Sunday June 19: Lakefield

After a nice concert in the park at Campbellford Wednesday night, we were up early to move to the blue line on the lock - only a mile or so up the waterway.

Why the rush? The Kawartha Voyager has pulled in across the way in Campbellford and they were scheduled to be locked through at 11:00 am (pay big $$ and you too can 'schedule' your time!).

No way did we want to follow them through the next 6 locks. It worked!

Rahn de Vous approaching the flight lock.

 Craig and Karen on Rahn de Vous were with us as we headed into the second pair of flight locks on the lower Trent.

Another long day going through locks. Mmm.... maybe we WILL just go to Chicago and the rivers once we make it to the North Channel. Might be better than retracing all of these locks :-)

But our plan worked - we were able to stay a head of the Voyager and made it to Hastings. Spent the night above the lock so we didn't need to wait until 10am when the locked opened to continue our traveling.

The Voyager ALSO tied up above the lock! We just can't seem to get away ....

It was fun watching them demonstrate how the nose of the boat folds up so the Voyager can fit into the small lock just below Peterborough.

The captain was very nice. I asked him if he had ever hit anything - and after thought that this was probably not a very nice question. If he had, bad memories and if he hadn't - was I going to be the cause of his running into a boat somewhere??

It didn't seem to faze him though fortunately. He works 10 days on (Peterborough to Big Chute and back) and then has 5 days off.  Apparently the cruises are quite popular as bookings are mostly filled for this entire season. Wouldn't be a bad way to see the Trent - maybe in a few years .....

Looking west from the Hastings harbor.

We were up early again but not as early as Craig and Karen. I had agreed to a 6:30 am leave time to again beat the Voyager. All night I'm thinking about the old two train problems from my days past. If the Voyager leaves at 7 am and travels 7 mph and we leave at 9 am (after breakfast out :-)  ) traveling 8 mph, how long would it take us to catch up as we travel the 40 miles to Peterborough? The answer? WE WOULD NEVER CATCH UP!!

I made my apologies to Craig and Karen - they left ahead of the Voyager. I slept and had breakfast out ..... We did indeed NOT catch up :-)

Another gorgeous travel day with light winds, lots of sun and great views.

This end of the Trent isn't nearly as populated as the more central region - where there are more lakes, small towns and open areas than there are locks.

The Canadian geese are everywhere. It must be getting late already as the young are almost as large as the adults already.

Of course our favorite are the loons. We were fortunate to spot a pair with two relatively young chicks.

It was calm enough as we traveled for Steve to begin working on the teak railing. Using a sander to remove all of the finish, he'll then put several coats of cetol to keep it looking nice for another year or so.

In and tied up by 2 or so below the lock near Peterborough.

Really nice place for the night. Easy ride into town (for breakfast and a movie - just HAD to see Finding Dory).

On the way back from the show Saturday we came across a wooden boat show in one of the parks.

The old Johnson motor looks just like the one in the basement at the farm! A 1958 model as I recall.








Amazing boats in unbelievable condition. Funny how there are collectors of just about anything!

There was even an old Peterborough runabout made when this area was home to some great boatbuilders.

After returning to the boat about 2 or so on Saturday, we headed up the waterway. Seven locks between us and Lakefield so the idea was to travel through most of them and spend the night on a lock wall again.

First the lift lock. For info, click here.

The rest of the locks are the old hand operated locks that are nice historically but a pain to travel through as they are just so much slower :-)

Dinner and then breakfast dockside at Duoro lock. Hard to beat :-)








And morning was so quiet.

Two locks and we'll be in Lakefield!!

Wednesday June 15: Campbellford

We arrived yesterday at Campbellford after another six locks and 24 miles. Concert in the park tonight so we decided to stay a couple of nights.

Weather has warmed up - shorts were in order for today for a change. It's so much nicer when the day is warm and sunny!

The couple (Craig and Karen) in the boat in front of us are from San Juan Capistrano, CA. Not too far north of where Matt and Wendy have their home. Very nice folks - but then I seem to say that about all of the boaters we meet :-)

The second day we spent in Trenton was really enjoyable. Time to do some relaxing and reading. And of course some work.

One of the worst things to hear when you push the button to start the engine is silence ….. as happened the other day in one of the locks on the Erie Canal.

No problem – quick grab the hammer and hit the starter! Good to go … for now.

After that we were hesitant to shut the engine off when locking through (much to the dismay of the two guys in the sailboat behind us who were breathing the diesel fumes – sorry for that).

