Day 130 back into the Trent-Severn Waterway

     We left the anchorage this morning at 8:20 am and are heading 15.5 miles to Bolsover, Ontario, specifically to Sunset Cove Marina.  Although this is a short mileage day, we do have 5 locks and two swing bridges to deal with so we don't expect to have too early of an arrival time.  The photo at the right shows the beautiful sunrise over the anchorage this morning. Lucky and the Admiral went for the morning kayak trip to show, and after breakfast we pulled the anchor and were ready to depart. The sandy, weed free bottom meant that the chain and the anchor were perfectly clean, except for a couple of weeds that happened to be floating past and got caught in the chain. Lake Simcoe was almost like a mirror for our hour long trip to the northeast corner where we re-entered the Trent-Severn Waterway (TSW).

        

       It was about an hour trip up to the northeast corner of Lake Simcoe where we re-entered the Trent-Severn Waterway. in the photo at the left we have just entered the TSW with Lake Simcoe in the background, and we have just passed through our first swing bridge. As we approached the bridge, we gave three short blasts on our horn to request an opening, and the bridge master timed it perfectly for our approach speed. The swing bridges also seem to be operated by Parks Canada so our hope was that the locks would now know that we are in the "system" for today. We never are able to communicate with the locks by radio, but our feeling is that they all communicate regularly with each other (?). Anyway, we were off to a good start for today’s transit.

   

           In the photo at the right we are approaching Lock Number 41, the Gamebridge Lock, which was our first lock of the day. The waterway is often very narrow in the manmade cuts between the many lakes so this narrow approach to the lock is not unusual. The lock was open and waiting for our arrival, and the green traffic signal was lighted, which indicates that we have permission to enter.

        

          We were delighted to see that we were still in one of the older locks that is manually operated. In the photo at the left the wooden gates have closed behind us, and we are about to start our rapid rise. All of the water that fills the lock enters at the upstream end rather than being distributed along the length of the lock by a system of pipes such as they do in more modern locks so the turbulence at that end is much greater. As a result, when the lock is not full of boats, they keep us at the other end to avoid the turbulence and give us a much smoother lift.

     

          The next photo (at right) shows the workers operating the manual systems. The man on the lock is turning a vertical crank/wheel that opens and closes a valve in the lock that allows water to enter and help fill the lock. The woman on the lock wall is walking in circles as she pushes a lever arm to open the lock gate on her side of the lock. The gearing is such that they do not have to exert a lot of effort, but that also means that a lot of turns are necessary. On busy weekend days they must be very tired at the end of a shift, but at the end of a busy summer they must be in great physical shape… While they are working hard, it is “fun” to watch for the onlookers like us. Hardly seems fair (ha, ha).  We have a video of this on YouTube at the following location:  https://youtu.be/nwgfU_2BR3w. 

       We are passing through excellent farming country (photo at left) that is very close to the major metropolitan areas, such as Toronto, so the farmers are very close to their markets. Thus, there seemed to be a lot of dairy operations as well as vegetables. We are a little too far north of Lake Ontario for grapes, as well as apples and peaches to be grown here. Basically, the waterway is heavily treed along its sides so we are not often able to see much of the countryside through which we are passing.

  

     The photo at the right shows what I meant in the captions above about the waterway being both narrow and heavily tree lined. There are sections where boaters make a courtesy call on the radio to say that “a 43 foot power boat is entering XYZ channel from the west…” When the channel is narrow and has been cut out of bed rock, we really would have great difficulty passing another larger boat. Of course, the smaller boats (generally 25 feet or less) either are not monitoring their radios or simply do not care (?). In many instances the answer, of course, is probably “both”. We have been through several sections that look like this, and each time I am reminded of how much this resembles our trip through the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia on our first Great Loop.

    

       The photo at the left is a panoramic view of the Lock and Dam Number 38. Every lock is different as some appear to have no dam, some have natural rapids while we have been through several like this with a lock, dam and sometimes even a power plant. With 45 locks in the TSW it would get really boring if they were all the same… So far, the locks have all been different and sometimes very different like the Big Chute!

