Trent Severn Waterway: Part 3

Lovesick to Orillia, ON

Life On Board

Just a glimpse of boat life:

We have been able to keep up with paying bills and emails using our cellular modem connection and WI-FI when it is available. Deb and Mike have even been able to do a little revenue generating work for our former employers along the way. We call it "making fuel money." It is a nice option to have.

Carousel has two refrigerator units, one of which we can keep at or below freezing, and the other acting as a good refrigerator. They are both small in house terms so we have to plan how much freezer and fridge items we can carry. We have learned to buy small containers, even though they may be more expensive, since they are stored more efficiently.

As we get further into Canada the spiders are finding Carousel a nice environment. We are still working on controlling that issue. We had forgotten that spiders are more of an issue on fresh water than the salt water in which we have been boating the last 16ish years.

We have had a few very minor malfunctions on Carousel, all of which we have been able to address with the spares that we carry. These things are to be expected given the increased use that the systems on the boat are experiencing. A good set of tools on board is essential.

When we are away from marinas, we rely on two large battery banks to provide power to the lights, instruments, pumps, charging electronics, and refrigeration. We draw off of one bank at a time and keep the second topped up as a back-up. These batteries also start the engines so flat batteries would be a problem. We have to run Carousel's 8kw generator about 3 hours a day to keep the batteries charged. We usually time a morning run with the need to make Deb's coffee and hot water for Mike's shower and we time an evening run to correspond to any need to run the microwave for making dinner.

Deb is maintaining several spreadsheets to keep us organized. One spreadsheet contains the route information for the balance of the waterway, including low bridges, locks, towns, and attractions and she uses that to plan the stops along the way. The other major spreadsheet keeps track of the groceries on board and helps build shopping lists and plan meals.

Bobcaygeon, ON

Narrow and beautiful channels in Cottage Country

Leaving Lovesick Island, we entered what we consider the prettiest end
of the Waterway with pink granite outcroppings and evergreen forests. These are also some of the busiest ares of the Waterway system. The houseboats were described in the last post but this is also "cottage country." The canals in this area are generally lined with cabins and there is a fair amount of local boat traffic. Also, in this stretch, we encountered the lowest bridge in the system.

The next stop on our trip was the town of Bobcaygeon. Whoever sells Adirondack chairs around here does a good business!

Approaching the town of Bobcaygeon

There is a lock in the middle of town and tourist shops on either side of the locks. The major entertainment in town is the land-based tourists watching the houseboats and more serious boaters locking through. Approaching the Bobcaygeon lock, the canal takes a sharp bend after which suddenly appears a crowded and narrow channel. The lock is very busy so there is usually a wait. With nowhere to tie up, we had to make Carousel "hover" in place in the channel until the lock became available. 

Approaching Bobcaygeon Lock

Fortunately, with Carousel's twin screws (engines & propellers), we can pretty well keep her in place by selectively shifting engines forward and aft and directing water with the rudders.

There were no places for us to tie up for the  night below the lock so we would have to take our chances above the lock or move on to the next location. As we went through the lock, the staff told us there were no places upstream so be began to update our plan as the lock lifted us. Coming out of the lock and past several boats of various sizes, we spotted a spot along the wall about 45 feet long. Now, Mike is getting pretty good at parallel parking Carousel but her 42 feet is actually 43.5 feet at the waterline and 45 feet from the anchor on the front the end of the swim platform on the back The parking trick here is to back the aft starboard corner to the wall and tie a line tight and short to the bollard on shore. Then we advance the port side engine forward and the starboard side engine in reverse and swing the boat into the wall. with other boaters hopping off their nearby boats as we started this maneuver (some to help and some to deal with whatever disaster they anticipated), Deb called out our distance in feet to the small cruiser behind us and Mike asked someone on shore if the bow would miss the jet ski ahead of us. Well, it all worked according to plan with us wedged into a spot about the same size as the boat and the bow actually overhanging the jet ski.

