BUCKHORN YACHT HARBOR ~ July 10, 2008 We had a good time during the week while we were waiting for the boat to be fixed. We went to an Indian Trading Post that Bob recommended. We went back to Young’s Point and had a wonderful dinner at our favorite restaurant, the Old Bridge Inn. We also shopped again at the Lockside Trading Company at the lock in Young’s Point. On Thursday, the mechanic picked up the part in Peterborough at UPS and brought it to the boat! We went back to the Buckhorn lock to talk to Bob Johnson, the lockmaster, in the marina van. One of the owners of the marina had told us to be sure to ask Bob about his trip to Africa. He told some amazing stories about the experiences he had on his trip and gave us a set of disks with his African pictures on them. After our visit, we headed back to the boat to get ready to leave. We fueled and left the marina about 2:30 on Thursday, July 10th. We got out into Buckhorn Lake almost at the same spot we had the trouble before and the port engine quit again! We turned around and went back. It was an airlock which the mechanic quickly fixed and we were once again on our way at 3:45! We enjoyed the people of Buckhorn Yacht Harbor so much, we hated to say good-bye! We planned to go to Bobcaygeon to the lock wall, a distance of approximately 20 miles. It was a great trip because of the beautiful homes and scenery between Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon. When we arrived at the lock wall, we found out that Bob had called the lock master, told him we were coming and asked him to save a place for us. Because of our trouble and late departure, we were much later than they had anticipated and the walls were full. They had two boats move over and made room for us. It was 6:15 pm when we finally got tied up. One of the couples who moved their boat for us came over for a glass of wine. We watched the ospreys in their nest feed their little ones. We enjoyed the visit and had a good night. BOBCAYGEON TO THE KIRKFIELD LOCK The next morning, Friday, we walked into town for breakfast at a place called the Full Cup. We can’t highly recommend it, but there was a lot of local color and it is apparently a popular local spot for breakfast. We went to Bigley’s, a huge shoe store right by the lock. Unfortunately, I did not find anything I had to have, so we walked back to the boat to prepare to leave. We had to walk around the Canadian geese on the wall by our boat. There were parents with babies who were very protective of their young (which were really adolescent geese). There was much hissing and one even ran at us! Many Canadians think that the geese are a huge nuisance. They have multiplied so much in the past five years that many people consider them pests. We left the lock wall in Bobcaygeon at 11:20. Because it rained a lot during the night, it was a cool day and, once again, a sweatshirt day in JULY! This area, along the Trent-Severn Waterway is a recreational area for Canadians, canoeing, kayaking and boating. The water is so blue and clean. In many areas, you can see the bottom. The homes along the canal were beautiful in this area. We went through a place called “The Narrows”. And it was! You have to radio before you enter, announcing your boat length, the time you will enter it and the direction you are going because it would not be good to meet another boat in the Narrows. There are rocks on each side above and below the water. We passed through a few small lakes. Some of them are known for their stumps hidden under the water. Others for their submerged rocks. We were in Cameron Lake, which the cruising guides tell you is deep and clear when we hit something under the water. We were in the middle of the channel, did not see anything before we hit or after, but the blow made the whole boat shudder. We determined that the boat was all right and no bilge alarms came on (a good thing!), but we could only run it at 1300 rpms without a vibration. We usually run about 1700, but at least we could still run the boat. It happened right before we turned into the Rosedale Lock canal. The lockmaster told us several boaters had trouble at about the same spot because of a small river that was carrying a lot of debris into the lake. We knew that we hit a dead-head, which is a submerged, water-soaked big log. Phil said it was the port prop which was damaged. We went through three locks and the last lock of the day was the Kirkfield Lift Lock. Kirkfield Lock Approach View from 49' Up It is much like the Peterborough Lift Lock, but it is the highest point on the Trent –Severn and the first lock where we locked down. The difference between the Peterborough and the Kirkfield is that at Kirkfield you drive into a pan which is suspended in air, 49 feet above the water below. I was on the bow, working the lines, Phil was on the fly bridge, saying “Look down, isn’t this wonderful! Look down!” I finally told him NOT to tell me to look down! I did like it when we started down, but I did not spend a lot of time looking straight down! At 4:20, we tied up at the lock wall for the night and walked to a café at the top of the lock for dinner. When we returned to the boat, there were three other boats tied up along the wall. We were glad to have company and we planned to travel with two of the boats across Lake Simcoe. We went to bed early and about 11:00 or so, we were awakened by a boat close by. The locks close at 7:00 pm, so there is no boat traffic when you are tied up at the wall, but we heard a boat. Phil went to check and