Killarney Provincial Park-a special place!

We had been stuck on the boat for a few days due to weather and apparently so was everyone else. When we pulled into the town of Killarney, looking for a pump out and to take on water, The place was jammed.  We waited an hour, but for $15 we were empty and full where we were supposed to be and ready to go for another jaunt of anchoring.

We skipped the marina life in Killarney and went to Covered Portage Anchorage. With steep white granite walls surrounding the anchorage, we may have to say it is the prettiest anchorage we have been to.  We scouted out the path to the top of the cliff which was marked with a single orange piece of plastic ribbon tied to the bottom of the branch of a pine tree.  We almost missed it. Once there the trail was obvious. The first part was beautiful forest with a waterfall coming off the rocks leaving a small a babbling brook cutting through the woods.  When we got to the top the view was one I will always remember. Our boat looked like a bathtub toy down below. The top of the rocks was easy to walk a long way on.  The warmth of the rocks and the rainy summer had blueberries growing everywhere. We couldn’t resist picking another bag full. We may have eaten a few in the process.  We justified it by saying we needed sustenance for the hike back.  We lingered at the top for a long time. The view was mesmerizing.

We then took the dinghy into town to visit many Looper friends that stayed at the marina. It was great to see everyone.  After seeing our pictures of the view, at least one boat skipped the marina the next day and went to the anchorage.  Good move.  Killarney town isn’t much but had what is needed….Liquor, Ice cream, Herbert’s Fish and Chips and a church.  What more does a person need.

The next day we were to the much-anticipated Topaz Lake. Nestled in the mountains, this lake is surrounded by rock cliffs. Normally the water is crystal clear and a brilliant blue/green color. The hike to the lake was interesting as most of the trail was a creek bed. On the way up, we met Looper friends  from Lower Place, Bad Habit and Kia Mae coming down the trail. Small world. Our first glimpse of the lake left us breathless.  We had a choice to climb down the rocks to swim or continuing climbing to explore above.  We climbed up and up and up to points on rocks where we could see the entire lake and the far reaches of the Killarney forest. The ruggedness of the rocks did not intimidate us because there were jagged broken rocks that left plenty of steps making the climb easy without climbing gear.  We drank in the beauty for a while but the water was calling us.  We climbed down to where you could get in the water, but that wasn’t good enough.  We wanted to jump off a cliff into the water. The young ladies sitting at the swimming rock told us where to go.  I left my camera with a willing subject to take our photo as we jumped.  After he took our photo, he yelled jokingly “Thanks for the camera.” The pool below was very deep and surprisingly the water, for a mountain lake, was quite warm.  It felt good to cool down in the water after the hike.  We lingered in the water a long time while chatting with a family from Chicago. On the hike back, we paused to recognize the massive size of the pine trees in the forest. They must be hundreds of years old.  When we got down to the dinghy we visited the other Looper boat friends.

Charlie and Robin had invited us aboard, where we cracked a bottle of wine and couple of beers and told lies.  Fun People.  As we were sitting on the back of the boat, Scott and Lo Lo from Bad habit came by telling us they found a fun spot, get in the dinghy and let’s go. We had 8 of us in 3 dinghies we cruised up a tiny creek until we got to the rapids.  We hiked up several sections of rapids to the top.  This group of men consists of 3 retired firemen and 1 retired cop.  Recipe for foolishness, which did happen. My Scott was the first one to sit in the water and slide down the rapids.  The other three were not far behind.  Pretty soon the beers were handed to shore so they could go the next round.  They body surfed the rapids all the way down to the dinghies.  Crazy boys. Charlie and Scott both lost their sunglasses. Charlie’s were recovered, but unfortunately Scott’s prescription glasses are at the bottom of the big fall at the end.  They all dove for them but they were never found.

It was after 8 and we had to get back to our boat anchored about a mile away. Glad we didn’t try it in the dark as there was a rock hidden below the surface we surely would have hit at night.

It was a very fun day.  We slept well!