Steve out of habit shut the engine down in the next lock. Yikes! No problem, we started right up.

But he was on the phone to American Diesel (guru's of the Ford Lehman engine) to order a new one. It arrived to Pirate's Cove but we never seemed to find the time to install it! But it's on the boat if needed :-)

And then we didn't start again in one of the locks when we were headed toward Oswego and Lake Ontario. Hammer out – hit starter and good to go. Really though? Let's get this done.

So we spent time in Trenton to replace the starter. Only 3 bolts and a few wires. Of course it took twice as long as we thought it would but then what else is new ...  No more worries about not starting in the locks :-)

This is the travel we enjoy on the Trent - low winds (not always the case but mostly).

Beautiful waterways - Steve is sitting on a bollard contemplating ???

Spent the night at Lock 6 - Frankford. Peaceful with no trains!!

Bonus is power at the lock (one of 3 that now have electric) and breakfast just down the road.

It' still jean and jacket weather but good things awaited us inside the aptly named Oasis Restaurant.

The first peameal bacon of the trip - we were both quite happy as it's one of our favorite Canadian specialties.

Cured pork loin (so low in saturated fat) rolled in cornmeal.

Breakfast food of champions .....

 Steve managed to get a picture of the Baltimore Oriole that was in the tree near the boat. Quite the noisy guy.

The trip from Frankford was chilly but once again a beautiful sunny day. The six locks included the flight lock at Ranney Falls.

Truly amazing engineering accomplishment. Total lift is 48 feet as you move from the lower lock into the attached second lock.

Best thing we saw? Many pairs of swans with their young. Don't recall seeing so many here last year on the lower Trent. 

We'll take that as a good sign!

Saturday June 11: Trenton, Ontario!!

We left Pirate's Cove yesterday (doesn't seem possible even as I type this!) at 8 am thinking that our destination was 30 miles including 7 locks.

Then on Saturday, cross the 48 miles across Lake Ontario to an anchorage.

Plan B: weather was changing and our window of weather on Saturday was disappearing - chance of thundershowers, winds from the south with waves building to over 3 feet.

So we traveled the 30 miles to Oswego - arriving at 2 pm. Okay - should we just keep on going? Some quick calculations said, "Go".

By 9 pm we were across and nicely anchored in a cove inside the protected area of Prince Edward Island. And still a bit of sunshine!!

I wouldn't describe it as fun - west winds producing waves that hit us almost broadside - not quite broadside, just uncomfortable but certainly doable. Most waves less than 2 feet and the occasional rogue!

But back to Pirate's Cove. We stayed there 4 nights as there were projects that we'd been wanting to get done and we really like the people that run this marina. A great place to relax for a few days! We rented a car to make things easier as well.

Primary project? Install an RV air conditioner in the main cabin. Steve found the Attwood 13,500 btu would run off of our little 2000 kw Honda generator. Since we had removed the giant 7.5 kw Onan generator from the engine area we were able to run the larger air conditioner on the boat only if we had shore power. Which is rare up here on the Trent (we like tying to the lock walls as opposed to going to marinas).

Step 1: mark and cut a hole in the ceiling. We once again were mentally taking advice from Safety Matt: measure twice, cut once :-)  Good thing too since we goofed on the first take! Good thing we have paint to cover the oops purple lines ...

Hole in the lower ceiling cut. Now to the roof.

Two layers: fiberglassed 1/4 inch plywood and the original cored deck of balsa wood.

We were quite pleased with the condition of the core in the flybridge as we redid this 10 years ago when we first bought the boat. It's nice to see a repair really hold up the way it should!!

And we have a place for the air conditioner!!

Meanwhile I was working on painting the wallpaper to help inhibit the growth of mildew when we leave the boat.

It's weird. The mildew will grow on the wallpaper but not if it's painted! Let's hear it for the color matching at Home Depot :-)

Somehow it always takes longer than it should to install something. The second attempt added about an hour to the project! Finally though it was in and works perfectly on the Honda.

So much quieter than the built in air conditioners ...

We waved so long to Jim and Linda on Thursday early afternoon.

They were headed for Oswego to spend the night and then cross Lake Ontario when the weather was good. We were still thinking Saturday.

But then the weather said otherwise. So Steve turned the car in Friday morning and we were off shortly after 8:30.  We came to another turn you definitely do not want to miss!

Looking out of the opening of the cove where we anchored last night.

