7-2-17 Largest Lift lock in the world and great fishing .

We have anticipated this day for 2 years.  Taking our boat on the world’ largest lift lock in Peterborough, ON.  Here are some amazing facts.  It is the largest lift lock lifting 65 feet. It was built in 1905, and took 8 years to build.  It is the largest structure built of non-reinforced concrete. There are only of this type of locks ever built (we will go through two of them.)  It was a thrill to take our boat through.

Here is a brief description of how it works: There are two chambers of water, one up and one down.  The normal locks we go through gates and valves open and close to raise the water.  But this lock the whole chamber lifts with the boats floating in it.   The upper chamber takes on 1 foot of extra water to off balance the load, thus allowing it to sink and the other chamber to rise.  Interesting fact: Regardless of the number of boats in the chamber, the weight in the chamber will not change according to the Archimedes Principle of Physics, a boat will displace a quantity of water equivalent to the weight of the boat. Good piece of physics to know when building this thing. We continue to marvel at the structures that were built 100+years ago and are still working today.

In celebration of Canada’s 150th,  the Visitor’s Center had events like reenactments, cargo canoe paddling etc.  There was a guy there with a table of firearms from the Flintlock to the cartridges,  Muzzleloaders to breech loaders. He gave a very  nice talk. Most of his guns were originals. Wow what a collection.  He was very knowledgeable.

 

That night we went to Stoney Lake.  It is beautiful.  Rock Islands all over the place.  Needless to say, we followed our charts carefully. We anchored, swam, and went fishing.  Man, we killed them.  In an hour, we caught 8 huge Bluegill.  Then a big storm hit.  It hit with very strong winds that blew the life jackets right out of the dinghy.  It was so bad out we didn’t dare go out after them. The rescue would have to wait.  A short distance away, it looked like there was a boat out in the horrific storm.  We watch it closely. As it got closer we realized it was a canoe, which was even worse.  The good thing was there was no one in it.  We were sure it blew off someone’s shore. Once the storm let up, Scott dropped the dinghy and rescued the life jackets and then the canoe.  The Canoe was a brand new Kevlar canoe.  It still the store literature zip tied to a thwart. Luckily the storm let up when it did as it was heading for a rocky shore.  Scott towed it to a home on an island where he saw people.  They said to tie it to their dock, they will find the owners, as they knew everyone on the lake. Once again, Scott is the hero.  (we tease him about being a hero and he hates it, so I thought I would just add to his annoyance) We had the best fish fry ever! If the weather had stayed nice we would have liked to stay longer on Stoney Lake.  It is probably a good thing that it rained or we may never have left there.  We have had a lot of rainy days.  On the bright side that gives us more water to float the boat above the rocks.

IMG_0663        Tap this IMG and watch a short video of the storm.

As we left the anchorage we saw the canoe being claimed by it’s owner.  Yeah!

We are loving the changes in Scenery.  Thanks for reading!

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

 

It is Canada’s 150 Celebration of their independence.  We were fortunate to be here to join in the celebration.  Because of the 150th anniversary, all the Locks on the Trent Severn were free. We tied up on the Tee Docks with Ambika (Lars and Erja)in Peterborough. The fireworks were shot off in the middle of the lake right in front of us.  The park where all the festivities were to be was a short walk from our boat.  It was perfect. We started off the morning with great fun doing a quick load of laundry seeing we had access to the marina.  The park had Multicultural day going on all day in the park.  On the stage they had different martial arts displays, dancers from many different heritages in amazing costumes. And FOOD.  Oh my the food!  It was mostly multicultural. We ate Thai food, Caribbean Jerk food and Swedish pancakes for dessert. It was all delicious. Many were from local restaurants so the food was very good. What a fun idea. We walked through all the booths and took it all in.  We went back to the boat to chill for a while before the evening festivities.  At 8pm Kim Mitchell was going to be on stage.  He apparently is a big Canadian singer, but we had never heard of him.

Lars, Erja and we went to dinner together before the concert.  Service was slow despite not very many customers, so we missed a lot of the concert.  We caught the tail end of it and that was good enough. There was a mob of people in the park.  As he did his encore we headed for the boat before we got stuck in the mobs of people.  The fireworks got started in short order. We watched from the back of Ambika while sharing a bottle of wine with Lars and Erja. The fireworks were good but we almost expected more. It rained heavily late afternoon so we suspect maybe they had some fireworks get wet and they didn’t shoot off.  We suspect that because they ended then they kept trying to shoot more off and they didn’t go up very well.  We still enjoyed the show.  Happy Canada Day!

