Days on cruise: 97
Miles traveled today: 58.1
Travel time: 7 hrs, 22 mins (9 hrs, 45 mins including locks)
Locks today: 7
Total trip odometer: 2,226 statute miles
Last night, Wednesday, was a lively night for us boaters in Campbellford. Three other boats we’d met previously, ‘Bama Bell, Jesse III, and Happy Hour were also on the canal wall in town, so the eight of us got together for appetizers/drinks and potluck dinner at the adjacent park where there was also live country music for the night.
Charlie (‘Bama Belle) began his Loop in December 2010. Because he’s a single guy, he relies on family, friends, and occasionally crew found via the internet to accompany him on his journey. He began in Mobile, Al and currently has Laurie, a friend from high school, on board for a month. Laurie taught Cathryn how to make Baked Brie served with Sliced Apples as an appetizer. Yum!
Canadians from Ontario, Paul and Lynn on Jesse III plan to begin their Loop next year, and Canadians from Belleville, Bruce and Anne on Happy Hour are still deciding whether to do the complete Loop, though they’ve already done sections. It was a delightful evening with too much delicious food and yummy tarts for dessert from the Butter Tart bakery in town. The country music was good background as we weren’t too close to the crowd. A good time was had by all.
Below are Charlie and Laurie on ‘Bama Belle, a 39-foot Mainship.
Thursday morning, continuing with Bob at the helm and Cathryn on deck, we followed Jesse III into the next “flight lock”, or two locks that open directly into one another and raise you 52 feet combined.
After traveling through 6 locks in quick succession, Jesse III stopped at Hastings, while we continued on up the Trent River. The scenery alternated between remote, rural land with woods and marsh, and more inhabited shoreline with modest cottages cheek-by-jowl or somewhat fancier homes on larger lots, still rural.
Another lock had a 5-foot clearance swing bridge that had to be opened before we could pass.
There were barns and sometimes agricultural fields along the pretty shoreline. Travel was slow, often only 6 mph, either because of small fishing boats in the river who we didn’t want to wake, or “no wake” zones because of the crowded cottages with their runabouts at a dock.
C0-Captain Bob, ever serene at the helm.
A railroad bridge that is almost always open, except when a train is approaching.
Very late in the afternoon, and tired, we arrived at Lock #20 and tied up on the wall below for the night. This lock is at the outskirts of the town of Peterborough, population 70,000 and the largest town on the Trent-Severn Waterway . We’re still only an hour or two from Toronto by bus, but the serpentine path we traveled today took us many more miles than does the roadway. This will continue for the entire 240 miles of the Waterway, where we’ll end in Port Severn, still not far from Toronto.
Last night Bob reviewed our maps and cruising guides and determined we need to cover 860 miles between last night’s stop and Chicago, where we hope to arrive August 28 in time to meet our youngest daughter Adrienne and her fiancee Justin who will join us on the boat for 4 nights. That means we need to travel approximately 100 miles per week, a pretty mellow pace much slower than the 150 miles we averaged each week on the Atlantic coast. This should allow for plenty of time to anchor out and play in the glorious waters of Georgian Bay and the North Channel that lie ahead. Many former Loopers say this is the prettiest stretch of the whole Loop.
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