          

       In the photo at the right we are about to enter the lock as the second and last boat into the lock. We are going to be placed next to the boat that is already moored on the left side. Let me tell you that from my perspective up on the flybridge it looks like a very narrow opening, but we gently glided into place on the wall although the people on the other boat were nervously watching while each of them had a boat hook in their hands ready to fend off if necessary… Fortunately, I don’t think that they had to do any pushing. Well, we had at least three feet to spare as it turned out, but if there had been a strong wind, then all bets would have been off.

     This is the scene that greeted us on arrival at the Sunset Cove Marina... It is a small but very nice marina. They have room for only about 3 larger transient boats here, and all of the spaces are on the outside of a long dock that really protects the small inner harbor. I was a little concerned that we would do a lot of rocking and rolling in wakes, but there has been almost no traffic past the marina (on a mid week night). Lucky enjoyed meeting about 4 other dogs that seem to roam the docks at will. Plus, she has been a very wiling walker, which isn't too surprising after a night of anchoring out with limited opportunity to log some miles... 

         

       The last picture shows Lucky Us moored on the outside of the long dock at the Sunset Cove Marina, and we were ready to watch some of the 2016 Olympic Games from Rio before going to bed early once again.

Day 129 to an anchorage near Georgina Island

       We left the dock at 12:40 pm. Our destination is an anchorage 25.1 miles away between Georgina Island and the shoreline.  The water here is supposed to be super clear with a sandy bottom.  We had intended to leave around 10:00 am, but the Admiral noticed a leaking hose when she was down in the engine room.  It was the hose between the seacock for the raw water intake and the water stainer for the port engine.  The photo at the right shows the hose with a highliter stuck in the original crack. The hose is in much worse shape in the picture after I man handled it to get it off of the ribbed fittings at the ends. We looked to see if we had a piece on board, and we soon realized that we had the right kind of hose but wrong size.  We went to the marina sales and service department and purchased a foot of the hose we needed.  We decided to get one other size smaller for good measure but they did not have it so we hoofed it to another marine store about 1/2 mile away and they were able to supply it.  We now had all bases covered.  I finished the job in a few minutes.

      We ate a quick lunch on the boat before throwing the lines off to begin our trip three hours later than planned.  The photo at the left shows the scene as the Admiral was taking off the last dock lines. We enjoyed our stay at Krate's Marina, but it felt good to toss off the dock lines and go in seek of more adventures. The wind had died over night to a gentle 4 to 6 mph breeze out of the south. It was already 80 degrees and getting hotter so we were happy to be out on the cooler water again.

      Speaking of excited, Lucky came out of her kennel on the flybridge to take a ceremonial walk around the flybridge after we had left the pile driver (photo at right) behind. I am with her as the uneven bagding of the pile driver did get on my nerves after a while. The small crane was holding up extensions that were being welded onto piles already driven into the ground. On the far end, the piles hit bedrock without the extension, but the bedrock was much deeper toward this end.

       There were about two dozen boats at the anchorage when we arrived at 4:00 pm. The photo at the left shows some of the many swimmers, which also included a number of dogs. We were not too concerned about the anchorage being too crowded over night since all but 4 of the other boat were small outboard boats that would not be staying over night. There are two sand bars between Lucky Us and the shore. We anchored in about 10 feet of water, and after I had time to look around more, there were swimmers on the sand bars that were occasionally walking in water less than knee deep. Lucky Us has a 4 foot draft so we could not have gotten much closer without risking running aground.

      As  soon as we had put Lucky Us to bed it was time to unload a kayak for Lucky's first trip to shore, and as usual, she was excited. We think that she actually enjoys riding in the kayak in addition to the for obvious reward of a bathroom trip. She loves to drink the cool fresh water, and she has started to lean out the side of the kayak to do just that. At least she does not make a lot of sudden moves, except when we are about to land. The photo at the right shows the happy kayakers returning with the mission accomplished. There is very little actual beach here, but Lucky enjoyed running in the sand and shallow water. Also, with a little help from the Admiral Lucky even went for a short swim.

