Monday 14th July...Bastille Day! (France)

14^th July…Bastille Day (France)

Well, they weren't celebrating Bastille Day in Ontario, today, but I thought to mark the occasion.

 

We watched as our fellow Loopers at the Trenton Marina took turns pumping out before making their way west through the first locks on the Trent Severn Waterway.

 

Connie and Joe were first off the dock...

 Russ and Elaine had to pump out before leaving in 'Twelve Stone'.

Sandy helped....

And they are off under the first  bridge...

 Steve was 2nd....

 ...followed by Connie and Joe. Summerland with Row and Gus had already left at 8.45am. They were long gone. Five boats locked through together at about 10am.

 

Before they all left, the crowd helping a docked yacht unstick from the mud on the far dock. This took all the ingenuity of the collective, but eventually was freed and the ‘crowd’ was able to get going.

 The night before we had discussed staggering our departures because there were so many of us. Russ and Elaine, in 12 Stones, Steve in the little Camano (31ft), Connie and Joe in their Manatee (Cady Krogen) and John in his Catamaran. These folks were all at our dinner on Saturday night.

We waited for them all to finish pumping out before doing our own pump-out. We were docked right next to the station, so it was very easy.

We had arranged with John and Susan (in front in this photo) to buddy up for the journey leaving around 11am. We untied, leaving the dock just after the hour.

 Au Revoir Trenton...I think!

 

 Im standing on the front of the boat looking back at the first bridge...plenty of room to get underneath!

Not far on we entered the channel for the first Lock. There are Dams beside or close to most of the locks, so these long walls are good for us, especially when it comes to current!

John and Susan followed us into the channel...

 We tied up to the wall, waiting for the lock to open. John and Susan hung out, finally tying up JUST before the gate opened.

First up were the two bridges over the Trent River at Trenton, then into the holding pattern for Lock #1. Now that we are veteran Lockers, we were well prepared…except that the lock wasn’t ready for us. We tied up to the wall just below the lock and John and Susan finally did the same, after juggling their boat in the lead up for Lock 1. Just as they tied up, we got the word to go into the lock!

This one didn't have to go up too far, fortunately, for a first lock.

 

John and Susan went in ahead of us....John is a Nuclear Engineer...recently retired...we love the name 'Nuclear Fishin', on his boat.

 and up we go....There is another boat on the wall waiting to go down.

 We love the Lock 'houses'...there are usually bathrooms for public use and the lock masters are helpful and call ahead to the next lock to let them know we are on our way.

 Looking back down the channel as we get to the top of the lock.

What it looks like on the chart...the lock, that is. Yes, it took us an hour to get through the first lock.

The gates at the rear were hydraulically operated , but the front gates were and are, for the most part, hand operated.

I don’t care how many times you lock through, the adrenalin keeps pumping as you judge the distance, speed, wind and current inside the lock. These locks are smaller than the ones on the Erie and Oswego Canals. Both in length and width. This is somehow in our favor. The other good part is that there are plenty of cables and they are not recessed (like so many of the other locks we have experienced), so they are easy to grab hold of and loop the rope around. Phew!

John and Susan preceded us into the locks, and were considerate in going as far forward as possible. They are a 31ft Camano, the same as Steve’s. There was just room for the two of us end to end inside each of the locks. We were rising between 11 and 27 feet each time, and at Lock 6 we passed the ‘crowd’ who were tied up to both sides of the lock wall at the top. They waved as we went by. They had stopped to go to Frankford town. We wanted to get through Lock 7 and on from there to our anchorage for the night.

The 'crowd' was all tied up just above lock #6, on the lock wall both left and right.

 

 

We passed lots of farms, cottages by the river, RV parks, gorgeous scenery that we can only imagine, with it's Fall colors, and finally came to rest. The marshes are different to the coastal USA, in that these are mostly Bull Rushes, and not grasses.

 

Lots of watercraft of various kinds...mostly 'play things'.

 Logs along the river bank...and no Alligators on them! yay!

 

 The channels were clear, the water clean looking and the scenery pretty.

 Always a thrill to see an Osprey on the nest. Not too many of them, but good to see they are nesting in these locales. We see lots of seagulls, curiously...this is all fresh water!

 I wasn't allowed to stop and test this rope swing...it was tempting, I have to say:)

 This is a different kind of Lock house..and the lock staff get to mow the lawns between locking, gardening. All of the houses were well cared for. Some even had vegetable gardens, bus all had flower gardens and were very pretty.

