling.  You can see over the edge of the pan and you are looking down 49 feet.  When going up in a lock you see the wall ahead of you in the lift lock there is no wall, just air.  Rich took this picture looking over my bow, see what I mean.

Here is a picture as I polled away from the lock.  I rode down in the pan on the left.

The lift lock is not as pretty as the one at Peterborough Lift Lock as it is not in the center of a city and is more functional rather than artistic.  You can compare the two, yourself.  Peterborough, as you may remember, has a lift of 65 feet.

The trip to the lift lock was something else.  The canal was dug out of solid rock and is very narrow.  There is only one way transit for boats of my size; thank God I did not meet anyone.  I followed Sweet Pea most of the day and that is that is her in the pictures.  The canal was narrow but that was ok, Rich got me through it with ease.  I did touch bottom 3 times and that was not good.  They were not hard touches, but they were touches never the less.  I did pass through two lakes, Mitchell and Canal.  Both of the lakes were shallow and the channels were well marked.  Shallow is made worse by the weeds that give false readings on my depth gauge at one point the gauge read less than 4.5 feet.  That is not where I touched bottom, so it must have been the grass.

I pointed out to Carol a large bull dog that was on the side of the canal, she said thanks and took a picture of it so she could show it to Cindy and Matt. 

  

LOCK JAM

July 23, 2011  Dateline:  Fenelon Falls, Ontario Canada

Yesterday was a rest day for me.  Rich and Carol kept me in Bobcaygeon. In the morning they did some cleaning of and maintenance on me.  Rich wanted to give me a much needed bath but there was no water pressure.  In the afternoon they went to the town.  Carol found this neat shoe store, called Bigley’s.  It claims to have 40,000 pairs of shoes.  Rich left her alone in the store and would you believe that there were so many pairs of shoes that she got confused and bought nothing.  I bet their daughter Sandra would have had a good time there.

Today was another short day as Rich and Carol attempt to adjust my schedule to go through some real narrow sections of the canal tomorrow when there is limited traffic. We only went 15 miles today to Fenelon Falls.  This is the nicest town that we have stopped in so far.  The town is large, busy and right up against the lock.  This lock is one of the busiest on the system and nearly 2,400 boats pass through it in the month of July each year.  The lock is a 27 foot lift, which I will pass through in the morning.  There is going to be a Lock Jam Blues Festival at the lock tonight so almost all of the wall space was taken by the locals.   Lucky for me, Carol called the lockmaster; he found a spot that I could fit into.

Rich got a picture of the same house boats at Fenelon Falls. He thinks that they waited there for the lock as well.  Lockmasters have a lot of power.

This morning started out interesting.  There were two house boats that stayed on the Bobcaygeon lock wall last night.  In the middle of the night, they had a loud party and set off fireworks.  The lockmaster invited the boat from New Jersey, I knew that was me, into the lock first and said I could tie up where ever I wanted.  He then “invited” the houseboats in, next to each other.  He closed the lock doors behind them.  He inspected the way they were tied up and let them know in no uncertain terms they did a bad job and what they had to do to fix their tie up.  With that out of the way, he then let go with a verbal attack the likes of which Rich had not heard since his days in Army boot camp.  The only thing missing was the four letter words.  The lockmaster stood on the lock wall and yelled down at them.  There was nothing they could do but listen.  After a half hour delay he let us continue on.

Prior to the start of the Lock Jam three people called “The Tug Trent Troupe” performed a history of the Trent Severn Waterway.  They did a great job playing all of the individuals who were involved with the development of the system over the nearly 80 year period of its construction.

“People watching” is always fun, Rich told me about a lady who had a large dog at the festival.  Nothing of particular interest except that as she walked the dog would stick his head between her legs so his neck was right in-between them.  Needless to say she was having a difficult time walking.  However, this must have happened before as she dealt with it in stride, no pun intended.

The falls are Fenelon Falls are called the Little Niagara as they are horseshoe shaped.

EMERGENCY ROOM VISIT

July 21, 2011  Dateline Bobcaygeon, Ontario Canada

Another day at the doctor’s office. Somewhere along the way my port side propeller hit something.  While I was going slow it did not bother me but as Rich tried to pick up speed I told him about it by putting vibrations throughout the boat. I was taken this morning for an emergency visit to Buckhorn Yacht Marina.  The man who runs this outstanding facility is a friend of Garry and Pat of Watermark.  Two young doctors dove under and found that my port propeller met up with a rock.  As you can see from the picture the rock won.  The damaged propeller was removed and my spare one put in its place.  The operation took about an hour.  The doctors kept the propeller and will send it to me after they make their reparations.  This shop repairs propellers for boats throughout the Trent Severn, Georgian Bay and North Channel region and can deliver them to wherever I happen to be.

