Port Severn Lock 45
44°48’15.4548″N, 79°43’15.2328″W
What3Words: ///dangers.free.lacked

(NOTE: Sorry for the long delay in posting our daily adventures. We will try to catch up to current time as quickly as we can! We are having a wonderful cruise but for many days in early August it was so hot that all we wanted to do at the end of each day was have a light dinner and then head to bed. This combined with feeling a bit overwhelmed travelling in unknown waters on a “new to us” boat with a few “teething” problems. I wanted some new boating adventures and I certainly have them now! Wouldn’t have it any other way!)

Saturday, August 8, 2025 –  Finally Underway – This was the big day we had been waiting so long for.

At 11:00am we cast off from slip E21 at Bay Port Marina in Midland headed for Lock 45 at Port Severn. It was a cloudy, overcast day but visibility was fine. Wouldn’t you know it – after weeks of hot, sunny days it began raining. Thankfully it was more drizzle than rain but the forecast for later in the afternoon was possible thunder and lightning storms.

We all enjoy the view from the flybridge. This is one of my favourite things about having a trawler style boat.

Our trip to Lock 45 took about 90 minutes. I often tease Valerie and David about how good they look aboard a boat and that they should consider getting one of their own. They could moor it at the marina in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC!

We arrived at the lower lock basin about 1:30pm but had to wait for almost an hour due to backlog of boats wanting to go up and some coming down. It was a relatively narrow channel and there was no place to tie up, so it became a mandatory time for me to develop my boat handling and hovering skills – especially with boats in front of us and boats behind us in the same predicament.

We finally got our turn in the lock and got a ride up 14 feet to the next level on the Trent-Severn Waterway. It was about 3:00pm and the sky was looking pretty heavy so we quickly decided to tie up at one of the overnight spots beside the lock.

I went into the Lockmaster’s office and purchased a season’s pass for going through the locks and for unlimited nightly moorings at any lock on the Trent-Severn and Rideau systems. The mooring pass allows us to stay two nights in a row at most locks. Some of the more popular spots limit your stay to 1 night but you can return to each lock as many times as you want through the season – so it’s a very good deal for boaters who want to minimize their spending at marinas where single night fees for a boat like ours can range from $40 to $100.

We could see Rawley Lodge across the little bay from where we were moored for the night. After we got settled on the dock we took the five-minute walk over to the lodge and sat in the bar to have a drink and show Valerie and David where Catherine worked as a summer student 50 years ago! This is also the place where Catherine and I went for her birthday dinner “way back” on July 15! That seems so long ago now.

After a relaxing drink we went back to the boat and began organizing dinner. We had fresh trout so I convinced David to be in charge of the BBQ. Catherine and Valerie prepared corn on the cob and a salad while I cruised the dock talking to some of the other overnighters.

I spotted an older Albin trawler on the next dock and went over and introduced myself to the owner. Turns out he had just purchased his boat from someone in the Owen Sound area. We exchanged boat search and shopping experience and we had a laugh to discover that he and I had looked at the same boat near Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had only looked at it online and he had talked to the owner on the phone. I explained that I actually went to see it in Halifax and went for a ride on the boat with the owner. I came close to buying it but in the end decided that was not the boat for us.

We had an excellent dinner around 7:00pm. By that time the sky was looking pretty ominous and there were lots of thunder booms coming from a distance away. Thankfully the storm never made it to our location.

A good night’s rest was needed for all. Tomorrow, we head for “The Big Chute Marine Railway”. The lockmaster at Port Severn told me that there was a backlog of about 40 boats waiting to go up or down the chute today. She said staff at that location were hoping to clear most of the backlog before closing time today.

Our first day out was a real success. We had a safe an uneventful trip from Midland and were sharing the experience with close friends. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Cheers!

Slip E 21 – Bay Port Yachting Centre
Midland, Ontario – 44°52’03.5″N 79°46’48.9″WSurprise! (again!)

