Safe and back at Wye Heritage, our home port

We came full circle. Left Wye Heritage Marina on June 14th on a sunny warm day and arrived back on July 18th but not without stories to be told and memories to be made. I think many of the stories were described in our blogs but the memories will stay for years to come.

For Swabbie, it was a time to enjoy what many would never get the chance to experience. Each morning Swabbie has two pieces of toast, peanut butter and jam but today we were ready to head out while he was still sleeping. Just as he made lunch for Captain, the favour was returned today with his breakfast waiting on the salon table for when, he woke up. It must be his ability to sense things but he crawled out of bed just as we were going to fire up the engines. He smiled, started his day with his favorite food and said, "Let's get going."

We left Lauderdale Marina and headed up Sparrow Lake with Swift Rapids as our first lockage. The day was another beauty - sunny and warm. As we moved through the lake we noticed that the waters were still moving quickly. It took 1 hour for us to arrive at the first lock and we had forgotten just how big this lock was. The dam was running full steam and the lock was tall. I think it was a 29 foot lift (in our case a drop). During our time in the lock a young lad about 10 years old tried to become an Olympic gymnast by performing high wire stunts on his father's boat. I'm not really sure why his parents let him do this but he got away with it for sure.

The Trent System, from Sparrow Lake northbound to Port Severn, is a series of winding waterways connecting small lakes but the canal areas are very pretty but narrow. With the currents running fast, we needed to be cautious when moving through some of the narrow areas and we passed several boats that made it a challenge to manouver past them.

The lock was tall and so was the dam and the water just poured over the spillway and down the system. It made for a fun time boating.

Along the way we saw some homes that needed fixing up and some that were already completed but we thought you might like to see all the different styles of construction on the riverbanks of the Trent.

The thrill of the day, again, was The Big Chute and the ride just does not get old. Being the Sunday of a nice weekend, it was busy and we had to wait in line for our turn to load. It didn't take long as they are well experienced in loading and unloading boats on the ride up and down the Trent. Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos that we have posted.

Waiting in line to load while the carriage is almost ready to unload a boat

After leaving The Big Chute we boated the final leg to Port Severn thinking that we were going to be back at Wye Heritage by 2:30 latest but that turned out to be a pipe dream. Lock 45 is one of the oldest and it is the smallest lock on the entire Trent Waterway System and can only load a few boats at a time. When we arrived there were 6 boats ahead of us, not counting the smaller ones that they shoehorn in when they can. We had to sit and wait for 2 hours before they loaded us and put us through. It was hot, windy and the end of our journey so we just wanted to get through and back to our home port.

Out to See III with a smaller boat in the lock at Port Severn

Along the way we saw a few interesting series of animals, things trying to be animals and a group of ducks all in a row. There were more ducks on the waterway than any other animals but overall we saw ducks, geese, osprey, kingfishers, beavers, many turtles, big and small, as well as fake bears, moose, and the likes.

At 4:30 PM, Sunday July 18th we arrived at Wye Heritage Marina, the place where our journey began some 35 days ago. We covered a lot of territory, enjoyed the expanse of Ontario's waterways, visited many cities including Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Brockville as well as lots of smaller towns. With Covid-19 restrictions still in play, we were unable to enjoy activities in the cities that we were hoping for, but never-the-less, it was a fantastic adventure. We intend to post a summary blog that might offer some additional information to those that have followed us the past month or so. There were some days that we had over 100 views of our Blog Posts. Thanks everyone for following us.

But as I sit here and write the final entry into today's blog I notice the counter area of our boat. - Just where is Alice when we need her ?

Did she quit, was she fired or did we make her walk the Plank? This is still a mystery !

As we arrived on our dock our boat neighbours greeted us with open arms and guided us into our slip. It felt good to be home.

The Hallman Experience: Just how does the blog get written every day and how does it get published on time?

Solution: The Captain is a bit weird at times - He should go to bed, it is 2:40 am.

Signing off for today - There is no more boating in our plans this week.