We are now in Parry Sound in Georgian Bay, which is the eastern shore of Lake Huron. There are some 30,000 islands in this bay with many coves and inlets that have not yet been surveyed for depth therefore if you decide to explore you do so with great caution. The further we travel northwest the more remote the area becomes.

Internet coverage up here is few and far between although we still have cell phone.

The scenery up here is fantastic and quite similar to the coast of Maine with the trees coming done to the waters edge and a glacially formed rocky shoreline. There are three distinct differences between the two. Georgian Bay does not have a 12 foot tide, lobster pots or fog.

We left the Trent Severn on Friday after a leisurely passage. Judi was not pleased with the Kirkfield lift lock or the Big Chute marine railway. At Kirkfield you drive the boat over a road via an aqueduct into a pan of water suspended ~50 feet in the air. It seems you are going to drive right out into space when you enter. They then put another foot of water in the pan and you start the trip down as the pan on the other side goes up.

At Big Chute a strange looking contraption that runs on cables and rails comes into the water, you drive the boat in and they suspend the boat in straps similar to a travel lift. They drive out of the water, over the crest of the hill and descend 51 feet to the river below. As you go over the top it is similar to going over the top on a roller coaster and then descending into a splash down at the bottom. To say the least it was a unique experience.

We are some 1286 NM from Plymouth and it is about another 350 miles until we are back in the US.

July 2, 2009

Today we are in Peterborough, ONT some ~1100 miles from Plymouth. We spent the last few days in Campbellford and Hastings.
Yesterday was “Canada Day”, their equivalent to the 4th of July. It was a throwback to the 1950’s with a local band at the gazebo, the ladies auxiliary serving hot dogs and burgers, and everybody sitting around on folding chairs enjoying the day.

The parade had bag pipers, old cars, tractors, and the contingent from the local fox hunt club. The fireworks were outstanding, not even taking into consideration that the town has 4000 residents. They had fireworks that they put off underwater, quite different and impressive.

Tomorrow we will continue west through the Peterborough Lift Lock into what they call the Kawartha Lakes region. This is a series of lakes in the Canadian Shield that are connected by a series of locks on the Trent-Severn. Do a Google on Peterborough Lift Lock. It is pretty interesting as an engineering achievement when it was built in 1904.

The weather has been, in total, outstanding. The days are very long at this latitude and where we are in the time zone, sun up at 5:30 and down at after 9 PM.

Life is good.

June 23, 2009

We are now sitting in Confederation Basin Marina in Kingston ONT. We arrived here Sunday late and will be setting out towards the Trent Severn tomorrow. The weather has been outstanding, every day sunny into the mid eighties with low humidity. The last rain we had was Saturday with good weather forecasted through next Monday.

The Rideau Canal is very pretty in the lake regions with many secluded anchorages for the taking. We met two nice couples on a Grand Banks 42 from Maine that were doing the Rideau and we traveled together from Ottawa to Kingston. We had a very nice time.

As some of you all ready know the only liquor stores in Ontario are operated by the government. They are known as the LBCO stores. Well total panic has set in as the unionized LBCO workers are going on strike at midnight tonight. You should have seen the panic at the LBCO store this afternoon. There were lines out the door people jockeying for position at the check out and nearly empty shelves. Some people had two shopping carts full of liquor and wine. All the bars and restaurants also have to buy their liquor, beer, and wine from the LBCO

We are having a great time and so far, have pretty much had the places to ourselves. We will see as we get into July but I think the economy may have altered some peoples plans as most everywhere we here the boat traffic this year is slow. If they do not have any liquor stores it will get really slow.

We have traveled a leisurely 942 nautical miles.

June 14th Update

June 14, 2009

We are now on the mooring wall in downtown Ottawa. We had a very nice trip up the Ottawa River arriving on Friday afternoon. We locked up the 8 locks of the start of the Rideau Canal. As we were the only boat we were the afternoon entertainment for ~400 people. They line the locks and the overlooking bridge. The tourists were taking multiple pictures. This is a very beautiful place very much European in its flavor.

We meet some very nice people on their boat from the area and went to dinner last night in Ottawa’s version of Fanuel Hall. Talk about leisurely dining we did not finish dinner until after 11:00 PM. Then, of course, we had to dance for a while.

The weather has become very nice, 75 to 80 degrees and sunny. The outlook for the next three days is more of the same.

We will probably take 5-6 days to transit the Rideau before we return to Lake Ontario. We have covered 823 NM in our first month

June 11th 

The last few days have been interesting to say the least.  We left a small anchorage in a nice cove on Cedar Island New York at about 8:00 AM Saturday June 6th.  When we retrieved the anchor it had about a 12 foot sunken log caught on it.  Fortunately we had a trip line on the anchor and were able to get it off without too much excitement.

Our next adventure for the day was Iroquois Lock.  The wind is blowing 15-20 from the aft and the boat begins to pivot, I have the rope on the rear and proceed to get a nice rope burn on my wrist.  The boat never touched the lock wall however.  FYI the drop in this lock is 6 inches.

The next adventure for the day was trying to clear Canadian Customs.  Anyway this turned into a fiasco and we had to dock for the night in this little marina on the New York side of the river.  The day got much better then as we met some very nice people that had done the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal and we had a wonderful time talking about the trip and what to see etc.  Sometimes things do work out nicely.

Sunday June 7^th we left the New York side, finally cleared Canadian Customs and went to a nice little Ontario Province run marina in Morristown, ONT.  After we cleared customs we decided to move Jejuda to a larger dock and the port engine starter solenoid decided it only wanted to perform its assigned task on an intermittent basis.  After plugging in shore power the AC battery charger decided that it did not want to perform its assigned task at all.

Monday the 8^th then became a repair day.  Luckily I had a spare solenoid so that repair was quick.  The battery charger was not repairable and they no longer make that model.  We are making do for the time being with a portable battery charger we purchased at Canadian Tire.

On Monday afternoon Judi and I went to very interesting “period” village called ‘Upper Canada”.  Set in the 1850’s it has a working sawmill, cheese factory, tinsmith, woolen mill, grain mill, bakery and much more.  We both felt it was well worth the visit.

Tuesday the 9^th started off raining with an easterly breeze of 20-25.  We were going to have to cross Lake St. Francis, another 20+ mile trip against the current and wind in a very shallow lake.  I learned my lesson on Oneida Lake and we waited till after noon to depart.  We went about ½ the way across and the rain started again so we snuck into a small marina on the north shore of the lake for the rainy evening.

Wednesday the 10^th we left early, went through two locks each a 42’ drop and took a left towards Ottawa and spent a delightful night in a small town on the western end of Montreal Island called Sainte-Anne-de–Bellevue.  We are docked on the town promenade just before the lock and there are it least 10 quaint restaurants that front the promenade and river.

We are off later this morning, after café and French pastries towards Ottawa.  The weather has improved and it should be ~75  and sunny.