Exploring the TWS & Peterborough Lift Lock

After three hot and humid days on the trip down the Trent Waterway System (TWS) we finally had a change of weather and it arrived while we were sleeping. Because we could not get a spot to tie up in our preferred towns, we took what we could find and it turned out to be an illegal parking spot. In doing so we were close to blocking the entrance into the Burleigh Falls Locks. Our plan was to leave our dock this morning after 9 am because it had been raining from 5 am onwards and we really were hoping it would stop soon but this idea didn't work out at all. To our surprise three rental houseboats, captained by non-licensed operators behind the helm of a big oversized piece of metal came between our boat and another, docked across from us. We jumped to make sure they didn't hit us and so did the couple from the other boat. Happily, the house boat missed both our boats and made it's way to the blue line on the canal. What a way to wake us up.

Rock formations near Burleigh Falls in Stoney Lake

The night before we failed to check the weather and sure enough, it rained and our carpets got wet. We ended up laying them over the seats during the day, hoping for some sun, but that didn't work at all. We were stuck with soggy carpets most of the day. By the end of the day, we had the carpets dry but it took all of 6 hours a nd a bit of wind, to achieve some sense of being less soggy.

The route today would take us along Stoney Lake, the Ottonabee River, and through the city of Peterborough, followed by a long run of 68 km's through Rice Lake with Hastings being our final destination. Our previous year's run included the installation and repair of damaged propellors in the town of Hastings so it brought back nasty memories and today, our hope was that we would be able to put that behind us and keep safe and trouble free.

On Stoney Lake we passed Hell's Gate where a small church was located on an island, and we understand that it is still in use today. The name Hell's Gate came from Simon Fraser, who, in 1808 described the passage as "A place where no human should venture, for surely these are the Gates of Hell." We didn't stop to see if there was anybody standing at or near the gate and we want to stay away from anything evil or bad. Over past trips it seems like we have been to Hell and Back !

Church at the Gates of Hell

After we avoided the GATE, we wen through 5 more locks that were located pretty close together and we passed through them quickly. By this time the rain had stopped but it remained overcast. We really never saw the sun for the rest of the day.

Docked outside of the Peterborough locks was one of my favorite boats. A 52 foot Fleming Ocean going yacht called Slowpoke II. I was able to talk to the Captain and found out that he and his wife are from Toronto and has owned this yacht for about 10 years, with the last two years being in the Bahamas. He and his wife are now headed to Midland where they plan to slip the boat at Wye Heritage Marina, directly behind our slip for the rest of this year, and then continue to travel south on The Great Loop. I am looking forward to meeting them again in Midland when we return from our NYC journey.

Fleming Yacht called Slowpoke II

One interesting part of our day was the cruise through the large Lift Lock in Peterborough as well as passing Trent University and the grounds between three lock systems in the area.... these three locks are all within a few miles of each other. We set up our Tripod and created a very interesting Timelapse videos of these areas and wanted to let you imagine that you were on board Out To See today.

The first video is of the Trent University and is a 70 second video timelapse, that actually took us 29 minutes for our boat to past, but it gives you a different perspective of the area.

Trent University

The second video is of the large Peterborough Lift Lock as well as the waterways through the city, and it is very interesting to see it in 3 minutes and 6 seconds. The latter took us 92 minutes to do this route.

Lift Lock where our boat was at the very front of the Basin as it was lowered.

After we left the Peterborough area we only had one lock to go through before arriving in Hastings. We decided to have dinner on board and enjoyed Jan's specialty - - - Shepherds Pie. After dinner we walked to McGillicafey's Pub & Eatery for some delicious dessert. They were kind enough to fill our 4 jugs with fresh drinkable water as we drank almost all the water on board during the last 3-day heat wave. All in all our day ended on a positive note.

Finally we have our daily log from Nebo showing our route and the log of our journey. Today we travelled 98.7 Km's with an average speed of 13.7 Km per hour and we ran for 8.14 hours on the water. All was trouble Free and we are safely on shore tonight.

Tomorrow is our last day as a crew, heading to Trenton. We plan to arrive by 5 PM and in doing so, we have a total of 17 locks to go through, over an 82 km distance. We have our work cut out for us and will be at the first lock at 9 am tomorrow morning.