August 1, 2015 - Bobcageon on the Trent Severn Waterway

·      Current Location –

o  Bobcageon on the Trent Severn Waterway, Ontario Canada

o  Latitude – 44° 31.9' N Longitude – 78° 33.9’ W 

o  Total Miles – 1175

·      Total locks – 95

·      Number of Days Away From Home – 107 (Ay Chihuahua!)

We made the decision to put the boat away for the winter in Michigan so we are heading that way.  We are about halfway between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron on a very special passage called the Trent Severn Waterway.  It is 238 miles long and has 44 locks.  We are in the town of Bobcageon, which is a pretty happening place (seriously).  There are some spectacular cruising areas further down the line but that will be the subject of future blogs.

I’m going to try a different format in this blog than before.  I will put in a simplified summary of what we have been doing instead of a day by day and put in more pictures.  Hopefully this will be more interesting.

On a personal note, I will address the bug population in Eastern Canada this time of year.  Specifically, I will describe how to be a truly champion fly killer.  I hope you enjoy this as much as the pictures.

Where have we been for the last two weeks?

We spent half of the time around Kingston in Lake Ontario visiting the Thousand Islands and environs with Scott and Connie Neish and half of the time transiting the Trent Severn Waterway on the way to Lake Huron.

Our final days in Eastern Ontario with Scott and Connie Neish-

In addition to good food, drink and fellowship, we did some more exploring of the Kingston and Thousand Island area.  We took a drive West up the coast to Picton where Linda and I would have to travel later.  There are a number of ferryboats to help link various islands with the mainland and they are free to use.  Pretty nice eh?  We also went to Boldt Castle again and this time we visited the “boathouse” which is full of beautiful old boats from about 100 years ago.  Excellent varnish work! 

We took a drive inland to show Scott and Connie a lock that we went through (Chaffey’s) on the Rideau Canal and had lunch at an OLD resort called the Opinicon which is next to the lock . It has just been reopened after several years of being shutdown and although they have a lot of work to do overall but the restaurant is in good shape.

On our last day with Scott and Connie we did a slow circumnavigation of Simcoe Island, which is out in Lake Ontario and saw it’s very windswept scenery.

July 25th through August 1st – On the Trent Severn Waterway-

After Scott and Connie left, Linda and I headed west planning to stop somewhere in the Bay of Quinte but we just kept rolling until we were in the Trent Severn Waterway.  We went through the first six of 44 locks and ran a total of 81 miles from Kingston – that was a long day!

Life on the Trent Severn Waterway is spent cruising through a series of canals and lakes with a bunch of locks thrown in.  All of the locks are very cool but a few are really remarkable.  For instance, the Peterborough lift lock lets you drive the boat into a huge “pan” that just lifts you up 65 feet to the water level above .  You barely need to even hold your boat.  You will see several of the locks in the picture gallery below. 

Below the picture gallery is my personal section on dealing with flies.

Picture Gallery –

  

Linda and I spent a night on Camelot island and the water seemed fine.  It was around 70 degrees which I thought was warm until we went up the Trent Severn where the water was 76 degrees.

This is a really old guy looking at a really old boat.  Both are still in prime shape eh Scott?

This is a 115 year old racing boat.  Really narrow and long

In addition to old boats, there were old outboards at Boldt Castle.  These are a bunch of 100 year old models

As we were leaving Boldt Castle, this tanker came down the St. Lawrence River.  Pretty damn big!

Linda and Connie waiting for Lunch at the Opinion near Chaffey's Lock on the Rideau

This is one of my boat buddies on this trip.  It's a mallard duck that decided that if he walked into the cockpit of our boat from the swim platform and did tricks that he might get a snack.  Of course he did.

Locks and More Locks.  This is Linda Tending the Bow Line as Usual

This is one of the free ferryboats that serve the many islands offshore of the mainland of Ontario.  This ride was only a few hundred yards but others went several miles and were still free.

This picture doesn't do the historical program justice at Fort Henry near Kingston.  They have several reenactments including musket and canon fire and they finish off the show with fireworks.  It is largely a celebration that those traitorous Americans have never won a major battle with Canada.  Is it time to try again?

