Overnight at Harris Boat Works, Rice Lake
44°7’20.5392″N, 78°14’28.3092″W
What3Words : ///deprives.exempt.mandate

Catherine writes:

We were up early with the alarm. Wally wanted to watch the F1 Race from Monza Italy so the alarm went off at 6:30 am. He then discovered that the race was at 9:00 am not 7:00 am. We were already up so we decided to check out the Nook Cafe in Hastings, reported to be the coolest coffee shop in town, in fact it’s the only coffee shop in town with fresh ground beans. Its a tiny place with vinyl records, antiques, arts and crafts, a lounge area – super friendly people and excellent coffee.

The Nook Cafe in Hastings – a very friendly place and well worth the short walk from Lock 18 – photo copied from their website

This was clearly a popular spot with the locals. Wish we had something like this in our neighbourhood. We asked a patron of the café if he knew anything about the history of the water tower and brick chimney that are highly recognizable landmarks for the area. He told us they were remnants of an old tannery and that the area is slowly being redeveloped with new condos and apartments.

It started to rain on the short walk back to the boat. The forecast was for a 20% chance of rain – guess it should be updated to be more like 100% chance so our 9:00 am departure was delayed until the rain stopped.

We had a reservation at Harris Boat Works again and we anticipated a 3 – 3-1/2 hour trip across Rice Lake based on our slowest travelling speed of 10 kmh. The skies finally cleared at 10:30. We entered the lock, rose up 9 feet and waited a few moments for the swing bridge at the top of the lock to open before we could be on our way.

At the far end of town there was a very narrow channel through an abandoned railway swing bridge that is now in a permanently opened position. Once we were through the narrow channel the river widened out to the upper end of Rice Lake. It was sunny now but very windy so we bundled up to keep warm on the open flybridge.

The narrow gap through the old railway bridge

Now that we are heading “upstream” we must often remind ourselves that the critical navigation rule now is “red right return” – the red navigation markers are now always on our right (starboard side) and the green ones on our left (port side). It’s the opposite going downstream. There is a little reminder device at each helm station that can be flipped around when that change happens. Very clever – whoever came up with that – but you have to remember to make the change when needed or it could be very dangerous!

On this part of our journey it is set to “Red Right Return”!

We have both noticed that we find the navigation markers are getting easier to spot after having over a month of practice looking into the distance. It’s often hard to tell what colour the markers are especially in bright sun, but the red ones have a pointed top and the green ones are flat topped. This shape is sometimes visible when the colours are not. Wally says this is yet another advantage of boating, improving distance vision.

Once we were on open water and far enough from the shore with no chance of a large wake making it to the shore Wally wanted to do some wide open throttle (WOT) tests to gather more boat performance information for John at Kawartha Propeller who is going to help us get our propeller setup optimized for constant travelling at slower speeds. Our hair blew back and the boat lifted out of the water – get out the water skies (not quite). The engines ran smoothly with no vibrations. Wally kept a close eye on the gauges and all was well. I took pictures of the gauges at various speeds for him to show the mechanics later on. Up until now we have mostly been poking along at 10 kmh, now the boat was travelling at 30 kmh – what a difference!

Port engine is a few hundred RPM slower than the Starboard engine at just under 30 kmh. Some attention also needed there. Note the bright red high tech timepiece we have added to the instrument panel. No expense spared!

As the lake narrowed, we kept an eye out for markers that would indicate where the sunken railway bridge was. We had passed over it when we were heading towards Hastings several days ago but at that time we were not aware of the threat that it posed if  you strayed outside of the navigation channel.

The sunken bridge showed up on the chart as a series of circles which mark underwater hazards. The night before we watched some drone video footage of the bridge on YouTube and checked out a few websites with useful information about the area.

Another reason we were so conscious of this hazard is that we had seen a beautiful 55’ Grand Banks yacht from the US on jack stands at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour when we were there a few weeks ago. One of the propellers and transmissions on that boat had been destroyed from hitting the sunken railway bridge on Rice Lake because they were traveling outside of the markers.

Apparently, the boat continued with one engine heading to Kawartha Propeller at Buckhorn for repairs when they hit another obstruction, likely a rock, near Young’s Point. That destroyed the other propeller and transmission so then they had to be towed the rest of the way to Buckhorn. From there the owners went home, a sad end to their journey – at least for this boating season. We were told that repairs to that boat will cost well over $100,000 – more than twice what we paid for Belisama. So, Wally keeps telling me that we indeed got a bargain.

