Day #355 – Peterborough, ON

Yesterday after we arrived in Hastings Patti and I went and did a little exploring.

Their flower pots and baskets were all over town and beautifully planted and maintained.

The town had only one stop light, but they had everything we needed.  We visited the LCBO, the post office and the grocery store.  We couldn’t help wondering what anyone would do with this many marshmallows.

Lots and lots of s’mores we guessed.

After a nice dinner aboard Salvage Crew we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

I will never tire of those.

Up and away from the docks at 7:30 this morning for a 40 mile ride up to Peterborough.  Most of the trip was in winding rivers.

This mallard swam by with her string of peepers.

The Canada geese are plentiful and these thought it was a good idea to have a parade.

Purple loosestrife appears in the area.  At one time it was feared that it would take over the marshes as it is so invasive, but so far doesn’t appear to be the problem that was feared.

Again, Canadians show the pride in their country.  What a great canoe.

We only had one lock today and it was at the very end of the day.  We locked through, turned the corner and Peterborough was welcoming us.

We look forward to spending a day here tomorrow and seeing the area before taking off for another three day run.

Day #354 – Hastings, ON

8:00 this morning we are back out on the Trent-Severn headed to Hastings.  We had planned on resting a day after yesterday’s workout but decided to shove on and get more of the locks behind us.  We were at Lock #13 when it opened and were the first boats through.  One down…five more to go.

Hang ’em on the left, hang ’em on the right, hang ’em on the left, hang ’em on the right…stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight! Takes me back to old cheer leading days.  The first four locks are different tie ups each time…port, starboard, port, starboard with seven fenders each time.  I am working on improving my time as it took me fifteen minutes with the first attempt.

Another one of the locks today was a double.

It is a beautiful summer Canadian morning.  The air is fresh, the water is calm and the birds are singing.  The temperature dipped to 50 degrees last night, but this morning the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day on the water.

Beautiful cottage country to travel through.

Canadians are very patriotic and fly their flags everywhere.  We loved seeing that.

Apparently, they rent house boats in these waters.  People were out enjoying the day.

The lock masters again are so friendly and helpful.  They make a point of going up to each boat and talking to the people.  One lady planted this “boat” with flowers and a trellis as a sail.  She said a critter ate the vine and she had to start over.

The highlight of my day was when we saw this mother loon and her two babies.  Usually the babies ride on their mother’s back, nit this time they were swimming along side.  I have many memories of seeing and hearing loons when I used to go as a child to Crane Lake in northern Ontario in the summers.  What a wonderful memory.

Today we traveled 20 miles, went through six locks and averaged 3.9 miles per hour.  We are thankful for another beautiful summer day on the water.

Day #353 – Campbellford, ON

We officially entered the Trent-Severn this morning about 8:15.

The locks along here don’t open up until 8:30 so there was no need to get an early start.  Lock #1 is 1.8 miles from Trenton.

We got there at 8:30 as instructed, but had to wait as they couldn’t fit two 48 foot boats in with the other boat that was ahead of us.  So we pulled off and waited for them to lock one boat through in each direction.  While in Lock#1 we got out and went into their office as we had to buy our pass to be able to travel through.

At 10:00 we were locked through the first lock of the day and on our way.

These locks all have manually operated gates.  When you have reached your bottom height, they revolve the levers and the gates open up.  Quite unique!

The channels are really tight in this section and there is no room for error.

They are quite serious about the speed limits and no wake zones.

Each lock has beautiful blooming flowers and different configurations as to their gate houses.  Most are quite charming and the people are very friendly and helpful.

Lots and lots of cottages line the shore and people are out enjoying the water although it is still only 70 degrees today.

We got a little rain through Lock #9. Locks 11 and 12 are connected and life you up over 50 feet.

It was a long, but productive day as we traveled 32 miles and locked through 12 locks.  Total we lifted about 150 feet today. That was only averaging about 3.6 miles per hour.  Glad to be tied up for the night.