Rich took this picture of a 50 foot house boat as I went the 18 miles to Bobcaygeon from Buckhorn.  The ride was scary as I had to go through several shallow spots.  I don’t like shallow, as the bottom here is rock and I don’t want to hit another one of those things.

When I arrived at Bobcaygeon, I had to pull into a place that was about 60 feet long between Crawdad and Grianan. The wind was blowing me away from the dock but Rich used my wireless controller and I slipped into the space very nicely.  Carol came through and threw the lines to the willing people on the dock.

STORMS, CLOSED LOCKS AND CHASE

July 20, 2011  Dateline: Buckhorn, Ontario Canada

What a day.  The two closed locks opened this morning and I had to get moving.  Rich and Carol got the fenders adjusted, started the generator to charge my batteries and Rich started my port engine.  Rich pulled away from the dock and found that the starboard propeller would not turn.  He tried to put me back on the wall and some really nice people from a house boat grabbed lines from Carol and got us back to the wall.  Notice I said Rich started my port engine.  He forgot to start the starboard engine---I told him my ----starboard tachometer showed -0- revolutions. Did he pay attention?  NO   He told me to get that Caterpillar started,  I did and life was back to normal. 

This whole area is full of house boats; they are really big and rent for some $3,000 a week.  They are wide, long and slow, but it looks like people have a good time with them.

Rich took a picture of some trees; notice how the wind has caused their branches lean in one direction.

We only did three locks today and both Rich and Carol did a fine job of avoiding the walls and getting settled down inside the lock.  Locking fun—not—Rich brings me into the lock close to one of the walls.  Carol grabs a cable hanging down, see picture.  She ties my mid cleat and then runs to my bow to get a line on another cable.  At the same time Rich stops me, shuts off my engines and then runs down to the cockpit to put a line around a cable at my stern.  Sounds much easier than it is, but they are getting better at it.  You can see the cables hanging down from the walls on the above picture.

Rich and Carol had dinner with Garry and Pat, of Watermark, at a place called Cody Inn and had incredible Chinese food. They even have left-overs for lunch.   

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July 19, 2011  Dateline: Young’s Point, Ontario Canada

Last night a fierce storm came through Lakefield and the area surrounding Lakeside.  The storm knocked out electricity and downed trees.

At 8 AM Watermark and I left Lakeside Marine and headed the 6 miles to the first lock at Young’s Point.  When we arrived at the lock the lock tender, Phil, told us that the next lock up was closed because of the loss of electricity.  In addition, the lock after that one, Lovesick, had a tree fall on some power lines there.  Phil, the lock tender at Young’s Point, explained that the Lovesick lock is only accessible by water and it might take time to get the equipment in to restore the power.  He said it might take a few days to clear up.  He suggested that we tie up at the lock walls for the night.  No water, no electricity but at least a place to be tied up to.

Rich learned tonight that the two locks further up the system have been re-opened and so I will be leaving early in the morning.  There are some 20 large boats backed up waiting to go through the closed locks.  Phil said that Watermark and I would be the first to leave here tomorrow.  He will release pairs of boats in 20 minute increments to prevent a clog at the next two locks.

The original lock tender’s house still exists at the lock. It is now called Lockside Trading Company. It’s more than shopping… It’s a destination. Carol bought, guess what, another pair of shoes.

The owners of Watermark, live only 10 minutes from here by car but they stayed with their boat. 

The owners of Watermark, Grianan, Crawdad and me had a party at the lock side.  They all met George Sinko who is sailing a small pontoon boat, Patriot, around the Great Loop.  George is sailing with, Chase, his Labrador retriever and is trying to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and hopes to be entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the smallest boat to complete the loop. George began the trip from Ft Meyers, FL.  Rich had a great time with Chase. Chase loves to retrieve balls.

Chase on his pntoon boat

Patrriot

A RIDE IN THE BATH TUB

July 18, 2011  Dateline Lakefield, Ontario Canada

Peterborough is a big city, some 60-70,000 people.  Rich wondered what gave rise to the city.  He was told that Thomas Edison built a dam there to generate electricity and the dam brought General Electric, who had a large facility there.  Quaker Oats also built a processing plant there as well.

Last night I survived a really strong thunder storm.  The sky opened up with lighting, thunder, rain and wind.  The wind was so strong that my radar antenna was turned and my flag stood out straight.  I lost electricity as the storm took out the dock power.