it was a small boat with two people in it and no lights. Phil got our big spotlight and turned it on them, as they made their way back up the canal. We were glad the other boats were there and they were glad that Phil had the spot light detail. KIRKFIELD LIFT LOCK TO ORILLIA We left the lock wall at 7:15am. It was sunny and cool. After you go through the Kirkfield Lock, the navigation buoys change sides. Before the lock, the buoys were red on the starboard side and green on the port side. At Kirkfield, they change to green on the right and red on the left. This is a very important thing to remember because of all the shoals and the rocks! We went through five locks in three miles. It really keeps you busy! It is easier locking down than up because the lockmasters take your lines and run them under the cable for you. You cannot reach the cables from the boat. Lockmaster & Summer Apprentice Approach to Gamebridge Lock We came out of Gamebridge Lock, went through the Lakeshore Road Swing Bridge, which opens on request during the hours that the locks are open, and entered the dreaded Simcoe Lake. It is supposed to be a really rough lake. They say that in bad weather, it doesn’t just get rough, it turns upside down! Passing Entryway to Lake Simcoe Lake Simcoe Crossing--30+ miles Fortunately, our crossing was smooth, except for the fact that one of the boats we crossed with hit something, probably a deadhead. The boat was okay, just had to go slower. It is very tricky when you get to the end of Lake Simcoe. They call it the Narrows (again!). It is a twisting, turning channel that leads into Orillia. We went to Hot Knots Marina because they have a full service marina and we knew we had to be hauled out for repairs… We arrived at 1:15 and we were the fourth boat out of six that had to be hauled out that day! We were, also, the biggest and the heaviest. It created quite a spectacle as we were being pulled out. There were many people watching, taking photos and offering opinions and comments. Phil drove the boat onto a huge trailer, much like a 17 foot run-about would use. It is a little different, driving a 41 foot, 28,000 pound trawler onto a trailer! Approach Showed More Pads Required The Tug Required a 4-Wheel Drive Truck to Get This Load Out He did a good job and the whole thing went well except that the trailer required additional pads to support both the length and weight of our boat. They put us behind the office and fuel dock on several stands. We had airlines stairs rolled up to our swim platform and from there we climbed our ladder to get into our boat. It was an experience, but the marina people were lovely to us. We got a newspaper everyday, trash pick-up at the boat, our laundry delivered to us from the laundry room after I finished washing, coffee in the office. And the most important thing – competent service for our boat! We damaged the portside prop and had it rebuilt, but the biggest thing was the bent shaft, a 12 foot, two inch in diameter tapered stainless steel shaft on the portside. We had to replace it and the coupler. Fortunately, it was covered by our insurance company, Allstate, and handled in a professional and expedient manner. We stayed on the boat up in the air from Saturday, when we arrived, until Wednesday. Phil called it a tree house. It was interesting and, once again, we were something of an oddity! We ordered a pizza and they wanted to know how they would find us. They knew where the fuel dock was and I assured them they would not have trouble. We were the only boat up in the air behind the fuel dock! Another time, I was packing to go home and someone knocked on the boat. I went out on the back deck and there was a young man down beside the boat who was thoroughly embarrassed when I answered the knock and came out on the deck. He said he was so sorry, he didn’t know anyone was on board, and he just wanted to know what the hull of the boat was made of ~ wood or fiberglass! Several people came by and knocked and wanted to know how we got all the way there from Houston, Texas. Phil just said we missed a turn and could use a better map!! . We were, certainly, not the only boat with problems. A beautiful 67 foot boat made by Marlow docked at Hot Knots one night. Phil talked to the owner, who had ordered the boat in 2005 and it was delivered to them in Florida in 2008, three months before they made it to Hot Knots. They left the next day and two days later made the news, both papers and TV, because the Canadian Coast Guard rescued three people off a 2 million dollar boat, taking on water! They hit a shoal. The marina was beautifully landscaped. Each boat slip had its own patio and picnic table. There was a landscaped common area in the middle that was lovely. There were beautiful flowers on the road, leading into the marina, also. It is a very efficiently run marina, very customer friendly. The kids that work there really work hard and they have been trained well in boat handling skills. In Peterborough, we met a couple from Canada, Mike and Kathy Donnelly and visited with them several times. We really enjoyed them. Mike volunteered to take us from Orillia to Buffalo to the motel, about a 31/2 hour drive from where we were and another hour and a half from his home to pick us up. We tried to talk him out of it, but we were so glad he insisted on taking us! We went by and got to see Kathy on the way to Buffalo which was a real treat to see her one more time before we left. We went home on July 17th. Phil and I and my side of the family went