Thursday Oct.9

Thursday October 9

We left Campbellford at 10:00 am and immediately went through the first Lock. The guys were helpful, wondering why we stayed in town the day before. I commented that the little house they were using for an office would be really neat to live in if you worked on the lock. “No”, he said and explained that there were a lot of unhappy works this year because of cutbacks job changes and things weren’t looking up at all. Most of the crews at this end were working two or three locks, and while we only had to travel a mile to the next one, they had to go ten miles by road!

When we got the second lock of the day, they called ahead to Frankford to the next lock to say we’d be there around 2:30. It was a 12 mile run and we started off but about 7 miles down the reach the motor suddenly quit. SHIT! We threw down the anchor and checked the motor. It was fine; runs well in neutral. Rick cleaned the water filter. We checked the transmission fluids and it was fine. I got in the dinghy and tried to turn the prop... it was sticking and really had to turn. Rick couldn’t turn it from the drive either.  SO once again we hooked up the dingy and pushed the damn boat to the next lock. They saw us coming and waited for us. W got there about 4 minutes past the deadline.  While in the lock one of the attendants called someone he knew at “Freddie’s Marine” and told him about our problem. The shop was about a mile down the river so we stopped but Freddie couldn’t fix it because he had no idea how the outdrive worked. They all think power boats around here.  So we continued down the river to Lock 6 in Frankford. They left a key for us for the washrooms under the garbage can! They’ve been doing that a lot!

The last 6 locks are less than 7 miles apart so we can OUT of the system by the end of today. The dinghy was pushing us at 3 knots (mph) yesterday. We will go to the Trenton marina and find someone to help us fix the drive. We need to take it apart (not a big deal... done it before) check the bearings put in new seals and re-install.

So, I will let y’all know how that goes when we get down past the LAST LOCK!!

Friday Oct.10
On another note, I was thinking while I was mindlessly steering down the river the other day about something I read. I know it was sci-fi, but a scientist had the sense that if enough mental energy was put out in the universe, it could change the course of a day’s history. SO how ‘bout we all try an experiment?  On Saturday morning, let’s all think, wish, pray that it should be a really calm day and nothing should go wrong... for anyone, anywhere. Later...J