And so we crossed the lake, woke to rain this morning but no wind.

What a peaceful night after a long 78 mile day.

So glad to be across as now we are again in really small lake and canal areas.

Not nearly as concerned about the weather - except it could be a tad warmer. Getting tired of jeans, fleece and jacket!




Travel to Trenton (50 miles) was so calm it was crazy. What a contrast to yesterday!


And by the time we arrived at the Trenton Marina, the sun and blue skies greeted us!

Turned out to be a really nice day. Lake Ontario was maybe nice enough to cross today - who knows? But with thundershowers predicted - no thanks.

One last tidbit from Steve: if you have a flashlight that requires size D batteries but you don't have any?

No problem! Just use those size C batteries and add a stack of quarters to make up the size difference and viola! Light works :-)

Sometimes he's just too smart ......

Wednesday June 8: Pirate's Cove

So for a quick catch-up of the last week! We have moved from Waterford on the Eastern end of the Erie Canal to Pirate's Cove Marina near Syracuse.

The weather has been very pleasant for the most part but having electric every night has been great as we were running the air conditioner most days in the afternoon.

Locks have been numerous (10 the first day, 7 the second day - with a total of 23 so far!).

I have learned to LOVE the locks that have a fixed pipe or cable because Steve uses a single line around the pipe or cable and from mid-ship he can keep us next to the wall. So it is VERY relaxing for me :-) Get the boat close enough for him to loop the pipe or cable and I'm done!!

I did look over one time to check on him - nowhere in sight. Then I noticed the line running into the cabin! He was just sitting inside holding on. Great idea since it was quite hot in the sun.

If there is no fixed pipe or cable then we each have to man a rope that is attached just at the top of the lock. Makes it very easy for the boat to swing away from the wall - plus the lines are pretty slimy as they are just sitting in the water anytime the lock is filled. Yuck.

Above is a typical dam and lock (left side of picture) on the Eastern end of the canal. This portion follows the Mohawk River so the dams can be quite wide. We were fortunate there wasn't much rain when we were on this part of the canal as the river floods quite easily. Three years ago the canal was closed for several weeks - stranding boaters who were unable to move either direction. A number of dams were severely damaged.

Little Falls was a nice stop as there was a car show the evening we stayed. Fun to walk around and check them out. This picture is for my brother Pat. He has an old truck or I should say he has the pieces of an old truck :-) One of these days it may get put back together!!

The marina there is really a nice one. It's an old refurbished canal terminal with very well landscaped grounds. I suspect it is a gathering place for the locals for various events.

Once past the head of the Mohawk River, the Erie Canal becomes much more of just a straight man-made waterway.

So easy to travel along but not a great deal of wildlife along the way. Two turtles, one osprey and one muskrat was the sum total of what we saw (other than small birds flying around) and half a dozen cranes.

To spice up one of the really long travel days (I think it was the one where we went through 10 locks), Steve brought out the secret surprise lunch: minion mac and cheese!!!


How fun they were! But we both agreed that the regular macaronis are better. The minions required so much extra pasta to make the figures that it as almost too much!

However it still made for a fun lunch :-)  Bonus was a finger puppet that could be made from the box. Steve did most of the cutting and I did the final arm :-)



And we're not the only ones going north - lots of flocks of Canadian geese going that way as well. It's so fun to watch them fly as the V shifts left and right as the lead birds change their flight.

Several days of low or no winds made for some really pretty views down the canal....

The last travel day wasn't so nice. We decided to cross Lake Oneida a day earlier than planned due to the change in weather. It's a lake that is 20 miles long and not very deep - which is the perfect recipe for not very fun waves - up to 6 feet at the end of the lake if the wind is blowing the whole length.

So we scooted across (at our usual high speed of 8 miles an hour :-)  ) and did fine. Rain on and off until we were within 4 miles of the entrance back to the canal. This is when the two weather fronts decided to come together.  The result was probably the worst rain/wind combination we've been in for quite a while. It didn't last but 10 minutes or so and then it was gone!

That was a couple of days ago. We're been here at Pirate's Cove for two days now getting a few things done before we head over to Canada.

After dinner with Jim and Linda from Edisto Island, we were rewarded with a very cool sunset and rainbow. Difficult to see in the picture but a very vibrant colored rainbow in the center of the picture.

Murray's stored their boat nearby here for the winter and will be traveling to Montreal and Quebec this summer. It was, as always, great to see them.

More on the project at a later date!