Port Severn, Lock 45 - the end of The Trent/Severn Waterway

July 28, 2010 Wednesday
We stayed in a fun city, Orillion, Ontario, for three nights to catch our breath and provision our groceries. (It was also buy two nights, get one night free!)  We were also able to find the motor oil needed for a future oil change (after a five mile walk to get it) and Buddy got a needed clipping.  The city had street entertainment, sidewalk sales, a concert and has about fifty decorated guitars all over to amuse the tourists.It was a great place to settle after being on the water for a week.

The final section of the Trent-Severn Waterway is the Severn River which is lined with breathtaking granite rock formations, making for eye candy for us and great jumping for the kids on the wall!

Look carefully for the kids ready to jump!

This beautiful river took us through two more locks until we arrived at Lock 44 Big Chute.  It's not really a lock but a giant railway car that picks up boats and transports them over land to the basin on the other side.

Carriage that holds boats

We drove Tony M into this giant carriage with slings  positioned so our boat hangs there when the water drains off.  Then it starts moving and brings us over land to the channel below -a rush you can't explain!

That's Tony M in the cartriage

At the end of our ride, looking back to where we were

 One of the reasons this was built was to keep the lamprey out of the other lake.  Maybe this idea could be used to keep the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan....just a thought...

Today we made it to the last lock on the Trent/ Severn Waterway and even though we thoroughly enjoyed this amazing canal system, we are happy to put these 44 locks behind us and look forward to just exploring the islands in the Georgian Bay-our next venture.

Back to the Loop

After eight days and nine nights we finally left Alexandria Bay, NY, in the Thousand Islands-not that that was a bad place (actually during the 90+ degree days it was a good place t o be in AC) but we were anxious to get going.  The generator problem turned out to be a broken wire (which Pete found while helping out the mechanic after we replaced the motherboard!)  Oh, well, it's fixed!  By the way Hutchinson Marina provided excellent services and were gracious hosts, even offering us a car to go grocery shopping.  The town was fun with lots of restaurants, bars and shops - a mini Lake George- and of course the islands and their houses were amazing.  I will have to say that it was the roughest marina we ever stayed at-between the tour boats and the thousands of power boats (you could almost walk across the river on the boats), the wake was a constant thrashing - almost had to wear the seasick bands while at the dock.

We needed to be in Peterborough, Ontario in four days- we had car and marina reservations so we could  get back to Vermont for Thyra's and Mike's wedding. After three grueling 12 hour days (13 locks in one day), we made it to Peterborough, We're now in t he Trent-Severn Waterway, a 240 mile network linking Lake Ontario with the 'Georgian Bay in Lake Huron.  Forty-four locks link lakes, rivers and man-made canals, all for recreational use only.  Of course, every eyeful is a postcard-we can understand why Canadians use and love their country.

a pedaling surfboarder

Thyra's and Mike's wedding was a whirlwind- from the bar-b-que, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding on the top of Jay Peak to the Sunday brunch- we need a rest!  The ceremony on the top of Jay was the perfect setting for them-they LOVE the mountain!  Thyra was a beautiful bride (Mike looked good too!),,,we wish them many years of love and happiness....

 

     We arrived back in Peterborough, provisioned the boat and were off on the Trent-Severn.  One of the first locks we hit was the Petertborough Hydrolic Lift Lock.  Both Peterborough and Kirkland Lock 36 have lift locks instead of the conventional locks(locks with water tight gates made of timber or steel at both ends. They are filled and emptied with water through sluices in the gates, walls or floors of the lock chamber.) These hydrolic lift are VERY different-it's made of two water-filled chambers (like big bathtubs) counterbalanced on huge hydrolic pistons.  You motor into a pool of water, a gate comes up and encloses you in the chamber.  The upper chamber is overfilled with one foot of water so this heavier upper chamber travels down, forcing the other chamber to ride upward.  What an experience-Six Flags can't top this engineering wonder!

Lock ready to be filled

Lock in progress-chamber lowering

Boat is in the bottom chamber ready to leave

 

The Trent-Severn Waterway is crowded with rental houseboats.  These are 40 x 20 floating RV's driven by outboard motors.  They are very popular to rent-we and the Edwards rented one and toured the Rideau Waterway years ago.  Anyway the rental company will rent to anyone-no boating experience necessary.  Well, we now know that fact first hand - we were coming out of Lock 34 at Fenelon Falls when the houseboat in front of us decided to make a U-turn in a very narrow channel lined with tied up boats.  Because of the wind and his ineptitude, he couldn't maneuver the houseboat, was diagonally across the channel and we were fast approaching.  Pete's expert seamanship skills came to the rescue and we missed his outboards by two inches-a double Bloody Mary was definitely in order! 

a typical houseboat rental

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We overnighted at the wall at Lock 35 where we met Tom and Sheila, owners of a beautiful Mainship 400, who are on their way to FL via the Trent-Severn and Erie Canal.  We shared supper and stories!

Sheila and Tom

After all the tricky moves Pete had to use to get away from the houseboat, the bow thruster began slowing up again so we decided to go to a small town called Cobocock where he could buy some files etc, to rebuild it.  This cute town had a great free dock where we overnighted  and could buy all the supplies we needed. A boater with a car stopped by and and asked if he could taxi us to the grocery store...how nice is that!!

