Belleville to Trenton - May 22 & 23, 2018

Tuesday, May 22nd

Teak had another vet appointment at 9:30 in the morning to be checked once again before we headed out for Port Trent Marina.  Our rent car needed to be back by noon, and we needed to find out about the alarm going off on our bow thruster.   The plan was to accomplish all this in the morning because the weather forecast said rain in the morning and clearing in the afternoon so our plan was to head out then.  Well, that didn't happen!  The weather stayed yucky so we stayed another day.

Wednesday, May 23rd


Whoo hoo! Here we go! We are heading to Port Trent Marina!  The sun is out and we have light winds.  Our trip begins!!!!!!!

 Bye bye Crate Marina Belleville!

What a beautiful day for our first day out.  My father would have loved this trip. He loved the water and I do too!

 Teak's first time on the upper flybridge.

Coming into Port Trent Marina.

Port Trent Marina is a very nice marina with nice restrooms/showers/facilities and free laundry.

When we were in Belleville, we met another couple, Elaine and Ed.  They were getting their boat ready to move over here to Trenton for the summer.  They RV in the winter and boat in Texas in the summer!  Very nice people!  Everyone we have met has been very friendly and helpful.  Just before they left Belleville, Elaine and Al gave us some brownies (she said she did not have any room in the boat for them) and an HEB bottle of wine that they bought while in Texas.  They came by and welcomed us to the marina and later that evening we gave Al a tour of our boat.

After we got settled into our slip it was laundry time.  It took us most of the afternoon to complete.  Then we did a grocery and alcohol run.  We're ready to start the TSW tomorrow!  Another transient boat came in and they will be heading out with us tomorrow.  Mark and Christine have a sailboat with the mast being shipped.  They are moving their boat to Georgian Bay.

Heading to Canada May 2, 2018 to May 21, 2018

Wednesday, May 2nd - We were able to pick up the U-Haul the evening before our departure so we started loading it as soon as we got home.  In the morning we finished loading and headed out for our first stop - Texarkana, TX.

Thanks to our friend Sam Crowder for telling us that we had better make a soft cushioned spot for Teak. She settled in and had a better ride than Josh and I.  Our interstate highway system is in really bad shape.  Pot holes like crazy!  What a unbelievable bouncy ride to Canada!!!!!!!! 

This was Teak's very first hotel stay and she did very well.

Friday, May 4th - Another bouncy ride all the way to Marion, IL.  I wish I was Teak, she had the best seat!  Most of our scenery so far has been a lot of farm land and fresh landscape colors.

Saturday, May 5th - We crossed the border into Canada.  For some reason we took the tunnel instead of the bridge - that was a trip, one lane each way side by side, hoping not to touch the wall.  Going through customs was a piece of cake!  Gave the customs lady our inventory list, she asked some questions, stamped our list and sent us on our way.

Beautiful scenery, lots of farm land and windmills galore!  Canada is big on solar, wind and recycling!

The first thing we did when we got into Belleville was go to the boat and check her out.  She looks a lot better dressed in blue!

It was around 6:00 when we arrived so the marina was closed for the night.  We headed over to the hotel to settle in.  We were all so ready for this bouncy trip to be over!


Sunday, May 6th - We decided to take a morning walk and stretch our legs after four days being cooped up in the truck.  Belleville has very nice exercise trails.

After our nice walk we headed over to the boat.  We had so much to do but with the boat still out of the water not much could be done.  I decided to leave Teak in the truck with the windows lowered because is was cool out. So, to not to waste this time I put all my fender covers on.  Had to do something! 

A nice couple, Karen and Eric Martin, came by to welcome us.  They were having their boat made ready to be launched.  We came to find out Karen and Eric are the AGLCA Harbor Hosts for Trenton.  We were going to try to get with them during our fast trip up last month but ran out of time.  Small world! 

Every so often I would check on Teak to make sure she was doing fine.  Sleeping like a baby!  After I finished putting all my fender covers on (it was around noon), I looked in the truck and noticed Teak was standing up.  I went to check her and she got sick all over.  Not good!  Back to the hotel for Teak and me.

Monday, May 7th - Teak got sick again during the night but seemed to be ok in the morning.  After breakfast we headed over to the marina to provide them with the boat bottom paint so they could get started.  With nothing for us to do, we decided to go for another nice walk.

After our walk, we headed back to the marina to see how the bottom painting was going.

Tuesday, May 8th - The marina was not sure when they would finish with the bottom painting and launch time so we decided to book the hotel room for another night.

Around 1:30 pm they were ready to launch, de-winterize systems and move her to a slip.  To our surprise, several people came around to watch the launching.  We even had a person (Dave Elmy) from The Quinte Sports Review magazine, taking pictures and telling us that they are doing an article about our boat in the June issue.

Wednesday, May 9th - Today was the day we move onto the boat!  First thing in the morning we started unloading the U-Haul.  Josh had to have the U-Haul returned by 4:00 pm.  The fun begins, where to put all of our stuff!!!!!

Our first visitor!

Friday, May 11th - Josh found someone to put on our boat name.

 

Thursday, May 17th - I decided to start working on my sun shades for the stern back deck.  There was nothing more I could do until our AIS system gets installed and our thruster part comes in and gets installed.  We should have been over at the Trent Port Marina by now. But things happen! 