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott DeVoll

 

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

7-22 – 7-24 Bad River Bay and Devil’s Door and Crooked Rapids

This is the BEST PLACE ON GEORGIAN BAY!! First of all, the scenery is breathtaking.  We are anchored in a nice big bay that is protected from the upcoming weather with plenty of room for many boats.

We had heard about riding the rapids with the dinghy, but were unsure what that would exactly look like and would entail.  Off our port side, there is a cut in steep rocks with rapids moving swiftly through the cut.   To get to the good stuff, you have to go up these rapids.  Off we went with the thrill of shooting up our first rapids in the dinghy.  Yeehaw!  We have done enough river canoeing that we knew what the current will do to a boat and had respect for them, but no fear.  The rocks and trees and water…..I can’t even begin to tell you what it is like.  I of course have photos for you, but once again they don’t do justice.

Pointy rocks

Mounding rocks

We went exploring and ran up one channel and down the rapids of the next.  It was like being on a carnival ride.  We didn’t have our life jackets on us at first, but quickly came to our senses and wore them all the time after our initial jaunt.  We traveled up other rapids and found some fishermen, they warned us of some shallow spots in one area but then it was clear to go up to the next rapids, which were just too strong to attempt.  You may think we’re fools but we know our limit. I made Scott drop me off at a rock across from one of the rapids so I could get photos.  It doesn’t look like much but is a thrill in a dinghy. When he came to pick me up we went rock hopping .  It was great to climb to the top of the rocks to get a new view of the amazing place.

After exploring a bit, we got our fishing gear (Yes! with our Life Jackets ON us) and went back. We went through Devil’s Door rapids and anticipated that we catch a ton of fish and we caught nothing. That’s Okay because we were just having fun….until…. Scott hooked his line on a rock and in the process of trying to unsnag it, he accidently dropped his pole.  This is tragic!!!  We are in the best fishing spot and he loses his pole.  We tried to snag it with no luck.  Of course, we are down river of a rapids so there is a fair amount of current and of course it is too deep to net.  Back to the boat for the dive gear. Now mind you, Scott tweaked his back the day before and I was concerned about getting him back in the boat if he had a spasm.  We made a game plan to get him to a nearby rock if that happened.  Sloosh! In he goes.  He can see it and grabs his dive knife to cut the line free.  Down he went and up came him and his pole with no back spasms.  Back in the boat in a flash and our fishing dreams are still alive.  We came back to the boat after that.

The next day, Scott’s back was killing him again.  He did stretches and took a muscle relaxer which zonked him out.  I needed to get off the boat so I took the VHF and my phone and took off fishing by myself.  I hadn’t caught anything when I see Scott standing on the boat.  I called him on the VHF “Last Call, Last Call this is Wifey Poo do you want to join me?”  He laughed and I went to pick him up.  I wasn’t brave enough, nor should I, go up the rapids by myself. When we were together we decided to go up to the base of a small rapids we explored the day before.  We immediately caught 3 nice Smallmouth Bass.  They were practically under our boat.  We probably scared off a bunch, but needed to be at that spot in order to get out of the current.  We caught a few smaller ones, which we didn’t keep then moved to another spot on the other side of the river.  We only caught a few small ones and plenty of rocks until it started to rain.  The forecast was calling for rain the rest of the day so we bagged it.  It was yucky, cold and raining the rest of the day.   Scott cleaned the fish.  We got our first Bass with the black specks in the meat which are parasites. It is obvious when you find one. Needless to say, we won’t eat that one.  Darn it was big.  The locals told us as the water gets warmer to start watching for them. They were right.

So, what do you do on a rainy afternoon? Well of course, you wash down and oil all the teak cupboards then watch a movie.    With the cloudy weather, our solar isn’t keeping up, which meant, we needed to run the generator for a few hours.  It was the perfect time to turn the oven on while the generator ran.  We happened to collect enough Blueberries to bake a small pie. Our boat never smelled so good. Thanks to my mother for teaching me how to bake and make pie crusts.

