Tuesday June 25: Georgian Bay

 It was a nice day again on Sunday as we left Swift Rapids lock. The water on the Trent-Severn is still running much faster than we've seen in the past.

It's not unusual to see standing waves in some of the narrower channels on the river as we move toward the last two locks on the Trent system.

But first of course was breakfast! The Waubic Restaurant has been around for a number of years. It was a derelict place for a long time and then each year when we passed we noticed that someone was working on the buildings (this is an island with no road access so just having building materials delivered is difficult).

Finally - the Waubic opened! Every year since then we stop when we go by (and have made a note that it is closed on Mondays :-) ).

We spent the night at Big Chute on the lock docks. One of the boats that came in was called Jim-Kat. The guy looked familiar ...... have we met before?

Turns out we met them in 2011 on the Chambly canal on our way to Lake Champlain! Boating really IS a small world.

We saw something in the water on the way here and it took a while to figure out that it was someone swimming - towing a beach ball. Good thing too as it would have been very difficult to see him/her without it - especially when the zippy boats are out and running around.

The kayaking at Swift Rapids and Big Chute was great. Saw lots of turtles, big bass, muskrat, and otter! The water is really clear - partially we think because it's early in the season yet.



We spent last night at Pt. Severn and eventually will head out today for Georgian Bay. One last lock to go through!

And now for real - no internet for ???




The marine railway at Big Chute is always a fun trip.  Click here for more info and pictures about Big Chute.
Of more interest to me is the old railway that we crossed in our 21' Lone Star boat in the late 50's. It's still here but is no longer operational. Nice that they have kept it up though. Below are some pictures of the old railway.




Information sign.











The railway car. No one rode on the boat as it was transported but now you just stay on your boat as you move to the lower lake level below.

Guppy lined up to be next on the railway car!















Looking down over the track which leads to the lower level of water.

Lockmaster station which was right next to the railway. This was not here when we came through in the late 50's.