Day #352 – Trenton, ON

This is the memorial park that we look out over from our pilothouse door.  Beautiful flowers and nice area.

We had a nice stroll downtown last evening and went to Tomasso’s for Mediterranean food and it was excellent.

We decided to take this picture as we discussed that some day soon phone booths will be a thing of the past.

This morning Patti and I sat down and figured out our next few stops for the upcoming week on the Trent-Severn.  We like having some idea of a tentative itinerary before we begin.

After all of that hard work we walked up to the street fair again.

They had lots more entertainment,

shopping opportunities,

and we declined an invitation from these guys as we like the clowns we already have.

Welcome to Canada!  It wouldn’t be a Canadian town without a LCBO store

and right across the street…Tim Horton’s.

Guess we won’t be needing this sign!

We spent kind of a quiet afternoon catching up on charting, reading and shopping.  The weather has improved and is beautifully sunny, but still cool, high 70.

Day #351 – Trenton, ON

The good news this morning was that Brad and Patti’s Garmin chip arrived as promised and it worked.  We left the docks at 8:45 and headed 35 miles away to Picton.  We traveled down the St. Lawrence River and across the Bay of Quinte.

We weren’t sure what all of the birds were feeding on, but apparently it was something really good as they were everywhere.

We saw our first loon today, but unfortunately the picture didn’t turn out.  Sure hope we see more.

This ferry runs back and forth from Glenora to Youngs Point.  We noticed the flags flying, the Canadian, the Ontario and the British.

This nice float plane sat in the yard of some one’s home.  What a great way to get from place to place.  Sure cuts down on your commute time.

We pulled into Picton at 12:30 and thought it looked charming.

Nice town, poor marina.  The docks were only 30 feet long and the cleats were about three inches long.  When I made the reservation yesterday she assured me that they could accommodate two 48 foot boats. Well….not so much.  They wanted to put two 48 foot boats back to back on a 60 foot dock.  If we had tied up where she wanted us to and the winds picked up we would have pulled the docks right along with us.

I got on the phone and started calling all around trying to find a marina that could accommodate us for the weekend.  We got lucky and Trenton, where we were headed tomorrow anyway, said they could fit us in.  So back out of Picton we motored and headed to Trenton, another 32 miles.  77 miles and 7.75 hours later we arrived, in the rain, at Fraser Park Marina and GLAD to be here.  People are friendly and it looks like a great town.

Day #350 – Kingston, Ontario

Last night we went to a great little Italian restaurant named Frankie Pesto’s.  It used to be the old train station.  Great food and atmosphere.

As soon as you walk off of the docks

you are in beautiful downtown Kingston’s Confederation Park.

Today at noon there was a concert in the park.

The streets are lined with restaurants,  pubs and shops.

After a few morning chores we went on the trolley tour around the city.  Kingston was the original capitol of Canada and they are very proud of their history.  They are named “Limestone City” as the city is built on limestone and therefore many of their buildings are made of it as well.

The tour took us past the Royal Military College of Canada.

We continued further up the hill and toured Fort Henry.  It was built to protect the area during the War of 1812.  It was actually never actually fired upon.  It overlooks the beautiful harbor named Navy Bay where we are docked.

Our tour took us through the campus of Queen’s University.  Beautiful campus located right in Kingston.

Their churches

parks

and homes

all show the great heritage and pride of the people of Kingston.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays they have a market behind City Hall.

In the winter they freeze this area over for a skating rink.

Our friend Charlotte Snider, on Foreign Exchange, told us about a couple of special shops to visit in the area and we took her advice.  First stop was Cooke’s where she said her father worked as a teenager.

We also took her recommendation and stopped at Pan Chancho Bakery…yum.  Thanks Charlotte, both great stops.

We will be sorry to leave as we have enjoyed every minute here.

Day #349 – Kingston, Ontario

We made it!  We left Oswego at 7:00 and headed due north.

The water flattened out and we had a beautiful ride across Lake Ontario arriving at 12:30 (57 miles).  There was very little boat traffic today and the trip was uneventful.  As we approached Kingston we could see all of these wind turbines in the distance on Wolfe Island.

