{"id":14650,"date":"2025-09-09T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=14650"},"modified":"2025-09-09T07:06:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:06:56","slug":"monday-september-8-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=14650","title":{"rendered":"Monday, September 8, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overnight at Harris Boat Works, Rice Lake
\n44\u00b07’20.0532″N, 78\u00b014’28.3092″W
\nWhat3Words: \/\/\/chefs.jumbo.catapulted<\/p>\n

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\u2019s hard to beat the combination of \u201cle essence d\u2019diesel\u201d <\/em>\u00a0characteristic 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 \u2013 I think it would be a big seller and the ladies would love it! Hey Copilot, how do I make \u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"

Bacon for breakfast – I’m a happy camper \/ boater<\/p><\/div>\n

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 \u2013 a big change from the day before. I thought we might be getting low on fuel in the tank that we were using \u2013 especially after our \u201chigh speed\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u00a0how our anchoring system worked \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

To make a long story short, I called Harris Boat Works \u2013 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 \u2013 to be tied up on what I called \u201cthe wall of shame\u201d to a small audience of onlookers. Thankfully everyone on the dock was very polite and supportive. It can happen to anyone, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"

Our brief trip on September 8<\/p><\/div>\n

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 \u201cbonkers\u201d 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 \u201cchoice\u201d words to describe my feelings about that stupid fuel system but this is a \u201cFamily\u201d oriented blog site so I will remain civil in my choice of words.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Being towed back to Harris Boat Works<\/p><\/div>\n

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 \u2013 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 \u201cbehind\u201d a three-way valve that has no markings and must be in a specific position otherwise no fuel will get through to the engines \u2013 \u201cBONKERS, I say, BONKERS\u201d!<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 so much interesting history here.<\/p>\n

\"\"

St. George’s Chapel – original church built in 1847, current church built in 1908 with stones from the area collected by men from the congregation<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 with some boats capable of going over 100 miles per hour! Wow, what a rush that must be! I bet they don\u2019t have any trouble with fuel tank selector systems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we will try once again to make it to Peterborough. Fingers crossed!<\/p>\n

I hope to sleep well tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Beautiful sunset over Rice Lake – a good omen, I hope<\/p><\/div>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overnight at Harris Boat Works, Rice Lake 44\u00b07’20.0532″N, 78\u00b014’28.3092″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\u2019s hard to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-cruise-trent-severn-waterway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ppZJ-3Oi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14650"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14662,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14650\/revisions\/14662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}