As of August 7, we’re still in Midland at Bay Port Marina. Here’s a summary of what’s been happening over the past couple of weeks:

July 28 – After dropping off Catherine at the GO train station in Barrie, I returned to the boat in Midland and dove right into my project list. I installed a new pre-filter and a fresh water filtration system. Previously, there were no pre-filters on the system except for a small screen on the pump that frequently plugged up with sediment. The new, larger capacity sediment filter is followed by a 30-micron filter (with activated carbon) that supplies all the water taps aboard. In addition, we now have an ultra-filter with its own tap at the galley sink. This ultra-filter cleans the water to less than 1 micron, making it much safer for drinking, washing raw fruits and vegetables, and cooking. The setup below is temporary – just to get us cruising. I will relocate the entire setup to a more permanent location this fall or next spring before we launch.

Photo above – Freshwater sediment and filter system.

Photo below – Ultrafilter to under 1 micron – for drinking

July 29 – I started removing the old aft head toilet and waste piping to give the tech crew a head start on installing the new head (no pun intended—but it fits 🙂 ). It was a disgusting mess due to a few past overflow incidents where the previous owners didn’t do a great cleanup job behind the toilet and vanity cupboard. Thankfully, the cleanup was pretty straightforward and quickly completed.

Michael was back on site and completed his service work on the Onan generator. It’ll be interesting to use an onboard generator—until now with Santosha and Ananda, we only had a Honda generator aboard with limited power capacity. The Onan can essentially give us the equivalent of shore power no matter where we are.

 

July 30 – I finished prepping the aft head by removing the old waste pipe running from the aft head to the forward holding tank. An absolutely stinking 2-inch diameter “black snake” that’s about 25 feet long – yuuucck! Sooooo glad that’s done—and I hope I never have to do anything like that ever again.

Photo above – gutted aft head

July 31 – I modified the cedar plank BBQ box to make it easier to access the propane tank when setting up the BBQ. I cut the lid into two pieces and added a piano hinge to each so they open and shut independently. Interesting note: when I tried to buy a long hinge for this project, no one knew what a piano hinge was! They called it a “continuous hinge.”

August 1 – For some reason, the seawater/washdown pump at the windlass began running intermittently around dinner time the day before. At first, I thought it was the freshwater pump reacting to a slow leak somewhere in the piping. But upon closer inspection, I found it was the washdown pump. It’s located in the engine compartment, drawing “sea-water” from a thru-hull connection and piped to a hose at the windlass—handy for rinsing mud off the anchor and anchor chain. Turns out the service tech had reconnected a loose wire in the electrical panel while working on the wiring for the new toilet in the forward head. That’s when the pump started running again. It ran intermittently because the hose connection at the windlass was leaking—just a few drops a minute, but enough to trigger the pump. Once identified, the fix took less than a minute. If only all boat problems were resolved that easy!

Meanwhile, back in London, Catherine also remains fully engaged in our boat renovation projects. Belisama only has Sunbrella fabric coverings for a few of the windows and those coverings are in pretty bad shape. We have been looking in fabric stores in Barrie, Ottawa and London to find the right combination of colour, quality and price and it turned out that the Len’s Mill Store in London had everything we wanted at a competitive price. She came home with 15 meters of blue Sunbrella for the windows and sliding doors, plus 3 meters of vinyl for the forward and aft cabin hatches and 2 meters of fabric for folding chairs and accent pillows.

Sunbrella on a roll	Updated folding deck chair

Catherine will bring the fabric and her sewing machine back to the boat with her. Then she can take accurate measurements for each window and door on the boat. That will make a huge difference in protecting the exterior woodwork and weatherproofing the boat. It also turns out that our long time friends, the “might-as-wells” showed up and suggested that while Catherine is working on the window covers she might-as-well make new covers for the forward and aft cabin hatches and then there’s the two aluminum folding deck chairs with the awful coloured fabric seats and backs that need to be done. I don’t know a thing about sewing so those projects definitely fit into the pink job category!

August 2 – Today I stained the galley pantry doors. Catherine and I had taken a sample of stained wood to Home Depot to find a good colour match. Unfortunately, the match is nowhere near the original—but it’ll have to do for now. I think I’ll just tell visitors that my colour choice was deliberate to highlight my cabinetry skills. Oh well, time to move on to the next project.

August 3 – There’s a small cupboard just inside the main cabin by the portside door. It was originally a hanging closet—why, I have no idea, since there’s almost no food storage space in the main cabin. The previous owners converted it into a storage closet at one end and installed a propane space heater at the other. The heater is now obsolete, and I wouldn’t dare use it even if it were updated. So, it’s headed for the garbage bin, and the closet will become another pantry space for us.