      After the kayak event, The Admiral and I both went swimming. The photo at the left shows Lucky watching very intently as this strange creatures with the goggles is about to go underwater to clean off the transducer for the depth sounder. It is mounted on the transom about 2.5 feet below the water. We have been getting periods of time where the reading depth sounder just flashes, and our hope is that the problem is just algae growing on the transducer.

       About 8:00 pm it was my turn to take Lucky for her final trip to shore for the day. We had a nice trip, and Lucky jumped out of the kayak as we were still about 10 feet from shore. A few seconds after she jumped the kayak touched bottom so she had been lucky to land in 6 inches or so of water. The water here is so clear that she probably had no real idea of the depth when she jumped... The photo at the right shows our return just as the sun was setting.

      Speaking of the setting sun, the photo at the left shows part of a long and brilliant show of colors during the sunset. What a beautiful sight to mark the end of a busy but wonderful day on the water...

Days 125 to 128 to Krates Marina in Keswick, ON

      We departed Barrie, ON about 9:00 am after returning the rent car and having a relaxed breakfast on board Lucky Us. The photo at the right shows a view back toward Barrie as we cruised back out the long bay. The weather was perfect with a clear blue sky, but we also knew that it was supposed to heat up to near 90. We arrived at Krates Marina around 12:15 pm.  They had us go first to the fuel dock to check in, and we got a pump out while at the dock.  They gave us our choice of three slips and we took off.  That is where the "fun" began.  We decided to try the 1st slip we came to and as we tried to back in we lost control of the boat, it would not maneuver.  It seemed that we were grounded.  We moved on to the second slip and had the same problem.  So we called the marina and asked for a deeper slip as we tried to back out into the main lane of the marina.  The drive shaft on the port engine started singing and groaning.  We finally realized, with little maneuverability, that we had weeds wrapped around the rudders and or shafts.  They gave us another assignment but we decided we had to go out into the deeper lake and try to get some of the weeds off.  We ran the engines forward, stopped, and then put her in reverse and the second time we did this cycle big clumps of weeds popped to the surface and floated away.  We continued this a few times and we were finally back to normal.  In the meantime they found an even better spot for us, and we came back into the marina in and docked effortlessly this time.

      We walked about a half mile and had lunch at the Riveredge Restaurant (photo at left). As the name implied, the restaurant was just over a bridge across the Maskinonge River. The river was navigable for several miles up stream, but a low fixed bridge limited traffic to small boats. After lunch, we headed back to Lucky Us where we were faced with the dilemma of going to the pool or taking a nap... We settled on both with the nap being first.

      The pool was warm and only a few families were taking advantage of the warm water. We only lounged in the pool for a short time, but we also lounged in the warm sun after drying off. By then we knew that this was going to be a nice place to stay for a weekend off the busy lake. Plus I discovered that our dock was in the "Executive Area" and had the best internet service that I have had in a long while. Whoop!

      We also discovered that Lucky was not having nearly as nice time on the boat. Just across the channel they are building several high rise condos, and there was a very loud pile driving operation going on (photo at left). Fortunately, it must have been a union job since they quit for the day promptly at 3:30 pm, and then things looked much better for Lucky. It was a good thing that Lucky had no way of knowing that they would start again the next morning promptly at 7:00 am.

      For dinner we walked past the river to another small restaurant where I had a delightful meal of thick (1 inch) roast beef with potatoes and steamed vegetables. The photo at the right shows another view of the river as we passed over the same bridge. We were to walk over this bridge often over the next few days as we searched out more places to eat.

      The day ended with a colorful sunset over the marina (photo at left). So far we are really enjoying our stay here, but reality will begin to set in tomorrow when we get back to work on more mundane things like the blog for me, and the Admiral has plans to "neaten" up the salon and the dinette area where things accumulate rather than being properly put away after use.
      Also, the prediction is for increasing chances of rain beginning after Noon. A front is coming through that will also result in a wind shift to the northwest at 14 to 15 mph.

