Monday July 17: Frankford on the Trent - Feels Like Home

Guppy at Kingston

Saturday we said good-bye to Kingston and a See-you-later to Karen and Craig on Rahn de Vous.

We were headed for the Trent Canal and they were headed back to Oswego and the Erie Canal. Not likely we'll see them again on the water this year but plans are formulating for a visit to their home in California sometime this fall. We'll miss them :-(

It was a gorgeous day for a change - perfect for traveling.


The idea was to break the trip to the Trent up into two days as it would actually have been closer for us to return to New York than to go to Trenton - the start of the Trent Canal.

So 40 miles to a small town called Picton. We ended up anchoring as the public docks were filled. Ok with us as the winds were predicted to die down at night.


It could not have been a more pleasant evening and overnight stay. The morning promised another good day of travel.

anchor alarm on phone

We were not dissappointed. We've been on these same bodies of waters in the past and with wind the travel can be quite miserable!

 The anchor alarm was set even though we didn't think it would be needed. Just really makes it easy to have a good night's sleep. At left, the anchor is obvious - and we are the small blue dot. If the blue dot goes outside the circle - the alarm rings. So nice :-)

Belleville (30 miles away) was the next place we wanted to stop.

There was this Chinese/Tibetan restaurant we found a couple of years ago there :-)

Craig and Karen were even going to drive over from Kingston to meet us there! Sadly - it was not open! Nor was it open Monday.

Sad state of affairs.... Steve took the bikes down and we ended up finding a nice Thai place and of course a breakfast place for Monday morning.

It wasn't long Monday (12 miles cruising which is only 45 minutes) until we went under the sign declaring we were entering the Trent-Severn Waterway!!!

No matter how many times we have passed under this sign and this bridge, it is always fun to do :-)

The water levels in the Trent are higher than we've ever seen. And the accompanying currents are also the most we've ever seen.

It's easy to know where there is a lot of current: just look for what I call the "dancing bouys" :-)

Of course most locks have an accompanying dam so the current sweeping past the end of the lock walls cause some interesting approaches to locking through.

We were locking through with 2 somewhat larger boats but fortunately both knew what they were doing so the locking process through the first 5 locks went relatively well.


Going through 5 locks was enough for us so we pulled over at Frankford - one of the few locks on the Trent that has power. I'm thinking we need to wean off of having power every night as it's not going to happen much after this!

It's a beautiful setting with perfect weather once again.

Steve cooked on the picnic table by the boat and there were nice shade trees for the warm afternoon sun.

One of the best thing about this stop is the small cafe a short bike ride from the lock. New owners, a bit of remodeling but basically just the kind of place we like :-)

And I love their fire hydrants - what a better way to find them than to put a big tall yellow stick that will be above the snow level :-)

Tomorrow: off to Campbellford!