Overnight at Trent Canal Lock 39 “Portage”
44°29’56.6520″N, 79°7’55.0920″W
What3Words: ///whomever.factually.clothed

We cast off from Orillia Marina around 9:00am. It’s about 90 minutes across Lake Simcoe to the entrance of the Trent Canal. There’s a marina at the narrows junction between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe so we stop to get our wastewater (toilets) holding tank pumped out. This marina also has diesel fuel, and I thought that perhaps we should fill up the tanks there.

There are three fuel tanks aboard Belisama, and the gauge shows that we already have lots of fuel on board so I decide that we will wait a few more days before filling up. This “Tank Tender” system does not use electronics to measure the level in each tank – it uses air pressure. I am familiar with this type of system because they were used with standby diesel generators at several pumping stations that I worked in many years before. This system aboard Belisama works but I am not certain of how accurate it is. We need to get going across Lake Simcoe and there will be lots of places along the way to buy diesel fuel – but that decision turns out later to be a big mistake!

Belisama’s Fuel Tank Tender System

It was a very nice morning with calm weather but the forecast for later in the afternoon is not so good – possible high winds and thunderstorms. We are anxious to get off Lake Simcoe before the weather turns. Lake Simcoe is pretty big with lots of open water so this is an opportunity for me to open up the throttles for the engines and give them a good workout.

The boat has not seen much use in previous years, so the engines tend to smoke at low RPMs. Our surveyor told me that whenever I get the chance, I should take the boat up to higher speeds to make the engines work harder. Diesel engines “like” to be worked hard. It helps them keep clean and running smoothly. So when we get out on Lake Simcoe I open them up and we are cruising at around 18-20 kph – fast for this boat.

Everything is running fine and we can see the breakwater at the entrance to the Trent Canal a few kilometers away. Soon we will have to start to slow down and prepare to enter the canal. All of a sudden, the portside engine stops and then a minute later the starboard engine quits – it’s about 12:30 noon. At first, I don’t understand what’s going on but it appears like we have run out of fuel! We are still several hundred meters offshore so I told Catherine that we need to toss out the anchor to keep us from drifting to shore.

Our approximate anchoring location while waiting for C-Tow

At this point I’m not too worried. The weather is fine, the lake is calm, we are only in about 15 feet of water and clear of the canal entrance so we can anchor comfortably here. The water looks so clear that I’m almost tempted to go swimming!

Waiting for C-Tow to come – am I in trouble?

Once the anchor is set, I take a closer look at the fuel tank gauges. The fuel tank we are drawing from shows that it’s about 1/3 full so fuel should not be a problem. I tried to start each engine but no luck. It’s obvious that they are not getting any fuel. I crawled down into the engine compartment and switched to another fuel tank – but still no luck. Next, I try to prime each engine by manually operating each primary fuel pump but still nothing. I tell Catherine not to be worried (!) but that it’s time to call for assistance. I am not familiar enough with these engines to try anything else and am concerned if I do the wrong thing that I could make things even worse.

I found a phone number for C-Tow, a marine assistance company that is essentially CAA for boaters. Ironically C-Tow has an office at the marina in Orillia where we had stopped earlier this morning to get our holding tanks pumped out. I explained our situation to the office manager, and he said they would send a mechanic out to our location right away. It would take them 30-40 minutes to reach us, as long as there is no thunder as they have to stop then and find shelter!

Catherine waiting for C-Tow – “let’s buy a boat he said, it will be fun” and, yes dear, you are in trouble

When the C-Tow boat arrived, I explained our situation to the mechanic. He took a close look at the engines and fuel system setup and set to work. He got the starboard engine running in just a couple of minutes simply by cranking the engine over and moving the throttle back and forth – just about the same as pumping the gas pedal in a car. The portside engine was a little more difficult to start. He ended up having to bleed the injectors but that only took a couple of minutes before that engine started up.

The mechanic was kind enough to explain what he was doing each step along the way so if the problem ever occurred again, I could take the same approach to remedy the situation. We let the engines run for about 5 minutes and then the mechanic started and stopped each one a few times to confirm that everything was OK.

All told, they were only with us for about 30 minutes and then back on their way to home base. I won’t bother to say how much that service call cost us, but it wasn’t cheap. Thankfully our boat insurance will cover a pretty good portion of the service call, and I will chalk up the balance of the fee to a lesson learned.

Note to self, join C-Tow service plan. As of this posting we are also now subscribers to C-Tow. That gives us two free tows each season plus unlimited service calls. A bargain at $160 a season.

We were ready to get back underway. The anchor was raised, and we entered the Trent Canal. There are 3 locks in quick succession. We arrived at the 3^rd lock, #39 which is named “Portage” around 3:00pm. It was still nice out, but we could see clouds gathering on the lake and an hour or two later we could hear thunder in the distance. We were pooped! It was time to stop for the night and reflect upon the day.

Belisama moored for the night at Lock 39

We were lucky that our problem was not all that serious. The only damage that was done was to my ego, my boat knowledge reputation with Catherine and our credit card. On the upside, I now know what to do to try to get the engines started if that problem ever occurs again. Belisama will be getting new fuel gauges for Christmas. Wally will be getting a lump of coal in his stocking.

Where’s the Tequila? Now that we are safe and securely tied up for the night, I need a jumbo-sized drink (Margarita) before I do anything else!

Tomorrow, we tackle the next stretch of the Trent-Severn. Fingers crossed for smoother sailing!

(It never did rain at our location that night which was too bad as there are forest fires nearby and everything is parched)

Cheers!