This is a sight we had never seen…a marina located next to a penitentiary.  It opened in 1835 as the “Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada,” it is one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world. It is often referred to as “Alcatraz North”.  It is right on their waterfront.

Having boated for many years, we have now officially boated in four of the five Great Lakes…Lake Superior remains.  Canada is the third country we have been in on the trip and we have traveled a total of 6068 miles to date.

We will stay in Kingston tomorrow to explore the area and see all that it has to offer.

Day #348 – Oswego, NY

Another beautiful day in Oswego.  Although the high is only 68 the skies are clear and sunny.

We rode our bikes over Fort Ontario and did some exploring.  Not sure these were supposed to be bike racks, but we found them quite handy.

The fort sits on top of a hill overlooking Lake Ontario.

Fort Ontario was one of several forts erected by the British to protect the area around the east end of Lake Ontario. The original Fort Ontario was erected in 1755, during the French and Indian War in order to bolster defenses already in place at Fort Oswego on the opposite side of the river.  The fort was used during the American Revolution, the War of 181and the American Civil War.  During World War II, Fort Ontario was home to approximately 982 Jewish refugees.  In 1946 the fort was transferred to the State of New York  and it was initially used to house veterans and their families during the post-war period.

After Fort Ontario we rode our bikes into town and across the Harbor Rail Trail River Walk.  It crosses the Oswego River diagonally and over the Lock #8 and the Oswego Canal.

Their City Hall is beautiful and located right in the heart of downtown.

We are looking forward to our trip north across Lake Ontario tomorrow.  Canada here we come, eh?

Day #347 – Oswego, NY

Yesterday when we arrived Brad arranged for divers to go down and check his props to see if that was what was causing the new vibration.  They came back up and reported that the props looked good so that was not the problem. Saga continues.

We were visited at the marina by a couple of gentlemen  from Canada.  They brought along their laptop and showed us pictures of some of the areas we will be visiting.

After that we walked up the hill and we had a great dinner at the Press Box not far from the marina.

This morning Brad and Patti took Salvage Crew out for a test run and the vibration was still there.  Finally after much deliberation and exploration it was decided that it indeed was the prop, so they switched it out with a spare they had.  Hopefully that will take care of the situation.

We all took care of laundry, boat chores, securing needed charts, etc. to make the run across Lake Ontario tomorrow.  Waves today were 4-5 feet.  As the day went on, the forecast changed and it looks like tomorrow will still be too windy.  Wednesday looks better so we will wait.

Oswego was first visited in 1615 by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. The British established a trading post in the area in 1722.  Some of the buildings are quite old and unfortunately many are vacant.

We all got our cell phone and internet arranged so that we can use them in Canada so lots was accomplished today.  And, so we wait…

Day #346 – Oswego, NY

Our day began with calm waters on the Erie Canal this morning. We left Brewerton at 7:00 and took in our last lock on the Erie Canal.

Homes and cottages of all shapes and sizes line the shore.

Even little boat houses in all shapes and sizes.

We passed a “grave yard” containing old tugs and buoys.

The Oswego Canal is 24 miles long and takes you down 118 feet through seven locks beginning at the Erie Canal and ending on Lake Ontario.  Many of the locks have different configurations.  This one had a bridge with only a five foot clearance

until you are lowered down 18 feet and come out the other end.

You really don’t want to make a wrong turn in these waters as these falls are not very forgiving.

This picture shows Salvage Crew quietly making her way up the canal right before she hit a submerged buoy.  Now they have a vibration on their left prop.  Hopefully they can get it repaired tomorrow.

We plan to cross Lake Ontario into Kingston on Tuesday as the weather looks promising.

If you look into the distance you can see the view as we exit Lock 8.

As we exited you could see Lake Ontario in the far distance.  It had 20 mile an hour winds out of the west and 4-6 foot waves today.  Not a good day to be out there, so we will wait.  Glad to be here safe and sound.