The only “downside” is that the hole where the heater was needs to be covered with plywood and stained to match the rest of the woodwork. That’s another problem for future Wally to figure out!

Photo above – the gutted cupboard

August 4 – I finished renovating the galley cupboard and installed three pantry shelves. It turned out much better than I’d hoped. I covered the corner space where the propane heater used to be with a nice piece of plywood paneling. That space is hard to access from the cupboard door, so I’m thinking next year it’ll get its own door and become our liquor cabinet! So many ideas—so little time to make them happen.

August 5 – Michael returned early in the morning to begin installing the new toilet in the aft head. I stayed out of his way and focused on cleaning and organizing the flybridge storage lockers. A lot of the stuff in there was of no interest to us—about two-thirds went into the garbage bin, and the rest to our storage locker in Midland. What happens to that stuff is for future Wally to figure out!

Photo above – taking a break during the flybridge locker cleanout

Michael made quick progress on the aft head. He didn’t have to deal with the old fixtures and waste piping since I’d already removed them, and he knew the plumbing and wiring setup from the forward head. Once he wrapped up for the day, I started emptying out the aft cabin, which had become a workshop and storage room. Tomorrow, it becomes our second bedroom.

August 6 – D-day is almost here. Yikes! Less than 24 hours to turn this boat from a renovation zone into a guest-ready cruiser. Michael arrived early and finished the aft head installation in under two hours—hooray! Now the rest was up to me. I cleaned the main cabin, forward cabin, and aft cabin. The biggest challenge was finding places to store all the tools and renovation supplies we’d accumulated since arriving in Midland on June 24 to take possession of the boat. Once the “stuff” was out of the aft cabin, I washed all the walls with a Borax solution to clean the wood paneling and eliminate any signs of mould and mildew. This solution works really well and it did a lot to brighten up the look and freshen the air in the cabin. I finished close to midnight. Needless to say, I slept very well that night.

August 7 – Catherine, Valerie, and David arrive this afternoon. Time to kick into overdrive. I finished organizing the boat lockers and closets and set up the aft cabin as our sleeping space. We wanted Valerie and David to have the master cabin for the best experience—after all, we want them to come back and visit whenever they can. Final task: laundry. Thankfully, the marina has a small laundromat. While tending the laundry Catherine and I exchanged texts—her updating me on their drive from London, me reporting boat status. I finished the laundry just as they arrived. As I drove our car back to the slip, I saw David and Valerie’s car following me to the dock. Wow, that was close!

After greetings and hugs, we got our guests settled into their cabin and gave them a five-minute tour of Belisama. Catherine and Valerie put together a provisions list and headed to the grocery store. David stayed behind and helped me with some last-minute organizing.
Everyone was pretty tired from the journey, so we had rotisserie BBQ chicken from the local Loblaws, fortified with salads and multiple glasses of wine.

Photo above – Wally, Cath and David gearing up for dinner (Valerie is photographer)

It’s so great to have finally arrived at this point in our new boating adventure. Tomorrow, we cast off for a journey on the Trent-Severn Waterway with a much-improved boat and two very dear friends —an adventure over a year in the planning.

Cheers!

Slip E 21 – Bay Port Yachting Center
Midland, Ontario – 44°52’03.5″N 79°46’48.9″W

Surprise! As of July 31 we are still in Midland at the Bay Port Marina.

Here is a summary of what’s been happening over the past two weeks:

Work on the boat by the marina’s tech staff has been sporadic. They have serviced the engines and the generator. Complete oil and filter changes for both engines and the generator and all fuel filters have been changed. Oil in both engine transmissions has also also changed. That’s a load off my mind as the boat has little to no maintenance records to rely upon so I thought it best to start with a fresh slate.

Photo Above – Michael and Max get into the depth of servicing the diesel engines and generator. They are young, thin and flexible and can easily get in and out of spaces that I can only get in to – but fear that I may not be able to get out of.

The tech staff have also said they would soon begin working on installation of the new electric flush toilets in the forward and aft heads. That will be a welcome upgrade to the boat at the existing heads are old, smelly and inefficient.

