August 17– August 28, 2011
We left the Rochester Yacht Club at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 8/17. Once again, my brother Michael saw us from his house and called my cell phone to wish us Bon Voyage! It was a gorgeous morning and I could see his house very well, but the water was a little rocky and I had a difficult time holding my camera still enough to get a good shot. The seas were less than a foot, but coming across our beam, so it was less enjoyable than our trip to Rochester. And I was sad to leave my family. The water calmed down as we got closer to Canadian land and approached the Presqu’ile Bay.
That day we traveled 72 miles across Lake Ontario to Trenton, Ontario. We talked to Danny & Susan on Potest Fieri and got their location in case we decided to go the rest of the way to meet up with them. When we arrived at the Brighton Road Bridge in Trenton, we stopped at the dock and called Canadian Customs. The bridge tender gave us a hint of what to say so that the customs agents wouldn’t want to come down and board our boat to do their own inspection. Roger called on his cell phone and got transferred around to 3 or 4 people. The final person apologized for the confusion, took his info, asked, “Do you have more than $10,000 in Canadian money on board?”, to which Roger answered, “I wish I did!” There was no videophone, no bad connections, no making us feel as if we were criminals. And the best part was that they let us slide on the duty they could have collected for the liquor we had restocked when we were in Rochester!
It was an easy stop to clear Customs and there we also lowered our mast again so that we could clear the bridges on the Trent-Severn Waterway, which we were about to start. We decided to get to Frankford, where Danny & Susan were for the night. That meant, after the 9-1/2-hour crossing, we still had to go through 6 locks. Susan had emailed me that it should take us about 2-1/2 hours. We were the only people in the locks that afternoon and each lock was timed perfectly for our arrival with the gates open for us. By the time we tied up to the wall after Lock #6 in Frankford, it was almost 7:00 p.m. It was a long 13-hour day, and Susan had a drink and dinner ready for us! She & Danny sent us back to our boat after dinner -- I was grateful that she wouldn’t let me help with the dishes.
Our next two stops were back-to-back, Ranney Falls and Campbellford. I had never walked on a suspension bridge and in Ranney Falls, Roger & Danny were jumping up and down on it to make it move and sway. It was an unnerving sensation, but boys will be boys! Speaking of which, we saw a turtle on the rocks below the suspension bridge and Roger tried to spit on it to get it to move and then Danny tossed small pebbles at it. These “boys” were a little more sophisticated because they were doing directional calculations for wind effects and speed velocity. On the other side of the bridge, we saw 2 couples who had been on a picnic and one of the men was lying on the ground. He was a very large man and had a walker, but had fallen and the other people were trying to figure out how to lift him up. Roger & Danny backed up the people’s van to move it closer to the man before they lifted him into it; they were very appreciative of the good samaritans.
We stayed at the Peterborough Marina for 2 nights and Rae & Steve Mason (our Canadian friends from the boat, Barefoot Shoes) met us there on the second day. We went through the Peterborough Lift Lock, which is unique. First of all, it’s enormous – a 65-foot lift. Secondly, it’s the easiest lock we’ve ever done. All we had to do was drive the boat inside, tie a bow and stern line to the rail and enjoy the quick lift up. I don’t know how to describe the technical aspects of this lock, only that it’s like two big bathtubs next to each other (2 chambers). The upper pan gets filled with one extra foot of water and that causes it to get pushed down, while the other pan (or lock chamber) gets raised upward.
Our next big stop was Bobcaygeon, where we stayed for 3 nights. This is a terrific summer resort town with the typical shops, restaurants, etc. The first night, we celebrated Susan’s (Potest Fieri) birthday. It was fun having Rae & Steve with us because they are boaters who understand the concept of living in small spaces! Rae helped me prepare a veal parmesan, angel hair pasta and chocolate pie dinner for Susan’s birthday. Everything was delicious and after dinner, we played “Catch Phrase” – the guys against the girls. The girls did win, but some of us got pretty competitive (especially since Rae & I had lost in a big way the night before to Steve & Roger).
In Bobcaygeon, we had a prime location on the wall for viewing the “goings-on” and there was plenty of that! A houseboat full of 10 girls on a bachelorette pre-wedding weekend pulled in front of us. They had a tough time docking and one of them said, “Can ya believe they just let anyone rent these things?” That about sums up the houseboat scene in this area. There were so many houseboats over the 3 days we were there and maybe 3 of them showed some aptitude for boat handling! Literally, we stood guard on our boats so that no one would hit us! It was so funny watching these people; we were doubled-over laughing. After the girls left, a 52’ houseboat with about 14 young guys pulled in behind and across the channel from us. They got back from the bars around 2:00 a.m. and had a run-in with the police for making wolf-like noises and one of them got arrested. Earlier that night, we had a “Beverly Hillbillies”-style boat in front of us and they were running a portable generator that rattled our brains! Fortunately, they only ran it twice for about a ½ hour each time. But it was painful to listen to. Since our windows were open, because there was no electricity on the docks, it felt like a jackhammer was inside our boat. The Clampett’s left early the next morning, skipping out on paying the lock keeper for the overnight dockage!
I already mentioned that our Canadian moorings permit includes overnight dockage at the locks. Hardly any of the stops have had electricity, but we have been using our generator to recharge our batteries and heat our water for showers. We haven’t really needed our air conditioning since Rochester. The weather has been terrific. Most of the days have been just warm enough and the nights have been cooling down beautifully to sleep with a blanket. The first part of the Trent-Severn has been my favorite part of this summer’s trip so far. Between the scenery, the cooler weather, the fresh water, the lesser crowds (Bobcaygeon was the one exception), it has surpassed my expectations. If only the U.S. dollar was still king, it would be just perfect!
No comments:
Post a Comment