Mon July 31: Big Chute to Midland Harbour

Well....I must have been really anxious about the Big Chute in the night because I dreamt (did you know that dreamed is also acceptable?  this kind of nonsense with the English language really drives my ESL student crazy - understandably...) that I had to sit for the GRE exams again, and I couldn't remember anything I had ever learned and had to leave them all blank..... 😱😱😱😱 Ima turn it over to Rick now, while I breathe into a paper bag.

Rick here: The Big Chute is a marine railway - literally a big open train car that carries boats over a piece of land where the canal doesn’t go through.  The original railway was built in 1917 as a quick temporary way to complete the Trent Severn canal.  The plan was to build another lock at this site but after some time it was decided to leave the railway and not connect the waterway.  The fact that the waterway isn’t connected stops the spread of invasive species (like Lampreys).  The railway was updated and rebuilt in 1978 and is an important part of the Great Loop.   We tried to take as many pictures as possible (and other people helped) to show you how it works, but it is hard to really understand the scale of the operation.  

The large, open, rail car is like a big dry dock for boats.  It has big slings operated hydraulically that cradle the boat and hold it steady as the car moves over the rails.  The car is moved by large cables that run on large electric motors - like a cable car.  The rail car can carry a number of small/medium size boats but it can only carry one boat our size.  The boat is loaded with the rudder and propeller hanging off the back of the boat. 

Here are some pictures of the rail car: 

At this point we are a bit nervous, and it looks like a big predator lurking.  We got on the blue line two hours early, so we had time to get even more nervous!

This a boat exiting so you can see what it looks like deep in the water.

Once the rail car moves down into the water the operator, using a loud speaker, calls the boats that he wants to move over and get loaded.  Here you see Blue Horizon as we drove it into the back of the rail car. We were the only boat this passage as there were no little boats waiting. (The wind and current were pushing us toward the dam, but Rick smoothly got us into the sling)

Blue Horizon being loaded and adjusted with the slings into the back of the rail car. 

Here the boat is loaded and the car is moving up the track - note that there is no water in the car. We remained on the boat during the trip. 

Being loaded - note the water still underneath the boat. 

The loading is supervised by professional park employees - these are not young college students. Here he is trying to make sure our running gear is well placed before he lifts the carriage out of the water.

We asked the park employee to take a picture of the running gear as we moved out of the water. Everything looks good! The insurance company paid a lot for this new gear-we so t want to ask them to do it again. 

Our friends on Sea Wag (another Looper boat) took pictures of us as we crossed the street down to the other side. I’m on the back waving and Mel is on the front.

And here, moving down the other side of the hill.

The Big Chute is like a lock in that it does lower us about 65 feet from one side to the other.  We continue our down stream trip to Port Severn.

A picture from the back of the boat. You can see the boats lined up on the waiting dock behind us. Each boat takes about 20 - 25 minutes. 

A shot from the front of the boat as we travel down to the lower pool.

Continuing down the hill.

Shot of another boat as it reaches the lower pool.

Blue Horizon reaching the lower pool.

Water fills the car and we get ready to float off.

A shot out the back of the boat as we start to float.

We start the engine and carefully maneuver our way out of the car. 

It was all over so fast and the relief of having it done was wonderful.  BUT-we couldn’t celebrate in the moment because we had several narrow stretches, and the very last lock on the Trent Severn canal to get through.

The last lock #45 at Port Servern.  Turns out also the smallest lock on the whole canal, so it was only us in there. 

We cruised out into the Georgia Bay and over to Midland where we pulled up to the dock at the Midland Town Harbour.  We were happy and relieved to be done with the canal and now on to Georgian Bay.   The actual cruise for the day wasn’t that long so we did a bit of work on the boat (see below) and walked around the small down town, stopping of course at the grocery store.

Midland, Ontario

Defrosting the refrigerator

Blue Horizon at rest and waiting for Part 2 of the adventure