The lockmaster at Hastings said that the bridge was well marked on the charts and as long as we paid close attention and stayed within the red and green markers there was no excuse for hitting the obstruction.

The yellow line shows our track through the hazard area when we were traveling from Hastings to Harris Boat Works on September 7. Note the depth numbers all around the bridge – “13” is that a strange coincidence?

As we approached the obstruction, we could clearly see the navigation markers but it was still a bit deceiving because there was so much open water on each side of these markers. Local boaters in small boats especially fishermen, who know the area well can zip over the top of the bridge without any problems but anyone with more than two feet of draft and in the wrong place could be in big trouble.

The sunken railway bridge is a remnant of the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway. It was a trestle bridge built in the 1850’s with a span of 5 kilometers, one of the longest railway bridges in North America at the time. Unfortunately, its wooden structure was no match for the thick winter ice on Rice Lake, and it disintegrated within a few years of operation.

The old railway bridge before it sank – archive photo copied from “Hiking the GTA” blog site.

The author of the blog site “Hiking the GTA” has written an excellent history of the bridge and the disaster associated with it. Follow this link to the blog site to read more – well worth your time if you are a railway and history buff: Rice Lake’s Sunken Railway | Hiking the GTA

Since Rice Lake is very shallow, 12 – 20 feet generally, in places the remains of the bridge are only 2 feet below the surface and apparently can easily be seen on a calm day.

We made it through unscathed – yeah!

Harris Boat Works had a space for us in the same slip we were on a few weeks ago. The wind was gusting strongly when we arrived and determined to keep us off the dock which was the only place we could tie up. We had to call the marina office for help. They sent a strong handsome young man who came to our rescue. We got tied to the dock just in time as it started to rain and the wind picked up. What is it about Rice Lake? It was like this last time we were here. Maybe the people at Harris ask – what is it about this boat? Every time they are here the wind gets stronger and it starts to rain!?!

There is shore power here so we had hot soup for lunch followed by a hot shower that felt very good! Wally watched the F1 replay so he was happy. I had a nap which made me happy and then had a long chat with my friend Anne who just got a new cat. So cute! Very tempting……

Full moon rising at Harris Boat Works, Rice Lake

Tomorrow we head to Peterborough.

Bye for now!

Overnight at lower level Hastings Lock 18
44°18’31.8528″N, 77°57’18.1332″W
What3Words: ///race.snorer.aftershave

Catherine writes:

We awoke to a brief rain shower. Thankfully it did not last long. Wally talked with John at Kawartha Propellers about tending to Belisama’s propellers when the boat comes out of the water. John warned us about a sunken railway bridge on Rice Lake that has given John a lot of business over the years and had been the demise of a boat we saw at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour when we were there a few weeks ago. We will be sure to look for this on the charts as we hadn’t heard about it until now and there were no incidents as we passed through Rice Lake several days ago.

We cast off from Lock 12 at 9:45 and traveled slowly through Campbellford, past the Giant Twoonie Park. It was hard to resist the pull of Dooher’s Bakery but we managed to hold out – at least for this time.

We arrived at Lock 13 on the outskirts of Campbellford to find the gates closed. We tied up on the blue line and Wally walked up to the lockmaster’s office where the Lockmaster was just finishing his breakfast which included bacon – sadly there wasn’t enough to share so Wally has put bacon on the grocery shopping list.

The Lockmaster told us to make sure our stern was tied tightly on the blue line as he had to empty the 23-foot-deep lock into the short channel where we were moored. The water rushed out, down to the end of channel and then back up on the opposite side, which would have caused Belisama’s stern to swing out wildly if it hadn’t been secured. Those lock staff know their business that’s for sure!

Soon the gates swung open on their hydraulic power and we tied up on the port side. When going up in a lock the lock staff will advise what side to tie up on depending on the style of lock and how many other boats are in the lock – we were alone today.

The Lockmaster also explained that there are two types of locks on the Trent Severn which we weren’t aware of before! There are “seaway” locks and “canal” locks. Seaway locks are deeper and they fill or empty from one side of the interior of the lock. Canal locks tend to be shallower and they fill or empty from the sluices in the gates at each end. We had Locks 13 – 17 to go through today which are all seaway locks.

It’s hard to believe that this system was once all manually run and through the winter as well – those men must have been really tough!  We had a very mild experience working the locks on the Trent-Mersey Canal in England and on the Charente River in France which was plenty hard enough for me – Wally not so much as he was piloting the boat.

