Glen Ross to Belleville

Pecan departed Glen Ross lock at 9:10am with calm winds and upper level clouds clearing and about 57 deg F. Entered our last lock on the Trent-Severn (Lock #1) at 12:34pm with 71 deg F and winds NE at 10 knots and sunny conditions. We stopped at marina in Trenton where an Irish-Scottish festival was ongoing, and after walking around for an hour, entered the Bay of Quinte and traveled eastern toward the town of Belleville. Stopped at the Belleville Myers marina at 3:05pm.
We completed the Trent-Severn waterway in just over 6 days of traveling--42 locks over the span of 240 miles. We haven't been racing to get thru but we have kept moving within the hours of operation of the lock system.



Tamara tending the lines on our last lock in the Trent-Severn.


Lockmaster's original house now the lock house office at Lock #1.






Leaving our last Trent-Severn lock as the gate opens. Many times the lock operators only open one side of the lock gates, usually if there's only one boat entering or exiting the lock and, of course, if that boat has a beam (width) that easily fits by.


Exiting the Trent River bridge into the Bay of Quinte with the Trent-Severn waterway system now behind us. James seems pretty happy about it too!


Belleville has a very nice several kilometer long waterfront park trail/pathway.


The marina has several free-to-borrow bikes so we hit the trail and went into town.

Hastings to Glen Ross

Pecan departed Hastings at 9:11am on a clear 50 deg F morning. After a fuel fill stop at Campbellford at 1:30pm we moseyed along 6.7 to 7.0 knots arriving at Glen Ross lock at 5:14pm. The afternoon was about 70 deg F with winds 5 to 10 knots out of the NE. This lock, like the one at Hastings, has a swing bridge that needs to open prior to entering the lock. We tied up on the blue line for the night. Since the operator from our previous lock had called ahead to Glen Ross, those folks at Glen Ross left the washrooms keys 'hidden' behind the screen door of the office for us. Very nice!

Having thought that we'd see some chilly evenings and overnights on this trip, we bought this force-air thermostat-controlled ceramic heater at Sam's Club in Traverse City before we began this trip. And indeed it has been cool some nights so far.


We have a fairly expensive Wallas diesel-fueled stove top and forced-air heater system aboard. While it did operate properly when we conducted the sea trial back in July our research on the reliability of these units showed some things to be wary of. One was the relatively slow heat-up time of the burners. And sure enough, ours did take some time to heat up. So, as a backup, we bought this one burner butane stove at a Korean market in Fairfax, Virginia while on the drive up to Michigan. Also bought 12 eight ounce butane canisters. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get the Wallas to operate so having the butane stove has saved the day. And so far have only gone thru one canister. I've got to get online to read what other boaters have done to troubleshoot their Wallas stove (the www.c-brats.com forum is a great trove of knowledge to see what others have encountered in similar situations).

Peterborough to Hastings

Pecan left Peterborough this clear but cool morning (5 deg C) at 9:30 after traveling down the big lift lock. Partly sunny all day and temperatures rose to around 72 deg F. We have now slowed down, even in the wide open lakes in the Trent-Severn, to a 70 knot average speed. If there are slow speed zones signs are posted to keep the speed under 10 kilometers per hour....which I believe is around 5.5 knots. At 2:50 pm we pulled into Hastings Village marina. Good thing we didn't meander any slower as they have also (like Gordons Marina in Bobcaygeon) adopted the same Fall hours (9 to 3:30) as the locks on Trent-Severn.




Tamara filmed from the landside the descent of Pecan on the Peterborough lift lock.


Little mascot on the lock gate door.


Nice thing about cruising along at 7 knots is that these 4-stroke outboards are quiet, and as such, Tamara can enjoy the aft bench seat and catch up on her reading.


View of the Hastings marina from across the bridge in town. Very nice and clean marina and friendly people always eager to help in any way.

Bobcaygeon to Peterborough

xxx








Diagram on how the Peterborough lift lock works, and specifications.

Thorah to Bobcaygeon

Pecan left Thorah at 8:30am and made a fuel fill stop at Sunset Cove Marina at 10:40am, then on to Bobcaygeon where we docked at Gordon's Marina at 3:43pm. We powered the final 10 or so miles at 13 to 14 knots because it looked that it was going to be very very close making the Bobcaygeon lock by 3:30. As luck would have it we made the lock right at 3:29pm. One minute to spare, although it helps that the lock was already open and ready for us in our direction of travel. Since lock operators do not monitor any VHF radio there would be no way to call ahead and notify them of our approach--you have to literally be in shouting distance to hail them.




Entering the Kirkfield lift lock. While the Peterborough lift lock gets a lot of attention because of it's lift height is the highest of it's type, the Trent-Severn also has a second lift lock at Kirkfield. Works like this: going downstream you enter in essence a large tub of water. A companion tub adjacent to you has exactly 1 foot less and is at the lower reach and may or may not have boat in that tub going upstream. Once boats are in the 'tubs' the lift lock operator opens valves and the greater weight of the upstream or higher tub causes it to lower to the bottom reach while the downstream tub rises to the upstream position. The lock operator then slowly opens the end of the tub we are in to let out the extra 1 foot of water already in it.

Big Chute to Thorah

Pecan left the Big Chute marina this morning at 8:22am and traveled to the Thorah lock number 40 where made it thru the lock at 6:40pm and tied up to the gray line on the upstream side for the night. The Parks Canada folks allow overnight mooring allow the upstream and downstream seawall in virtually all locks at a price of $0.90 per foot per night. All locks have bathrooms with hot and cold water but no power hookups or showers. Today was the last day the Trent-Severn system of locks operated on its summer schedule--lockage available 9am thru 7pm. After today it'll be the fall schedule--9am to 3:30pm except Sat and Sun where it'll be 9am to 5:30pm.
We pulled into Orillia municipal marina this afternoon for two reasons: 1) to get James an internet access, and 2) top off the fuel tanks. As it turned out, Wifi was freely available but no fuel at this location. At least James was no longer in distress without world-wide-web connectivity. Again, as we've seen, marinas are closing for the season, and the town marina had just closed the day we arrived. Fortunately, internet, power, water and even use of the showers/restrooms were now free for the rest of the year. We happened to dock nearby another small power-trawler type vessel, a Texas-based C-Dory 25 monohull named Wild Blue with Joan and Jim aboard. They've got some extensive cruising under their belts on Wild Blue having cruised West Coast-East Coast-Florida you--name-it. Very nice and informative 'gam' we had. And they were very kind to lend us the cruising guides to the New York canal system should we decide to go that way to the Hudson rather than via the Rideau and Richileau canals. Thanks!




Severn Falls lock with water exited lock thru underwater valve system. As you can see tying up on the 'front' of the blue line means we get a bit of current action. I think we saw only 2 knots of current flowing by but it sure looked more turbulent.


Tied up at the Thorah lock #40 for the evening all by ourselves.