Saturday June 9: Pigeon Lake

Since arriving in Ontario late May, we've traveled 132 miles on the Trent Canal System. With the exception of Lake Simcoe - which can be quite nasty - is pleasant travel even in the windiest of weather. Except of course when it's raining!

The ice cream store overlooking the lock is still here - along with the much loved tiger-tail ice cream (orange with licorice stripes). Very busy place on a hot day.

Stokes on Trent jewelry store is still here but is now converted to a quilt store. The signs on the building are still there but the business officially closed in fall of 2017 after 66 years of being in business in Fenelon. Word has it that my Grandma Drouhard purchased several cups and saucers there in the 1950's for her collection. Time moves on ......

The wall above the locks at Fenelon Falls has both power and water and is thus a sought after dock space - especially with poor weather in the forecast.

We passed by the falls on the way out of town - half of the water of the falls being diverted to the power plant.

The winding natural river heads east and south to the opening to Sturgeon Lake which will take us to Bobcaygeon.

It ended up being a really nice day even though it was still a bit cool. This small town is the location of the very first lock built on the canal in 18??. It continues to be one of our favorites.

On a Sunday afternoon it can be a wonderful day of boat and people watching - especially if it's a windy day and the houseboats are out and about! Fortunately we were off again on Saturday and headed out onto Pigeon and Buckhorn Lakes.

But first it was time to hook up the new anchor light so Steve first tackled the wiring for the light behind the instrument panel (which is in the bathroom) as the newly installed light did not turn on!




Problem solved fairly quickly and the new Canadian flag went up as well. Because Guppy is registered in Ontario, the Canadian flag is to be flown at the most prominent position on the boat - in our case, on the flybridge radar arch.

One quick job I did was to renew the instrument panel on the flybridge. The sun really dries up the plastic and bleaches it out. So the trick we learned from Cheryl (on Surona) was to use WD-40 on it!



What an amazing difference! Now if I can just remember to put another coat or two on it :-)


This little guy was on the rock next to the boat. Seems it liked the blossoms falling  from the trees.

I know they are rodents but chipmunks are SO cute :-)

We were calmly traveling along Pigeon Lake on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when we were buzzed by 20 or so jet skiers out for a cruise!

Not sure where they were headed but we didn't see them come back. Mostly guys - maybe just out for a weekend run! Definitely had a great day for  it.

Most interesting thing for the day? The boat that was - not sure what! Traveling in disguise perhaps?

Maybe hauling back a bunch of broken off reeds for who knows what?

Very strange - but sure made me wonder!

Nice day with low winds - perhaps we'll just stop and anchor behind an island ......