PM's Perspective
Much water has passed under Velomer's hull since my last entry. Antsy to leave Buckhorn at 3:30 PM on Thursday, July 17, the furthest we could cruise safely before the locks shut down for the night was Bobcageon, 18 statute miles away. I called the lock master at Lock 32 in Bobcageon to find out if there was room along the upstream lock wall where we could dock for the evening. He responded that there was no room at the present time but that the situation changes moment to moment so we may be able to find space. He also stated that if we arrived later than 30 minutes before the lock closed for the night at 6:00 PM we could tie up at the blue line. FYI, the blue line is literally a blue line painted along that portion of the lock wall where a boat wanting to go through the lock on the next opening ties up to let the lock master know his/her intention. Amazingly, by the time we arrived in Bobcageon, a perfect sized space along the starboard side of the lock wall had opened up. The folks on the boat docked ahead of us assisted our landing. An extra bonus was the electric post right by our area of the lock wall where we could plug into power, an unusual occurrence along the lock walls.
The next morning, we breakfasted at the Smart Egg and walked around town visiting Bigley's, a huge shoe and clothing store directly on the waterway, and stocking up on dark chocolate at the local
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Traveling through the Trent Canal
on a rainy day. |
grocery. We left Bobcageon by 10:30 AM headed for Kirkfield, the site of the second lift lock and the point along the Trent Severn Waterway where we start locking down. The day went very smoothly and delightfully uneventful save for the occasional rain shower. We arrived at Lock 36 about 3:00 PM. Entering the pan of the lock felt like we were about to fall off the edge of the earth, an eerie feeling but with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. We descended 49 vertical feet marveling at the mechanical engineering feat of the lock. At the bottom, we pulled to the starboard side to tie up at the downstream lock wall for the night. As we tied up, we encountered a couple who were disembarking from kayaks heading upstream. Not to be one to pass up an opportunity to engage in conversation, Bob started talking to the couple and invited them in for some hot tea as they were both shivering from the cold and damp. As we discovered, they are from Campbellford and are actually friends with the OPP officer who took our grounding report. Talk about a small world!
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| Hole in the Wall Bridge |
The following day we cruised to Orillia, the port on Lake Couchiching. Our journey took us under the Hole in the Wall Bridge as we entered Canal Lake, across Lake Simcoe and through the Narrows, the site of Ojibway fishing weirs. We stayed at the town marina for three days enjoying what the area has to offer including biking trails, the OPP museum, art museum, and Champlain Park. We shared the marina with at least three other loopers so we were beginning to feel that the grounding did not delay us all that much. We may have been bypassed by the folks we were traveling with before the grounding, but plenty of others were available to share the experience as we journeyed on.
Over the course of the six days away from Buckhorn, Bob began to notice the bilge pump going off more than usual which concerned him. He investigated the hull and found seepage along the rear head intake. He suspects that the grounding caused numerous hair line cracks in the fiberglass that are pathways for water to seep in. He was able to minimize the seepage with gobs of life caulk but was not able to stop it entirely. Bob called Boat US to inform them of the additional damage yet to be repaired. They said that subsequent repairs are often indicated after such a hard grounding and that these repairs can be done later after we returned to the US.
Our time in the Trent Severn Waterway was nearing an end. After Orillia, we had 32 more miles and four more locks including the Big Chute (Lock 44) before entering Georgian Bay. We left Orillia
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View aboard Velomer while on the Big Chute heading
toward Gloucester Pool |
and headed for Big Chute intending to spend the night on the upstream docks before actually going on the Big Chute. Although not a lock in the strict sense of the term, the Big Chute is a marine railroad that carries boats on a travel platform between Upper Severn River and Gloucester Pool a vertical distance of 58 feet. The marine railroad platform slides into the waters of the Upper Severn River, loads boats (with crew aboard) on the platform and holds them in place with straps. Once the boat is secure, the platform raises up out of the water along railroad tracks powered by cables, crosses Big Chute Road and travels down the incline to Gloucester Pool where it again slides into the water and releases the boats. It is quite a site to behold. We arrived in Big Chute at 2:45 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the process several times to prepare ourselves for the experience the next morning. The next day Velomer glided onto the platform under fair skies. Everything went extremely smoothly and we were on our way. Our next stop was Midland, Ontario in the Georgian Bay. We had completed the Trent Severn Waterway leg of our Great Loop, a distance of 240 miles, 44 locks, 1 grounding and countless wonderful experiences and delightful people!