This graphic of the Trent-Severn Waterway is posted at several of the locks. It shows the highlights of the system – click anywhere on the image to enlarge it.

After Lock 13 was full and the gates opened the lock staff drove down to Lock 14 to meet us there. They staff explained that the gardens are left to the discretion of the staff assigned to each lock, so we can tell where the green thumbed gardeners work. Lock 13 had a very cute row boat planter with flowers and veggies.

Repurposed row boat at “Lucky” Lock 13

Lock 14 also had a row boat planter and a trellis draped with morning glories made to look like a sail – very creative! But we didn’t get a photo of 14! Lock 15 also had beautiful gardens and hummingbird feeders.

About 500 meters on from Lock 15 were the massive step locks 16 and 17. As we approached they appeared to be even more intimidating going up than coming down. But it was a very gentle ride up in both locks.

Approaching Lock 16 – very intimidating size gates!

Inside lock 16 waiting to be lifted up to lock 17 – look waaayyy up to see the lockmaster!

After we passed through lock 17 we had over 20 kilometers of travelling along the river interspersed much wider spots in the river – almost small lakes in their own right – and also through multiple wetlands.

Looking back down the river from the top of Lock 17 – 74 feet below!

Nice little trailer park along the way – very well done – I could stay there if we didn’t have a boat

We could tell when we were getting close to Hastings as both sides of the riverbank had lots of cottages and then more homes as we entered the town. There also was the distinctive landmark of an old brick chimney and steel water tower from an abandoned factory just before we came to the lock.

Hastings Landmarks – I wonder what their “story” is – hey Copilot, tell me about the old brick chimney and water tower in Hastings

We tied up for an overnight stay on the grey line on the lower side of the lock – closest to bathrooms at the lock office.

Wally called his nephew Wayne and niece Cindy in response to earlier text messages. After that we called Wally’s son Steve and sang Happy Birthday to him and had a brief chat.

Happy Birthday Steve!

We won’t say exactly how old Steve is other than he will soon be qualified for early senior’s discounts (starting at 55) although he doesn’t look a day over 40!

Tomorrow we go across the length of Rice Lake to the marina at Harris Boat Works where we will spend the next night.

Bye for now!

Overnight at upper level Lock 12-12 Ranney Falls
44°17’28.3992″N, 77°48’11.3940″W
What3Words: ///relax.inches.intense

We were up before 6:00 am this morning. It was a bit chilly and very misty on the water – reminiscent of our early morning experience on the Charente River last year in France with David and Valerie. However, on this trip we have shore power at our mooring, so the electric heater is plugged in to warm up the main cabin.

Misty morning at Lock 6 in Frankford

Back near the end of July when Cath was home in London for 10 days I asked her to bring our little electric heater when she returned to the boat, She asked “what do you want a heater for when its almost 40 degrees C outside?” I replied, “you’ll thank me later”. She has thanked me more than a few times during the past couple of weeks.

The next lock (Lock 7) on our trip was just a few kilometers away and lock operations don’t start until 10:00 am on weekdays so we had a leisurely breakfast and then published the blog entry for the previous day. That’s the first time we did this since we started from Midland, oh so long ago.

The morning was looking promising when we cast off around 9:30 but after an hour or so the clouds began to close in, and the wind picked up with heavy gusts. No worries while traveling on these inland waters… unlike being on the Great Lakes, there’s not enough open water on the rivers and smaller lakes on the Trent-Severn Waterway for any serious waves to form. We just bundled up and kept moving.

A little more daylight – good for navigation

Narrow passageway at canal entrance to Lock 6 – reminiscent of the aqueducts we crossed over in the UK on our narrowboat charter adventure

Mini cottages along the water between Lock 6 and Lock 7. This was a very nice setup.

Some open water and the sky brightened up – for a short while

A perfect little cottage all by itself – if we didn’t have a boat we would love something like that

Wally’s next project boat – a paddle wheeler – for some reason Catherine is not interested

We stopped for lunch at Lock 8 “Percey’s Reach”. Up until then we were all alone. We were just preparing to get underway when another boat came through the lock. The lockmaster encouraged us to follow them through to Campbellford because it was only 90 minutes before the locks would cease operations at 3:30.

This boat was a very nice 44-foot Carver with Edmonton, Alberta shown on the transom as its home port. When we were in the lock, I asked one of the crew members if she could share the charts with me that got their boat all the way here from Edmonton! She laughed and told us that the boat was from the Toronto area, and the previous owner was from Edmonton.