We would have liked to stay longer but the weather wasn’t agreeing with us so we moved on.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer,

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

 

7-18  –   7-21-2017  Echo Bay and Beyond

We were told about the anchorage Echo Bay by multiple people. Although friends, Mike and Cathy, finished their Loop in Florida they told us about Audrey and Randy Hart Tug which is a red Ranger or American Tug. They are Canadians that spend the summers cruising these waters, but are not Loopers.  We met up with Hart Tug and their travel companion boat of Loopers Mz Full Charge in Echo Bay.  This is one of those bays where you must anchor the bow and tie the stern to the shore.  We no sooner pulled in and Randy, in his dinghy, was there to help us take our line to shore.  That is so helpful.

When we picked our spot, there was a very large snapping turtle sunning himself on a rock.  We disturbed his beauty sleep.  We hope he’s not a revengeful turtle because he could do some damage with those jaws.  Yikes.

After we got settled we went for a dinghy ride to a bait/beer/Ice cream shop a little ways away. When we got back we stopped and chatted with the crew on Mz Full Charge.  We later had docktails with Hart Tug and Mz Full Charge.  They are all very nice people. Scott fixed their jammed railing that opened to the back of their boat.  They were so grateful. Scott had a chance to chat with Randy and he gave him some hints on where to go and thing to watch out for, including the deadhead on our way out.  Love the locals they know it all.

That evening we were sitting on the back of the boat and watched a mink climb in and out of the water, hunting for dinner. They sure can move fast.  I had a tough time getting a photo, but I did get one that is fairly clear.

In the morning, the water was like glass. The sun was rising and shining on the boat across the bay from us. Although there were quite a few boats in the anchorage, everyone was respectful and quiet.  We hardly knew anyone else was there. What a beautiful morning.

We also stopped at Sawdust Bay and No name bay.  On our travels, we stopped at Big Sound Marina.  They charged us $5 to tie up for 3 hours. They called me a cab to take me grocery shopping, while Scott used their laundry facilities, got dinghy gas and filled our water tanks.  For a $5 stay and a cab fare we were all set for another week at anchor in the gorgeous wilderness. We couldn’t wait to get to our next anchorage.

We did some fishing, although slow at first, we had two nice bass to clean for dinner.  I get a little antsy if I don’t get off the boat. We found a big rock and went rock hopping.  We found a patch of wild blueberries. The bag we had our fishing licenses in was sacrificed for our harvest.  We had a delicious fruit salad with our bass on the grill.  We have heard about all these restaurants that have good fish fry, but in all honesty, our fresh caught fish can’t be beat.

We swim often, for enjoyment, exercise, bathing and cooling off. The water is crystal clear.  We enjoy it and  it sure helps make our water tank last longer without having to shower.

We also went to the Bustard Island Harbor anchorage.  We did some serious dinghy exploring, picking our way through very narrow and shallow waterways.  We did more rock hopping and berry picking and fishing of course.  We weren’t catching anything and I got bored so Scott took me back to the boat but he wasn’t ready to give up.  He grabbed his lunch and off he went.  I was sort of looking forward to having time alone.  It wasn’t 10 minutes later and I hear the dinghy coming back.  I thought something was wrong. He had a shit-eating- grin on his face and said.  “I found them and came back to get you” as he holds up an 18” and 16” Smallmouth bass that he caught with three casts.  I grabbed my pole and we went back to the secret spot.  I immediately had a nice one on my line, but lost it.  Scott caught another one, but then the wind changed directions and just that quick they stopped.  We once again threw back the monster fish so it could go back into the breeding pool and we had fried fish as an appetizer for docktails on our boat with Manatee and Chemistry.  They loved it.  Needless to say there were no leftovers.

There was a neat woman in her 80s that lives on one of the islands that we saw out scooting around in her aluminum runabout.  Our docktail guest had the pleasure to meet her and she lives there by herself all summer.  She had her whole family and herself brought in by helicopter one Christmas.  I love her spirit, wish we could have met her.

We saw so many unique things traveling to and from this anchorage.  I just have to share some with you.