Our stern thruster part arrived after lunch so it was installed along with our AIS system that we brought up with us.  All the marina work is now complete!  The only little problem we were having now is the AIS is not picking us up.   Josh will have to make some calls tomorrow.

Friday, May 18th - We have AIS!  Not sure what happened but it started working.  Barry Dupuy is flying in today, our crew for the Trent-Severn.  We have decided to stay in Belleville until after their holiday weekend, leaving on Tuesday the 22nd.  This will work out because Teak needs to go back to the vet to be checked and we do not want to be testing out new boat out with lots of boaters on the water.

Sunday, May 20th - Karen and Eric invited us to come and visit them and tour the Trent Port Marina around 4:00 pm.  We decided to head over a little earlier to check out some of the locks because Tuesday, May 22nd will be our big day.  We start our trip!!!!!  We stopped at lock 3 to check it out. Kevin the lock master was so nice.  He explained everything to us and gave us lots of information.  Our decision to wait out the holiday because we thought it would be crowded was not  a good one. No crowds!  The lock master said that very few boats have gone through.  Who would have thought? 

On our way back to Trenton we stopped at lock 1 to check it out.  We got to see a boat going through!  This boat came all the way across from New York and this was their first Canadian port stop.  Note:  Check customs entry port locations before hand!  They should have stopped at Trent Port Marina to clear customs.  Not sure what happened or how long they had to wait because we did not stick around. 

We headed over to Trent Port Marina to meet Karen and Eric.  They had appetizers and margaritas for us!  Yummy, good stuff!!!!  We were going to go out for Bar B Q with them but the Bar B Q place was closed so they cooked us a nice Bar B Q dinner on their boat.  This was so nice and what a surprise!  Great people!!!!!!


Monday, May 21 - In the morning, Dave, from The Quinte Sports Review magazine came by to take more pictures for the article they are putting in their next magazine issue.  Karen and Eric came by to take a tour of our boat just in case we headed out before they were back down to Trenton  next weekend.

Late in the afternoon, we decided to take the boat over for fuel and pump out to eliminate some of the things we have to do before heading out tomorrow.  (Teak has a vet appointment at 9:30 am to be checked again, we need to make one more run to the grocery store, and the car needs to be returned by noon)  

Whoo Hoo!! out of the slip and heading over to the fuel and pump out!  We have a little problem.  Every time Josh uses the bow thruster the alarms go off.  Not good!  Add another item to the list for tomorrow.

Fueling and pumping out!

We made it back into the slip with no problems!  Not bad for the first time out!!!!!!

The Waiting Game (December 2017 to April 2018)

It's been a long wait! I would look at the Crate Marine Webcam almost every day!  https://cratesbelleville.com/web-cam-at-crates/ and the weekly weather forecast. 

 

 

 

During this time, we were trying to figure out how to get all of our boating items up to the new boat.  The first thing we checked on was to rent a one way van/SUV.  We figured we would load it up with as many items as we could and purchase the other items when we got there.  Very disappointing!  You can not rent a car or van in the US and drop it off in Canada.  You must take it back to the US.  That would mean Josh would waste a day taking the rented vehicle back over the border and taking a cab to the train station and the train back to Belleville. 

 

Thank goodness for U-Haul!  We can rent a 10ft truck, load it up with ALL of our stuff and drive it to Belleville, unload and drop it off right up the road from the marina.  Happy, Happy, Happy!  

 

We've done a lot of homework. Thank goodness for the Loopers forum and all the knowledge from experienced people! We purchased the set of three Canada Ports Cruising Guides, a one way TSW Lockage permit and a seasonal mooring permit.  I think we are ready (or as ready as can be!)

 

 

Buying a boat in another country is quite different from buying a boat in the US.  Lots of things to think about.  The more questions we asked, the more confused we got, especially with customs.  Nothing is standard!  What we are told is that it all really depends on who we get when we cross the border.

 

As soon as I saw the snow/ice melting I was so happy but our Canadian friends said "just wait,  it's teasing you, it's not over yet"!

 

 

 

Josh and I couldn't stand it any longer so we planned a fast trip up to evaluate/do some measuring/ make an inventory list of what we would need for the boat so we'd be ready for the grand trip home.

 

Let me just say that this fast trip was an adventure!  It started off with a very bumpy flight, lots of sick people and us not being able to land in Toronto.  Yup!  The pilot tried two times, aborted both tries and we had to land in Rochester, NY.  United paid for our room for the night and we landed in Toronto the next day.  An adventure that we will never forget, but we lost a day on our short recon trip! 

 

We finally arrived in Belleville at our boat. It was a good feeling to see her.  We did our outside measuring before climbing up the ladder to go inside.   We were happy to see that the new stern thruster was partially installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Up the ladder we go.  The winter cover is unbelievable!  It's literally a tent over the boat. 

 

 

 

 

Once inside the boat, we had a little bit of a surprise!  Everything unattached had been removed!  We were missing items that were listed on the original brokerage listing like the two teak chairs and table on the back deck and the two chairs and table in the main salon.

 

 

 

 

It turned out to be a big misunderstanding and the items would be returned.  After we left the boatyard for the drive back to Toronto to fly home, we decided to do some exploring and check out Trenton Marina and the first couple of locks that we'd be traveling along the TSW.

 

 

 

 

 

More ice melting needed and construction on the locks needs to be completed.  We are so looking forward to this trip!  (see purple line)