Trent-Severn Waterway I
July 1, 2025
Happy Canada Day!! Left Trent Port Marina at 8:30 and started up the Trent-Severn Waterway. Originally, we were only going to transit 8 locks, but decided to get through 12. We had every lock to ourselves. The lock tenders told us that yesterday was rather busy for them; about 40 boats went through. We made reservations on-line for a wall space in Campbellford. We are right in the downtown area – great for getting off and walking about. Once docked and after showers and a quick dinner of leftover nachos with a side of homemade guacamole, we ventured out and stopped for an ice cream. As we stepped off the boat, Robert, a gentleman sitting on a nearby bench was admiring our boat and asked a few questions about it and what our plans were. Brian asked him where he could get JB Weld (it’s for hopefully fixing the minute crack in the fuel tank – this product has been recommended several times to us.) Robert told Brian he would drive him to a shop that sells this product. They made arrangements for tomorrow morning.
July 2, 2025
After breakfast, we took a walk to the local bakery; there was quite an assortment to choose from; it was so tempting to buy more than we wanted or needed. Robert arrived at the allotted time that was previously arranged and took Brian for a ride to a hardware store to pick up the JB Weld. While he was away, Lauren cleaned all the windows, inside and out. The inside nav windows were smeared with dried up fly guts; took a bit of scrubbing. Oh, and can’t forget Heidi’s slobber on her favorite lookout window. Then she tackled the upholstery with the hand-held vacuum; always something to do clean.
After a much-needed break, Heidi was taken out for a walk. We met the Canadian couple, Peggy & Rob on Margarite E., the boat parked in front of us. We had a wonderful conversation about numerous topics and even touched on (heaven forbid) politics. Lauren started one of two loads of laundry and we took a walk to the local grocery store to pick up a few items, mostly fresh produce.
Tonight, we have reservations at Antonio’s Bistro. Tomorrow is our anniversary (47 – yikes!) and since we are leaving in the morning, decided to celebrate a day early. Where did the years go?
Sitting here on our afterdeck discussing plans for tomorrow, we have quite a few people walking by looking at the boats lined up against the wall; Heidi-Ho receives a lot of compliments, also the name seems to be a big hit.
Brian reading: Private by James Patterson
Lauren reading: The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate – the book features articles from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loves ones who had been sold away.
July 3, 2025
Left the dock wall at Campbellford about 8:50 and headed to our first of 5 locks for the day. Arriving at the first lock, there was already two boats holding on the blue line and one trawler in a waiting pattern. Lauren got behind (not too close) the holding trawler and jockeyed the boat around for quite a while. Once the lock doors opened, the two boats holding on the blue line went in along with the boat in front of us. Because there was such a long wait for the lock, we tied up to the blue line; the lock has to fill lifting the boats, let them out and then let other boats in waiting to travel in the opposite direction. Then the lock is drained, doors open and those boats are released. Then we were allowed to enter; total time for just the first lock was an hour and a half. Two other boats a bit smaller than ours joined us in the locks for the rest of the day. We decided to stop at lock #18 and tied up on the Parks Canada wall – free; no electric or water, but didn’t need it. We met two other Looper boats; Paul & Jill on Pelican and Jim & Tammy on Live The Dash. Tomorrow is about a 40-mile trek to our first lock of the day, which most likely we will stop at that dock wall once through the lock, if there is space available. Not an overly exciting day of traveling and since we celebrated our anniversary yesterday, we cleaned out the fridge for dinner.
PS: Even though it was said that it wasn’t an overly exciting day, Lauren did have her first mishap at Lock #15. When we were approaching this lock; the doors were closed, we noticed one of the attendants rushing down the steps to the blue line and waving us over. We thought there might be a problem with the lock, so Lauren brought the boat to the blue line thinking we had to tie off and wait. The attendant didn’t ask us to tie off, he just wanted to know about the two boats behind us. “Were we traveling together?” “No.” “Were they traveling together?” We didn’t know; they were just tagging along with us. He started giving us instructions as to how he wanted those boats to tie up in the lock. While he’s telling us this (which has nothing to do with us), Lauren was keeping the boat close to the wall and Brian kept telling the attendant we didn’t know the boats and did know their intentions. As we were free to go into the lock, Lauren had turned to Starboard a bit too early and the Port stern gently grazed the concrete wall. We can’t see the damage from the inside of the boat, but Brian thinks we might have scraped the frame around the scupper. No real damage except to Lauren’s psyche.
July 4, 2025
Left Hastings at 6:45 and started on our way. We traveled through Rice Lake.
Rice Lake is known for muskellunge; a tough-fighting fish that’s well known in the upper mid-west. The lake is also known for large and small-mouth bass, walleye, catfish, bullheads, jumbo perch, crappie and sunfish. There were quite a few people fishing. It was a beautiful day on the water. In one of the rivers, we saw four fishermen trying to paddle their boat. We pulled up beside them and asked if they needed assistance. Their battery was dead and they could not start the engine; so, they were thrilled for the help. We tied them beside our boat and towed them about a mile up the river to where they had parked; our good deed for the day.