As we were getting closer to Campbellford we started seeing more concrete “pillars” sticking out of the water. At first I thought they were old bridge abutments but they were too far apart and often in very wide spots along the river. Catherine read in the guidebook that these were put in the river many years ago by logging companies. They were used to control log booms that were being transported down the river to sawmills. They would be difficult to remove so now they are simply marked as navigation hazards along the waterway.

A very determined little tree on the concrete pillar

Lockmasters house at Lock 9. Back in “the day” the lockmaster and his family would live there full time. Now the building at each lock is used as office space and public bathrooms.

We finally arrived at Ranney Falls Lock 11 & 12 just after 3:00 pm. The wind was still blowing stiffly but the sky was clearing. This lock is just on the outskirts of Campbellford and it’s a nice place to stop for an overnight rest – so that’s what we did.

Today was another first for us. It was too windy to light up the BBQ so we had leftovers for dinner fortified with a heaping helping of Minute Rice! I used to “live” on this stuff when I was cruising aboard Ananda and Santosha. Catherine will have nothing to do it – she tells me that the carboard box the Minute Rice comes in is probably more nutritious than the contents. I’ve got her eating Pepperettes now so  maybe Minute Rice is next! Any port n a storm…..Oh well, pass the hot sauce please!

Ranney Falls double lock, on the outskirts of Campbellford. It’s a long way up!

Catherine contemplates crossing the pedestrian bridge over the gorge at Ranney Falls. This is so solid you could drive a car over it.

I crossed the bridge solo – and I’m the guy who is afraid of heights!

The view down the gorge from the center of the suspension bridge was amazing!

Google Maps – Ranney Falls Locks 11 & 12 and the Gorge Suspension Bridge – click anywhere on the image to enlarge it.

Enjoying the “down river” view from the Muskoka chairs at the top of Ranney Falls Lock 11

Tomorrow we will travel about 35 kilometers to Hastings where we will stay overnight. The forecast for the next several days is promising.

Cheers!

Another overnight at Upper Level Lock 6 Frankford
44°11’53.8584″N, 77°35’28.3632″W.
What3Words: ///plasmas.triangular.communities

This was our third night at Lock 6 in Frankford. Rain was forecast for most of the day on Thursday so we decided to stay put. It wasn’t long after we got up that our good decision was confirmed.

Mornings are noticeably cooler now and it is still very dark until at least 6:00 am.  The sun was rising around 6:00 am each morning and it was very bright at that time of day when we were at the marina in Midland. I miss watching those early sunrises! Oh well, they will come back again-next July!

6 am sunrise in Midland on July 9

At 10:00 am we walked over to the Old Bank Café in the town centre and brought our raincoats with us – just in case. This little café is a very special place. The coffee and food on the menu are spot on! I wish we had something like it in London.

Click anywhere on the photo to go to their website – photo copied from their website

The owner is from the Czech Republic and she has done a great job renovating the space. It has modern finishes complimented with lots of photos of the building when it was still a bank. The Molsons Bank was founded by the sons of John Molson, the brewer. I’m surprized that they didn’t have “In Beer We Trust” printed on the banknotes.

Molsons Bank Notes from 1922 – Images copied from Coins and Canada website

You can visit the Coins and Canada website by clicking on this link: CoinsandCanada.com

The interior of the cafe is very well done – lots of attention to detail

Old Bank Cafe – Frankford, ON

It was raining by the time we were ready to head back to the boat. Glad we brought our raincoats. We bought a couple of cookies at the café as a treat for the lock staff who had to work outside on this very damp day.

It rained off and on for most of the day. Catherine and I took advantage of the situation and forged on with our blogging – determined to finally catch up to present day. Success arrived later that afternoon. Now we just need to stay on top of it, so we don’t fall behind again.

I really enjoy writing and maintain the blog and Catherine is also getting much more involved this year. It is a great way for us to share our adventures with family and friends. There have been many times when I have wanted to remember something about one of our adventures that happened 1, 5, 10+ years ago and I was able to quickly find it on the blog using the little “search engine” tool that is also posted and available for anyone to use on the website. It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I have been blogging since 2010 – so this is my 15^th season of blogging.   I keep a detailed handwritten maintenance log and also a spreadsheet but our only “sailing” log is the blog.

As of today, our knotsnplots website has 33 individual subject pages, over 600 blog entries and more than 3,600 photos! Wow, I sure am glad that this website has an automatic backup system.  I would be devastated if all of this was lost.

