Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

05-Oct-1999 Our leak has slowed down to a trickle, cancelled the travel lift, they say it will take 2 days to do the fibreglass work, we decide to purchase a second bilge pump and auto switch with its own discharge hose, (we should have one anyway), purchase a generator, and dismast at CFB Trenton Yacht Club, and head through the Trent starting at 09:00hr on Tuesday October 5th if possible, and haul out at Midland on Georgian Bay, where we will have lots of time and no schedules. We learn that most of this waterway consists of rivers and lakes, as opposed to man made canals, that is our lesson for the day.

10:00:08 Trent #1 lift s us 18', bought one way pass $124.10 (3.50/ft)

10:12:54 Lock #2 Sydney Lock, another 18', takes about 5 minutes.

10:50 - lock #3 - Glenn Miller Lock - another 28ft

11:04:08 11:05 lock #4 - Batawa Lock - 18 ft lift. Doug Last a Ham friend of Lowell Clark came down to say hello, he had contacted us on the VHF at Lock 1 to say hello, John Benson also there to greet us, came aboard

11:35 - lock #5 - another 18ft -

12:00 - lock 6 13:00 - lock 7. This one only 10 ft- John got off , had to be back in Trenton, again many thanks for all your help John.

15:00 Lock #8 Percy's Reach, found lock closed and full of water!!, had to wait 30 minutes. Lockmaster said he thought we were only doing 5kts,but we are actually clocking 6.5 kits with Mercedes running at 1800rpm. Up to now, all the locks have been open and ready to enter without having to stop. The Lockmasters are in constant contact and they know who and what are in the system.

16:01:33 Lock #9 Myersburg, Two large power boats from Detroit , locking down, these are the first yachts we have seen all day, Locked through and tied up for the night on the up side, rather than power up to lock #10, and have to tie up on the down side, thus saving us from having to climb 40 steps to use the washrooms!! Frank says he looked in the mirror, and saw someone that looked like him, but with a beard, so he went and shaved.

We are now 371 ft above sea level, and 122 ft above the Lake Ontario level

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

06-Oct-1999 08:06:49 left lock 9 where we spent the night on the up side

06-Oct-1999 09:05:06 LOCK # 10 24FT LIFT

06-Oct-1999 09:09:55 HAIGS REACH lift 24FT

06-Oct-1999 09:26:55 09:25 - LOCKED THROUGH # 10

06-Oct-1999 09:35:36 - Course 000 due north, getting colder!!!

06-Oct-1999 10:03:16 #11 and 12 double lift Ranney Falls total 48 ft lift

06-Oct-1999 10:50:26 - Campbellford - 22ft

06-Oct-1999 11:11:09 - Lock 14 - wind turned us sideways - had to use port wall

06-Oct-1999 Locked through at 12:20 3, locks a single and a double at Healey Falls about 75 ft total lift

19:40 - Stopped at Bensfort Bridge Marina after Dick ran aground, spent the night, temperature -4 degrees C.

Frost on the deck and all ropes and dock lines were frozen stiff, Who said we couldn't push a rope!!!

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

07-Oct-1999 07:45 - Left Bensford Bridge.

07-Oct-1999 10:03:48 Arrived at Peterborough Little Lake to top up fuel, 135 litres, $80.00 did laundry and some supplies, turned out to be a mistake, we should have been pushing harder and doing laundry after 15:30 hours when the locks close for the day!!!

07-Oct-1999 13:40 - locked through the hydraulic lift lock at Peterborough, what a sight! Two giant bathtubs, and they fill the upper one with more water and it lowers down while the other one raises up.

Stayed at lock 24, up side, re-taped the video we took so far, had some good rum and sacked out at 20:30hrs.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

08-Oct-1999 08:36:53 Departed Lock 24, Clear day should be warmer than yesterday...

10:15 - Finally locked through #25, there is a staff cutback, and one staff has to run several locks, today's lockmasters, were at #28 to let an American yacht through.

11:45 - Locked through # 27 - Young's Point

13:08:22 - Burleigh Falls - #28 there is no #29 lock, it was replaced with a larger #28

13:30 - Lock30

14:38:19 Buckhorn lock

17:15 - Arrived at Bobcaygeon Ontario, Gordon's Marina, office was closed so we tied up plugged in and stayed anyway, the lady came in the morning and charged us $15. for electricity and showers, no diesel pump available. Stocked up on Mount Gay and Captain Morgan, people here are very friendly, will drive you anywhere.

