PORTAGE LOCK Wall to ORILLIA / Sunday, July 10 (Day 171)

Admiral's Log:     9:00 am, Sun. 7/10/16
                         Air Temp:   68     Water Temp:   75
                        Winds:   calm
                        Speed:   6.2 knots

We were getting close to the end of the locks. Went through #'s 39-41 today. We let Bill and Kate get in some line handling practice. We met lots of Canadians with relatives from the St. Pete area or vacation there themselves. 

Bill having fun locking.

Kate got the hang of line handling pretty quickly.

We got to our marina at 12:30 and were happy to see Morning Star and Sweet T. We also saw a few other Loopers as well. 

We walked to town for lunch at Studabaker's. Kate and I went to the grocery and Mariposa Market and huge bakery and bought a few yummy things. 

We introduced Bill and Kate to several of our Looper friends and hoped they would get to experience a good "Docktails" and were lucky they did! We filled up on so many goodies that we skipped dinner... my kind of meal.

Kate enjoying some "Docktails"

We had another stroke of good luck. Behn the dock master from Peterborough happened to be in the area looking at a sailboat and stopped by to deliver some mail to Phase II. We told him we had a quandary how to get Bill and Kate back to Bobcaygeon to get their rental car. Behn graciously dropped them off at their car on his way home to Peterborough. They got back to the boat around midnight.

BALSAM LAKE Anchor to PORTAGE LOCK Wall / Saturday, July 9 (Day 170)

Admiral's Log:     10:10 am, 7/9/16
                         Air Temp:   69    Water Temp:   72
                        Winds:     12 mph
                        Speed:     8.5 knots

We did 3 locks today, #36-38. It started out overcast and the wind picked up quite a bit. We went through the Trent Canal. It is very narrow and shallow. The charts say 6 feet, but we got as low as 4 feet. We bumped bottom a few times, which means more nicks on the props!

Exiting the lock into the Trent River

The Kirkfield Lock is the summit of the Trent-Severn Waterway, and the markers reverse. It is another pan lock and the first of the "down" locks.

Tying up at the Kirkfiled Lift Lock

We wanted Bill and Kate to experience a variety of dockages. So today we are spending the night at a lock wall. We tied up at #39, Portage Lock Wall. What a peaceful spot. We had a picnic lunch, then I walked up to the next 2 locks and back, which was about 2 miles. I met a friendly couple walking their dogs; they gave me a couple of interesting Canadian facts. There are only 35 million people in the whole country, less than are in Florida! There are 10 provinces and 3 territories. 

Hole in the Wall Bridge

Our boat tied to Portage Lock Wall

We saw another Looper, Over Ice from Mississippi at the bottom of the wall. A French couple were tied up with us in a small houseboat. They are practicing doing the Loop, so they were full of questions. 

BOBCAYGEON to BALSAM LAKE Anchor / Friday, July 8 (Day 169)

Admiral's Log:     9:00 am, Fri. 7/8/16
                         Air Temp:   67     Water Temp:   72
                        Winds:   5 mph
                        Speed:   6.2 knots

We moved the boat to the blue line to wait for the lock opening at 9 and went to town for breakfast with Bill and Kate. We were doing four locks today, 32-35. We stopped at the Fenelon Falls (lock #34) wall to see the town, we heard it was cute. Kate and I had iced coffee drinks and the boys found a bar for a beer. I was excited to get my WIFI fix at the coffee shop. I spent an hour there checking emails, and Facebook. 

Fenelon Falls

Rowe Boat tied up at the wall at Fenelon Falls Village

Our crew Bill and Kate

The next lock was #35 the Rosedale Lock, our last "up" lock. It is the highest point in the world a boat can reach from the sea under it's own power! Pretty impressive eh?

Highest lock on the Trent-Severn

We anchored in Balsam Lake around 2:30. Mike, Bill and I jumped in the water. Of course it was a bit of a shock at first, but felt pretty good. Bill took photos of our props. Ouch, kind of dinged up, but as long as we don't feel a vibration we are good to go. We fished a bit and went for a dingy ride. 

Rough looking props!

We had steaks, roasted potatoes and asparagus for dinner. Not too bad for boat food.

PIGEON LAKE Anchor to BOBCAYGEON / Wednesday, July 6 to Thursday, July 7 (Days 167-168)

Admiral's Log:     10:04 am 7/6/16
                         Air Temp:   70     Water Temp:    73
                        Winds:   calm
                        Speed:   8.7 knots


We took our time, cooked breakfast then pulled anchor at 10 and what a mess! It was covered with a ton of weeds. It took both of us with our hands and boat poles to get the weeds and mud off!

Bobcaygeon was a short cruise away, we got there at 11. We wanted to stay on the city wall, but it is a popular town and the wall was already filled up. So we stayed at Gordon Yacht Center. Not the fanciest we've been to but will suffice for a couple of nights. 

It's a cute town, easy to walk to from the marina. We had lunch, saw Horizon Chaser in town, they were on the wall. The town is famous for Bigley's shoe store. The largest in the whole country! Over 40,000 pairs of shoes. I did not get any tho, no more room on the boat. They have also expanded to include over 30,000 bathing suits! The owner came and saw our boat and told us he spends 6 months in Ft. Lauderdale. 

