Today begins the next phase of my trip, as we head north into the heart of Ontario, Canada. It's a beautifully sunny day. Bruce headed back to the other Ontario, CA yesterday after his two months as the mate, and Janet A. will now handle the ropes for 11 days. We will try to pass through 19 locks in the next two days so that we make the town of Peterborough by July 1, which is Canada Day. It's the country's big celebration day, similar in spirit to Independence Day with parades, picnics, partying, and fireworks at night. Peterborough is the next "big" town after we leave Trenton, so we wanted to be there for the celebrating.
After leaving Kingston on Saturday, we moved along the southern coastline of Ontario into a long winding waterway that leads to Trenton, the town that is the Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway (and where we are right now). We had not gotten too far into the waterway when we arrived at our anchorage recommended by a boater back in Kingston (who had exactly the same model boat as Breaking Away. We compared notes on how much we loved this "yacht"). It was behind a little island called Glen Island, and of course was very quiet and beautiful. It was raining during the first few hours, but when it cleared I took a scenic kayak ride.
The next morning, I again took a kayak ride (see photo of the sun rising) and this time came across a man loading up a small boat from the island. We ended up talking for quite a while, and his family has owned Glen Island since the 1930s. He loves spending most of his summers in their little shack that has only propane-fueled refrigeration and a stove. No electricity and no water (which he brings over from the mainland). He loves the peacefulness and the fishing. His children will continue to keep it the family. He loved his life!
We pulled anchor and moved on to Trenton past numerous fishing boats, summer cottages, and magnificent scenery. Being a Sunday, we also got to see families enjoying their boats pulling skiers or tubers. Eventually we arrived in Trenton and the dockmaster was waiting for us at Fraser Park Marina. Virtually all other boats tied up here are going through the canal and doing the Great Loop. They, however, are not facing the decision of whether to continue due to the oil spill in the Gulf, since their endings are before they will reach the Gulf. They are from TN, KY, MN, and other locations north of the Gulf, which they traversed last fall. The few Loopers I've run into who still need to cruise in the Gulf are just not wanting to make their decision yet, which is where I am. My decision date is Aug 18, so I'll see what the forecast is at that point.
Yesterday Janet flew into Toronto and a wonderful friend from Nestle Canada picked her up and brought her here. See the photo of Paulette Gougeon and me. Paulette was the regulatory/labeling manager for Nestle, and got to retire just last April. We had many good times together while we "managed" those marketing folks (hahahaha.) To help Janet learn the ropes, literally, the four of us untied and went up the river to the first lock. We locked up, went out and turned around, and locked back down and returned to the marina.
The locks here are different in many ways from those in New York: they are smaller, their cables are easier to grab and hold on to, but the biggest difference is that they are operated by hand!! See the photo of the lockmaster turning the crank that opens one gate at a time. Since each crank opens only one gate, he had to walk to the other end of the lock, cross those closed gates to the other side, and then walk back up to the crank for the other gate. Once he opened the second gate, only then could we proceed out. Thus, the locking process is a bit longer than in New York, but much more "homey" and basic.
I must say, approaching that lock gave me an "exciting" moment at the helm that had me frantic for the first time on this trip. We were in a left side channel from the river, separated by a low stone wall, but suddenly there was an opening where the river flowed into the side channel. I could see that the current was strong where it was entering on us, but WOW, I was not prepared for how forcefully it suddenly shoved the boat head first toward the shore, only several yards away to the left. Luckily my instinctive reaction was correct; I swirled the steering wheel to the right as fast as I could and also shoved the throttle forward to give me speed to make the turn before we'd hit the shore. It worked - barely. That was scary. I think a warning to boaters there would have been a good idea. On the return trip, I gave it lots of throttle ahead of time and therefore could control the effect of the entering current. We'll hope the same correction will work when we hit this spot later today when we return to Lock 1.
After a nice Italian dinner, Paulette and Bruce left. She was going to drop him off at the airport, the reverse of what she did earlier for Janet. It was such a nice visit with Paulette, and a goodbye to Bruce who helped us "learn" the ins and outs of boating through shallow, narrow waterways, dinghying, locking, and generally managing life on a boat. Thank you Bruce.
Now we're off for new adventures! George Tonner will arrive on July 12, three days after Janet departs. But for now, fun fun fun.
Well, I need to get going for some grocery shopping (we're out of wine completely, and getting very low on beer! Oh my!) and a short trip to the marine supply store.
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