After the excitement of the Big Chute Lock and all of the other scenic spots, we slept very well last night. The lock opens up at 9:00 am, and here we are waiting our turn (photo at right). The blue bridge in front of the lock is a fixed highway bridge that I mentioned yesterday. If you look (very) closely I am about halfway down the steps and Lucky is already at the bottom. We took one last walk before the lock opens so I got another 3 floors on my FitBit. The water in the lock was up over night so we waited patiently for the lock to lower, empty and for 6 small craft to exit.
The photo at the left shows our view inside the empty lock as we waited for the gates to close behind us. We were up and out of the lock shortly after 9:30 am. The temperature is supposed to be in the 80s with 6 to 10 mph winds and clear skies so we were looking forward to another great day on the water.
Our destination is 17.6 miles to Starport Marina
in Orilla, ON. We have a reservation there for today through Tuesday
morning as this is the August Holiday weekend in Canada, and with great weather it will be very crowded on the water. We decided to hunker down at a
5 star Marina with a heated swimming pool until after the biggest boating
weekend of the season passes. 😄
The Trent-Severn Waterway enters Lake Simcoe and exits it a couple of miles later. So we exited the channel for the TSW and headed south to explore the lake. Lake Simcoe is a very large lake, and we plan to spend more time here and see something of the lake and at least three of the towns on it. Toward the southern end of the Lake, we will be only an hour or so driving time from Toronto. Some hearty commuters actually live year round along the southern end of the lake although that must be a tough commute in winter... The photo at the right shows a busy channel on the east side of Orillia, ON. We actually bypassed the town to specifically go to the Starport Marina since we had been so impressed by the Starport Marina that we stayed in at Lock Number 45.
Just a short distance past where the picture above was taken, we passed a new Starport Marina under construction (photo at left). This Starport looks like it will be pretty upscale judging by the addition of the condominium tower. Our destination for today is only a few miles south and east of here, and while it is still technically in Orillia, it was too far for us to actually get into downtown.
The view in the photo at the left greeted us as we entered the channel into the marina. The marina office, store and gas dock is straight ahead. The house on the right had three sea planes docked at it, and wait a minute... Who could that be sitting under the tree on the very right hand side of the photo?
On closer observation (photo at left) indeed it was Jake and Elwood sitting there to greet us as we came up the channel... The Blues Brothers in person! Typical of Jake and Elwood they must have aggravated the local sea gull population as seen by the white blotches on their suits...
The photo at the right shows a close up of the sea planes in case you are not a fan of the Blues Brothers, although since I'm a big fan that would be hard for me to understand.
We had to stop at the office to check in before we went to our assigned slip. There is no restaurant on sight or near by for that matter so we will be eating on the boat a lot. However, they were holding a benefit luncheon at the office so we had a take out lunch before heading to the pool... It's going to be a nice weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment