Day 391 – July 17th 2023

This morning we are traveling on our own for the first time in Canada. We are going to Young’s Point, Ontario. We had seven locks today and traveled 15 miles in seven hours.

The second lock of the day was the Peterborough Lift Lock. It works quite a bit different than the other locks. Instead of water rising or lowering, there are two pools of water (think about a giant tub), one on the high side and one on the low side. Boats traveling in both directions enter the appropriate tub and rise or lower in the tub at the same time. The tub that is lowering is filled with slightly more water so that it’s weight sends it down while pushing the other tub up. It’s a lot easier because you don’t have the current of water rushing in our out and your boat just floats in the tub. There are two locks like this on the Trent Severn waterway. Very interesting and a neat engineering accomplishment.

After several more locks, we arrived at our planned stop along the wall at Lock 27 – Young’s Point for the night. A very long and tiring day!!! We met a couple of other Loopers aboardo Navigator and Red Rover today. We cooked pork tenderloin for dinner. We were very ready for bed after dinner. We were tired little puppies!!!!

Day 392 – July 18th 2023

Today we are traveling to Bobcaygen, Ontario. It is 6 1/2 hours away through several more locks. We passed by The Church On The Rock, accessible only by boat and only open in the summer month.

We had planned to stay on the lock wall but the boats in front of us took the last available spots. One boat was a bit rude because after following us all day, he passed us at the lock to jump up to the last spot. So we decided to go to Centre Point Marina just out of town. We got to the little marina and we were by far the biggest boat there!!!! All fishing and ski boats at this marina. We had to tie up to the fuel dock!!! We had a total of 4 locks today. We cooked sausages for dinner and went to bed shortly after.

Day 393 – July 19th 2023

This morning we are up at 6:00 am trying to get a jump on some of the traffic that will be coming our way!!! When we were ready to pull out of the slip three boats went past our marina. We were not the first ones up this morning!!!!

Today we will be traveling through the Kirkfield Liftlocks. It operates similar to The Peterborough Liftlocks. It’s undergoing maintenance and we’re expecting a bit of a wait. It wasn’t too bad, about 1-1/2 hours.

We came up to a very narrow and shallow area of the Trent Canal. It was only wide enough for one boat to pass. We had to call on the radio to let other boats know we were entering the canal. We went thru this area for quite a few miles!!!

We stopped for the night at Lock 38 – Talbot Park. We are tied up to the wall overlooking a beautiful cove. We are the only boater here tonight. It’s a beautiful serene setting. We cooked tacos for dinner and went to bed after enjoying the evening sunset a bit. We are exhausted after a long day.

Day 394 – July 20th 2023

Today we are traveling to Orillia. It’s a good marina and a great chance to take some downtime to recharge our batteries.

We left this morning and have to cross Lake Simcoe. It is a big lake that is notorious for rough conditions but we have no trouble crossing.

We arrive at our marina Port of Orillia at 1:00pm. It is a huge marina but almost all the slips are empty since it is mid-week. We are the only boat on our dock. And most of the other docks only have one or two boat also. We went up to Studabakers restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner.

Day 395 – July 21th 2023

Today we have a lazy day. But I couldn’t sleep in—I’m up early for me at 10:00 am!!! Richard had walked up the main street and brought back some pastries for breakfast. Later he took a chance and got a haircut. It actually turned out nice.

We don’t have much to do today – laundry, boat wash, grocery store run, etc. More boats are arriving for the weekend and the marina is filling up. Many locals and some more Loopers.

We went to dinner at The Lucky Labrador, a pub. I had Mac and cheese for my dinner and Richard had fish and chips. We walked back thru the town and back to the boat. We sat and watched some Astros baseball for a bit and I went to bed.