The Last Lock of our trip and pucker moments.

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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.

Lock 45….our last.
Scott in the last lock
Karen in the last lock. (notice we are wearing rain gear. Yup it rained on us in our last lock then stopped)
Look how close we are to the door….and they open inward. Yikes
This is a manually operated lock. The gal is cranking open the valve to let the water out.
To open the doors they crank this handle round and round.
Here is our guy cranking the door. We had to pull the boat back to make room for the door to open, but not hit the boat behind us. Close quarters. Notice he is watching our bow closely as he cranks.
Heading out of the last lock
Yowsa, look at the amount of water coming through the dam.

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

First a sign warning about narrow channels. Then we see this. Is our boat going to fit through there? Plus there is a bridge and tons of current this combination equals a pucker moment.
This gives you an idea of the current.
This is how close we were to the green on the port
and this is the red on the starboard. Not much room for error.

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 had a hitchhiker.

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.

Us with the crew of Living Life.
Found this painted on the side of the wall. The SS Lemoyne was built in 1926 and was the biggest bulk carrier on the Great Lakes until 1950
We dinghied from the marina to town. There is a large flour mill on the water with the intricate mural painted on it.
Lots of kids out learning to sail today.
This is Tillie she is a 9 month labrador who is a crew member on the boat Chemistry. Such a sweety. I didn’t get any pictures of the people we spent time with, but I did get one of the dog. Doesn’t that just figure.
Shout out of Congratulations to our dear friend Jeff and Joy from Tidings of Joy who crossed their wake in New York. We’ll miss you guys!!

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:

Slingshot chair. Yee haw.

3 thoughts on “The Last Lock of our trip and pucker moments.”

  1. Thanks for all your posts, love reading about all your travel’s. Sounds like a great trip and safe travel’s home. Do travel back to Canada soon Eh.

  2. Have so enjoyed your posts since you left Lakeshore Yacht Harbor. It brings back so many memories, but I have to admit you have been much more adventurous then we were. Looking forward to seeing you when you return to Muskegon. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

    1. Thanks Thressa, We are having a ball, but as we get closer we are starting to anxious to get back again. We hope there will be a temporary spot for us at LYH when we get back. It feels like home to us. See you in 4 to 6 weeks.

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