June 22: Penetanguishene to Lauley Island - And Our First Lock on the System

We are sitting at the Penetanguishene town dock. This will be the first day of the Trent-Severn adventure and everybody is nervous. Even the people walking down the pier look at us nervously. It must be what Shackleton felt like before he set off. Or before the others tried to eat him later. Something like that. 

Ernest Shackleton. See how nervous he looks? And tasty?

Thursday morning, while Cappie was entering our first day's route on the chart-plotter, I experimented with different options for locking through with the tinny.  We'll discover what the various lock-masters prefer as we go along, and it will be good to be prepared with some options. We may have to lock the big boat through first and then tie her up and then lock through the little boat, but other options are to quickly shift the tow harness and tow the tender on a short leash right into the lock, and/or to efficiently tie it to the hip at short notice. It all might depend on whether there are other boats waiting to lock through too.

I cast us off (and leapt on board) from the town dock and Cappie expertly spun the trawler 180 degrees in a basin made snug by two replica wooden heritage vessels, amongst other boats, and we crossed the bay. We bought fuel at Hindson Marina as they had the lowest diesel rate going ($1.85/L.), and also bought some stainless-steel clips for the new quick-change towing gear aforementioned. Then, after hovering out-of-range of the marina while I refitted the tinny with the new lines and clips, we headed out. It would be our last trip out of Penetang Bay. 

I enjoyed the simple task of putting together a voyaging lunch of kielbasa, cheese, crackers, fresh strawberries, and clementines, and we ate on the bridge as Cappie piloted the twelve or so nautical miles at a gentle 7-8 knots.  Then I set lines and had fenders at the ready for Lock 45. I called to say we were approaching. It can be a difficult lock to get up to as there can be a strong current coming from the dam but you can’t really get a sense of it until you are caught in it, as the marked channel is a series of tight turns before the lock and dam comes into view. 

Friends who locked through a few weeks ago reported a very strong push to port just before the blue line wall, which would make it a tricky tie-up to wait for the doors to open. (The wall with the thick blue-line is where a vessel is meant to wait if you want to lock through.) By calling ahead we were hoping to have a clear passage straight into the lock once we got through the tough current.  On the phone, one of the young, friendly lock-masters assured us that this was the case. The doors were open. He said he would watch for us as we came into view under the Hwy 400 bridge and then would open the swing bridge to let us move directly into the lock chamber. 

A typical lock with the blue line visible

A few minutes before we reached the 400 Hwy bridge, a solo "Personal Watercraft" whizzed past us, with a wave, and a wake. An older dude at 20 knots. Unfortunately for us, this older dude jetted around the corner out of our sight and straight into the open lock which had been awaiting us, and informed the lock-master that we were "a ways away". So they closed the doors and, with just the single Sea-Doo inside, the lock was raised. This meant that when the lock came into view, we would be surprised.

Old Dude on a Sea-Doo or perhaps, Sea-Dude, would be more apt

Hi, it's me, Cappie, now. Having successfully negotiated the narrow passage under Hwy 400, I brought us into the strong current which emanates from the dam at Lock 45. As noted, it did push us to port so I had to power up to fight the surge. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the sling-shot effect of emerging from the current just before the blue line wall. So we came in hot, as they say. We hit the wall going about 2 knots, which doesn't sound like much but the boat weighs 12 tons, so... Anyhoo, I managed to come in at as gentle an angle as possible and the only damage, other than to our nerves, was to the fenders that saved us. One of them burst. He was a good fender and will be fondly remembered as a Bonny Bumper. We buried him at sea with full honours.

This is how it would have looked had we actually tossed the fender

We were finally admitted to our first lock and, with the tin boat at our port side, slipped nicely into the lock wall on our starboard. Our first lock, in eleven years. So far, mixed success. The lock ascended and after reaching the top the doors opened to let us out. I now made my second mistake. I tried to stay as far off the port-side wall as possible to allow for the tin boat on our hip, but the current and wind pushed us back against that wall and the tinny scraped against it with a loud screech. Many hands came to help push us off, but couldn't reach the side of the boat. Brooke was finally able to fend us off with the boat hook while loosening and swinging the tin boat behind us. We exited the lock. Phew. Again no damage except to my ego. Here's a jaunty little video of our lock voyage. Don't worry, it's not too long.

We decided to find a spot to anchor for the night and headed for Lauley Island which is a Public island on Little Lake. It doesn't seem to be Public, however, as there is a shipping container-structure on steel girders perched somewhat on, or against, the shore. It looks industrial but there are flower baskets and Muskoka chairs on a deck attached to it. The following morning we awake to read a CBC story about the banning of Floating Homes, and darned if this isn't the very structure pictured. What a coincidence! If the people there are the creators of the LOTB (Living On The Bay) business, they must be having a hell of a day, as the CBC reports that their structure is now deemed illegal and so not allowed on the water. Here is the CBC Floating Homes Story   

As mentioned, this island is classified as Public land, which is why we anchored here, as we expected there would be no cottages. 