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

For those who may not know this, Scott was an avid canoe restorer, builder and paddler.  He restored the wood and canvas canoes and built cedar strip models.  Seeing the Canadian Canoe Museum was a must on our list when in Peterborough. It was much bigger than we thought.  It had an impressive number of rare and very old canoes.  We were quite surprised to see so many of the Birchbark and seal skin kayaks that are still around today. We walked to the museum, which was good exercise and we get to see interesting things along the way.

Did you know that Canadian Frank Amyot won Gold at the first Olympic Canoeing event in 1936?

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  If you ever get to Peterborough, add the canoe museum to your list of must dos.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo  of The Day:

Ambika with Lars and Erja

Lars and Erja (Pronounced Eddie ah) are such an interesting couple they get their own page in our blog. They are from Sweden, here to do the Loop.

They have sailed around the world in their Benneteau. It was so interesting to talk with them.  They told us how they had to avoid certain waters because of pirates.  They often sailed alone, but in one port a boat asked if they could sail with them because of their vast experience.  The two boats were out on the ocean and storm blew up.  Their boat got hit by lightning.  The buddy boat said it looked like the whole boat was one big flame. It knocked out all their electric system, batteries and electronics.  However, they were smart to put their Epirb (a devise that puts out an emergency beacon so help can find you), tablet with charts on it and a cell phone in the oven. They were all saved. However, they didn’t have any way to charge them.  They turned them on only when absolutely necessary.   Now they are following the other boat. They had to ask the other boat to put on their anchor light and their running lights so they had some depth perception as they followed them through the night. When they got close enough to the buddy boat they passed them a survival kit.  In it was gin and tonic and a lemon. That is one time they were thankful to have a buddy boat. They said they sailed 55,000 miles and never had anything stolen or any crimes against them.

They invited us to barbeque on the back of their boat.  We shared in the preparation and had a lovely evening.

They told us a funny story.  Now remember these are very seasoned boaters.  But buying a boat in the US and getting all the paperwork right is a challenge.  They had a Coast Guard safety inspection.  The inspector informed them that they put the big boat registration stickers on the dinghy and they also said that because the dinghy is covering the boat name, they suggested that they should paint the name on the bottom of the dinghy.  Lars said he and a buddy took great care to paint the name on the dinghy. They might have had a beer or two while doing it.  They were so proud of their work that is until they raised the dinghy on the back of the boat only to find the name upside down.  We got a good laugh out of it.  Now they have a large blue square on the bottom of the dinghy.  Seeing they are from sweden they may just make it into a swedish flag by adding a yellow X to the blue box.

 

We hope to meet up with them again and hear more about their most interesting life.

I hope you enjoyed their stories too.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique random photo of the day:

6-28-18 Rice Lake Anchoring Challenge and Great Fishing

We are now in Rice lake. We originally planned to anchor off White Island. As we started toward the protected side of the anchorage the boat started vibrating.  Vibration on a boat is never a good thing. We were in 12 feet of water and looked down to see the weeds had grown all the way to the surface. Scott put it in reverse and cleared the prop. The weeds were so thick we were concerned about getting stuck, but with persistent clearing of the prop we forged on to get out of there. There was another smaller island that was big enough to protect us from the wind, but the weeds continue, however, not as thick.  There is no way our anchor was going to hold in weeds like that.  Upon observation, we noticed quite a few fishing boats in closer to the island, but NO boat where the weeds were thick.  It was later in the day and we would really like to stop here.  We edged closer to the island and like magic the weeds were gone.  We dropped our anchor and it held firm.

Yeah.  We have brand new fishing licenses that needed a work out.  We watch a pontoon boat just off our stern pull in lots of pan fish, however, most were tiny. We dropped the dinghy and went to the far end of the island and drifted along fishing, not catching much. The other boat cleared out. A boat came along real close to us and asked what we were fishing for.  We said anything that will bite.  He was a local and told us just where to go off the tip of the island.  We moved our dinghy there and BAM we started catching fish!  I had a HUGE bass on my line. Of course we didn’t have a net with us….Duh. I was so excited that I fought it too hard and broke the line.  Scott tried to tell me to let him get tired, but I was too wound up.  So, I lost it, but learned a good lesson.  We came home with a nice stringer of Crappie, Bluegill, and Sunfish.  The guy came back later and yacked with us for a while.  We love how friendly boaters are.  Most of them are happy to give you helpful hints and tips.  Needless to say, we had a wonderful fish dinner.

