Days on cruise: 104
Today’s travel: 20.9 miles
Travel time: 2 hrs 23 mins (4 hrs 8 mins incl locks + delays)
Locks today: 2
Total trip odometer: 2,337 statute miles
Two more days, then we can put those big fenders away for a couple of months! After four more locks, the next locks are on the midwest rivers in September.
Lock 40 last night was QUIET! The only land access is by dirt road through agricultural land, the closest train track is a mile away, and it’s even further to the closest town. We were there alone except for the raccoon who ransacked the lock’s garbage can, strewing our garbage everywhere.
Above is the mechanism used to open the lock gates, turned by hand by walking in circles; and below, the lever to open the valves that let water in and out of the locks below.
We expected to get an early start today, but the first lock staff to arrive alerted us his co-worker would be late, so he couldn’t lock us through by himself. We waited almost an hour, then proceeded, only to hear at lock 41 that the 11-foot clearance swing bridge ahead (see below) was having maintenance work done, so we might need to wait awhile there as well. Nice that we’re traveling without a tight schedule!
We crossed big Lake Simcoe late morning; it’s 16 by 22 miles wide, and happily we had light wind and waves SIX INCHES high. This lake is known to have 8-10 foot waves in bad weather, so we felt lucky to have a beautiful, benign day for our crossing.
Two days ago we received an email from Dave who lives here in Port of Orillia and has followed our blog for several months. He first wrote to us when we left Florida, telling us to get in touch when we arrived up here if we wanted any help deciding where to go and what to see in Georgian Bay. He said he and his wife Sue would enjoy meeting us and offering some local knowledge about Georgian Bay. We’re all for that!
Dave and Sue arrived at our boat in the marina at 6:00 bringing fish and chips for dinner on our sundeck (talk about Canadian hospitality!), and Bob pulled out our charts and made notes on the places they recommended as anchorages. The territory ahead sounds incredibly beautiful and challenging in that the water is often shallow with big granite rocks waiting to get intimate with your hull. We met another local boater who told a story of running into a rock and doing $30,000 damage to his hull – ouch!
We had a very enjoyable evening with Dave and Sue, and they’ll be in Georgian Bay this weekend on their boat, a pretty 42-foot Present Trawler they bought in Florida 8 years ago after it sank in a hurricane. They shipped it north by truck, spent a year doing major refurbishment, and have spent countless days and weeks enjoying it on the water ever since. We look forward to seeing them again this weekend. Very nice folks!
Jesse III, Ontario boaters planning to begin their Loop next year, and ‘Bama Belle, current Loopers, are both folks we’ve spent time with previously, and are in this marina tonight. Jesse III has visitors from Montreal on board, and Charlie and Laurie on ‘Bama Belle are heading to Midland where Charlie will take Laurie to the Toronto airport to fly back home, then pick up his next crew flying up from Texas. It’s fun to keep running into nice people we’ve met before!
Today’s travel: 20.9 miles
Travel time: 2 hrs 23 mins (4 hrs 8 mins incl locks + delays)
Locks today: 2
Total trip odometer: 2,337 statute miles
Two more days, then we can put those big fenders away for a couple of months! After four more locks, the next locks are on the midwest rivers in September.
Lock 40 last night was QUIET! The only land access is by dirt road through agricultural land, the closest train track is a mile away, and it’s even further to the closest town. We were there alone except for the raccoon who ransacked the lock’s garbage can, strewing our garbage everywhere.
Above is the mechanism used to open the lock gates, turned by hand by walking in circles; and below, the lever to open the valves that let water in and out of the locks below.
We expected to get an early start today, but the first lock staff to arrive alerted us his co-worker would be late, so he couldn’t lock us through by himself. We waited almost an hour, then proceeded, only to hear at lock 41 that the 11-foot clearance swing bridge ahead (see below) was having maintenance work done, so we might need to wait awhile there as well. Nice that we’re traveling without a tight schedule!
We crossed big Lake Simcoe late morning; it’s 16 by 22 miles wide, and happily we had light wind and waves SIX INCHES high. This lake is known to have 8-10 foot waves in bad weather, so we felt lucky to have a beautiful, benign day for our crossing.
Two days ago we received an email from Dave who lives here in Port of Orillia and has followed our blog for several months. He first wrote to us when we left Florida, telling us to get in touch when we arrived up here if we wanted any help deciding where to go and what to see in Georgian Bay. He said he and his wife Sue would enjoy meeting us and offering some local knowledge about Georgian Bay. We’re all for that!
Dave and Sue arrived at our boat in the marina at 6:00 bringing fish and chips for dinner on our sundeck (talk about Canadian hospitality!), and Bob pulled out our charts and made notes on the places they recommended as anchorages. The territory ahead sounds incredibly beautiful and challenging in that the water is often shallow with big granite rocks waiting to get intimate with your hull. We met another local boater who told a story of running into a rock and doing $30,000 damage to his hull – ouch!
We had a very enjoyable evening with Dave and Sue, and they’ll be in Georgian Bay this weekend on their boat, a pretty 42-foot Present Trawler they bought in Florida 8 years ago after it sank in a hurricane. They shipped it north by truck, spent a year doing major refurbishment, and have spent countless days and weeks enjoying it on the water ever since. We look forward to seeing them again this weekend. Very nice folks!
Jesse III, Ontario boaters planning to begin their Loop next year, and ‘Bama Belle, current Loopers, are both folks we’ve spent time with previously, and are in this marina tonight. Jesse III has visitors from Montreal on board, and Charlie and Laurie on ‘Bama Belle are heading to Midland where Charlie will take Laurie to the Toronto airport to fly back home, then pick up his next crew flying up from Texas. It’s fun to keep running into nice people we’ve met before!
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