to a house on Galveston Beach for a week on the 21st, as we do every year. While we were most thankful that Hurricane Dolly came in south of Galveston, we were saddened for those in the South Padre Island area. The Gulf where we were was an angry rough sea with high surf and tides, but it calmed down as the week went on and over all we had a great time. We came back to our home in Bellaire on July 28th and left for Buffalo on Aug. 1. While we were home, we got rid of a raccoon in the attic and in the bedroom with one of our cats, critter-proofed our house and took the motorcycle to be fixed. It was a quick trip, but we accomplished a lot. ORILLIA TO PENETANGUISHENE We hoped to leave on Saturday, August 2, but the weather was not good. It was cloudy, windy and rainy. We got unpacked, went to the grocery store and returned our rental car. On Sunday, August 3, we left Hot Knots Marina to go as far as we could the direction of Penetanguishene. We had four locks to go through, including the Big Chute. Deidre, the operations manager at Hot Knots, helped us with our lines and we were off. It was a sunny day. We crossed Lake Couchiching and entered Lock 42, Couchiching Lock, which lowered us 21 feet. The lockmasters really packed the boats in this lock. One small boat was in the middle, rafted up to another small boat. Most of this trip was on the Severn River. It is heavily forested and rather isolated. There are a lot of granite rock formations and cliffs. We saw a lot of people fishing, canoeing, wake-boarding with high, high jumps over the wake of the boat, swimming and many were boating, water-skiing, sailing and jet-skiing. We saw our first bald eagle sitting high in the top of a tree. After Lock 43, Swift Rapids Lock, which takes you down 47 feet, the area was densely populated with summer cottages and big, beautiful summer homes. At long last, we came to the third lock that everyone tells you about on the Trent-Severn Waterway. The first two are the Peterborough Lift Lock and the Kirkfield Lift Lock. The Big Chute is a little different. You drive your boat into a railcar with slings in it. The lockmasters fit boats into the railcar like a jigsaw puzzle, calling individual boats to enter from the blue line where you wait to enter every lock. There can be a three of four hour wait to go through the Chute when there are a lot of boats. We were so lucky! Just as we got there, the boats started moving down the blue line wall, so there was room for us on the blue line. When it was our turn, we went in with only two other boats because of our size and the lockmasters wanted us at the back in the middle so our props would hang off the back of the railroad car. The slings tighten around your boat and the railroad car follows a track and your boat rises out of the water! You actually pass over a road on the way to the water on the other side! Once you crest the top at 57 feet, the track looks like a roller coaster track with a steep descent. It is an interesting engineering design because on both the ascent and the descent, the boats are always level. It was over in a matter of minutes and we were back in the water. I would like to do it again! It was quite an experience. Certainly, a once in a lifetime experience! After the Big Chute, we had one more lock in the Trent-Severn. The area after the lock is one of the most challenging and where a lot of people hit rocks and do considerable damage. There is a highway bridge that requires several sharp turns and the channel is extremely narrow. This is followed by the “Potato Island” channel that is challenging as well, but we finally exited from the middle of the Potato Island channel into Severn Bay that is wide, deep and has few navigational bouys. The rocks are islands and clearly obvious. We were making good time and decided that we could probably make it to Penetanguishene where our friends, Woody and Ellen Sutton from Chicago, were waiting on us. We were going to go through the Georgian Bay and the North Channel with them. We cruised some together last year and enjoyed them so much, it was really a pleasure to get to see them again and cruise with them. We arrived at Bay Moorings at 6:00pm. It took us a while to get tied up because the marina workers could not give directions to our slip! They gave us a map with no indication of where they wanted us to tie up… Finally, as a first for us at any marina, one of the marina workers got on the boat and directed us. We finally made it to our slip and were so happy to learn that there were FOUR other boats there from TEXAS! One boat from Austin, two boats from Corpus Christie and one from Houston! It was almost like being home, visiting with people who knew where you were talking about. We were delighted to see Woody and Ellen again and went to dinner with them. It was a long day, a little over ten hours and we were tired…We stayed in port Monday and rested. Tuesday, we went to town in the pouring rain, grocery shopped and ate a late lunch with Woody and Ellen and the yacht broker, Mike, from the marina. We met with Jeff, from the marina, who marked charts for us for the Georgian Bay and talked to us about what to expect. It rained very hard most of the afternoon and evening. When it quit, we walked over to “Illusion”, Patty and Billy’s boat, from Texas, to get our charts and had a glass of wine with all the Texans and Ellen. It was a fun evening. |
Buckhorn Yacht Harbor to Penetanguishene (July 10-August 3)
Harmony Log 2008
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