Trent Port Marina – 44.0978400,-77.5731929

I left Whitby at 6:00am. The wind/weather forecast for the morning & early afternoon was good but winds were predicted to build up later in the day & stay strong into the next day.

Even though I no longer have a sailboat the wind forecast is very important because if the wind & waves are coming at the boat at an unfavorable angle it can make for a miserable ride.

The wind forecast caused a bit of a dilemma for me. Cobourg was the next port of interest to me but it really wasn’t all that far from Whitby & it would still leave me with a very long day’s passage to Kingston. Plus, if the winds stayed strong for another day I risked not making it to Kingston in time to meet up with Catherine & Emily who were going to be there on Friday.

I decided to head towards Cobourg & if it was early enough in the day & the winds were still favorable then I would continue on to the entrance of the Murray Canal. The swing bridge on the canal stops at 4:00pm so if I didn’t get there in time to pass through then I would simply spend the night on the canal wall & be ready to finish that part of the trip first thing in the morning.

While I was still on Lake Ontario I was treated to a bit of an “air show” by a rescue plane from Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton.

The flight crew were conducting an exercise with a Canadian Coast Guard vessel. The plane made a pass over the Coast Guard & then dropped a red smoke flare into the water a few hundred meters from the boat.

The plane then made several more passes over the spot where the flare had landed. It was interesting to see this exercise & comforting to know that boaters have such great resources to support us if we find ourselves serious trouble. These same airplanes fly over Goderich several times each summer & conduct similar exercises there.

After the “air & water” show finished my focus returned to getting as far as I could.

I entered Presqu’ile Bay just before 3:00pm. It was going to be tight to get past the swing bridges on the Murray Canal before they stopped for the day

In 2010 I was traveling with my son Steve on Ananda. We arrived too late in the afternoon to get through the canal & ended up spending the night tied to the wall at the canal entrance.

We were quite happy to be there until the sun had almost set & then we were invaded by hordes of mosquitoes! We hid inside the boat but dozens of the little buggers still found their way inside. We spent the night playing board games – cards in one hand & a fly swatter in the other.

Fortunately for me, I was able to get through the entire canal just before it closed for the night.

The marina in Trenton was only 30 minutes away so I pressed on to get a dock for the night.

Trent Port Marina in Trenton is brand new & is one of the nicest marinas that I have been in for quite a while. It is located just before the entrance to the Trent- Severn Waterway.

The docks are nice & wide & the main building has 10 or more private bathrooms with individual showers, a boaters lounge & a free laundry!

It was still incredibly hot so I sat on the boat in front of a fan & had a giant-size G&T with lots of ice. Then I walked over to a Metro store that was close by & picked up a few groceries & supper from their salad bar.

I took supper into the boaters lounge & soaked up the air-conditioning while watching a TV game show with several other boaters seeking refuge from the heat. After supper I had a nice, long shower & did my laundry. By the time that was all done it was almost 11:00pm. I was tempted to sleep in the boaters lounge but thought better if it.

If you are looking for a marina in the Bay of Quinte area I highly recommend this place.

Cheers!