I overheard Rich and Carol debating whether to leave Peterborough today or stay for another day.  The captain of Muddy Waters told Rich that Crawdad had called back and said the lift lock was closing for repair and I should get on my way.  So off we went, with only 11 miles to go for the day there were 7 locks to pass through.  Carol worked very hard all day today, catching the vertical cables in the locks and holding me in position.  In the Canadian locks Rich has to turn off my engines and restart them when the water level is at the top.  Rich runs up to the helm and Carol holds me in position.  Great job Carol!!!!  We have now done 26 of the 44 locks on the Trent Severn Canal System.  That means I’ve done 56 locks so far and each one is different, so each is a new experience.  In 18 more locks I will be back in open water at least for a while.

I encountered the Kawartha Voyager, a tour boat, coming out of a lock as I was waiting to go in.  For some reason my VHF radio was not working and her captain was really angry at us, but I got by her and we both went on our way.  She is a very big boat, her bow folds up so she can fit into the locks.  Her bridge and top deck fold down so she can get under the bridges.  I passed through many narrow channels today and was very happy that I did not meet her in any of them. 

When I got to Lakefield Watermark was already there. Rich & Carol went out to dinner with her owners while I sat and got rained on again.

Carol took several pictures of the Peterborough lift lock as I went up so here is the series.  After I was lifted up 65 feet and looked out the back it was a weird view, water and then nothing but air.

RICH & CAROL CHECK OUT THE BATH TUB

July 17, 2011 Dateline: Peterborough, Ontario Canada

Watermark left Hastings this morning by 7 AM.  Her captain told Rich that the Otonabee River would be very warm (read that as hot) today, originally he said they would be leaving by 6 AM, I guess someone didn’t get up early.  I left about 7:45 and in about half an hour I reached Rice Lake.  Wow was that great, Rich moved my throttles forward, my stern went down, my bow went up and then I was on plane.  That was great; I roared across the lake and caught up with Jeremiah and Seamoore, just before we turned onto the Otonabee River.  For the next several hours I followed them up to the only lock for the day.  The lock was only a small one of 8 feet, but Jeremiah, Seamoore, a pontoon boat and I were jammed into the lock.  My anchor hung over Jeremiah’s dinghy and my swim platform just cleared the closing lock door.  Rich used my wireless controller to get me out of the lock.  He stood on my bow.

In about half a mile I saw this fountain in Peterborough.  It is really

big and must shoot water some 50 feet into the air.

Peterborough is the home of one of the world’s largest lift locks.  The lock consists of two tubs that are connected by hydraulic rams.  Boats sail into either the upper or lower tub.  The upper tub is loaded with an additional foot of water weighing 130 tons.  The additional weight forces the upper tub down and the hydraulic pressure raises the lower tub.  When the tubs are in the final position the gates open and the boats sail out.  Tomorrow morning I go through this lock. The total lift of the lock is 65 feet.

Not only is there a hydraulic lock at Peterborough but there is an aqueduct that I will sail through.  There are all kinds of other interesting things in this town.



Rich and Carol walked the 2 miles to the lock from the marina in nearly 100 degree temperatures.  Carol said she was not going to walk back so she called a taxi.  Rich said it was better to ride back in an air conditioned taxi than walk back.

NEW FRIENDS

July 16, 2011  Dateline: Hastings, Ontario Canada

Today was a slow ride for about 20 miles and I traveled through 6 more locks including one flight lock.  There was a farmers market in Campbellford today, Rich and Carol went over to see what was there and on their way back they saw this firehouse and took a picture of the bell tower.  Kind of neat, huh?

The Trent River was flat today and since it is Saturday there were all kinds of people enjoying the river.  These people had a slide at their cottage that went right into the water.  I bet that must be fun.

I mentioned above that I went up one flight lock.  Here is what it looks like when I was about to enter a 54 foot flight lock.  The boat entering the lock is Watermark, but more about her later.  The first step is 27 feet and brought me up to the water line on the blue set of doors.  Once up, the blue doors opened and I sailed forward into the second lock, the doors closed again and I was lifted to the top of the blue doors.  As I finished locking through, I noticed a down bound boat waiting to enter.  The lock tender told me that there was an up bound boat down below.  So this would be a double lock, one boat going up at the same time as one was going down.  They will pass each other in the lock.

Rich and Carol had dinner tonight with the owners of Watermark.  I traveled with Watermark all day.  It turns out that her captain is on the advisory board of the Trent Severn Canal.  Besides being really nice people they were a wealth of local knowledge.  Watermark, a 2006 Sea Ray 40 foot Sundancer told me that she travels the canal extensively and that her owners know just about every lock tender on the system.

The Trent River is full of all kinds of watercraft and you have to exercise caution because of the jet skis, water skiers and swimmers.  I was passed by a Party boat (pontoon boat) that is a lot smaller than me and draws nearly no water.  I also saw an interesting monument but can’t tell you anything about it----but here is a picture.