Day 300, "on the loop", 8/5/2023

Saturday, 7/29 - We anchored in a small bay near BobCaygeon on Friday. The evening was super nice and quiet with a spectacular sunset.

Friday evening, Arabella decided to make a run back to Bobcaygeon and check out that town since it was a notable stop on the loop. LG2 and Summer Place decided to move ahead to Fenelon (another recommended stop on the loop).

The plan was to depart at 7am; however, we were surprised when we pulled the anchor up. It took us about 45 mins to clear all the mud and weeds. In addition to the weeds and mud, we caught a cable of some sort which Joel was able to disconnect from. We had to raft to Arabella to prevent us from drifting and allow us to cut the weeds off (with a knife). After our anchor was clear, Arabella decided they should pull their anchor up and clean theirs also. Since we were going separate ways, we didn't want to leave them stranded.

Side note: I didn't get pictures of our anchor but check Arabella's anchor out, it looks like cousin IT from the Adam's Family.

By 8am, the anchors were clear of all debris and we left for our respective destinations. We arrived at the Fenelon lock wall around 2pm (ish) in pouring rain! We tied off at the wall (on the gray side). 3 boaters ran to assist with grabbing lines. It was pouring so hard, they grabbed lines, tied the boat to dock and disappeared. I yelled "thank you" but have no clue who assisted us since they were bundled in rain-gear. Thank you, fellow boaters!

During our boat travels (on this day), there were some colorful boat houses, thought I would share pics here:

Sunday, 7/30 -

Joel cleaned the outside of the boat, while I cleaned the inside. After our chores were done, we walked around Fenelon. What a cool little town!

This town had it all. A bakery, post office, butcher shop, 3 pharmacy type stores and large park.

I purchased a book for Grampy (there was a local author signing books).

There is a beautiful park, with a small beach, a water sprinkler (for kids) and a play section with all sorts of yard type games. Joel and I walked a little ways down the shaded railroad bed.

Pic 1 (Post Office) and Pic 6 (Bakery)

Pic 2 - 4: Nearby park, trail way along an old railroad bed

Picked up bottled water and a few small items from the local grocery called Sobeys (first time we saw /shopped at this grocery chain). The layout was nice and they had several prepared items.

Had dinner with Long Gone 2 at Lockers at the Falls. The food was really good! We had pierogis as an appetizer and BOY, were they good! These were some of the best Pierogis, maybe not as good at Sandy Bodnar's - but close!

Returning from dinner, we met a man with a parrot. We chatted a bit, he let us pet and feed the bird. The guy explained when parrots are happy their feathers are very colorful. The bird looks REALLY happy, he was super friendly. Side note: I was too scared to hold him; but, Chris and Dan didn't hesitate.

Ended the night with ice-cream. Kawartha is a Canadian brand of ice-cream, the folks here, rave about it.

Monday, 7/31- This day was a 5 lock day (Locks 35 - 39); but, what a great day! We met new boaters and loopers, nice couple (Derrick & Leslie) from Canada, their daughter, Madeline (Maddie) who is the lock master at Lock 41. Derrick & Leslie's son's best friend attends Mercer college (in GA), the same college the Jesionowski boys attend. Jonathan was with the Jesionowski's this week (vaca), we asked the Jesionowski's and they know of this kid (small world).

Lock 36: Kirkfield Lift Lock (see Random Info below for more on this lock) is a hydraulic lift and the highest point on the Trent-Severn. We were fortunate to lock through with great boaters that understood my phobia of heights!

Only one side of the lock was working and because of that, the lock staff was operating the lock manually (on this day). It took an hour to lock through, we arrived just after the boats loaded (see picture below) causing us to wait a little over an hour before it was our turn. Our total wait time was approx. 2 hours.

Now our turn:

Pic 3 (right corner) is Jagger grabbing the cable to secure their boat, the other pictures are views from our boat (Summer Place). We didn't capture any great pictures here; but, I think Joel may have posted a video on Facebook (Joel Boisselle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOAE3a-R0-w (7 mins), in this video you will notice both sides of the lock are working; only one side was in operation when we locked through.

Travel on this day, consisted of some extremely narrow channels (Canal Lake). Boaters must be cautious due to the rocks and weeds. Also had to be mindful of boats approaching (not much room for passing).

Long Gone 2 was our lead boat and made the Sécurité call.

She called on radio, channel 16: "Sécurité, Sécurité, Sécurité: Five, 40 feet motor vessels are approaching canal lake and will be traveling at a slow rate". She waited a minute and repeated the above.

This was the first Sécurité call we have been a part of since traveling the loop.

Side note: Sécurité: A radio call that usually issues navigational warnings, meteorological warnings, and any other warning needing to be issued that may concern the safety of life at sea, yet may not be particularly life-threatening.

We stayed on the lock wall at the bottom of Lock 39, very quite and relaxing. It is literally out in the middle of nowhere. We were the only boats there ( Summer Place and Long Gone 2). We grilled food and ate at a nearby picnic table. LG2 spoiled us with ice-cream in a small waffle cone (yummy).

After dinner, we walked on a trail to lock 40 and ran into the couple from Fenelon (Derrick & Leslie), we also met another non-looper; Splash Landing. They were from Quebec and taking advantage of some time away from their land (dirt) home.

Pic 1 - flower along the walking path (between lock 39 and 40)

Pic 2, 4 & 6 (Random pics of Lock 39): 2 - Chris and Dan at the turn wheel, 4 - upper part of the lock & 6 - lower part of the lock

Pic 3 - Facing Lock 40 (some locks are only minutes apart)

Pic 5 - The Grill Team (Joel & Dan)

Tuesday, 8/1 & Wednesday, 8/2 - Oh my goodness! Can you believe it, the first day of August. Only 3 months until our adventure ends. We had another great day of travel. We only had 2 locks on Tuesday. Only 3 more locks remain on the Trent-Severn (there are not any locks on Georgian Bay).

