At Sturgeon Lake Marina for the night

Tied up at the Sturgeon Lake Marina

Today was a busy day covering the lakes of the Kawartha region leaving from Lakefield Marina early this morning. The thunderstorm last night brought more water to the canal system and the streams and dams are running fast. We took our time cruising through Katchewanooka Lake, Clear Lake, and Stony Lake before arriving at Burleigh Falls locks. This particular set of locks is hidden on the side of Fairy Lake and we almost boated right past the entrance. It was a good thing that Jan called out from the bow of the boat, " Hey guys, you just passed the locks."

The water at Burleigh Falls was running fast, as was the slip stream passing around the locks. It took all the power of our twin diesel engines to get through the current and at the same time, the high flow of water pushed us around as we pierced through the water to enter the locks.

So far the boat traffic on the Trent Severn Waterway has been low. We have not passed many boats going in either direction since we entered the system at Trenton but today we started to see an increase in boats. At Burleigh Falls we locked through with two other boats and all locks from that lock on had many boats. When we arrived at Buckhorn the walls were full of boats travelling both ways and Bobcaygeon was the same. There was no room anywhere to tie up our boat and we were lucky that the locks were open and waiting for us to travel through.

Cute Church on the waterway

When we arrived at the Bobcaygeon Locks friends were waiting at the lock for us and called out our names. It was good to see them in the crowd watching as boats passed through the locks. Thanks to all that said hi. It was nice to see smiling familiar faces.

As we went down Sturgeon Lake we passed the Kawartha Voyageur, a travel cruise boat on the lakes. It was heading towards Bobcaygeon from Fenlon Falls with a final destination of Peterbourgh. It started at the Big Chute on July 13th and will arrive in Peterbourgh on July 18th providing a 5 night trip. A ticket is only $2,436 per person based on Double Occupancy.

Out To See III pulls a large wake and as we travel at full speed ( 20 knots per hour) we really make waves. Other boaters do not like it and cottagers hate when large boats go past their cottages and docks. We always try to be careful in any of the above situations and do our best to minimize our wake. However, in the middle of Sturgeon Lake we were moving quickly today and one See Doo loved it. I just wish I could have made a video because he was jumping high over our wake.

We arrived at Sturgeon Lake Marina at 4:45 pm and tied up at the end of their dock. This marina is owned by our friends and they usually do not allow large boats into their marina as it is small and somewhat shallow but tonight they had room and we were cautious when docking. We invited Bob and Terry to dinner and we had a chance to socialize for a bit. Thanks Bob and Terry for allowing us to dock this evening. And we are glad Kevin was gone.

Our cottage is on Sturgeon Lake, not far from this marina and we took our dingy to the cottage for some grounds keeping. We did some weeding, cut the grass and made sure all was in order. It also allowed Swabbie a chance to play on the water with the dingy.

Swabbie taking the dingy for a spin

Tomorrow we have 9 locks to do with a final destination of Lauderdale Marina on Sparrow Lake. After that we have 5 more locks to get back to Midland, still hoping to arrive by Sunday.

The Hallman Experience: What do you do when your lad wants to play?

Solution: Let Swabbie loose on the lake with the dingy.

Two more days on the water