Friday -Saturday Oct 3-4

Burleigh Lock Sat. night

Meeting a boat coming in the canal

See! we're not the only ones out here

Are you kidding! How much room do you need??

Sunset on Georgian Bay

Gets pretty narrow in here

Going over the Big Chute railway down to the river

So, as soon as we left the river system onto Canal Lake the weather kicked up. The river was calm but the lake had white caps!! It was sunny but wild. We crossed three little lakes like that ...nasty, bumpy bits of water. We made it through Fenelon Falls and got to Lock 32 at Bobcaygeon ( and that stupid song by Kim Mitchell or whoever keeps going through my head!)

In case you are wondering, the locks count up from Trenton so we are going backwards.

It was raining when we got to the lock dock, but we parked and walked downtown for about  7 blocks, got some groceries and came back to do the 50 hour maintenance.

Well, THAT was fun. We spent a few furious minutes trying to fit the tubes together to suck out the oil. They were cold and old and wouldn’t go together. Finally with some persuasion and hot water they worked and then Rick punched a hole in the filter to drain it like some other DIY mechanic taught him.  No problem...I emptied the new sour cream container and we used that to drain the oil into. SO far so good... except that the filter was on so tight he couldn’t get it off!  Great! Now we can’t go anywhere because we have NO OIL FILTER!! After about a half hour of crawling around under and through the engine, swearing profusely and making tools, he finally got it off. I’m surprised he didn’t throw it overboard but he restrained himself. [It was supposed to finger tightened on]

So because there are no showers at the government facilities, he had a bath in the kitchen sink and we went to bed. It rained all night and it is damp and cold today.

October 4, Saturday:  We got through the lock at 9:15 a.m. and since it’s a weekend we can go through them until 5:00 pm today. With our luck, they are spread just far enough apart that we can’t get to one at 4:30 pm and will get stuck with another short day but we’ll do our best .

We bounced our way through Pigeon Lake and we are now crossing Buckhorn Lake. We have been eating a lot of homemade stew/soup because it is easier than preparing meals, and enough spices keep you warm!  So today I am cooking beets before they are too soft to eat...not sure what I’ll add this time but garlic fixes just about everything!

I keep smelling sweet baking in the air... it’s either Liz’s coconut Scentsy air freshener or I really need a cinnamon bun!! Still can’t find any good gluten free sweetbreads yet. I think Rick will make a spice cake today. I’ll get the carrots grated and he can turn it into a carrot cake.J [I don’t do baking on the boat. When it’s time to bake, I drive]

We got through the Buckhorn lock 31 and Lovesick Lake (30) then to the Burleigh Falls lock #28. (#29 doesn’t exist... gov’t agents couldn’t count?!?)

Unfortunately as we were approaching the lock, our hydraulics blew so we had to line the boat by hand into the lock and line it out on the other side. Luckily Rick had extra hose and ferrules so he fixed it. (We will be getting extra bits at the next hardware store we see!)The lockmaster called the next lock and told then we wouldn’t make it so leave a key to the washrooms between the doors and they did! It took an hour to get under way again.

Just as we were ready to pull out, a cruise ship, no, I mean, a tour boat went by so I pretty much followed him... mistake...I missed a turn and in the middle of a rainstorm I had to turn around and backtrack a few hundred yards to my course!  The rain finally stopped and we were able to find our way across Clear Lake to the next lock. This part of the System is called Deer Bay Reach. Sound familiar sibs? There was no way I could find Grandma and Ted’s cottage.  There are monster houses along these lakes, some look like they have 12 rooms... who cleans these things?!

And now it’s evening and we are at Lock 27 called Young’s Point. The last lockmaster called ahead and this one left a key for the bathrooms for us. We had a great dinner of salad and spaghetti and Rick did make a carrot cake (while I was getting us lost) and it was awesome. He lit candles (mostly to warm up the cabin) and we had a romantic dinner. I drank the last glass of zinfandel (thank you Lois!) We’ll eat the beets tomorrow night with chicken and potatoes. It stopped raining as we docked but it will probably start again tomorrow.

I am attaching pictures from the last few days.  Have a good night everyone. Jack, hope you are feeling better, and glad to hear Geoff is home for a visit. Take care, everyone.