Canada's Trent-Severn Waterway

There are far fewer places along the route in Canada where we can get on the internet. That's my excuse for the large gap since the last post. The crossing of Lake Ontario on June 29th went fine and we landed in Picton by mid-afternoon. Check in with Canadian Customs by telephone was easy. The next day was an easy cruise to Trenton where our travel through the Trent-Severn Waterway to Lake Huron began.





Honga is docked along the wall at Campbellford.





The Canadian waterway was beautiful and I guess I spent too much time admiring and not enough time paying attention to my piloting because we ended up aground on hard rock. Two fellow boaters tried to pull us off without success. All marinas in the area said they had no boats that could help us and there is no SeaTow or Towboat/US in Canada. A very nice resident saw us, came to us in his boat with the phone number of someone with the Trent-Severn Waterway. We called and almost immediately there was a work scow on its way to help. They pulled us off and there was no damage. Perhaps the best part: they would not charge us for their service. We are extremely grateful and we made sure we sent a letter to that effect to the sector manager.




Of course, as luck would have it, our friends from Brunswick and Maryland, Ken and Diana on Spirit happened along just as we were being rescued. While they watched Ken called my cousin, Ed Hind, to tell him what he was seeing. That's Spirit in the background, behind the scow.








Other highlights were meeting up with friends along the way and locking through the great Peterboro Lift Lock where we enter a big tub that raised us to the next level and the Big Chute where we enter a sort of rail car where we are supported by straps then driven up out of the water, over the highway and brought down to the water on the other side and back into the water. This is an enviornmental separation of the waters of the great lakes and a unique way to lift us over the Canadia Shield.











Loading the Big Chute














Over the Highway


















Down the other side





We are currently in Penetanguishene, Ontario, in the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, waiting while other loop cruisers arrive for out ALGCA Rendezvous. We will be here for a week and the break is quite welcome. Here we have a pool, internet wi-fi, restaurants and shopping. After the rendezvous we will join a flotilla of 20 boats for our cruise through the “30,000 islands.”








By the way, we are having a great time.

Oswego, NY

We are on our way again. Yeah!

Today we traveled the length of the Oswego Canal to Oswego, NY on the shore of Lake Ontario under the threat of showers. None showed up and it looks like the cold front has already passed through. The lake has white caps so we will wait until tomorrow to cross to Canada. Our Verizon Air Card may not work well there so it may be a while until the next post to this blog. Maybe.

Ready to Go Again

Today we said goodby to friends Teresa and Donald aboard Great Escape.

Yesterday it was David and Marla on Adesso.

Tomorrow it is our turn as we completed our repairs today with the installation of our new water heater.

Niagara Falls

We took advantage of the weekend special and rented a car for shopping and a trip to Niagara Falls. The water is really flowing through this area and there's no turning it off. The highlight was a boat ride on Maid of the Mist from the American side. Everyone was wearing a blue plastic poncho to keep from getting drenched but we still got wet. The wind created from the falling water is amazing. It was like a hard rainstorm when we got close to the Horseshoe Falls. I wanted to shout to the boat captain that it was a dead end. The Maid of the Mist has been doing this tour since 1846 and it is certainly a "must do" when you come.

We also had a very good lunch in a restaurant on Goat Island overlooking Horseshoe Falls.

Boats at Ess-Kay Yard (in sick bay), Brewerton, NY

Honga at Ess-Kay Yard in Brewerton, NY

Three of these boats came in together with various degrees of problems.
Salty Turtle got hauled and changed props and got new zincs and got their bottom pressure washed. Graycious! had parts sent here and Jonathan is installing them himself. And us. We had our problem diagnosed and we are getting a new heat exchanger, pump and several gaskets. Adessa, a brand new Pama, has had problems since GA and are awaiting Volvo parts to arrive from Sweden. I'm glad that is not us, but they are very good natured about it. They have been here for quite awhile and have rented a car and have scouted the area for all the good places to eat and things to see. They are a wealth of information.
We will take advantage of the good price and expertise here to haul out long enough to check Honga's bottom since it has been 15 months since we have done that. She will be pressure washed and get new zincs. We have rented a car for the weekend and may go exploring on land over the weekend.
Stay tuned.

ESS-KAY Yard at Brewerton, New York

We have finally arrived at a real "boat yard", ESS-KAY Yard, Inc., with some folks we can trust to make our much needed repairs. We have had a small diesel fuel leak from the engine along with an overflow situation from the coolant reservoir for some time. This resulted in a layer of coolant and water with a thin layer of diesel in the bilge. Since we can't afford to cause an oil spill I had been scooping the diesel fuel out of the bilge while trying to find the leak. That is not a fun job and it has been going on for several weeks. The leaks have been found and a fuel pump, heat exchanger and several gaskets are being shipped overnight so we should be on our way again by Monday.

The weather is great, we are among friends and this is a pleasant place so we are happy to stay for a while, take advantage of an Enterprise rental car weekend special and see a few sights on land.