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.