I hope you enjoyed a few sites from Georgian Bay no matter how random they are.  I tried to find something other than rocks and trees. But in my defense the landscape is so amazing, I keep taking photos because there is so much that is beautiful and unique, but photos just don’t do justice to them.

It has been several full days and we are loving life.

Thanks for reading and sharing in this magical trip.

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

 

 

7-16,  7-17   Good things come out of failed plans

We had anchored with three other Looper boats in Indian Harbor.  They were heading to the Moon River area, but we wanted to stop before that at a Provincial Park that had trails for hiking.  We got there and the anchorage was wide open, no boats. The water was very deep.  It dropped off from the rocks to about 30 feet.  That’s deep to anchor in, plus we were going to have to tie the stern off to shore because it was a small anchorage.  We set our anchor in the front in prep for taking a line to shore. We keep the engine in idle reverse to hold the anchor and to keep us from blowing sideway.  This is where I come in.  I watch carefully for any backwards movement that would indicate the anchor giving way while Scott dinghies to shore.  Half way through Scott’s part, the anchor gave way and we were heading for the rocks, but I was on duty and caught it and aborted the process and put the engine in forward.  The bottom seemed awfully rocky, so we gave up on the whole anchorage and moved on to Moon River to catch up with the other boaters.  We are so glad we did!

After lunch, the weather cleared and the radar looked good for an hour-long dinghy ride to Moon River Falls.  We had to use our GPS on our phones to figure out how to get there.

It was a scenic trip and we had fun dinghying around.

 

 

As we got closer, we started seeing canoes with three people and gear making their way across a small opening.

We figured there was a camping trip or something. They kept coming, more and more as we got closer to the falls.  When we arrived, there were still about 100 people on shore with their canoes, and skiffs being loaded with dozens of Rubbermaid containers three high and a boat filled with black garbage bags.  I do mean filled.  We wondered if they might topple over at the smallest wave.

When we went ashore, we talked to the people.  They were a group of 250 campers from the Toledo area. There was a cooking crew for the whole group. They had music and even brought in wood for a big dance floor.  They all dressed up and had a good ol’ time. They were pretty well packed up by the time we got there and saw the mass exodus.  There were still a few people sporting their goofy hats and makeup. We thought we walked into a mini Woodstock.  This group comes every year and they believe in “leave no trace behind.”  They packed out all the trash, took down the stage, and even picked up every cigarette butt.  There was no trash to be found.  We were amazed. They told us, if we had come the day before we would have gotten an eye and ear full.  They were a colorful group, but as nice and friendly as could be.  They also all looked beat.  One girl asked Robin if she had a third seat left in her canoe?   Bahahah, apparently, she looked the part.  Just kidding Robin, we were the obvious outsiders in our boat clothes.  We wouldn’t have been surprised if there were a few hitchhikers looking for a ride across the lake, but that didn’t happen.  It was great to see a group of people have so much fun and care about the environment as well.  Someone in our group wondered how many babies were made that weekend.  Man, we are bad.

After talking with the campers, we climbed up to the falls.

We hopped across a narrow spot of rushing water in order to get to the top of the falls.

We could see the backwaters one way and the falls splitting off into several different spots where it rushed over the rocks.  One of the campers said they had to control the water flow at the dam a few days before the event or their whole campsite area would have been underwater.  We joked that we hoped they didn’t open it back up while we were on the rock or in our dinghy right by the bottom.  I am sure they do it slowly and in the middle of the night.  There is so much water up here.  We are happy for that as it puts more space between the bottom of our boat and the rocks.  More room for error.  However, all of us except Mike and Karen, hit rocks with our dinghy props.  No harm done, just an awful sound that goes right up your spine.

We fished the next morning and Scott caught a monster Large Mouth Bass.  That is the only Large Mouth we have caught.  Check out how fat it is in the picture.  We threw it back.  We take the approach when catching these lunkers, that we throw them back as they are good breeding fish and we want to make sure there are fish for the future. But the others taste great!