      The marina is a busy place for service with a big travel lift kitty corner cross our parking lot (photo at right). The lift is rated for 50 tons, but when they approach that limit, the boats are long enough to make it "interesting". It is definitely a lot more fun to watch other folk's boat be lifted than your own... We are staying at the Krate Marina, but we had wondered since we have seen the name also spelled with a "C". It turns out that the marina had been owned by the Crate family for several generations, but they recently sold the marina. They evidently wanted the name changed, but I guess that they settled on the simple spelling change as acceptable.

      The rains started about Noon with widely scattered showers that we could see moving in off of Lake Simcoe. The rains were gentle, but they gradually became more frequent. Surely this called for a nap since the pool was ruled out due to occasional lightening. Lucky was probably delighted since the pile driver finally quit early due to the lightening. The photo at the left shows a pretty sunset after the last of the rain moved through. In spite of this peaceful looking scene, the winds had picked up into the 15 to 18 mph range. On Lucky Us the wind seemed stronger than that as it was being funneled up the Maskinonge River where we are docked at the marina.

      Under the general category of bizarre is this very heavily customize pickup truck. It started out as a 2 ton pickup truck with dual wheels in the rear, but somehow they added another axle as well as a hydraulic, wrecker style lift-tow bar. It must be more of a show truck than an actual functioning wrecker, but who knows??? Anyway, the Cadillac emblem is the "final touch". Also, I would hate to spoil it for the owner, but "Rattler" is spelled with two "t"s.

     Day 127 was also a Saturday so family activities were going on all around the marina. The lower floor of this building houses the bathrooms and laundry while the top floor is a private residence. The building also provided a wind break for picnics and BBQ on the grills. The pool is only about 100 feet out of view on the left. So people were coming and going between the two activities. It was probably an endless cycle with the kids continually on a cycle of eating and then working up an appetite again.

      As you can see in the photo at the left, the Admiral was a happy person as she warmed up in the sun after a brisk dip in the pool. The pool had cooled off after the clouds, wind and rain. I swam a little, but I was also happy to sit in the warm sun out of the brisk wind.


       We are considered to be in Keswick, but Keswick is included in the town of Georgina. Either way the population in 2011 was about 26k for Keswick and 44k for the larger area of Georgina Town.  According to the locals, the population is growing rapidly. A branch of the main freeway from Barrie to Toronto was recently completed to the southern edge of Keswick. Now, the daily commuters have a new waterfront real estate market open to them. We took a cab ride for some shopping early last evening. The cab driver was quick to tell us that his house had increased in value by over 60% in just a couple of years, and in the next breath he was telling us that he could not afford to move because the real estate prices had gone up so much. Catch 22 anyone?

      There are 5 little strip shopping centers within just over a half mile to the north of the marina. A typical one is shown in the photo at the right with a restaurant on either side, and after lunch, the Admiral walked over to a nail salon in this center, and the rest is history. All of the centers have at least one restaurant. The food choices vary widely, but all but two of the restaurants specialize in take out. Today (Day 128) we went to the "Halibut Queen" twice as we slowly learned to navigate its rather complex menu. The second time we had grilled whitefish with a garden salad, and it was delicious as well as healthy.
      We decided to stay an extra day because the northwest wind is still kicking up white caps on the lake. We could easily handle these waves, but we decided that we would wait another day and have a much more enjoyable trip north to rejoin the Trent-Severn Waterway. We went to C. J. Barley's Tavern for lunch. I had the fish 'n chips with sweet potato fries instead of regular fries (aka chips).
      Lucky had plenty of walking as I am ending the day with 5.24 miles on my Fit Bit, and except for the mile round trip to lunch, she was along on most of that plus the Admiral took her on several walks. Lucky went to bed at about 9:00 pm and has that "don't you dare" look as she is really hunkered down. I went to the pool but did not swim as the dry air blowing across the pool had really cooled it off. It was warm enough out of the wind to enjoy the sun, and since I had the whole pool area to myself, I did soak up some sun while enjoying the peace and quiet.
      The weather forecast for tomorrow looks pretty good so at the moment we are planning to leave here tomorrow...

