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.