Peterborough to Lakefield - Wednesday May 30, 2018

Today was our day to do the lift lock!  We left the marina around 9:45 am to be the first to go through our first of seven locks at 10:00 am.  Six locks are my limit, seven pushed it!  All I can say is with this heavy boat it has been an workout.  Trying to hold on to the lines as the waters come into the locks has been a challenge!  Today one of the lock masters told me that I could take the line back to the boat and use the cleat but not to tie it off or leave my station.  It was a lot easier on my back and arms.  No more holding the line with only my hands! 

Here we go with the lift lock!

Hi Rob and Eddie!  The best lock masters!!!!!

Up we go!

https://youtu.be/KTRLUcsM3tQ  by Barry Dupuy

Lock Master Eddie chasing us to the next swing bridge!

Yup!  He is beating us!!!  LOL

Very skinny channels.  You can see the rocks on each side of your boat.

This is for our golfer friends!

 Trent University

Trent University is on both sides of the waterway.  As we were going through this area I was on the bow and saw something just under the water.  I thought is was just some paper/trash but as we got closer it was a broken off red buoy.   Yup we ran over it but nothing went thump so all is good!

 

Two boats coming out of the lock.  This time of the year it's not very busy and I am so glad we picked this time.  July and August are quite busy and it could take a lot more time to get through each lock.

We were ready to get to the marina.  It was hot, 88 degrees, we were tired from holding onto lines and we did not sleep good last night with not having our AC.

Once we got in, hooked up power, turned on the AC (and it worked, life is good!).  We took Teak to the vet, (very nice lady) and we got great news.  She is good for six to eight weeks before getting checked again.  Lakefield Marina is a great marina, life is good!

I would highly recommend the Village Animal Hospital and Lakefield Marina to other boaters.

Peterborough - May 29, 2018

Today was a fun day!  We walked to the lift lock to watch a boat go through so we would know what to expect tomorrow.  The lock masters, Rob and Eddie were really great!  They allowed us to come over into the control tower and I got to run the controls.  That was so cool!!!!!!

This is a rental houseboat .  If we ever do this trip again, that's what we will do.  We would also do this trip during the month of May when they first open or the first of June when it's not so busy.  July and August are their busiest times.  Expect to have a long wait then going through the locks and maybe a problem finding dockage.

Barry, Josh, Barb, Rob and Eddie

https://youtu.be/c8XOek7j9L8

 Some geese we passed when walking back to our boat.

 

Lots of colorful flowers around the locks and homes.

Tomorrow we will leave to head on to Lakefield. Teak has a 5:20 pm vet appointment.  The vet is a two minute walk from the marina that we will be staying at.  Hope all goes well!  So far the vet in Belleville, Dr. Burns at Belleville Animal Hospital was wonderful.  I would recommend anyone doing this trip to use him if they need a vet.   

We headed over to the grocery store to pick up some items and had a little surprise with our credit cards.  Note to all traveling Canada:   Make sure you bring all different kinds of credit cards.  Our first trip to Canada to see the boat we discovered the they do not take the Discover Card so we had to use Visa.  That was no problem until we started getting into some of the smaller towns.  The NoFrills grocery store does not take Visa either!  Only MasterCard or debit cards. Thank God we had Canadian money!

The friendly "dock duck" waiting for tidbits.

Breast cancer survivor boats practicing again. They have gone out with several different crews both nights that we were here at the marina.  I think they are trying to put together their racing teams.

The harbor master recommended Jack's for dinner.  Jack's is across the street from the marina and it was really good.  All three of us had the "All You Can Eat" Special.  The seafood chowder was wonderful and we learned after our first piece of fried fish that we could get it un-breaded.  So we did! That was great!  I think I ate too much!!!!!

The day was ending with a full moon and a colorful water fountain outside our back porch until our AC's decided to shut down.   The AC intake is on the dock side and we have been collecting a lot of garbage between our boat and the dock.  It looks like the intake keeps getting clogged.  After several attempts we decided to do without!  Josh will try to back flow when we get to the marina tomorrow and to try to put that side away from the docks until we figure this out.

The only other problem that we have encountered was that sometimes after going through the locks (we think because of the current flow) we get an air lock in the AC intake so Josh would have to bleed the line so we would get water flow.