5 ft deep water beside our slip at Bobcaygeon

We enjoyed walking around Bobcaygeon, having a nice restaurant lunch, topping off groceries, and visiting the head office of Karwatha Dairy, the manufacturer of the ice cream we have been enjoying since entering the Waterway.  There were several shops that Deb could have used an extra day for doing some browsing and window shopping, but with no room on Carousel for "stuff", we decided to make this a one-night only stop.

The water here is quite clear but we have been seeing more weeds in the shallow water. This all makes visual judgment of water depth quite difficult. It also means checking the strainers in our water intakes more frequently.
Salad anyone?

Fenelon Falls, ON

Canal between Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls

Our July 20 destination was a short 15 nm away - another nice little town, Fenelon Falls. 

Our target docking spot was another tight space and we began to execute our parallel parking maneuver that worked so well in Bobcaygeon the day before. Only this time, however, we had some current working against Carousel swinging into place so we needed a little help from another boater on land in pulling in our lines for us.

Our plan was to visit the Farmer's Market there but after walking a few miles to two different locations, we discovered that our information was wrong and it is was being held on a different day. So, we did well on our number to steps for the day but poorly in our quest for fresh veggies.

Fenelon Falls Museum

Parks Canada has done quite a bit of work on updating the moorings there so we enjoyed both water and electricity. Carousel got an end-to-end scrub-down. She is happier when she is clean.

They have a fantastic local museum located in a canal-side park in Fenelon Falls which we enjoyed very much.

We could have enjoyed another day there but we decided to press on.

Thorah, ON

For July 21, our trip to the Thorah lock was an exercise in navigation and new sites. I will be using the word narrow here a lot.

Just at the edge of Fenelon Falls, the narrow canal proceeds through an even narrower swing-bridge opening and then into a lake. This particular bridge is out of service so it stands open in the summer and is closed in the winter as a pedestrian path.

This portion of the system has several of these swing bridges. In each case that we experienced, the bridge tender was alert and closed the bridge to car traffic and opened the bridge just as we approached.

This portion also has some VERY narrow passages where we are required to announce our entry on the VHF radio before entering and then it is suggested that we sound our horn every quarter mile. This is all so that another boat does not enter from the opposite direction until we clear the area.

We actually met another boat in one section who apparently was oblivious to the navigation requirements. We had to hug to the rocky and shallow shore on the right a much as we could and then we came to a full stop and held position until he passed.

Kirkfield Lift Lock

Perhaps the highlight of the day was the second lift lock in the system, the Kirkfield Lift lock. In this case, we had the lock to ourselves as we pulled in and found ourselves hovering 70 ft above our destination.

In between the narrow channels, we crossed a couple of more lakes and then had a string of 5 locks.  We had decided to only proceed through 3 and pull up to the fourth for the night to enjoy one of our favorite features at lock walls - the fire pit!

A long way down

Narrow stone bridge between two lakes

Orillia, ON

After enjoying our evening campfire, we were up and ready to lock through the Thorah lock as soon as the lock crew arrived.  We had one more lock 1/2 mile down the canal and shortly after that, we entered Lake Simcoe, the largest lake of the system. In Lake Simcoe we powered Carousel up and crossed in a couple of hours. We entered Orillia in a narrow channel and headed towards a gas dock to get our holding tank pumped. We found shallow water in the process and had to back gently away from the shallow mud. We stirred up quite a bit of mud in the process but we accomplished our goal.

We planned a two day stay at the marina here to take advantage of the activities of the small city and to stay parked for Saturday so that we would not have to deal with the weekend traffic.

Orillia Street Art

Farmers Market

Of course we found the farmers market, found the ice cream stand, and enjoyed the waterfront. We also both got haircuts. They were having a street festival there and had the main street blocked off for the two days of our visit. This would be our last day at a dock for a few days, as we would be entering wider channels with anchorages.