Georgian Bay is amazing!  It may just be our favorite.  Over the Bahamas? Well they are almost equal.  We still have more to see and the North Channel is coming next.

Thanks for reading!  Drop us a line we love to hear from you.

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

 

 

7-14, 7-15  Indian Harbour

Day one….It rained almost all day.  Anyone who owns a boat knows there is an endless list of little things to attend to.  We got little things done like tightening up the oven door, epoxy a screw snap that pulled loose, you get the idea.  We knocked a bunch of those things off and were patiently waiting for Saturday which is supposed to be beautiful.

Saturday morning it was cool but clear and dry so off we go fishing.  It was a bust.  Well I did catch a 2 ½” Goby and two Zebra Mussels.

We went back to the boat grabbed a quick lunch and headed out to explore.  Just as we were leaving the bay, we noticed a boat that looked like our friends on The Lower Place.  This anchorage works best if you Med Moor  “Mediterranean Moor” (anchor the front and tie the back off to shore. We went back and it was them.  We offered to help them moor because our dinghy was already in the water and theirs is on top of their boat needing to be winched down.  There were two other Looper boats with them.  Once everyone got settled we all took our dinghies and rafted them together and floated around the bay and yacked.  We then decided to all go exploring together.  We dodged rocks, traveled through lakes and channels. The scenery is absolutely beautiful. As we got close to our anchorage, we found a very large rock that we climbed onto and explored.  The rock is all granite.  Charlie said, “This is a lot of countertops”

We went back to our boats a prepared for docktails on Lower Place.  We yacked until 7pm.  Then a couple we met earlier from Michigan stopped by and we chatted with them on our boat.  They reviewed our charts to make sure we aren’t missing any of the best spots to see.  He admitted we have gotten great advice from previous people and had nothing to add. They keep their boat here is Georgian Bay and have been coming here for many years to cruise. We talked until 10:00. I think we may have planted some seeds that may grow into them doing the Loop when they retire in the near future.

It was a really fun day.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random photo of the Day:

 

 

 

 

 

7-12-17 Frying Pan Bay

This bay is aptly named because of its shape.  This makes it a very protected and very popular bay.  We pulled in on Wednesday and there were only a few boats there.  By the end of the night there were quite a few more.  I can see why this is so popular.  It is beautiful with rocky banks, good depth and a dock to take your dinghy to get to the hiking trails.

There are quite a few trails on Beausoleil Island. The weather was good so we immediately hit the trails.  We hiked all the way around Fairy Lake.  As we were on the trail, Scott said we should have brought our fishing poles because this lake is landlocked with no access I bet the fishing is good.  It’s good thing we didn’t because it is a preserve and there is no fishing allowed. There were no fishing signs every place you could get close to the water.  The trail was marked well which is a good thing seeing there were large expanses of rock which left  no evidence of a trail.  The wilderness was beautiful, the lake looked so peaceful and the weather held out.  It was warm and muggy, .  When we got back to the boat, the water was a blessing to cool us down.  We floated around and Scott even scrubbed the waterline on the boat.  Seeing the weather was holding, we thought we would go fishing.  I started out catching a decent but smaller bass, we threw it back.  We know there are much bigger ones out there.   We threw several panfish back.  About the time Scott caught a monster Bluegill, it started to rain. He threw it back and decided it wasn’t worth the mess to clean one fish in the pouring rain.  We love this anchorage and if it didn’t rain AGAIN we may have stayed and hiked different trails.

7-13-17 Bone Island a Bust!