Jean Boudreau, her brother Don and his wife Heather, drove up from Toronto, and we all went out for steaks

Jean decided to stay overnight, and will leave after Fairfield lock tomorrow.

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

09-Oct-1999 left Bobcaygeon at 09:15, just cleared under the unopened swing bridge. Jean Boudreau accompanies us to Fairfield where her brother Donald will pick her up.

11:42:23 Fenlon Falls lock #34 we are still going up

Powered through Balsam Lake, the peak or summit of the Trent waterway, we are now 597 feet higher than Lake Ontario, beautiful country, very expensive cottage area...

14:20 - locked through Kirkfield, the second Hydraulic lift lock in the system, only this one takes us down 36 ft. Jean leaves us at the bottom pool, and we continue on trying to make Lake Simcoe before the locks close at 17:30hrs.

15:11:56 Canal Lake bridge.

15:35 - locked through Bolsover - #37

16:10 - through Talbot #38

16:30 - locked through Portage #39, going down is really easy!!! each one of this series drops us about 10 ft and run through farmland. The canals are dyked up above the fields, we look down at the animals, farms do not look as prosperous as home.

16:40 - locked through Thorah - lock 40

17:05 - locked through Gamebridge #41, the last one before Lake Simcoe!!! We made it with half hour to spare!!!

17:20 - Passed under the swing bridge which we cleared by only 4" awful close call, the bridge operator just looked at us, (she must have been sleeping) and entered Lake Simcoe - Flat Calm, winds 0 kts, we have 17 miles to go before Orillia, had a delicious spaghetti and meat sauce dinner with wine and all the trimmings, on our way across the lake.

09-Oct-1999 20:21:32 Docked at Orillia Municipal marina, nice facility, downtown just like Summerside. Finger docks are only 30" wide and the main docks are only 5'. The season is over here, there are only about 6 boats in a facility which has 350 docks. We plug in, 30 amp service only, watch TV news, and Frank goes to the Laundromat again,

Whitecap's Cruising Log

Notes and Remarks:

Departed Orillia 08:45, no one in the office yet, gave one of the other boaters our card and $30. (She thought the office would be open at 08:00 but it wasn't), this should cover the electricity, even though we did not have access to the washrooms and showers. Guess when the season is over here, it's all over.

Hoping to get out of the Trent Severn system today or at least by noon tomorrow, Monday. The most interesting part is coming up ahead of us, they all tell us the Severn River is the most beautiful of all.. And it turned out to be true, we passed litterly thousands of homes and cottages along this section, everyone waved as we passed, many shouted "beautiful boat", guess they do not see too many large sailboats here, canal depth is only 5 ft in some places. People were out raking their lawns, and burning leaves, this section is mostly pine and cedar trees

10:51:49 lock #42 Couchiching Ont

10:54:23 We found out that "Hester" does not like steel bridges!!!!! we were powering at 6.5kts along a narrow canal and were approaching a steel railway bridge, suddenly, the boat turned towards the cement abutment under the bridge!!! We scrambled for the wheel and got her straightened out only about 1 ft from the cement wall. We had noticed that she had a liking to steel buoys all along the Seaway, (we hit one in Montreal). We figure it has to be the fluxgate compass, which is mounted forward in the head locker. Will have to watch out for this next time...

13:11:29 Swift Rapids Lock # 43 this one was a 47ft drop, a really big one!!! This is the "Baby" Lock, built in 1965.

15:15 - Big Chute Marine Railway. Neat. You power the boat onto a large submerged marine railway platform, and they hold the boat up with two slings, a 25ft power cruiser was behind us and was slinged in also, the whole thing then rolled out of the water perfectly level on 4 rails, crossed the road, yes actually the highway!!! and then rolled us down a steep hill, to the river 44ft below on the other side. It was cheaper to do this than build an ordinary lock at this location.

16:30 - locked though Port Severn #45, the last lock in the system - We are now in Georgian Bay!!! Hurrah and 3 days before they close for the winter. We beat the odds!!! and celebrated with a double Mount Gay.

The channel from Port Severn, meanders around small islands and rocks for 8 miles and is only 100 ft wide!!! all this water but no depth, there appears to be a rock under each wave!!! winds increase to about 25, on the nose.

10-Oct-1999 18:27:34 - Docked at Bay Marina, Midland, a nice facility with about 650 slips, we are at Z12, about 3/4 mile walk one way from the office. Made arrangements to be lifted at 08:00 Tuesday morning to fix the leak and adjust the prop pitch from 8.7 down to 6.9 pitch to eliminate the black smoke on our stern.