Days 123 to 124 to Barrie, ON for 2 nights

      We left the dock this morning at 10:30 am after a relaxing morning.  As we went out the channel from the marina, we bid goodbye to Jake and Elwood who apparently are still on the bad side of the local seagulls. Our destination today is Barrie, Ontario which is 24.8 miles across Lake Simcoe. We will take our time, but we do want to get there in time to walk about four blocks from the marina for a late afternoon showing of "Swiss Army Man". It was a movie from 2009 and one of the two main actors was Daniel Ratcliff (Harry Potter) who played a corpse that farted a LOT!  Needless to say, there was a lot of symbolism that was largely lost on me. However, the popcorn saved the day.  The Admiral was quick to say this is NOT a movie she would recommend to anyone.  

       This is probably not a stop made by most Loopers since the Trent Severn Waterway enters and exits Lake Simcoe in the northern part of the lake and Barrie as well as our next planned stop, Keswick, are in the southwestern and southern portion of the lake.  As we approached Barrie, we could see this fountain (photo at left) from several miles away. It was about a mile from the marina so we never did walk quite all of the way to it, but it seemed to be only decorative.

      We have a reservation at the municipal dock in Barrie and plan on staying two nights.  The municipal marina is in the very center of the shoreline in the photo at the right, but it is so small that you really cannot make it out. The photo shows most of the active downtown, which is definitely alive and well. The population of Barrie was 137K in 2011, and it is growing rapidly as more people from Toronto find the hour plus commute worth the waterfront here. It is easily the largest town that we have been in over the last 2 months. So, it has lots of development, like malls, outside of downtown, but somehow downtown has remained full and busy.

      Part of the growth has helped downtown like this pair of residential towers (photo at left), and there were 3 more pairs like this on the waterfront at the edge of downtown. They also had about a mile of public beach with plenty of parking.

      Here is Lucky Us moored at space 9 on the cement dock (photo at right). The "cement dock" had sounded kind of strange when we were given our slip assignment over the phone, but sure enough, they meant the dock was made out of cement as opposed to the wooden docks across the small main thoroughfare (i.e. channel) of the marina. When we docked we were told that we could only have one 30 amp plug, but if no other boat docked behind us that we could use the second plug. We really only need the second circuit to power the large main air conditioner so we could have limped along. However, we would have been very warm in the salon.

       The photo at the left shows the intersection of the two main streets downtown, and as you look straight ahead at the bottom of the hill is the city marina where Lucky Us is docked. Obviously, we were well positioned to spend time in the downtown area. We also have a car reservation for one day (24 hours) starting in the morning, and we plan to return it by 8:00 am the next day so that we can move on to our next destination.

       Across from us was a long finger pier where 4 dragon boats were moored. Both evenings one or more of the boats went out for a multi-hour paddle. The boats are paddled like a canoe, but there are so many paddlers that they even have a coxswain in the bow to call out the cadence to keep everyone paddling in rhythm. The photo shows them backing away from the dock, and this maneuver was not very smooth. However, once they headed out into the bay, the strokes were even and very smooth. Once they have accelerated, the stroke is slow and steady.

      Barrie sits at the end of a 9 mile long narrow bay (Kempenfelt Bay), which is well protected, except for winds blowing parallel to the bay. It also turns out to be a popular area for sailing schools all day long and club racing in the evenings so it was a pretty sight to look out and see many sails at almost any time.  

      There were several large metal sculptures in waterfront parks on both sides of the marina. The one in the photo at the right is called "Spirit Catcher". It is truly an awesome sight. There is nothing for scale in the photo, but the sculpture must be about 50 feet high.

      On Day 124 we took the rent car to a new movie theater complex to see "Jason Bourne", which we both enjoyed. It was hard to find the entrance to the parking lot, as there was construction everywhere. I asked one of the workers how long they had been open, and she said "Oh, since last Friday", which explains the construction.