Linda took this one morning at daybreak.  The day had some spectacular weather.

Here we are waiting on the blue line to enter this lock.  We do a lot of this.

These are some of the more "rustic" cottages along the Waterway.  Many of the large fancy cottages have a whole island to themselves but they tend to be back in the trees so we don't have any great photos.  There are thousands of beautiful cottages along the TS waterway.

This is a 4-5 pound pike that I caught on a Kastmaster lure.  Catch and release of course (instead of fillet and release)

This is the mighty Peterborough Lift Lock.  You can see the big pan that the boats go up and down in.   It's 65 feet high and makes for a great view.  It takes approximately 20 minutes to transit.

Personal note - Dealing with Flies

You can't believe how many bugs there are in the NE compared to the NW and how exposed to them that you are in a boat like ours.  There are a whole bunch of pesky critters including gnats, mosquitos and flies but I am going to limit my comments today to dealing with flies.

There are basically two types of flies here, black flies and deer flies.  The black flies are more numerous and much smaller than deer flies but they both bite. 

We deal with both of them the same - squash em with a fly swatter.  But there is much more to it than that.  Here are the characteristics of the perfect fly swat.

1)  You kill the fly

2)  You don't squash it on anything important (like the windshield or my sandwich)

3)  You can find it after the whacking.

4)  You can pick it up and dispose of it

If you want a Phd in fly swatting, you will consistently hit the fly on the fly (i.e. no squashing on any of our stuff) and with your follow-on swing you will direct the dead or seriously injured fly over the side and directly into the water.

Fly swatting can be fun and entertaining but there is the ethical problem.  How many times can the Dali Llama forgive me in one day?  Should I take pity on flies in the future?  Somehow I doubt it.

What's next?

We will be entering the Georgian Bay and then the North Channel in the next week or so.  This is the more remote part of our whole trip so my timing on the next blog might be a bit off but more news around August 15th if possible.  Hi to all of you.

July 15th, 2015 - In Gananoque Ontario, Ca

Post Title – July 15^th in Gananoque, Canada

Current Location –

o  Gananoque Canada in the Thousand Islands Area

o  Latitude 44° 19.3' N Longitude – 76° 9.9’ W 

·      Total Miles – 848

·      Total locks – 64

·      Number of Days Away From Home – 92 (Ouch!)

Sorry this Post is a couple of days late but the dog ate my homework er.....

OK, we have now completed the 120 mile Rideau Canal and are in the NE part of lake Ontario.  We are in the middle of the famous Thousand Island Area which is like our San Juans times ten and there are hundreds of waterfront mansions that are called “cottages” here.  It’s all quite amazing.

Here are the highlights of the last two weeks.

July 1st, 2015  - Still at Westport for Canada Day

Tod and Linda at the Canada Day Parade Showing the Flag

We enjoyed a very simple Canada Day celebration in a light rain by watching the town’s parade which included a fire truck, a police car, and 50 kids on bicycles.  It was topped off by a pretty good fireworks display.  Before we left I did a little casting from the boat with a spinner bait right in the town marina and hooked a good fish.  It turned out to be a 27" walleye (called pickerel here).  It was skinny for it's length and only weighed about 4 or 5 pounds.  

A Boat Neighbor Holding MY  27" Walleye

Tranquility at the Newborn Lock

Here is a picture of the local guy who helped me land it. 

July 2nd, 2015  - To Newboro Locks

After leaving Westport we went to the Newboro Locks and found a spot at the top with power.  It is a beautiful location and we had a nice afternoon.  I did a little fishing and caught a few small bass.  The Newboro locks are the highest elevation for both the Rideau River to the North and the Cataraqui Rivers to the south.  Heading south such as we are, the nav aids are now red on the left side of the channel, not the right and the locks are taking us "down". We walked to a store named “Killborns” that is famous for its old building that has everything you would ever need for your fancy "cottage".  We actually got lost and had to ask the way out.  I really like shopping.  When we got back to the locks we met an old couple who had driven 30 miles just to sit and watch the river here.  This is another perfect spot and we have perfect weather. 