 Looking back and down at the Power Station.

  Can you imagine the trees in the Fall?

 The mozzies are big in these parts, so the campers have screen rooms to protect themselves.

 RV park in the trees.

A home owner having a  burn-up on the river bank

 

Starting so late in the morning was good, but it did mean we were tired when we finally locked through #7 and then had another 12km to travel to our little 'Blue Hole', as it is called.

 John and Susan’s anchor held fast after dragging for a bit. We think we are in a lot of weed and hard sand. Our Fortress didn’t take the first time, or the second, third, fourth or finally the fifth. We called it quits on that one, at that stage, and Waz attached the 'Bruce' anchor for a final try, which took hold. Phew to that too! I was tasked with keeping the boat in the middle of the stream (there is quite a current running here) and not crashing into John and Susan.

 

One of the farms opposite where we parked for the night.

We took our deck chairs onto the back of the fly deck with a small glass of wine, afterwards. We were tired and it was good to just sit and admire the beautiful scenery. To our right is a typical Canadian Farm with large grain silos on the skyline, golden fields of hay and picture perfect.

We watched other boats continue up the river…we are in a tributary….and their wakes didn’t affect us.

We were pleasantly surprised to see John and Susan hop into the water…brave folks!!

With their swimming noodles and beers in handJ They made their way over to us slowly, against the current, and joined us on the back deck for a glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc. We enjoyed their company in the late afternoon sun, and then gave them a ‘tour’ of the boat before they slipped back into the water to go with the current back to their boat. Good exercise for themJ

 Gorgeous clouds reflected in the water.

 The sunset was stunning too.

 

We are in the middle of Marshes again. These ones are Bull Rushes and Water Lilies. White swans with their young swam not far away. We didn’t get photos, but maybe they will be there in the morning to do so.

I made a sautéed salmon with capers, garlic, basil and cream, with fresh green beans from the Amish veg. stall in US Ontario, and Zucchini Fettucine for dinner, and we ate upstairs on the fly deck, watching the sun sink lower and lower. Waz made a cup of coffee which we enjoyed with sliced cantaloupe, for dessert.

We are pleasantly replete, and enjoying listening to Rod Stewart on the stereo. We will not be long out of bed, tonight. We have an early start tomorrow, with 5 kms to go before we get to Lock 8. 

It will be a busy day with one lock after the other, tomorrow. If we go all the way, we should complete another 9 locks. I don’t think we will do that, however. We would like to see some of the towns along the way.

Jennifer Lopez is now serenading us on Spanish. We like her singing in Spanish much better than in EnglishJ

Time to go and make the bed…slack people we are, not making the bed, this morning….before falling into it. I was going to take a shower off the back, tonight, but we have been chasing mozzies (mosquitos) since the sun went down, and Waz has declared he is not baring his butt  for a shower just to have it eaten by marauding mozzies. They don’t seem to like me quite the same, so I might be brave and enjoy the spontaneity of the moment…no alligators or other ‘things’ with bright eyes, in the night, to worry about.

The countryside is slightly reminiscent of North Carolina, strangely. There are lots of RV parks, holiday homes, recreational boaters, gorgeous trees….Love the Silver birches!!....and the water is clear for the most part.

The Lock gates are hydraulic on the going in, but the personnel have to manually turn the stiles to open them at the far end. They are also Wooden Gates! Interesting. The little buildings at each lock are quaint, the personnel friendly and helpful, and it feels a whole lot more relaxed than the American Locks. We also aren’t in competition with the commercial traffic, which has to have something to do with it!

The Dams were letting some of their water go, so there was a bit of a current at the bottom and the entry to the locks, but we have had a LOT worse.

I spent most of the day sitting on the front of the boat waiting to lock through yet another lock. We completed 7 of them today.

Our system works well…I don’t think I am being optimistic. We started out using a single rope, thinking it would work in the smaller locks, but we resorted to one bow and one stern, per usual. Our boat is just too big and the current and wind want to keep pushing us out at either end. We should stick to what has worked in the past. At least these lock walls are much smoother and easier on the fenders. I was quite surprised, when I finally cleaned the fenders, at Robyn and Dave’s, that the covers weren’t as badly damaged as I feared. It was mostly grime, which I scrubbed off. A few holes, but not too bad. I may well revise that by the time we have done another 40 or so locks.

 

Well, it is now 10pm, and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Time to take the sleeping giant to bed…per usual he is snoring beside me J I am so jealous of how he can just drop off ANYWHERE!