After the fun of celebrating Catherine’s birthday at Rawley Lodge on July 15 we were back to our “normal” routine of cleaning the interior of the boat, taking inventory of all of the items on board, deciding what we would like to keep and what we will dispose of. The heat wave continues and that has really sapped our energy levels. We try to do a bit of work in the mornings and then seek shade and rest in the afternoons when the heat is peaking. By the time supper hour comes around we are pretty much done in and can only think about having a light supper and then off to bed. We are happy that summer is here but wish the temperatures were several degrees lower. Oh well, I keep reminding myself that it won’t be that long before February will be here and we will all be wishing for spring to come .

On July 16 the tech staff began work on the forward head. Hooray! The old toilet and waste pipe were removed and the base for the new toilet was measured up and installed. Work continued for a few hours the next day and finally on July 18 the installation was complete! Very spiffy indeed!

This is a big picture because we are flushed with pride for our new electric flush toilet.

On July 19 we worked on removing and rebedding the forward cabin windows which were in a bad state. It was hot work but went well. Several of our dock mates stopped to commiserate on the task of fixing leaky windows on a boat.

On July 20 we removed the dingy davits from the boat’s transom. They are a heavy duty set and we really have no use for them. We are not dingy fans. As nomads on the Trent-Severn and Rideau Waterways we will always have mooring spaces at the locks or we will spend a night or two in a marina. Anytime we anchor overnight we will have no need to go ashore. Perhaps in the future we might want a dingy, paddleboard  or a kayak but for now we will just enjoy access to an empty swim platform. I will put the davits up for sale on Kijiji. I expect that they will be of interest to someone.

July 22 and 23 I worked on finishing the new galley pantry drawers – fabricating and installing drawer fronts. They turned out pretty good considering they were made with the cheapest lumber I could find at Home Depot and put them together with a basic skill saw on a picnic table!  My plan is to take the drawers home this winter and rebuild them to a higher standard. We’ll see if I stick to my plan or simply get used to what we have and continue to say that’s good enough for now!

On July 24 we left Midland to spend the weekend in Ottawa. The daughter of our close friends Bruce and Barb was getting married and we were privileged to be invited to the party for out of town guests on the 25th and to the wedding on the 26th!

We drove the backcountry roads from Midland to Ottawa. We had not taken this route for many years. It was interesting to pass through towns and villages that we knew the names of but didn’t remember when we had last been there. We also had a side trip to try to find Camp Gay Venture near Minden where Cath worked as a kitchen helper in 1972. The girl’s camp had been set up in 1945 back in the day when “gay” meant “happy”. The camp ran for 45 years until 1990 but is no longer there, only part of a street name now leading to a private cottage development on Kashagawigamog Lake. (say that name 10 times in a row if you can 🙂 )

It was close to noon when we passed through Bancroft. We were getting hungry so we stopped for ice cream – and wow, did we get ice cream!. This was at a Kawartha Dairy outlet along the highway. There was a lineup of about 20-30 people waiting to be served. As we progressed through the line we quickly understood why everyone was there. The cones they were serving were massive! Three sizes were available – baby, small and huge – and huge was indeed huge! It was all we could do to polish off our “small” cones before they melted away. Gotta stop there again on the way back to Midland!

We stopped in Kanata to visit overnight with my nephew Wayne, his wife Cindy and their (now adult) children Jaden and Shea. That was a relaxing visit and great to catch up with everyone. The next morning we were headed to downtown Ottawa for a 2-night stay at the Lord Elgin Hotel.

The bride and groom had arranged for a special rate for guests attending the wedding. This was a very welcome bit of luxury compared to how we have been living for the past several weeks, which Cath likes to call “camping in a construction zone.”

On the 26th we walked around the downtown area close to the canal.

Photo Above – Catherine sitting beside a life size statue of Oscar Peterson, one of Canada’s most celebrated musicians – ranking up there with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. The statue is beside the National Arts Center where Oscar performed many times, He passed away at age 82 in 2007. He was born in Montreal and his father was a railway porter. He would have been 100 years old in 2025.