There are so many spots to anchor we want to hit a bunch to see what they have.  The wind was supposed to be out of the east for the next day or so and this anchorage was good if it was out of the east.  It was a little tricky getting into the anchorage.  Something cool happened as we got to the entrance.  We were being hailed on the radio by someone from a cottage.  He is a Gold Looper and called to tell us about the white jug floating and how we should be between it and the island to avoid rocks. After that we were clear to get to Bone Island.  That was very nice that he did that.  Everything is unforgiving rock around there.  One mistake could be a costly one.  We got to the anchorage and realized the wind had already changed to out of the southeast which wasn’t great for us but not terrible either.  We saw a trail off the public docks, that we were looking forward to hiking.  Much to our dismay it only led a short way to the outhouse.  Booo!   We hopped around on the rock but couldn’t get very far in any direction. The deer flies were vicious so, we got back in the dinghy and went exploring to find a quiet (no wind) fishing spot. There really wasn’t one.  It was only noon so we bagged this anchorage and went on to Hockey Stick, yes named for its shape.  When we arrived, the anchorage was full and we were not comfortable to try to jam in there.  We anchored just around the corner which was still well protected.  As soon as we got anchored it started raining.  A steady heavy rain fell and it was cold.  Nothing we wanted to go fishing in.  It was likely to continue to the next day.  We have these beautiful anchorages and the weather stinks.  As Scott says, “It’s not all cold drinks and sunshine.” We did dinghy into the anchorage and on closer inspection we knew 3 of the boats in there.  What a small world.   Two are loopers and one is a local we met.

I talked to my Dad the other day after he read my blog and didn’t understand a few things.  1) A Pucker moment……blush that this when anxiety makes your sphincter muscles pucker. 2) Crossing your wake:  That is when you complete the loop.  You cross your wake making the circle complete. 3) Gold flag and Gold Loopers.  When you “Cross your wake,” you change your loop flag (also known as a Burgee that you fly on the bow of your boat identifying you as a Looper) from white to Gold.  A Gold Looper had completed the Loop once.   Here is how it goes. White: you are doing the loop currently. Gold: You have completed the Loop once. Platinum: You have completed the Loop two or more times.  Red: You are a sponsor of the AGLCA (American Great Loop Cruisers Association.) I hope that clears a few things up for others as well.  We get so used to talking like a Looper and a boater we forget everyone doesn’t know what we mean.  If I ever post something confusing to you, please send me a note so I can clarify.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day!

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

 

It was a big moment for us to go through our last lock of the Great Loop. It was Lock #45 of The Trent Severn Waterway.  Our 110th lock. It was also the smallest lock we had been in. We will soon be entering the Georgian Bay.  Wow we are getting so close to home. Lots of emotions already and we are are a month and a half away.

The last lock was complete, but the trials are not over.

We encountered several narrow channels with strong currents.  We were calling “security” to let other boats know we were coming and to hold off.  Luckily we did as there was a 30 foot boat about to enter and he held off.  No way we both would have made it through. We anchored out that night, but didn’t go fishing because the wind really picked up all afternoon.  We took the dinghy to try to find a spot to go hike or just get off the boat, but that failed.  We ended up just relaxing on the back of the boat enjoying the scenery.

We have now entered Georgian Bay.  Some friends on Miss Utah texted us and told us what marina they were at, so we went to join them. There were two other Looper boats there, CHemistry and Manatee.  Miss Utah had us all over for a lovely steak dinner.  We enjoyed meeting new people and getting to know the others better.  They are all such nice people. I failed to get a photo, we were having such a nice time.  Chris and Roger had a rental car and took us to the store and to do laundry (The marina was in the process of getting new machines) We stayed three day. That is the longest we have been in a marina in months.  We got lots of cleaning projects done, enjoyed the little town, did some swimming etc.  But best of all when we took our dinghy into town we ran into “Living Live” Nancy, James, Marco and Lucas.  They are now Gold Loopers after crossing their wake in Peterborough.  They have their house rented until August first so they continue to cruise and enjoy the warm weather, before they have to start thinking about life again. They are such a cool family. FYI they did the loop in a 27 foot sailboat with 4 people on board. 2 of which are young boys.  They are brave.

Today is Wednesday July 12, we head into the Georgian Bay.  We have so many anchorages picked out we will never see them all. We will do our best to see as much as we can.  I may not have internet for a while again, so there may be a lag in by blogs, but thanks for reading.  Drop us a line, we love hearing from you.