Today there were eight locks to transit. One of the locks was the Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock. It is the world’s tallest lift lock. The lock raises and lowers boats in two steel chambers. The chambers are 140 feet long and hold 228,000 gallons of water. Each chamber is operated by a 7 ½ foot piston. The rams lift the chambers 65 feet. When one chamber goes up, the other chamber comes down. It was quite the experience. As we were exiting the lift lock, there was a family with 4 youngsters watching and the wife was taking pics. We tied up at the wall right after the lock to decide if we wanted to stay on the wall or continue on. The family was still nearby, so Brian asked if she would forward a pic of our boat that she took. While exchanging info, Brian invited the family on board to give them a tour; the kids were all excited and asked quite a few questions. We decided not to stay on wall as there was absolutely nothing around; you couldn’t really even take a walk on either side of the canal as it dropped off rather steeply. So, we continued on for about another five miles before ending our day on a lock wall in the town of Lakefield – a long day. Brian figured we traveled only 47.7 miles, but with transiting the locks, it makes for an exhausting day (10.5 hours). When we were pulling up to tie up to the wall, we noticed that Jim & Tammy on Live The Dash were also tied up. All of the spots with electric were taken up, but we were just glad to stop for the day. Tomorrow we will walk about town and spend another night on the wall.
July 5, 2025
Since we weren’t hooked up to electric, it made for a rather stuffy night. We were actually surprised that we weren’t inundated with mosquitos as we are surrounded by trees with nary a breeze and languishing canal water. Live The Dash left to continue their journey, so Lauren started the engine while Brian got off the boat, untied the lines, grabbed both bow and stern lines and walked the boat back while Lauren had it in idle reverse taking the spot that Live The Dash left as they were hooked up to power. So now, we have power – yeah!! After a hearty breakfast, Brian cleaned all of the Eisen glass; one of the panels is, unfortunately marked up from using a rough sponge on it to get off the dried chunks of insect guts. Guess we should have tested the sponge out on a more inconspicuous part of the glass before going whole hog. On the upside, all of the Eisen glass is now squeaky-clean inside and out. We walked into town late morning looking for a bakery. We stopped at the first one we encountered and each selected a maple glazed donut; they looked so tempting and it’s been months since either one of us has had a donut. Brian had his tea and Lauren had her ice coffee with a shot of espresso. The ice coffee was perfect, the donuts – meh! Lauren has yet to come across a better glazed donut than the ones made by Donna’s Donuts in Tewksbury, MA. These donuts tasted fine, but felt like a lead weight in the gut. Oh well, it was still good to get off the boat and walk about. Arriving back on the boat, Brian left to drop off books we’ve both read to a book exchange site, get a much-needed haircut and buy some fresh produce. He came back with the produce and two more books. Jill and Paul of Pelican arrived and tied up to the wall.
While he was away, Lauren decided to run a load of laundry. She had just sat down to do a bit of reading when she heard, “Hello? Anyone on Heidi-Ho?” Lauren poked her head out. A good-sized boat came in and wanted to hook up to power, but couldn’t get close enough to a hookup. They wanted to know if Lauren was okay with moving the boat back to the next power source; sure, no issue. Their boat needed the electric source from both sides of the hookup. So, there were five us out there using lines and towing the boat back to the next power source. It went smoothly and the owner of the boat (Yacht) kept thanking Lauren.
July 6, 2025
Last night the humidity was oppressive. Even though we were hooked up to the electric on the wall, it kept shutting off – ALL DAY LONG!!! Brian got off the boat the whole time we were tied up and reset the breaker. We discovered what the issue was. It was a 30amp service which we hooked up our 30amp cable to, but it apparently puts out less than the 30amp which was causing the circuit breaker to constantly trip. Brian sent a text to the previous owner regarding this problem. Bob was helpful, so Brian will hopefully be able to make adjustments to the lithium ion system to compensate for inadequate power being delivered from the marinas the next time we hook up. Brian started the generator so we could turn on our a/c; what a relief. We only let it run about an hour, but it was enough to make it a bit more comfortable for sleeping.
This morning we left the dock wall in Lakefield at 7:45 and went through three locks. Paul and Jill of Pelican met up with us at the first lock and asked how far we would be traveling. We were undecided. They wanted to stop at Buckhorn just after the lock. When we arrived at that lock (#3 for the day), there was not enough room for both of our boats. It’s summer vacation and a lot of boaters out there enjoying the weather. Lauren told Paul at the lock to go ahead and take the one remaining spot and we would move on. It would have been nice to spend some time with them, but… We traveled for about another hour and a half and dropped anchor in Buckhorn Lake. The winds had picked up in the last several hours, but did not make for an uncomfortable ride. Once the anchor was down, we jumped in to cool off; even put Heidi in the water. The water was a bit choppy, but not cold and felt refreshing. The trip through this area was stunning; so many places to drop anchor, swim, be-bop around.
Brian is Reading The Goodbye Man by Jeffrey Deaver
Hope all is well and stay safe out there.