We toured the “temporary” home of Canada’s Parliament while the original House of Commons is being renovated. This temporary home will be where Parliament meets until renovations to the House of Commons are completed in 2035! This new area actually used to be a courtyard in the Parliament Buildings area. A glass roof was installed over the courtyard and the commons seating area has been built to state-of-the-art standards while still respecting the history and architecture of the rest of the Parliament Buildings complex. It was a really interesting tour and free to all. The tour guide was an enthusiastic young Asian woman who made us think about Emily in Paris! If you are visiting Ottawa this is a great place to spend a few hours.

Photo above – the temporary House of Commons.

The wedding was at 5:00 pm at a restaurant in Byward Market – a relaxed and very fun event.

We drove back to Midland on the 27th. The next morning I drove Catherine to Barrie to catch the GO train to Toronto. From there she caught the Via train back to London. She will be there for 10 days to check up on the house, tend the gardens and visit with family and friends. She will return to Midland on August 7th with our friends David and Valerie who will join us for a few days on Belisama’s inaugural voyage on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Meanwhile, I have to hustle to get a lot of odds and ends completed before they arrive. Tops on my list of “to do” jobs include: finish installation of aft cabin head, set up BBQ box on aft deck, convert small clothes closed in main cabin into another pantry, and fix some leaky fresh water plumbing in the engine compartment. I think that work will be enough to keep me busy and out of trouble while Catherine is gone!

Cheers!

 

Slip E 21 – Bay Port Yachting Center
Midland, Ontario – 44°52’03.5″N 79°46’48.9″W

Greetings once again from Slip E21 at Bay Port Marina! It’s Catherine’s turn at the blog wheel!

It’s been a busy time with boat repairs, trying to stay cool in the midst of a heat wave and having a birthday celebration. Since the last blog entry, Wally has been working on repairing windows. The starboard galley window had been leaking and unfortunately had been glued shut. This took considerable effort to dig out the sealant which was like tar.

Dave from Templeton Windows here in Midland very kindly came by and gave us advice on how to remove the window safely. He even lent us some suction cup tools for handling tempered glass windows. This project had to be delayed because we couldn’t find the right product for the sliding window tracks.

The curtains came down to clean the window and this really brightened up the galley. I thought briefly about rigging something up with doweling and fusible binding on fabric because I didn’t bring the sewing machine with me but decided not to do anything yet. The original curtains will have to go back up and will be replaced as soon as possible (!)

Wally built a lovely cedar deck box to put the barbecue and propane tank in on the aft deck. He’s got lots of comments on it from passers by in the marina. Some people were wondering if it was going to be a planter box.

Once it was finished I put tung oil on it, one coat down, two more to go.

We had a trip to Barrie to look at fabric at Len’s Mills store, bought folding chairs and side tables at Jysk summer sale and enjoyed a Thai dinner.

It’s been beastly hot. The a/c on the boat has a hard time keeping us cool so we mostly resort to fans. We went to the movie theatre to see Superman and eat popcorn in the cool air. When the movie finished, we were told to exit the emergency doors as the Midland Fire Department had been called due to a strange odour. Maybe someone burnt the popcorn! Whenever we see the firefighters, we think about our nephew Brent who works for the Calgary Fire Department!

Happily, the weather shifted, and we’ve had nights where we have needed hoodies and long pants. Some rain but not much. Just enough to keep my pink geranium watered. This is the extent of my gardening right now.

Tuesday the 15th was my 69th birthday and I had a lovely day. Started with a swim at the Y, then a latte and treats at Grounded Coffee downtown Midland with Wally. I was the carpenter’s assistant for the afternoon. We had dinner at Rawley Lodge where I worked as a waitress/chambermaid one summer in the mid-70’s.

The place is completely transformed from the ramshackle place it was when I worked there. Very chichi.

So that was a trip down memory lane, not the same emotional impact as Emerald Lake where I was in 1977! I had so many warm birthday greetings from family and friends, thank you!

July 9, 2025

Slip E 21 – Bay Port Yachting Center
Midland, Ontario – 44°52’03.5″N 79°46’48.9″W

Ahoy!

It’s been a few days since our last blog entry. We’ve been hard at work on the boat, checking off lots of odds and ends. Unfortunately we are still waiting for work to begin in the engine compartment – hopefully that will happen this week. On Monday a service technician from the marina came to the boat and went over our “below decks” project list with me. We have prioritized the items on the list into two main categories – to be done immediately and can wait until September.