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

Lift Lock and Marine Railway

When we are finished with the Trent Severn Waterways 44 locks we will have done a total of 110 lock on our Great Loop.  The Tent has offered some very unique ways of lifting and lowering boats.  As you read earlier we went throught the Largest Lift Lock in the World at Peterborough.  However, we also went through another Lift Lock which had only a 45 foot elevation, but it was unique in that is lifted the boats over a road.  This is crazy stuff.  It is surprising how fast the pan drops once started down.  We were lucky. When we went down, they informed us that they were going to be stopping along the way to grease some parts. It was nice to savor the moment.

Here are a few photos of some things we saw along the way.

THE BIG CHUTE!

The Big Chute I have to say was most interesting of all the locks we went in.  It is actually not a lock but a Marine Railway. Boats are loaded onto a rail car that slings the boats in place then cables pull it railroad tracks up and over land 60 feet down to the water on the other side.  We tied up to go watch the process before we tried it ourselves.  The guys and gals on the car make this a simple job.  They were very organized and knew exactly what to tell people.  They were great! That took our fear of the process away.  Here  a few fun facts:  The car can carry 100 short tons in weight.  The original car was replaced with a bigger badder one.  They actually started to build a lock at this site but  due to post war depression there was no money for it.  When the decision needed to be made about what to do next, the Sea Lamprey was discovered in the lower water.  If they put a lock in it would spread them to Lake Couchichin and Lake Simpcoe. So No lock. They put a new, larger marine railway.

Both of these locks were exciting, but the marine railway takes the cake for being our best of the 110 locks we went through.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

We made it to Orillia. We were excited because there was an anchorage that friends told us about we were heading to.  We decided to anchor just outside of Orillia, then take the dinghy in to see the town.  It was a lovely town, we enjoyed it and had lunch in town.

We went back to the boat and excited to go to the anchorage at Chief’s Island.   We started to pull up the anchor when all of the sudden the chain was jamming in windlass.  There was still 15 feet of chain to come up. There was no wind and the boat spun in circles and  twisted.  We were going to try to pull up the anchor by hand. We looked down and had a massive wad of weeds on our anchor.  It was about 5 feet in diameter and trailed about 12 feet.  We couldn’t budge it.  Now what?

We slowly drove, dragging the anchor in the water out to deeper water.  We drove forward and backward in circles trying to get some of the mass off.  We lost all the long trailing stuff, but not the mass on the anchor.  We didn’t dare let the anchor back down for fear we would not get it back up.  We were now in the middle of the lake with no risk of quickly drifting too shallow or into anything so we can figure this out.  Scott dropped a rope down to the anchor and cinched it up then was able to pull the anchor alongside the boat where he used a boat hook to get the weeds off.  Once clear he pulled the anchor on board and unhooked it.  We dropped all the bare chain down into the water so it could untwist on it’s way up.  yeah it worked! We hooked the anchor back up and thought our troubles were over for the day.

On our way to the anchorage we passed “Ship” Island.  It is a large Cormorant breeding island.  Some Looper friends from the area said the  Cormorant droppings killed all the trees.   There were hundreds of nests in the trees.  It was really a neat thing to see.  However, when we got down wind of it, yowsa did it stink. I renamed it “Bird Shi* Island”

We got to our anchorage.  There were a lot of boat there for a weekday but plenty of room left for us to anchor out away from all of them.

We swam, laid in the sun and then went fishing.   We caught a bunch of little worm thieves, but Scott caught a nice big bass and a 12″ perch.