The Floating Home in all its glory

As it would turn out, the owners of the quartet of grey shipping containers have spent some $450,000 and seem to be having fun, barbecuing and playing with their dog. So life goes on. As shall we, tomorrow. Or so we thought...

The Lauley Island anchorage

Launching Things Off - 2023

 Well, I knew this would happen. I swore I would keep the blog up to date and here we are nearly a week in and this is the first. Oh, well. 

As a quick catch-up, last Tuesday we abandoned Toronto for the water and headed up to Penetanguishene where the Mary Mary stood anxiously awaiting our permanent arrival. Even dusty from a winter on the hard, she looked yar. 

We had left with the two Volvos (I would say Volvi but that sounds a little orgiastic) packed to the gills with the sometimes necessary, often unnecessary stuff that we trot out every year. One sad thing this year... no cats. We lost our last ship's cat Mister Hattie during the winter and now we have just ourselves. We're keeping our eyes open though...

The Volvi after unloading (there I said it anyway)

The first day is always about loading and unloading so after we'd had enough of that we went into town to have wings at The Wing House. I gotta say, they are some of the best I've had so if you're in the neighbourhood and you like that kind of thing... yum.

Wednesday and Thursday were about the hull, attaching a new strainer basked, re-attaching the newly oiled windshield supports and hooking up the solar panels. I probably have the order wrong as it is all a bit of a blur now, as these times seem to be. There are a lot of little things that have to be done every year. We found low coolant levels in the engines so set that right. We're going to keep some puppy pads under the motor to see if its a leak. We fired them up and, just like the reliable old Ford Lehman's that they are, they started right away. We had to boost the port engine a bit using the starboard starter battery but that was okay.

Drilling into the hull. Wait! What??

The new Perko strainer basket in place. (fascinating stuff, huh?)

 On Thursday we launched the boat and spent the night at the marina while we did more system work. 

Launching

Launched

Brooke is doing most of the work in the engine room as parts of my body rebel when applied. She's a marvel down there, squirrelling in and out of the motors to do what needs to be done. Including re-bolting the alternator armature. I guess eventually we will have to get a monkey or something. Basically, at this time, I'm around to do the heavy lifting.

Like when we installed the new inverter/charger on Friday. First we had to get the old one out from where it lived, in the v-berth, and believe me they weigh as much as a Trump indictment file. Then we had to install the new one, a marvellous device (the Multi-Plus 2) created by the Victron company. We are changing them out because the old inverter couldn't handle our equally marvellous solar panel array. Now we have a system that is cohesive and does what we want, which is to power the boat at anchor and underway. 

Out with the old...

... in with the new

Having installed the equipment we launched our tin boat dinghy/jolly boat, Tintin, and rowed her over to the mother-ship. (The 1971 Evinrude Sportwin wouldn't start right off but it did the next day after Brooke purchased some hard-to-find J4C spark plugs.) Then we motored over to Discovery Harbour, a favourite Penetang anchorage of ours and spent the next three days checking and re-checking the systems and also having some R&R. A welcomed respite from the previous days of lifting and carrying and climbing up and down ladders on the hard. Except a strong wind blew up and made it a bit noisy.

At anchor in Discovery Harbour, Penetang

 

Now it is Monday. Brooke has gone off to drive the dinghy trailer back to her folks place in Port Hope. The next part of our mission is to start the ferrying of the cars so that we can have transport if necessary from the various ports we will be at as we proceed on our scheduled voyage down the Trent-Severn Waterway. Ultimate destination... Trenton. That's 43 locks if you're curious. A lot of locking.

Where we're headed (from top left corner to lower right)

 She will drive one of the Volvi from Port Hope to Sopher's Landing where our good friend Jeff Knight has kindly agreed to set up a temporary parking spot for one of the cars. His cottage is on the Trent and will afford us a place to anchor if we have need to get back to the city or elsewhere. The one car will live there and after we arrive by boat at that location we will drive it back to Penetang to retrieve the other car and hop-scotch it to the next location, probably Beaverton. And so on.

Jeff Knight, famous Canadian actor and personal friend of ours (Taken when he was 14)

 It sounds crazy but we still live in hope that one of us will actually get some acting work. Tough for all these days, but particularly if you're an oldster like me. I do have one gig going, the animated show, Millie Magnificent, in which I have a recurring character. I have set up a recording studio on the boat and hopefully will be able to record from here. If the technology is insufficient though I will have to drive back to record. Tricky timing.

So that's pretty much it for now. After we get back from Sopher's Landing, we will begin the BIG voyage. Word has reached us that the current from the dam at Lock 45 is pretty tricky, pushing boats off to port as you approach from Georgian Bay. Could be a challenge. Here's a video of us coming the other way many years ago. Lost sleep over it prior to trying it. 

Lock 45

After that, The Big Chute, a lock that is in fact a railway car that you drive your boat into and it lifts you up a big hill and into the water on the other side. Fun times. 

Big Chute