      We took several long walks with Lucky on the evening of Day 124, and one of them was through the park next door where there was a (weekly) street rod car show going on from about 6 to 9:00 pm. There was a range in age from a 2006 Pontiac Solstice convertible to a 1932 Ford. There was even a 1960 VW Microbus completely restored. Later, when we took another walk after dinner, we saw two of the amphibious cars out for a spin in the harbor (photo at left). This was the third Amphibicar that we have seen in our travels on the Great Lakes between 2014 and this year. It is a 1960 vintage vehicle, as you could probably tell by the fins on the rear fenders.

       Later on this second walk, we passed this busy scene with a class for SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboards). There were people paddling (and falling) all over the place . Then a dragon boat paddled past looking pretty smooth by comparison. All in all, the water is a busy place around here in the Summer.

      Well, we have had a busy and fun time in Barrie, but tomorrow we will be moving along as we try to position ourselves in a new spot where we can stay for the busy weekend on the water...

       Here is another of the metal statues of a dragon flying that was difficult to photograph because it is surrounded by trees on three sides. The head of the dragon is on the lower left and the tail is high on the right (partly obstructed by a large branch). Once again it is very large, but the scale is fitting for its location.

Days 121 to 122 at Starport Marina enjoying the August Holiday

       Back in the 1970s Canada decided to add a holiday for August, which was the only month without one. Since there was apparently no obvious candidate for a name, they just called it the "August Holiday". Ya gotta love a country with a sense of humor... We picked the Starport Marina because of our very favorable experience at the Starport Marina at Lock 45, and we also wanted to be off the water for the busiest boating weekend of the season. However, rigorous honestly compels me to say that the concept of a heated pool (photo at right) is what really sealed the deal. We were regulars there in the mid afternoon, and really enjoyed the bright sun and warm water. Understandably with the short boating season not many marinas on the Great Lakes have pools so this (heated) pool was an extra special treat!

      The smile on the Admiral's face tells it all. Having a fairly large pool with hardly anyone else in it really made the days here very enjoyable in spite of the many hours spent doing wash and catching up on the financials. I spent most of my time trying to catch up on the blog, and while I did not get totally up to date, I made a lot of progress. The best news of all is that the Admiral figured out how to upload pictures (very quickly) from her iPad, which will help me greatly when we are at a marina with the typical slow internet. I can do the text okay, but uploading photo from my PC with a slow connection can literally take hours.

      As I said yesterday, there are no restaurant within walking or even within easy biking distance, so we are eating on the boat, working, enjoying the pool and walking a lot with Lucky. The main entrance to the marina is a drive about 200 yards long with about 30 feet of grass on both sides and then a dense forest. It is an especially good place to walk Lucky since it is also in the only official off leash area. We do not let Lucky totally loose, but we can use her 50 foot leash, which allows her to run and fetch with relative freedom.
      They have a lot of doggie station with plastic bags and collection boxes, but someone with a sense of humor labelled this one in the off leash area.

      ...and meanwhile back at the pool. This time it is me looking happy and maybe a little annoyed (?) at the photographer (smile!). There were almost always other people at the pool, which means that we are probably not going to be able to read to each other. Somehow reading out loud amid the staccato "Marco" followed by "Polo" just does not work.
      We also went to the marina store several times. The Admiral found a LED light tube to replace the 12V fluorescent bulb over the stove. It definitely is much brighter than the old bulb as well as more energy efficient. We have also continued to check out the floating mats that many boaters and cottages have. They look so useful, but the price is...

      The first Starport at Lock 5 had a marvelous lounge and bathrooms, and this Starport has an exact duplicate (photo at right). The bathroom and laundry are in the one story wing across the back with the lounge having the wonderful v-shaped window wall. The design was probably taken from a wonderful house plan designed to maximize the view and natural light. We have been using the marina bathrooms more in Canada because of the exorbitant (my opinion) prices charged for pump outs. We are conditioned to $5 or even 10.00 per pump out, but in Canada we have been charged as much as $34.00 (Cdn. funds) per pump out, which converts to about $24.00 in US funds. That's just price gouging! End of rant!

      Not very exciting pictures for our rest/work days, but we were pretty serious about the pool and work! So, I will end with one final pool photo that is the Admiral's favorite view of the pool (photo at left).




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