Hooray - Leftover donuts for breakfast and only one lock!!
But still a long boating day, with lots of fun navigational challenges:
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| "You want us to fit through there?!?" |
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| The Chart: "stay in-between red and green or DIE" (The area on either side of the small channel has the remains of supports that once held a railway bed - of course it does) |
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| "OH MY GOSH - what even are these symbols???" They look evil - we have never seen them before and they aren't explained on the chart. We drive by them at a walking pace, acting like something is going to jump from the water and throw itself into our path. There was nothing to see, so we remain ignorant...but rattled. |
We had rain on and off today - invariably it would start raining right after I opened the hatches, thinking it was done. What with one lock and a long lake to navigate, the usual clot of boats dispersed - which was nice and peaceful. At the very last lock we talked the lock master into S Q U E E Z I N G us in beside a big Fleming (fancy nice boat). This made the Fleming guy a bit nervous, but we were happy not to wait for the next locking. Possibly it would have been better to wait - during the short distance between the lock and the Peterborough Marina a microburst of wind suddenly occurred. During, and only during, the docking. Rick had to maneuver (I'm a fair weather driver....also, I don't do backing up) between a tour boat and a big cruiser, make a left hand turn onto the fairway lined with boats and back into the slip, which already held one boat. All while being blown about. Absolutely everyone was at the slip to help (and to protect the boat already in the slip) - all the neighbors and about 6 dockhands. And you should have seen him give a master class in cool, calm rough-weather docking. While we recovered from the adrenaline rush people kept coming up to complement him. Good thing it's Fri and we can have a drink!
The whole fandango is pretty well summed up by this boat name -
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Once settled in we took a walk around the area/town. Halfway through the little downtown Rick had an epiphany. We have BEEN to Peterborough! Last year, while the boat was hauled out at Hurst Marina on the Rideau Canal, we drove over to get a new propeller and spent the night in Peterborough. We came in at night and left first thing in the morning, so I have NO idea how he recognized it. It seemed at the time like a dreary backwater, but it's actually the biggest city on the Trent Severn, and has lots going on.
One of the things it has going on, as in much of the universe, is the Barbie movie. We saw men and women coming out of the theater in full Barbie-Corps pink. I guess that's quite the thing!
Sights from the day:
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| I've recommend to Rick that he try this fishing approach. |
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| Read both signs - is it just me, or are they sending mixed signals?! |
Besides Loopers, the marina is home to quite a number of locals, and they were embracing the fierce Canadian commitment to summer. Young and old they were all camped out on and around their boats, in what seemed like a block party. Almost no one actually went anywhere in their boat, but they certainly enjoyed the dock and each other! Canadians don't really need a reason to celebrate, summer is enough in itself, but this 60th birthday was an extra reason...
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As usual we could have gotten here by car much faster - in about 29 mins. But it took us 6.5 hours, partly due to a slow lock, but mostly because we had to travel Rice Lake lengthwise, and at a slow speed as we aren't supposed to wake all the little vacation docks/boats along the way.
Anyway - we were pretty worn out (sun, wind, stressful docking) but stayed awake to watch an episode of Ted Lasso, and the pilot episode of Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a charming Korean series on Netflix. Yvonne/Michael recommended it to us and it's super fun!
Good night...
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