About the time we were cleaning fish, we noticed a boat heading into the weeds. They quickly turned around and headed between the islands, then headed toward us.  I hailed them on the radio and asked if they were looking for an anchorage.  They were so I told them to come in close to the island. They were so relieved as it was getting quite late.  It turns out they are loopers too on Miss Utah. They went out fishing, but we must have caught them all.  ?  They caught a few small one. We must have hit it just at the right time of evening. We ended up traveling with them the next day.  Very nice people.  We found out they named their boat after their beloved deceased dog named Utah. Thus Miss Utah.

We were traveling with Roger and Chris from Miss Utah and Lars and Erja (Pronounced: Eddie ah)from Ambika. We were talking about our plans for the weekend because it is Canada’s 150 Independence Day on July 1rst. It was recommended that we find a spot and sit tight for the weekend because it will be crazy with boaters from Canada.  We would have liked to have been in Peterborough on Lock 20’s wall, but they only allow 2 nights stay. All three of us went through lock 19 to stage to move to Lock 20 min the morning so we could stay the night of the first to see the fireworks.  The weather was terrible it has rained every day since we got to Canada. The next day Miss Utah decided to move on seeing it was supposed to be rainy. We got up early, went to the marina (which was booked solid) to get water and a pump-out.  We received a nice surprise that the marina was doing it for free for Loopers.  A pump-out was $16.50.  We then moved to wall 20.  Later Ambika moved to a T-dock that the marina managed and only charge $20 per night because there are no services.  We ended up moving over there also.  Both boats had to do a hose down of the duck poop on the dock, but after that it was a great spot.  Easy walking to all the festivities and the fireworks will be fired off right in front of us in the middle of the lake.

I will write more about the celebration and our new very interesting friends from Sweden.

Thanks for reading,

Scott and Karen

Unique Random Photo of the Day.

6-27-17 Flight Lock  #16-17 and Healy Falls

Today we went through what is call Flight Locks 16 and 17.  It is two locks together.  You go up the first one. When they open the doors, you go directly into another lock instead of the waterway.  When at the bottom of the first lock it looks impressive to see this massive lock wall in front of us.

Just outside of the lock is Healy Falls. We pulled the boat over, tied up to the what to see what there was to see.  At first, we thought we were only going to see the spillway of the lock.  We were allowed to walk across the top of the Dam and down to the falls.  The water was really running swiftly. They have had a lot of rain so the falls were impressive! They didn’t look like the photos we saw of them. We spent quite a while climbing around on the rocks and getting different views of the falls.  I don’t think many people stop, but they should.  It was a great break with wonderful scenery.

We are trying to stop and smell the roses at little spots like this.  We are also trying to get away from staying on the Lock walls.  They are nice, but after a while they are all park settings, but we have been going off the beaten path to find anchorages to see more of the country.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

 

Unique, Random Photo of the Day:

 

We pulled into Campbellford’s west wall and tied up.  We could stay for free during the day but we would have to pay if we spent the night.  It was a neat little town, easy to walk to.  We first went to “Canadian Tire”   Ummmm we are on a boat why do we need tires? We don’t!  The chain started out as a tire store and has evolved into a store that sell almost everything. Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, tires and more all in one.  We went there to get our Canadian Fishing License and a tub of worms so we could start fishing. We then walked into town to the bank to get some currency exchanged. We found a lovely little bakery too.  There was also a chocolate wholesale shop, but we skipped it after getting a free sample at the marina and were not impressed.  Plus the rain was a coming so we booked it back to the boat and took off just in time. It rained on and off  the rest of the day and evening.

There are so many neat spots along the waterway.  I want to show you all of them, but I picked some unique and interesting things to share.

We anchored for the first time after we got our fishing licences. It was late and the weather was iffy so I didn’t go, but Scott braved the weather and went. He only caught one crappie. We kept it in hopes of adding to it for a dinner.

I have been more than frustrated with the lack of Canadian Internet.  I am at the Library right now in hopes of getting a few blogs done, but even here the pictures load slowly.  I want to pull my hair out.  But while I am here, I will save my hair and keep plowing away and getting a few more done.  We will be in Canada for a while yet and heading to even more remote places, so hang with us.  We’ll post when we can.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique random photo of the day: