Wednesday July 11: Campbellford, Ont - ON THE TRENT!!!

It was an early start on Monday morning as our destination was 75 miles straight across Lake Ontario to the opening of the Murray Canal. The flags at the marina could not have been any less limp! It was going to be a good day, right?

 Looking back at the lighthouse at the entrance to the Oswego Canal, we headed out for the trip across the Lake. Beeline for 60 miles and then a slight turn to the north for the last 15 miles.

It was a nice sunny day but even so I had on jeans and a sweatshirt (Really?!) for the trip across. The idea was to cruise part way and then go slow part way to enjoy the trip. It didn't take long for us to figure out that cruising the whole way was the only way to go. The wind pick up a bit and whitecaps were forming. The waves were not quite broadside to us but it actually worked very well as we sort of rode in the troughs of the waves. We were very happy with the performance of Guppy (still seems weird to call our boat Guppy!). Cruising at 3200 give us a speed of 19 or so mph so it was a 4 hour trip compared to the trip 2 years ago of 11 hours on a very nasty lake.

 

It seemed like no time at all when we arrived at the Murray Canal and entered the first part of the Trent-Severn Waterway system.

Customs was a breeze and we were in!

 After a fuel stop in Trenton, we went under the bridge that welcomes boaters to the Trent-Severn Waterway. We were happy to be here!

 Making our way through 4 locks, we settled in for the night along a lock wall. We were the only boat there. Supper on the grill and an early bedtime as we  were ready to catch up on some sleep. It seemed to be a very long day -

The view out of the back of the boat - looking north - was just as we remembered the Trent to be.

 Up in the morning and ready to go: all of 2.5 miles to Frankfort - only two locks away :-) It's one of two locks on the Trent that have electricity - not that we need it but it's always nice. Plus we managed to complete two things that we had left New York not having finished.

One was to complete the windshield screen to totally block the sun. This goes over the sunscreen to totally cut out the sun and provides privacy at night. Although you can't see into the boat through the sunscreen during the day, at night it's like there is nothing at all on the windows! The second job was to put the Florida registration numbers and license on the boat - especially since when we came through customs, we gave them the Florida numbers even though the New York numbers were still on the boat.

 It was a full house at Frankfort - we have already met some very nice folks who are traveling the same direction as us. We also celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary here at Frankfort. Hard to believe it was that long ago! And we could think of only half a dozen or so (surely there must have been more!) years when we didn't celebrate it in Canada. After all, we usually spent July in Canada on the Trent. In fact, we spent our honeymoon traveling the Trent on a 16 foot open boat - talk about roughing it :-) We must have been crazy for sure ....

Early breakfast out and off we went to our destination of Campbellford - about 25 miles and six locks up the Trent River. It was amazingly calm when we left.

Timing of the locks could not have been better (of course the lockmasters call the next lock to let them know we are coming). It is so great to turn the corner into the lock as see an open door!

Especially at the double lock - the last two of the day. It doesn't seem like it should be tiring to go through these locks but somehow it is. Steve is nice enough to be the front person who is thus in the sun most of the day while I get to be in the shade of the aft top!


We arrived about 2, found the best spot for shade and parked for the night (or maybe 2 - who knows!).

Tonight is the concert in the park here (see bandshell at left in the picture) and we are docked on the wall just to the right of it. Hope the music is good! Of course it only goes from 6 - 8 or something like that. Figure if it's senior citizen hours, it is probably senior citizen music :-)