Month: July 2018

7/17/18:  Today we were going on an extraordinary adventure!  The Big Chute!

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7/16/18:  We were back to hot and muggy Canada weather today.   I’m glad I made a reservation for the Big Chute Marina for tonight – I think we’ll want some cooling in the cabin!  We were all up and atum and ready to leave the dock at 8:00.  Nellie May and Compass Rose had already left.  We had about an hour to cruise to the first lock.  We left Orillia behind us and crossed Lake Couchiching [cooch-ih-ching] which was about five miles.  At the north end, we entered a narrow channel which took us to a railroad swing bridge that is 14’ high.  Nellie May is a little 25’ tug, and they made it through without opening.  Compass Rose is a bigger tug and maybe just a little over 14’, so they needed the bridge open.  They double checked….nope….not going to fit under that without getting a crew cut.  So they needed to wait.

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7/14/18 Saturday:  Yay!  Our boat buddies from Washington are coming today!   Enterprise came and picked us up around 9:15, and we took a drive to Toronto to pick them up.  The scenery on the way to the city was just your basic pretty and green countryside, with nothing extraordinarily spectacular to see along the way.

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7/12/18:  There was no getting excited about an early start today!  We were on the lock wall, and the lock doesn’t open for business until 9:00.  But that was OK.  We were only about four miles from Lake Simcoe, and the weather was nice and calm today.  The Kirkfield Lift lock yesterday lowered our elevation by 49’, and then lock 37 lowered us another 22’.  Today we would go down 14’, 13’, 14’, and 10’ in the next four locks.

The lock master was right – below this lock #38, it was all just a narrow canal.  I’m glad we stayed where we did!  After a couple of miles, the canal opened up from forest surroundings to a nice farm landscape.  It was really quite pretty!

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7/11/18:  At Fenelon Falls, we were on the west side of the lock, so we could get up and get going when ever we wanted to.  Our next lock was only 4 miles away so we couldn’t go too far before the 9:00 lock opening time.  We weren’t exactly sure how far we were going to go today.  Where ever we stopped would be without power.  The weather seemed like that would be ok.  It was only supposed to be in the low 80’s today, and low in the upper 50’s.  Of course, that nice cool low temperature usually happens just before we get up in the morning.  But maybe we could find a place with some shade and a breeze.     Our first lock was Rosedale.  It is a pretty remote lock with a very nice park.  It is one of the favorites of the locals.  It was only a tiny little 4’ lift, and there were lots of boats and people camping.  We got to the blue line around 8:30 and waited for the lock personnel to come to work.  We were soon through the lift and on our way into Balsam Lake.  We were now at the highest elevation on the loop.  I read somewhere that this is the highest elevation in the Great Lakes region that a boat can travel to under it’s own propulsion from the ocean.  It certainly is the highest elevation on our loop at 840 feet above sea level!  It’s a wonder the oxygen masks didn’t deploy!  We’ve come up 590 feet from Lake Ontario!  That’s a lot of locks! Read more →

7/10/18:  We woke up to see some familiar boats on the “Blue Line wall”, waiting for the first lift.  DANGIT!  We were on the power wall, so the lock master would give the blue line boats the first lift, not knowing that we were ready and waiting.  Our next destination was Fenelon Falls, which has some power pedestals too, but it is a VERY popular stop.  The longer we waited and the more boats that got ahead of us, the less chance we had of getting a power spot. I had to wait until 9:00 to go up and tell the lock guys that we wanted to go through too.  He actually thought he could get all of us in the first lift, but Captain said he’d rather wait for the second lift and not be crowded in there. We would have been behind all these guys anyway.  I guess we should have moved to the blue wall at 8:00!  Oh well – we didn’t know. Read more →

7/9/18 Monday:  We decided to leave our Lovesick spot before anyone came up through the lock at 9:00, so we’d have a head start.  We pulled our lines around 8:15, and it was only about 6 miles to the first lock today, so about an hour.  We got to Buckhorn about 9:15, just after it opened.  There was a houseboat coming down, and three houseboats on the wall looking like they might want to be going up?  We sat and waited, and the down-bound one took his time to come out slowly.  None of the ones on the wall made a move to go, so we went in and locked up the 11’ lift all by ourselves.  The two lock operators were so engrossed in their own conversation that they didn’t say a word to us.  Usually they ask how far you’re going today, what’s your destination, so that they can tell you how many boats they know of that are headed that way, or even just small talk to be friendly.  Boy – not these two!  I had to flag one of them over, and asked if they had any idea how busy the next lock was, that we were hoping to find a spot on the power wall there.  Granted, it is 18 miles away, but she just responded blankly ‘No’, and walked back to her friend and continued their conversation.  Wow!  I guess they are just accustomed to so many local boaters that they don’t find the need to chitchat with us loopers.  That was so unusual for how all of the other locks have been, that it really caught me off guard.  Oh well.  We’d get it figured out! Read more →

7/8/18 Sunday:  This was an interesting day!  We had been told that cruising the waters in Cottage Country on a weekend would be busy.  WOWZER – was that ever the truth!  There were boats coming and going everywhere!  The lakes were beautiful!  I can see why people have summer/vacation cottages here!  This particular area was very similar to the Thousand Islands back on the St. Lawrence River.  There were lots of tiny island with lots of conifer trees.  So pretty!!

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7/7/18 Saturday:  Yesterday I made a reservation at Lakefield Marina for Saturday night, so we weren’t in a big giant hurry to ‘get there first’ today.  It was only 10 miles away, but SEVEN locks between here and there!  We saw several boats take off to the lock nearby, so we took our time.  That means, we had time to stroll down to Tim Horton’s and get some donuts.  Talk about sensory overload at the Donut station!  Look at this!!

Back at the marina, there was a big tour boat at the end of the fairway that we needed to get around.  If we left while it was still at the dock, we would have to squeeze through right at a 90 degree turn.  So we decided to wait until after it left at 10:30.  And then we waited another half hour so that we wouldn’t have to go through the locks with it.  We thought.    WRONG. Read more →