Alexandria Bay, NY

July 2-

As we are sitting here in Alexandria Bay, NY waiting for the generator to be repaired, we decided to explore the region. but first things first....we needed more vodka. Now this shouldn't be a problem...if you have a car since the local liquor store is 6 miles away but we don't have a car..  Our cruising guide told us there was a store five steps from the town dock so we went find it.  Nothing in the area looked like a liquor store.  After asking a couple of folks, we came upon an older rugged-looking guy sitting on his front steps. Pete recognized the lights on his truck as fire house firefighter type so he approached him and asked about where the local liquor store is so we can buy vodka.  He didn't answer him but whipped out his cell phone, made a call and asking if there's any vodka left.  There's two bottles left and we can buy it for $10 each.  We agree and the guy took off in his truck while we waited in his front yard.  He returned with two bottles of Barkley Vodka.  The explanation we got is these bottles were "rescued" from a bar fire in the 70's so they are certainly aged, if vodka ages...Anyway, we're happy now...imagine life with no Bloody Mary's???

Tony M's bow thruster was not acting as strong as it should be (probably from all its use getting in and out of the locks) so Pete decided to work on it while we wait for the generator part.  Taking it out is not an easy procedure as it's under our bed and way below in the bow(hence bow thruster) but after many new words I never knew existed, out it came.  Pete cleaned up the armature and inspected the rest of it, then reinstalled it.  It sounded stronger-hope that's all it needed.

Boldt Castle is a HUGE tourist attraction and draws many bus loads to the  tour boats, which shuttle hundreds of foreigners and Americans out to see it.  We dinghied out and had a pleasant afternoon.  George Boldt,  a self-made millionaire, wanted to build a European-style castle for his wife.  He bought Hart Island, restructured it to look like a heart, renamed it Heart Island, and proceeded to spend  $2.5 million (a fortune in 1904!) to build the 124 room dream house.  Unfortunately, his wife died and he stopped all work on it.  The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority bought it and is doing an excellent job refurbishing it to what it might have looked like.  It's a good look into the Guilded Age and the wealth those chosen few enjoyed.  We also visited the Boldt Yacht house across the bay for a look at the yachts that many owned during this era.  This boat house had never been left to go into disrepair and was a beauty to see.  The boats were all classics and the apartment above the yacht house was furnished in classic Victorian style-a beauty to see.

                                                         Boldt  Castle Power Plant



                           Boldt Castle

Boldt Castle Gardens






July 4th brought fireworks over Boldt Castle and since we are docked directly across from it, we had front row seats to enjoy them.  Buddy hid in the shower during their glory-his most hated thing in his life is loud noises like fireworks.


Hope you all had a great holiday!

The Rideau Canal and Kingston

June 24-July 1,  2010

Leaving Ottawa we immediately came upon the Pretoria Bridge, a vertical bridge that is cranked up by 4 cables at the base of the towers at each end of the bridge. We thought that was pretty special until we came upon Lock 11 Hogs Back Lock where besides the lock personnel personally cranking the gears to open and fill the locks, the lock master personally inserts the removable turn crank and walks it around donkey-style to open the bridge for us and he's happy about it!  Hard to believe but Canada Parks do all to preserve their history and canal system as it operated 165 years ago.

 

We had had our fill after 8 more locks so we decided to call it a night at Burritts Rapids Lock 17, a serene, pristine weedy place to dock for the night. This is a particularly popular lock to because it has  electricity available for boaters and it's beautiful.  Buddy is in dog heaven because it's quiet and he can feel grass not cement under his paws.  A coed group of teenage canoers camped next to us-it's so good to see them finding a healthy release of their energy.Three more swing bridges (still can't get used to the human energy used to get us through!) .

The next day we attacked 12 more locks so we were ready to settle in for the night. at Smith Falls.  Smith Falls has a town campground for boats and RV's and as soon as we heard they had hot showers, we decided to stay. Because of Saturday's heavy rain, we stayed two nights which gave us time to take care of some domestic chores.  Pete had time to figure out how to run the TV.  We've been without TV for over 3 weeks and haven't missed it! While here we visited the Rideau Canal Museum, giving us more to wonder how this 125 mile canal system with 46 locks was created in just 5 years!

From Smith Falls Lock 29 to the Narrows Lock 35 the ride was outstanding.  We started in Lower Rideau Lake with its 5'-6' shallow water with 2' outside the channel.  The buoys are set up to keep you in the channel but it looks more like a boater's driver's ed course.  At Newboro Lock we are transported into the Upper Rideau Lake with its hundreds  of small islands and sparsely populated shores.  We stopped to eat our lunch at Col. By Island at the park dock and went for a hike around the island but were chased back to the boat by our buddies, the deer flies.  (I think they're the national bird!)

                                                             Directional Signs!

We spent the night at the Narrows Lock #35 where we met more teenage canoers having a great time in the rain.  And then we met "Noah's Ark" a 47' Nova Scotia.  We were amazed by its size in the Rideau Canals as you don't see ocean worthy vessels in these waters.  They followed us to Chaffey's Lock #37 where the lock people expected them via the lock grapevine ("Hey, there's a 47 footer coming!) and watched them lock thru-an incredible sight.  Anyway, Chaffey's Lock is on of the prettiest walls we've stayed  at.(We remembered staying here with the Edwards some years ago.)

                                                                                        Chaffey Falls

Leaving Lock 49, the last lock on the Rideau Canal Waterway, brought us to Cataraqui River and  into Lake Ontario and  Kingston Harbor.  We were lucky to overnight at a slip with no power  in Consolidation Basin where slips are at a premium because it's Canada Day (their 4th of July).  The Canadians are all gathering here for celebrations and fireworks. Pete showed off his docking skills  and was rewarded with applause by our fellow boaters for his superior skills!

Kingston, Ontario

Having no power made Pete turn on the boat's generator where we discovered, it isn't working.  So after some phone calls, we motored to Alexandria Bay, NY in Thousand Islands - good old USA -where a solution is being worked on. Hopefully, we'll be up and running soon.

Miscellaneous Photos

That's Narrow!

Jones Falls Hike

Ferry Boat in Narrows