This morning I was up at 5:00am to answer the call of nature. We are not using the toilets on board but the washrooms here at the marina are only a few steps away, so it is not a hardship – we just have to get dressed in order to go to the loo. The sunrise was so beautiful that I decided to stay up and treat myself to a cup of coffee on the flybridge and contemplate the day ahead.

We are getting quite familiar with the Town of Midland and know our way around to all of the “essential” business locations – Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Home Depot, Walmart, Loblaws, Salvation Army Community Store (roughly equivalent to the Goodwill stores/donation centers in London) and a wide variety of other businesses. Midland is a really nice town and with a population of about 18,000 it has lots of amenities. Catherine has even joined the YMCA here to make use of the indoor pool and the gym. It’s a good way for her to escape from me and the chaos of the boat for an hour or two several times a week.

This past Saturday we went to a Strawberry Tea at St. Paul’s United Church on the main street in Midland. The church is massive and almost 125 years old. The Order of the Eastern Star ladies served tea in delicate China cups, pink lemonade, crustless and pinwheel sandwiches followed by strawberry shortcake.  It brought back a lot of childhood memories for both of us from the 1960s and early 70s – me thinking about mom and dad at our church teas in St. Andrews, NB and Catherine thinking about her Aunt Glenda in London.

The weather has been hot for the past week with only a few breaks in the heat. Thankfully the boat has air conditioning and that helps quite a bit for sleeping. Older boats are hard to cool and heat because there are so many large windows and very little insulation so the AC was having a very hard time keeping up. Our position on the dock has us facing directly into the mid to late afternoon sun so we are keeping the blue sunbrella coverings on the windshield.

Even with the coverings in place we could still feel the intense heat radiating inside the boat so we removed the sunbrella, covered the windows with tinfoil and then put the sunbrella coverings back in place. That made a huge difference for the AC. Our neighbours were probably wondering what we were doing with the tinfoil – perhaps we should have made some tinfoil hats for ourselves while we were at it. After all, there could be aliens out there trying to probe our brains!

While we are waiting for work below decks to begin we have been doing some exterior and interior renovations. We also rented a small storage locker at a location close to the marina. We have a lot of stuff onboard that we don’t need right now so getting it out of the way makes it easier for us to get things done. Plus we removed things we don’t want at all.

One of our neighbours on the dock asked Catherine if we have anything left onboard – as all he has seen us do is cart loads of stuff off the boat – old microwave, TV, propane stove, cushions, dingy davits, rusted out BBQ, side curtains off flybridge bimini, lawn chairs, etc, etc.

This week I removed the propane range/oven and replaced it with an electric induction cooktop. For safety reasons we are not comfortable using propane appliances inside the boat – especially when the fuel tank setup does not meet current code and it would cost a lot of money to remedy. The boat has a diesel generator onboard so we basically have “shore power” no matter where we are. As a result it was an easy decision to make the switch to electric.

I made a set of sliding “drawers” to fit inside the space where the oven used to be. The galley is really nice but there is not much pantry space. Some people may wonder why we would choose to do without an oven on board. My philosophy is that if the food we want can’t be fried, boiled or BBQ’d – then we don’t need it or we can always find a restaurant or a bakery where we can get it!

Yesterday Catherine decided she wanted to wash the exterior of the boat. She has gone as far as she can (for now) washing the interior so she felt it was time to spruce up the outside. I warned her that washing a boat this size is like scrubbing 10 cars. But hey, who am I to refuse when someone volunteers? She wanted to get going on it while I was doing my cabinet work in the galley.

Happily for me washing the exterior of the boat has now officially joined the “pink” job list. For non boaters, “pink” jobs are traditionally done by the ladies and “blue” jobs are done by the guys. The blue jobs are typically the most glamorous – crawling around on your hands and knees inside the engine compartment, fixing leaky plumbing, unplugging blocked toilets, searching for stuff inside storage lockers, etc.

Its been a lot of work getting the boat back into shape but we are enjoying ourselves, or at least we are trying to convince ourselves of that and it is very rewarding at the end of each day to take a step back and feel satisfied with our accomplishments and progress.

Once in a while we take a wee break from our long list of tasks and celebrate the simple things in life. Even after all these years I still know how to show my best gal a good time!

Cheers!