Rowe Boat and Phase II

Thursday, Mel and Ann drove by and waved. Then Phase II arrived for the night. We hung around the boat until Bill and Kate Fischer friends from Tampa arrived. Mike and I met them at a Looper's Lifestyle Meeting in January 2015. Not knowing that Bill had gone to my high school and graduated with my sister. So we became fast friends with so much in common. Bill and Kate plan to do the Loop once they retire in a few years. So I told Bill they were welcome to come along and get a taste of Loop Life. 

We had lunch with Dave and Lori of Phase II then the ladies checked out the shoe store...again. When we got back to the boat, Mike asked Lori if she would clean ours. She loves to clean windows with her "magic potion". She does an awesome job! 

The four of us had leftovers for dinner and Bill and Kate went to bed pretty early because they got up real early to fly to Toronto then rent a car and drive 2 hours to meet us. Lori and I walked to town for some delicious Canadian Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream!

CLEAR LAKE Anchor to PIGEON LAKE Anchor / Tuesday, July 5 (Day 166)

Admiral's Log:     9:03 am, Tues. 7/5/16
                         Air Temp:    65     Water Temp:   71
                        Wind:   2 mph
                        Speed:   7.5 knots

Gorgeous day for cruising! We went through Locks 28-31 today. We locked with our first houseboat! We were told to let them in first, get all tied up then we went in. Whew, no incidents, but we did have our boat poles handy, just in case!

See the grill?

See the slide?  

Clear Lake is so pretty; lots of rock islands in the middle of the water, some with really nice houses on them.

We got to Lovesick Lock #30 and saw Cutty's Ark tied up on the wall there. It is suppose to be one of the prettiest locks but also one you need to take caution. It is on an island and people have seen bears and raccoons. Apparently the raccoons are a huge nuisance. A pontoon boat was attacked during the night by a raccoon looking for food and it destroyed  their boat. Tore the vinyl seats to pieces! The lock masters tell people do not leave food on your boat out in the open. These people were camping on shore, but had their food in big rubber containers and the coons still got into them. 

Cutty's Ark is the second boat, the lock is behind them on the left.

We dropped anchor at 1:30. We had heard this was a good fishing area. We caught tons of brim or perch and small mouth bass, but no keepers. 

Not much satellite reception here, so we read a bit and had spaghetti for dinner.

PETERBOROUGH to LAKEFIELD WALL / Sunday, July 3 (Day 164)

Admiral's Log:     8:20 am, Sun. 7/3/16
                         Air Temp:   60     Water Temp:   69
                        Winds:   3 mph
                        Speed:   6.0 knots

We started lining up at Lock #20 at 8:20 for the first opening at 9. There were 9 other boats in line. The lock masters had to calculate boat lengths to see how many could fit in the lock. Which drove us crazy because it did not seem she could add! They cram in as many boats as possible. But we finally made it through after 2 hours! 

Lining up to enter Lock #20, we are the last on the left wall.

Four big boats crammed in before the lift.

The same 4 boats after the lift.

We then went through the famous Peterborough Lift Lock #21. The highest hydraulic lift in the world and consists of 2 pans or sometimes referred as bath tubs. Boats are lifted in one pan and counter balanced with water in the other pan and lifted with a hydraulic ram. We were lifted 65 feet in 90 seconds!

Peterborough Lift Lock

The next 5 locks are right after one another. It does not sound hard, but it is very tiring. It's great bicep building but not so much on arthritic fingers. It took nearly 7 hours to go 10 miles!

There are tons of geese along the waterway

Trent University

We were warned many times to watch out for the house boats! They are a menace. Apparently you don't have to take any test or have any experience to rent or drive one. They are everywhere on the lakes and rivers during the summer. They look pretty fun, with grills on the front and a slide on the back, but, they also have black metal bumpers all around, so that kinda tells you something. Everyone grabs their boat poles to push them away from your boat just in case they start to lose control! 

Just 2 of the many houseboats along the Trent-Severn.

Rowe Boat tied up at Lakefield Wall

We ended up with Sweet T and Horizon Chaser in the last couple of locks. We tied up at the Lakefield Wall (below Lock # 26) with Horizon Chaser from New Hampshire, then walked to Canoe and Paddle for lunch, picked up a couple of things for soup and salad for dinner and went to bed early, we were exhausted!

LAKEFIELD WALL to CLEAR LAKE Anchorage / Monday, July 4 (Day 165)

Admiral's Log:     10:02 am, Mon. 7/4/16
                         Air Temp:   68     Water Temp:   69
                        Winds:   calm
                        Speed:   6.7 knots

We took our time leaving, so I got a few steps in, not as many as I need! 
We were wished Happy 4th of July by some Canadians at the next Lock.

This is such a beautiful area. There are rock islands all over! Many with cute little houses on them; but I'm told they are called cottages, no matter the size.  I told Mike it would be fun to have one to come to and escape the Florida heat in the summer. 

Nice island summer cottage.

I said this is the Canadian version of our house! Looks very similar.

As we were looking for an anchorage we hit a rock and stalled an engine. But we did not feel a vibration, so that's a good thing. I'm afraid that may happen a few more times before we complete this trip.

We found a gorgeous anchorage and dropped anchor around 1. We took a dingy ride to look at a pretty water fall and people playing in it. Then we saw a couple of Loopers from Frostproof Florida about to enter a Lock and exchanged boat cards.

Brave souls, I know that water has got to be cold!

Mike cleaning the boat, always something to do.

Rowe Boat at our anchorage, it was so much prettier than this photo shows!

Sunset from the anchorage.