July 12 Update

July 9 

We have a weather forecast of 60% chance of rain and 30-40 km winds. We are not in a rush so we sit at Bobcaygeon waiting on better weather.

July 10

We move at 7:30 a.m. to make Fenelon Falls, lock 36, about 9:30 a.m... We hope to get on the wall with electric and water. While in the lock we talk to the lock master and he explains the water comes with the electric which costs $13 a day. We tell him we just want to tie up long enough to fill the water tank, but will pay if needed. He finally comes back and tells us the number 3 spot has not been turned off from the night before and go ahead and fill as long as we are leaving.

                                                  Kirkfield Lift Lock.

You want to stop in time

Lock 36 is the Kirkfield lift lock. Just like Peterborough but it is steel and therefore more open than the concrete. We load at the top this time and you know you are going over the edge.  It is so disconcerting to look forward and see the gate and land 60 foot below you. I almost refused to load. I never loaded a boat as slowly as at this lock. The pictures do not do this justice but they were the best we could do.

We run into one of the many of the canal barges at lock 38 where we had to wait on the barge. It was heading back to Peterborough and we were going west. These barges are designed just for the Waterway and take up the whole lock in some situations. Sometimes they are too long and the bow is then folded up to let them fit. See pictures below:

 

We tied up at Lock 39 for the night. There is nothing here. We have 5 boats tied up at the top and bottom of the lock for the night going both ways. The Frenchman with us on the bottom is heading back to Quebec after just buying this used 38 foot Bayliner. So he is going back exactly on the same route we just came west on.

July 11 

We left Lock 39 and headed to Lock 42 for the night.  We have had an on and off problem with the depth sounder while up here and assumed it was the weeds growing from the bottom reducing sensitivity in the through hull sender. Yesterday it was worse and today we cancelled anchoring in favor of finding a full service marina where we can take time to get a Ray Marine technician to look at it. We ran a lot today, 6 hours, with just the chart plotter and no depth. In this shallow water that is no fun. Alice’s arms are tired from throwing the weighted line and yelling, mark.  We tie up at lock 42 which is the largest single lift lock on the waterway at 48 feet. We need to go an additional 18 miles to the marina and clear the Chute railway lock in the morning before we hit the Starboard Marina to try and find a solution to the depth sounder problem.

July 12

Lock 42 is huge, with a 48 foot lift, and quick. We were in the lock tied up, and then leaving in about 15 minutes. The pictures are not great but give a sense of the enormity of the lock. Lock is left full of water over night.

These upper doors are curved and are 2 doors deep to hold the 48 foot of water pressure

Lower doors

 

Next is the Big Chute, which is a rail road lock. You pull into 2 boat slings attached to the sides of an open rail car. The first sling just controls the bow of the boat from moving forward and back and also side to side.  The stern sling keeps your stern from going lower as they move the car forward up the tracks on to dry land.  The final outcome is a bow resting on the car bottom with a raised stern to protect the props. You move 600 foot over the tracks and are lifted and lowered 58 foot.

All the books tell you to tie up and watch a few go through but when we arrive there are no other boats. We try tying on the floating docks and I finally quit as we move over 5 foot water and going toward shore with no cleats yet to tie too and head back to the blue line. We are immediately hailed to enter so I just head on in. The load is not that difficult as they give you timely directions.

This is what we see upon arriving with small boats coming out. The new railway can carry a boat 100 foot in length and 24 foot wide, weighing 90 tons.

Railroad track heading over top of granite hill we traverse

A look back from the boat at where we just came from.

We leave the Chute behind and head another 8 miles to our Marina for the night.Depth sounder worked today until we got to the marina where it quite again. Hopefully we will find a solution to the problem.