The Long and Winding Canal

The last two mornings have been misty and cool but today it was sunny and warm, and the weather man told us to expect sunny skies and 26C all day. We were prepared for the weather but what we didn't know, was that we would run into obstacles along the way that would "try" to hamper our ability to get to Lake Simcoe and out of the Lower Trent Canal System. If we could make it to Simcoe, then we knew we could get back to Midland by Friday evening. Given that we could not make it to Simcoe, we were doubtful that our journey would end on Friday. So we prepared as best we could. Our boat was at the front of the blue line this morning, and we should be first into the Fenlon Falls Lock when it opens at 10 AM.

At 9:45 AM I walked to the Lockmaster and she told me they would prepare the lock and move us in right away. At 10:15 they opened the lock and moved us into the lock with a homemade houseboat. It took them 30 minutes to get us out of the lock, but as we were leaving the Lockmaster asked me if I had a mooring pass, which meant that we would be able to tie up at their lock overnight. I said I did not, so she asked me to exit the lock and tie up - they would come and collect the $55 for overnight. At this point I was ticked. I ran back, swiped my credit card and we took off at 11 AM. It took 1 hour for something that should have been 30 minutes max.

Frustrated, we moved forward to the Rosedale and Kirkfield locks however, there was a fair bit of waterway to cover in order to pass through those two locks.

Wierd Looking Houseboat

We passed a Loon, Bulldog, Blue Heron and lots of swamp land on our way to the Kirkfield lock, which is a lift lock, similar to the Peterborough lock.

At Kirkfield we were in the "tub" with one other boat and I was able to sit on the front bow and watch as we went down in about 30 seconds.

Here ae some more images of the Kirkfield Lock

After the Kirkfield lock we entered a long section of the Trent Waterway that is all canals. This part of the system was created from granite rock and dug out from the ground to connect Cameron, Canal and Mitchell Lakes to Lake Simcoe. In this part of the Waterway System there are 5 locks overall, and connected to each other within a 5 km stretch. These 5 locks are at the end of the canal section.

The canal is very narrow and not really designed for today's modern boat traffic. Much of it is straight, shallow and full of weeds and built for one boat width. Today we were moving comfortably through the canal when I saw something Big & Red coming at us. It seemed to be about 2 kilometers away so I quickly grabbed the binoculars and confirmed - this is at least a couple of big boats heading towards us and we have nowhere to go and we need to find a place to pass. It was a big red tug boat followed by a second grey tub boat.

I radioed the Captain of the Red Tug and advised him that we would hold and wait for him to arrive at which point we would make a very tight passage on the canal. He agreed and in about 15 minutes he arrived, we passed each other and carried on. Here is a video of our passing each other. Ignore the beeping because that is my alarm system for low battery and when I use the thrusters it draws high voltage.

Chester decided to sit on the shelf so he could get a better view of the boats passing.

So we now have had to deal with two tricky time delays- the first delay in Fenlon Falls and the second on the canal - together they account for 45 minutes of lost time today.

After we passed through the canals section we entered the long stretch of open canal with 5 locks and a swing bridge. All are within 5 km of Lake Simcoe. At 2:25 PM we arrived at the 1st of the last 5 with another boater. He has a boat similar to ours. We knew we were very tight to make it before they close at 3:30 PM. We spoke to the other boater and we both agreed and said, "Lets just give it a try and push to get through these 5 locks", so he led the way.

Both the 5th lock and 4th lock were operated by the same 2 staff and they did well getting us down the canal. It is now 2:45 PM and we have 3 locks to go.

The next two locks were operated by two staff and they basically said, "We think you can make it to the last lock by 3:30 PM, but it is up to the operators at the last lock to decide whether to let you go thought" however they got us out of the second last lock with 5 minutes to spare.

We had only 5 minutes to get 1 km to the next lock and then through it, if they would cooperate. It was nerve wracking.

This is a video of us 'Pushing" through the water to get through the lock. The lead boat pushed so much water (because he was going fast) that it overflowed the lock with 2 1/2 feet of water as he approached the lock. The Lockmaster gave him proper heck for doing that.

All 4 staff of the last 5 locks came together to get us through. Two ran the gates open and closed and the other two ran the water exiting from the lock as we were dropping down. At exactly 3:45 PM we exited Lock 41 called Gamebridge. We only needed to sweet talk the lady that operates the swing bridge now, however she waited and let us through. We stopped and thanked her and she said, "Please don't tell anyone I did this because it will ruin my reputation".

We made it through the lock system and now were in Lake Simcoe with a 1 1/2 hour boat ride to the Orillia Town Marina. We arrived at 6 pm and were happy boaters.

The marina is new and caters to Transient boaters only. They have 262 slips and it offers showers, washrooms and laundry facilities and is the finest and cleanest you will ever find.

Here is the washroom and laundry facility

We walked across the street to Studabakers for dinner and enjoyed the hospitality of Orillia. We are glad to be through the toughest part of the Trent Canal and now only have 4 more locks to do tomorrow, including a ride down the Big Chute. We are planning a late afternoon arrival at Wye Heritage Marina tomorrow.

Here is our Nebo Log for the day. We went 75.3 km over 6.3 hours at an average speed of 11.5 km.