The rain fell throughout the day. Catherine spent some time on her most recent needlework project while I helped one of my Afghan students get things sorted with her first year at Fanshawe College. After that I spent more time planning improvements to Belisama’s fuel tank management system.

Belisama’s “bonkers” fuel tank selector system – I get a headache every time I try to figure it out

This is what I have come up with to try and explain to our mechanic how I want the system to function after he renovates it.

Conceptual Layout of Renovated Fuel Tank Selector System – click anywhere on the image to expand it

Early in the evening we got out the Guidebook and planned the next phases of our trip from Frankford to Buckhorn. We are reminded of the adage – if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. More on that later…

We watched “The Thursday Murder Club” movie on the laptop and went to bed around 10:00 pm. It rained heavily around midnight and continued into the wee hours. A good soaking for the area – which was badly needed. We also discovered that we no longer had any leaks around the windows and doors – so our focused efforts in regard have been rewarded! Touch wood and fingers crossed that things remain that way.

Cheers!

Another overnight at Upper Level Lock 6 Frankford
44°11’53.8584″N, 77°35’28.3632″W
What3Words: ///plasmas.triangular.communities

Catherine writes:

Although we don’t travel too far in a day, it is very refreshing to have a morning or two where we don’t have to get organized to get underway when the locks open. The weather was spectacular, and we were glad to be spending another day here. We will likely spend the next night here as well as rain is predicated for Thursday.

We both worked on the blog and will be glad to be caught up. At noon we walked across the bridge to the Old Bank Café in Frankford for lunch. What a charming spot! It actually is the old Molson Bank, converted into a beautiful café with an amazing outdoor patio. They even have turned the old vault into a seating area! No bags of money laying around though. It’s a great spot that we will return to tomorrow for special coffee, once the chores are done.

On the patio at the Old Bank Cafe in Frankford – what a treat!

With the fantastic weather holding, I unrolled the bolt of white vinyl I had brought with us onto a picnic table. Wally keeps coming up with new projects for me to do – Honey, can you sew this or that? Would that be too hard to do? His understanding of sewing is equivalent to my understanding of diesel engines! But with my 50-year-old Omega sewing machine that must weigh about 50 pounds, and a walking foot for thick fabric, nothing can stand in my way (sorta kinda)….except being without shore power……it’s not a treadle machine…..

Catherine working on the window coverings under the massive willow tree – definitely a “pink job” workspace area!

He’s asked for a vinyl cover for the front hatch to keep the rain off which will work better than the Sunbrella. I measured twice, cut once and used masking tape to set it in place so I think it will work.

Then I took out the bolt of Sunbrella and measured to try again (fingers crossed) to make two more covers for the smaller back windows. Masking tape was employed again to hold the fabric down in the wind, while I brushed off ants and spiders that dropped from the willow tree.

Wally came out to help me wrestle with the bolt of fabric and promptly spilled his Marguerita on the end of the picnic table, onto the Sunbrella. I’m happy to report no damage was done. The fabric is very waterproof as well as tequila proof.

Another view of the willow – it is so big that we cannot join our hands around its massive trunk

Around 5:00 pm we looked up the river to see once again the Kawartha Voyageur coming our way! Where would she park?!? We were not keen to give up our mooring spot by the willow tree! Wally went up to check things out as the lock staff were still around. The cruise ship went right into the lock well after closing time. He found out that this was a special service by Parks Canada staff. He talked to staff aboard the ship while they were locking down. The Kawartha Voyageur sold out every trip this season and are already starting to sell out cruises for the 2026 season. It is so great to see this company doing this well. It’s wonderful for Canadian business and tourism in Ontario.

Surprise visit by the Kawartha Voyageur – only a few locks on the system can handle the ship with its bow “nose” in the travelling position while going up or down while inside the lock – a treat for the passengers

The cruise ship was going to stay overnight inside Lock 5 with the lock full. From there the patrons were going to be bused to Trenton to go to the RCAF Museum. The boat would then be carrying on to Kingston. The original schedule was to pick up passengers in Kingston and continue onto the Rideau Canal system. However, water levels in the Rideau Canal are too low this time of year to guarantee enough depth for this huge ship because of lack of rain. So they plan to turn around in Kingston and come back to the Trent Severn for the next few weeks. Maybe we will see them again! They keep popping up wherever we go!

We had a late supper. Wally helped his Afghan students back in London get started in their school years via video calls. It’s an exciting and stressful time for them so he is glad to help out with the transition. We tucked in for the night with rain expected at 3:00 am. I’ll have to get that hatch cover done soon.

Bye for now!