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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

Cheers!