Now that we are catching fish we wanted to stay.  We were watching the weather.  The winds kicked up but it looked like the rain was going north and south of us.  We kept fishing.  After a while, we could see the trees blowing, but we didn’t feel the wind due to being on the leeward side of the island.  We decided we better get back to the boat.  As soon as we came around the point of the island the waves hit us.  Wow they built quickly.  We got drenched.  I guess we made the right decision to get back to the boat. As we come around the corner, we are quite sure our anchor dragged.  We also saw two boat with people in the water.  What the heck, now is no time to be swimming. As we got closer we realize they were in distress.  We went over to the first boat.  Their front anchor let loose, so they revved up the engine to pull the boat forward before hitting shore, well they forgot they had a stern anchor out and wrapped the line around their prop.  The 2 men were at the front of the boat trying to keep it from grounding and the mother was trying to unwrap the line off the running gear.  They were all distressed and in trouble.  Scott said he would run to our boat get is mask and a sharp knife to free the line then we would attempt to pull/push them out deeper.  By the time we got back the mother got the line free.  Cudos to her.  The men were still failing at holding the boat, looked exhausted and stressed.  We hooked the dinghy to the side of their boat and full throttled it.  The boat started to move, the men jumped on board, pulled up the useless front anchor. We got them out far enough to start their engines and off they went.  They had such relief on their faces and yelled thank you 100 times as they didn’t hesitate to get out of there.

Now for our boat…. We indeed dragged a long ways.  The other boat looked like they were alright now.  We will check on them once we get our boat safe.  This is the first time our anchor dragged significantly and we anchored many many night.  We pulled up the anchor and once again…weeds!!  It took us a minute to clear but once we got it close we notice the people from the other boat were back in the water.  We motored over to them.  We asked if they needed help.  They said they were OK now.  They were smart.  They had 2 anchors and hop scotched them forward until they got in deep enough water to start their engines.

It is now almost dark and we cannot stay here.  We drove a ways north and anchored in mud..  Hallelujah. It is now dark and we had fish to clean.

Whenever something doesn’t go right we reassess the situation.  So What happened?  The winds were suppose to be out of the south making this a great anchorage.  The bottom was suppose to be sand, but for some reason this year the weeds are particularly bad. The wind change direction unexpectedly.  In fact when we looked at the wind modules it still showed it out of the south, but clearly it was blowing out of the northeast.

All in all, no one was injured, no boats were damaged, so it was a good day.  We were glad it was almost over.

Thanks for reading,

Scott and Karen

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

7-4-17 Fenelon Falls

We had planned to stay at the famous Bobcaygeon lock. We got there fairly early to make sure we got a spot, but it was jammed with boats. The walls were solid house boats and runabouts and there were many boats in the channel hanging out.  When we came out of the lock we were a bit nervous getting our big boat through the mass of boats. We had the law of gross tonnage in our favour. People did move as we came through.  We went on the Fenelon Fall, the next lock. We expected the wall to be jammed also, but it has several openings so we pulled in.  Within a few hours it was also jammed with boats.

They had power and water and internet on the wall.  It had been 12 days since we were at an actual marina.  We were glad to fill up with water and run our icemaker for 24 hours to catch up on the ice in the drink cooler.  The town was lovely! Small with everything within easy walking distance.  Our generator battery finally died (it was old) . The auto parts store was right there.  Scott did that and a quick grocery shop while I went to the post office and the library to work on the blog.  The internet at the dock was really slow due to so many people being on it.  We walked the wall and the town with it’s older stylish homes.

Some Canadian friends told us we had to try “Tiger Tail” ice cream when in Ontario.  Before you say eew, you have to try it.  It is an orange cream ice cream with small streaks of black licorice. It was amazing.  Scott is a chocolate purist and of course didn’t want to even try it especially if there is a chocolate option.

This area of the Trent has a lot of rented houseboats on it.  We were entertained by their boating skills or rather lack of.  To their credit I am sure they don’t handle well, but their mentality was often to drive it into the wall to stop.  We watched people jump off the boats and quick wrap a line around a cleat order to stop it.  We didn’t want to tell them they had reverse….. hmmm.  They are a nightmare for the lock tenders. They have to tell them what to do.  “Go Forward…not so fast…  reverse, reverse, reverse!!”  Those guys and gals should get extra pay to be at those locks. It was entertainment for us, but we kept plenty of fenders on the outside of our boat and a few boat hooks handy just in case they got close.  Luckily we were in a wider spot so they had room for their antics.

When we left the wall we headed into a narrow channel that was carved out of pure stone.

It was a great stop.  Onward….

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day: