Another Canadian difference:  the marker bouys are smaller and much harder to differentiate.

Approaching the lock, I am at the ready with my trust boathook, watching that we aren’t too close to the spillway and relaying the lock side to Artie, who is up on the bridge.  After I hook on in the bow, he goes to the aft deck and hooks onto the cable in the stern.  We’ve got it down to a ballet at this point.  Well, almost.

In this photo, you can see that we are at the top of the lock, and the boat down below is waiting to enter.

Some nice scenery along the way.

Eagles, or possibly an osprey.  And a little hitchhiker.  First time that I’ve seen a bright blue dragonfly.

Headed out on the Trent-Severn Waterway into Lock One with Lone Star and Moondance, along with another boat (not a looper) Why Knot.  In the NY lock system, the locks are operated by the NY DOT, and are hydraulic.  On the TSW, the locks are generally operated by college kids, and many are manually operated.  The operator actually grabs a bar and walks in a circle to open and close the lock door and many times will use a hand crank to control the water flow.  The connection points are a bit different also; on the TSW there are cables linked to the top and bottom of the wall and the lines from your boat are passed behind the cable, by hand, and brought back to the boat.  The locks seem a bit smaller, also.  In most cases our four boats totally — and I mean totally — filled the lock.

Finally have decent internet access so that I am able to update the blog.  We left Kingston and headed over to Trenton, Ontario.  Nice marina stop with free laundry (always a plus!) and another nice, small town.  Had some very nice meals, lots of laughs and good times with the crews of Lone Star, Moon Dance, and LeryLynn and met other loopers at the dock.

Next we headed over to Campbellford, another nice stop with a municipal mooring (wall) with electric and water available.  I unfortunately caught the pocket of my shorts getting off the boat, and Artie and I watched as my phone took a slow motion tumble to the bottom of the river.  It “sleeps with the fishes”.  On another phone/ data related note, AT&T — “bless their little hearts” — is not allowing me to use the data plan that we pay for every month in Canada.  I could have used it in Mexico apparently, but not in Canada.  HUH??  Phone and texts do work, but not texts with any multimedia or photos attached.  And, since I’ve lost my phone, my calls are now supposedly being forwarded to Artie’s phone — but I haven’t received any calls.  Texts supposedly can’t be forwarded.  The laptop will only work in stops with a decent wi-fi connection.  Feeling a bit off the grid at this point.

Have seen a lot of locks over the past week or so, and in fact I’m feeling a bit “locked out”. Made stops in Cambellford, Hastings, Peterborough, Young’s Point lock, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, and a bit of an eventful trip coming here to Orillia.  We will be here until mid week before moving on down the Severn portion of the Trent-Severn Waterway and into Georgian Bay. Notes and photos to follow.

Looked good until the landing.  He was able to walk away, at least as far as the ambulance.

We stayed at Confederation Marina, which is also where we cleared Customs.  A simple call from a pay phone is all that it took.  We were right downtown, in walking distance to all. Very nice stop.  This is also the start of the Rideau canal, going in the other direction.

We really loved Kingston, Ontario.  Terrific small city, very accessible, very friendly.  This is St Mary’s Cathedral.

While staying in Clayton NY we took a little side trip to Boldt Castle. The story goes, that Mr Boldt had the Castle built for his wife, but she died prior to seeing it.  He cabled “stop work” to the architects, and never went there again. Much of the exterior had been completed but not the interior, and it was left to languish and deteriorate, becoming vandalised.  In 1977 it was taken over and has been slowly restored since then.

A little out of order.  We stopped at Sylvan Beach on the way up.  Free dockage at the downtown wall, a nice rainbow and the Crazy Clam.  What’s not to like?

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We stayed on the riverwalk wall in Oswego.  A large canal cruise ship pulled in right behind us; the passengers were as fascinated with our boat and trip as we were with theirs.  They hired a few local folks to break down the top deck, take off the railings and remove stored items, so that they would fit under the bridge and head back south down the canals. We were told they were headed down the Erie then the Hudson, and on down to NYC.  There was a huge breakwater as we entered the lake, and we passed plenty of the big boys along the way.

First view of Lake Ontario

Lighthouse near Oswego

This canal barge docked behind us on the wall in Oswego

Headed southbound into the lock.

Now that’s a breakwater

Headed out to the Lake

Some days are a bit rough

At the Three River junction on the Erie Canal,  you have to make a choice to either continue into Western New York towards Buffalo, avoid crossing into Canada, and continue on the trip.  Or, turn up the Oswego Canal to Oswego, and then out onto Lake Ontario.  The Western Erie has a few very low bridges, so we chose to go up the Oswego.  There are a few lower bridges and unusual locks there, also.  Here are photos of a lift bridge that lifts on one side only, and which is located within the lock. Also, a shot of our helm station – we do still use paper charts for the “Big Picture” and for backup. Note the lock gloves ready to go.

The

Had some crazy weather pass over, just as we were entering Lock 20.  That lock is positioned such that the weather will funnel through; as we entered behind a large sailboat, the wind grabbed the stern and twisted us sideways in the lock.  After a few tense moments Capt Artie was able to turn us around, go back out of the lock, turn around again and re-enter, and we successfully locked through.  Kevin reported that her weather app indicated gusts of 50+ miles per hour associated with the storm.