July 3rd, 2015  - To Opinicon Resort

Locks and More Locks on the Way to the Opinion

We went down through the Newboro Locks at 10:00 am with a couple of other boats and cruised slowly to Chaffeys Lock. After locking through we went around the corner and into the Opinicon resort.  It has nice grounds and a good restaurant.  This place is OLD and has been closed for three years.  The resort was recently purchased by the founder of Shopify and it is his wife's project to fix up.  The channel into the resort dock is very narrow with shallow tree stumps on either side.  A houseboat almost crashed into us as he was trying to land.  Linda and our boat neighbor Mike had to fend him off quite hard.  We had a fine lunch there and then had a little party with dock friends Sheldon, Amanda, Mike and Susan in the evening on our boat.

July 4th, 2015  - To Mortons Bay

We decided to skip the fourth of July celebration at the Opinicon Resort so we worked our way out through the weeds and went south through some very narrow winding passages on our way to Smith Falls and beyond.  At Smith Falls we went down through 4 locks although two were a single locking that they called a “double lock”.  We continued on and went into Morton Bay where we found our new boat buddies Ted and Joan Palango on Panchita at anchor.  They have cruised their Egg Harbor sport fisherman Panchita from Seal beach, around Central America,  through the Panama Canal and up to Canada starting in about 2008.  We anchored in the Bay and took the dingy over to have wine with them in the afternoon and compare some boating stories.  I caught a 12 inch smallmouth bass on a spinner bait - whoopee.  It was quite hot and humid today and we went swimming two or three times.  This is a fantastic anchorage.  It is very well protected and is 10 feet deep throughout with a nice soft bottom.

July 5th, 2015 – To Cranberry Lake

Billy Ray and Panchita at Anchor In
Cranberry Lake

We left Morton’s Bay after clearing a large weed ball off the anchor.  We snuck out of the narrow entrance followed by Panchita and into Cranberry Lake where we both anchored in about 10 feet of water.  Ted and Joan visited for a drink and we showed them what a small boat is like.  I fished some and only had a couple of strikes.  Beautiful night with lots of loons calling.

July 6th, 2015  - To Washburn Lock

Check out the Weed Pile on Panchita's Anchor

In the morning I fiddled around a bit fishing and caught another 4 pound pike.  When I lifted it up for Linda to get a picture it flipped off of my barbless hook so no photo.  We pulled anchor at the same time as Panchita and we both had massive weeds to clear off.  The "gob" was about the size of a person and took a while to pull off with the boat hook.  We went back by Seeley’s Bay and cruised through some very small passages and ended up going through five locks.  We spent the night below Lock 45 with Panchita.  Beautiful place to tie up to the lock wall.

July 7^th- Major Milestone – We Just completed the 124 miles and 49 locks of the Rideau Canal!

July 7^th-9th, 2015  -  In Kingston

Dock Buddy at Kingston

We did a few locks with Panchita and went into Confederation Basin Marina in Kingston.  As usual with no car we hauled beer and wine from the Ontario liquor store then went out to lunch at Harpers Burger Bar (It’s a Triple D place Jeff).  Nice small town. Joan and Ted on Panchita headed West for the Trent Severn, a 200 mile canal with 45 locks that connects Lake Ontario to Lake Huron.  We will follow at some point.

We also did a lot of boat washing  - I think I could spend hours cleaning bugs off every day.  We are not doing much sightseeing, as we will be here with Scott and Connie in a couple of weeks.

July 10 th, 2015  -  To Thawartway Island

We left Kingston at 9:30 and cruised NE to the Thousand Island area and into a Parks Canada  moorage on Thwartway Island where we picked up a mooring buoy.  Kind of wakey and a bit windy but when you are on a buoy who cares.  We went swimming and BBQ’d steaks for dinner.

July 11^th through the 16th, 2015  -  In Gananoque

We met Wayne Salisbury and Sue Swanson in Gananoque.  This is a small town in the heart of the Thousand Islands.  We had excellent dining (the Riva Italian restaurant to start with) and spent one day that had thunderstorms driving up to the Rideau so they could see some locks.  

