Rick here-Mel lost her mojo: We were up and ready to go by 8:30 am so we could be the first to arrive at the lock. First we had to go through lock #20 and then on to lock 21 - the big lift lock. It was only about a quarter mile to lock 20. We exited the marina and made our way slowly towards the lock…only to be greeted by about a dozen other boats who must have been up and ready to by 8 am or earlier!
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| Thought we were early- but they were all earlier. Luckily we got to squeeze into the next cycle-we thought it might take 2-3 cycles. |
So we waited and waited and waited. It turns out that the locks today (other than the lift lock) are old and VERY slow to drain and fill. It took us over one hour of waiting to get into lock 20 and then another 30 or so minutes for it to fill up.
Finally we exited lock 20 and made our way to the lift lock. It turned out to be very easy to enter and tie up. And, as this time the whole thing moves up - boats, water and all, there is no turbulence from water entering and the whole thing was very smooth compared to a regular lock. We were joined in the lock by a couple of other boats. Once we started moving the whole lift was over way too fast - in about 1 minute we were 65 feet higher. We thought about asking if we could just stay in the lift and go down and then up again, but when the door opened we exited and continued on our way.
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Looking up before we start our ride.
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Looking forward at the wall we have to travel up.
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| Our view from on top! |
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| Looking down on the tiny person! |
We cruised slowly through the suburbs of Peterborough and eventually came to the campus of Trent University. The canal flows right through the center of the super modern university and it was kind of fun to be boating right past very modern buildings. It was Sunday so there were only a few students around but a few were taking advantage of the water - swimming right in front of the building where tomorrow they will have classes. A nice campus.
The rest of the day was a slog. Five more super slow locks in the blazing sun. We had heard that it was so hot in Phoenix, that people were calling it “Satan’s Butthole”. We felt like Satan was also spending some time in the locks on the Trent Severn Canal.
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| We were stuffed into the lock with 3 to 4 other boats |
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| This dad entertained his young passengers by “fishing” with a large magnet. They brought up a number of interesting metal objects - an old battery, a flag pole, and lots of iron oxide flakes, aka rust |
By the time we stopped at Lakefield (lock 26) we were tired, hot and sunburned. We shut down the boat and relaxed for a little before putting tennis shoes so we could get off the boat and take a walk. The small town of Lakefield has a trail around it so we followed it past homes, parks and the fire station. It was a nice walk but rain was threatening (we’ve had a typical pattern of thunderstorms in the afternoon) so after a quick stop at the supermarket (of course) we headed back to the boat to shelter.
In the evening I tried an experiment with a home-made smoker box and a piece of salmon. I just could not get the smoker pellets to light. I finally brought the whole thing down to the kitchen stove (Mel here-am I the only one who thinks this open flame on a wooden boat is a hard no?!). Still no luck overall but it was a good check on the CO and smoke alarms. Both worked well. Unfortunately the smoker didn’t.
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Trying to light the smoker box. Don’t try this at home.
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| Mel here-I have NO DOUBT he will try again!! |
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| Good night! |
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