Sunday August 19: Big Chief Anchorage

Saturday morning and off we went. The waterways here are an interesting place – especially on the weekends. Not only do you need to keep an eye out for the many boaters around but also for the every so often seaplane! I was trying to figure out who would have the right of way and whether or not an airplane had to follow the accepted rules of navigation. Decided that it didn't matter – the bigger the vehicle, the more right of way it has, so I yielded to the seaplane!

I've heard tell there are moose in the area but I don't think this guy qualifies :-) Fun to see though but I'm not sure what the paint colors are all about.

Really? We waited until the weekend to go through Big Chute? We should know better but didn't have to wait too long but the boats were sure piling up behind us.

An older Chris Craft that we had first seen at an anchorage in Georgian Bay and then meet again in Port Severn was waiting at Big Chute with us. Its unique configuration requires that air bags be placed under it on the railway car rather than the usual slings. No problem!  It really limited the railway car to this boat and two small runabouts but just amazes me that the railway car was designed to accommodate so many kinds of boats. For a bit of the history, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chute_Marine_Railway

We made the next load along with a sailboat from Nova Scotia. It just sat on the keel with slings holding the sailboat steady so it didn't tip to one side of the other. The rudder seemed VERY close to touching from my perspective.

The night was spent at the bottom of Swift Rapids Lock. It's quite a view from the walkway across the lock. One more job completed: rerunning the wiring for the speakers for the flybridge. Pretty soon we'll have this boat just the way we want it!

Our own picnic table – what more could we want? Nice dinner on the grill. We seem to be in a rut – but since it's a good one, we'll keep it :-)

We met the gentleman in Trawler Trash at Port Severn. His wife died of brain cancer when she was 60 – she loved boating as well as he did so now he just does short trips from his home near Sparrow Lake. Know anyone that likes to boat?? We really liked the name of his boat as trawler trash is the term some sailboaters use to refer to folks who prefer to have some control over the direction in which they travel i.e. primary source of power is NOT wind :-). We don't mind being trawler trash at all!!

Again, the question was, why are we traveling on a weekend? The Couchiching lock is one of the busiest on a weekend and here we were. Timing of the lock was actually pretty good as we waited only about 20 minutes. In the past we've seen a line up of 15 boats waiting for this lock on a weekend!

The Kawartha Traveler crossed out path on Lake Couchiching. I told Steve that we get too old we would maybe enjoy traveling on it- one more time through the Trent kind of thing. He said maybe when we are 90 …... The dark skies in the background should have been a clue to us as we approached Chief Island where we intended to spend the night at anchor.

One minute we are peacefully at anchor – I'm in the V-berth reading and Steve in the aft cabin for a short snooze. With no one looking out of the windows, the storm crept up quickly and announced itself with a clap of thunder. And wind. Lots of wind. There goes Steve's kayak – blown off of the front of the boat. Good catch with of all things the back anchor that he tossed into the kayak as it was headed for parts unknown. Disaster averted!

Is shore getting closer?? Sure seems like it. Yep - the anchor has broken loose in the last gust of wind (first clue is that we are drifting sideways to the wind rather than being held nose into the wind by the anchor). Get the engine running, get the anchor up (sadly this is Steve's job so he is the one out in the blowing rain :-( ) and drive around until the wind/rain lets up a bit.

It's now a very peaceful night – no storms in the forecast – good for tonight :-)