Linda, Wayne, Sue and Tod at Boldt Castle

We took a cruise boat to the famous Boldt Castle where we had to re-enter the US and then Canada coming home.  

Bold Castle Power House

The castle was built by hotel mogul George Boldt in the late 1890s for his wife Louise who died unexpectedly before it was finished.  He never set foot on the property again.  George Boldt owned over 3,000 acres of property in the Thousand Island Area.

The Main Castle - Picture Doesn't do it Justice

On another day, we were able to pick them up in front of their hotel 

The Bill Ray in Front of Sue and Wayne's Hotel

(the Gananoque Inn and Spa)  to do some island cruising.  We tied up to a mooring buoy for lunch and a swim so I did a little casting.  

Seven Pound Pike Caught from a Mooring Buoy

This is a crummy picture, but I caught a pike of about 7 or 8 pounds.

Personal Topic - Showering in Marinas

Ok, here’s the personal moment and I'm sure you will find it fascinating.  I’m going to talk about marina showers.  If you have a mega yacht, you would NEVER think about using the showers that marinas provide.  If you have a tiny cruiser, you ALWAYs use marina showers.  Well we are in between so we SOMETIMEs use marina showers.

What is a marina shower? – They are showers that marinas make available to their patrons.  They vary from kind of crappy to really crappy. 

The things that can make marina showers crappy are:

·      They are small.

·      They are dirty.

·      They don’t have warm/hot water.

·      They have questionable clientels (people like me!).

·      They have bugs.

·      The dressing area (if any) is wet.

·      There is nowhere to hang your stuff.

·      There is other peoples soap or shampoo in the shower.

·      And to really add insult to injury, they usually charge us to use the showers.

So what do I do?  

·      If the showers are totally dirty, I shower on the boat.

·      If the showers are a long way from the boat, I shower on the boat.

·      If I don’t mind the boat bathroom getting a little wet (e.g. a nice sunny day) – I shower on the boat.

·      If I don’t mind putting a little water in our tank, I shower on the boat.

·      If I want to shave, I shower at the marina unless its too awful.

If you gotta do it, here's the process:
·      Make sure the warm water works before getting undressed

·      Keep my flip flops on as much as possible.  Never let your feet touch the floor.  It is a challenge to get undressed but you can take one flip flop off at a time and stand on leg.  I find that standing on the back end of the flip flop to be removed with the toe of the foot that you are going to balance on helps the remove and replace process.

·      Think about a strategy for dealing with the bugs – wash them away normally.

·      Find somewhere to hang my stuff.  I can hang my towel, shorts, clean underwear, t-shirt and kit from one nail.

·      Put my soap dish and shampoo somewhere in the shower

·      Take my shower.  Put my glasses, soap dish and shampoo in the cleanest spot I can find outside the shower when I finish with each one.

·      Shut off the shower.

·      Drip dry for a minute or so.

·      Carefully lift my towel so none of my other clothes items falls to the disgusting floor.

·      Dry myself from the top down.  Only dry down to my ankles.

·      Trap my towel between my chin and my chest and grab my under shorts. 

·      Touch the cleanest spot on the wall I can find with my right elbow to steady myself.

·      Stand on my left leg and take off the flip flop on my right foot.

·      Dry my right foot and then slip on my underwear and then my shorts about to knee level on my right leg while continuing to balance on my left leg

·      Put my right flip-flop back on while holding my underwear and shorts at about knee level.

·      Do the same thing with my left leg.

·      Pull my underwear and shorts up all the way.

·      Do the other stuff one normally does after a shower.

·      Go back to the boat feeling like I achieved something big.

Whew, that is hard to think about.  Hopefully you get the idea.  Using a marina shower is not that great if you are fussy at all about cleanliness, which of course is why you take a shower in the first place. I think I need to take a shower on the boat!

What's next?

We plan on staying in Lake Ontario for the next couple of weeks and spending some time in Kingston with Scott and Connie Neish.

We are still firming up our plans for the year and for August.

More on August 1^st.