Overnight at Harris Boat Works, Rice Lake
44°7’20.0532″N, 78°14’28.3092″W
What3Words: ///chefs.jumbo.catapulted

We were up early and I cooked bacon for breakfast! This is the first time we have cooked breakfast aboard Belisama. Up until now we have been eating cereal and toast and toasted crumpets. What a great start to the day! It’s hard to beat the combination of “le essence d’diesel”  characteristic of a fine boat like Belisama blended with the aroma of freshly fried bacon. Someone (perhaps me) should figure out a way to turn that fragrant combination into an aftershave or underarm deodorant – I think it would be a big seller and the ladies would love it! Hey Copilot, how do I make …

We cleaned up the galley after a sumptuous breakfast and then I settled our account with the marina. It was a bright sunny morning and the lake was calm – a big change from the day before. I thought we might be getting low on fuel in the tank that we were using – especially after our “high speed” run down the lake yesterday, so I switched the valves to feed the engines from another tank. I warmed up the diesel engines for an extended period before we cast off just to be sure that the tank switch did not cause any difficulty for the fuel feed system. The engines were running noticeably better after their big workout yesterday. Poking along for hours at a time at low speed is hard on diesel engines.

We cast off just before 9:00 am and headed towards the entrance to the Otonabee River, just a few kilometers away. While we were travelling Catherine asked me to remind her  how our anchoring system worked – just in case we ever needed it. We were only off the dock for about 10 minutes when the portside engine stopped and the trouble alarm sounded. I shut down the starboard engine and told Catherine that now was the time to put our anchoring knowledge into practice.

Thankfully the weather was sunny and warm, the lake was calm and we were in about 20 feet of water so no danger of drifting aground and pretty easy anchoring space. Once we were securely anchored I switched the fuel tank back to the previous setting and tried to start the engines. No luck with either one! Not this again!

To make a long story short, I called Harris Boat Works – which we could see only a couple of kilometers away. They sent out a tow boat and Graham, the mechanic brought us back to their marina – to be tied up on what I called “the wall of shame” to a small audience of onlookers. Thankfully everyone on the dock was very polite and supportive. It can happen to anyone, right?

Well, for me, I have been boating for over 30 years and until this summer I never once ran out of fuel. Now, it has happened to me twice in less than four weeks! That “bonkers” fuel tank selector system has been moved to the top of the list to be torn out and replaced once the boat is hauled out for winter storage. Good riddance, I say, good riddance! Actually I used several more “choice” words to describe my feelings about that stupid fuel system but this is a “Family” oriented blog site so I will remain civil in my choice of words.

Once we were settled on the dock Graham came back with his tools and after a bit of effort he got both engines running again. He figured out the fuel tank selector setup and we switched the valves in the correct position to feed off the tank that had the most fuel in it – plenty to get us to Buckhorn. In my defense, Graham noted that one of the valves had been mislabeled. It was labeled to be the feed line for a specific fuel tank when it actually was a shut off valve. And that valve is “behind” a three-way valve that has no markings and must be in a specific position otherwise no fuel will get through to the engines – “BONKERS, I say, BONKERS”!

Catherine decided to take a walk while Graham and I were working on the engines. She took about a 20 minute walk from the marina to Gores Landing, the neighbouring village. She came across a beautiful little stone church that looked like it had been parachuted here from a small town in England. What a treasure to find. We will have to come back another time and explore the area some more – so much interesting history here.

By the time all of the engine/fuel system work was finished it was getting close to 4:00 so we decided to stay put for another night.

I mixed myself an extra strong Margarita and went up to the flybridge to relax, feel sorry for myself and reflect upon the day. It only took me a minute to remember that I have a great deal more to be grateful for than I do to feel sorry for myself.

While I was up top I was treated to an informal race of high speed boats on the water. Graham the mechanic was telling me that there are several high speed boating enthusiasts on Rice Lake and they often get together for some high speed runs – with some boats capable of going over 100 miles per hour! Wow, what a rush that must be! I bet they don’t have any trouble with fuel tank selector systems.

Tomorrow we will try once again to make it to Peterborough. Fingers crossed!

I hope to sleep well tonight.

Cheers!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 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……

Tomorrow we head to Peterborough.

Bye for now!