Passed under a bridge, built in 1905, still looks great!

The date looks like it reads, 1806, but it is 1905 (the picture isn't clear here).

Arrived at the Orillia marina, a hot spot for Loopers, and of course with this many loopers - docktails was a MUST. (picture taken by Karl, Boat: Better Together):

Arabella, Better Together, Dos Gatos Locos, Faith, Gemini, Homeport, Idaho Red, Jagger, Jema, Knot in Kansas, Long Gone 2, Lucky Chicklett, Scout, Sea Turtle, Slack Tide, Summer Place, The Dean's Ride and Traveler (I feel certain I left some folks out, apologies).

The most loopers we have seen since Cape May & Half Moon Bay. Dos Gatos Locos are only 4 weeks into their loop adventure! Slack Tide is doing most of the loop by himself (now that is brave)! We met Scout back at Cape May and met Sea Turtle on our day 2 on the loop (Oct, at fall Rendezvous - they started their loop in December 2022 and caught up). Side note: Sea Turtle (Rod & Stuart are from Vandiver, AL... small world, the same town my Aunt Peggy lived in and my cousins Tina & Iris grew up). Stuart lives up the hill from where my Aunt lived and knew my Aunts house.

We caught up on laundry here in Orillia, did a little site seeing and ate!

Breakfast @ 125 Breakfast Club

Mariposa Market (an unbelievable bakery and other stuff), I spent over an hour in this place:

Pic 1: Yachts of Fun (Jeff & Sharon) completed their loop this past June. They live near by and came to have dinner with us at Fionn's.

Pic 2: Guess who finally caught up with us: Kayak (John & Kim) and their boating buddies: Port-a-Gee (Brian & Laurel)

Thursday, 8/3 - Made our way to the Big Chute marina from Orillia. There were reports of bad weather so we started our journey at 7:30am only to get caught up with other loopers and random travelers (boats), those leaving before us. Side note: The railroad bridge was supposed to open at 9am (according to phone calls made the previous day). We waited over an hour because the train schedule dictates the bridge openings, the bridge didn't open until a little after 10am.

The channel was narrow and it's hard to float the boat for long periods of times with moving near the sides (where there are rocks), so we had to drop our anchor (aka: drop a hook) to secure the boat in one place.

Once we made it through the bridge, there was only a short wait for the lock. It could hold 4 boats at a time, so that went fairly quickly. We had planed to get fuel and a pump out; however, decided to forgo that since it was getting later in the day and we were still trying to beat the storms. Side note: Canada staff handle all pump outs and they are not cheap. We try to be mindful of fuel prices and pump out fees to save money; hence, why we wanted to stop at a fuel station before the Big Chute.

Arrived at Big Chute marina around 3:30pm. In time to check in, walk over to the Big Chute (to observe and understand the process) and have dinner all before the storms hit.

Well, the storm came (around 6ish), winds of 70 - 80 mph. Here in Canada they have these winds called "straight line". In the states our tornados travels in a path, these winds come down and suck upward. There were a couple of power surges before our power was out for the night. There were about 20 boats on our dock, the winds were so fierce, the dock broke! Most looper boats have enclosed helms which puts more weight / pull on the dock which caused it to break. The dock w/ the boats moved approximately 150 yards. One of the local boaters called the marina staff. The marina staff arrived within minutes and advised all boats to relocate.

We immediately moved to the BLUE LINE for the Big Chute (putting us in the lead for the Big Chute on Friday), Lucky Chicklett, Long Gone 2 moved to the Blue Line also. Arabella was safe and on a dock with only a couple of boats. Dos Gatos Locos, Sea Turtle and Better Together moved to the government docks (staging dock for the Big Chute). I believe all of the other boats were locals and the staff moved them to the other side of the marina. We all got settled in for the night, to be ready for the Big Chute adventure on Friday.

Side note: All of this happened as the storm was clearing out, still had rain and lighting in the distance. Thank God, no one was hurt or had major damage to their boats.

Friday, 8/4 - THE BIG CHUTE (the ONLY lock or boat transfer like it). We woke up to a lot of fog, that quickly burned off. The dock that broke was marked off with "flashing red lights" (to prevent incoming boats from docking there).

Side note: Bad news for Big Chute marina, this is a Canadian holiday weekend and one of the busiest for this marina. The slips were already sold out and now they are 20 slots / slips down. They offered refunds to us boaters that didn't stay the night and cancel the incoming boaters until the docks are fixed.

Now for the BIG CHUTE experience: Boaters line up on the blue line and the lock staff call out on an intercom system the instructions of how they will load the chute (basically in order of those lined up on the blue line). Your boat enters and is aligned with these very large yellow straps. Once secure in the chute, it's like a large elevator, lifted to cross over the land between the two bodies of water (Trent-Severn and Georgian Bay). Once on the other side, the chute goes into the water, allowing water to fill under the boats for easy departure. The Chute can hold several small water crafts or a couple of boats not to exceed 60 ft (if I remember correctly). We went across with a 28 ft pleasure craft (our boat is 46 ft w/ dinghy overhang).

This can be a long process, we were 3rd in line. The Chute opened at 9am, we were on the other side by 10:30 and traveled on to the LAST LOCK on the Trent-Severn. Yes, this is our last day on the Trent-Severn. It was beyond amazing.

Picture below is Joel's navigation tool, showing us crossing over land.

Looper Kayak - sent this picture, Summer Place entering the Chute (it was shaky and bouncy, a bit scary)!

Summer Place with a 28 ft pleasure craft boat

Yes! When smaller boats are included, the larger boats hang off the back (glad I didn't see this until after we were on the other side).

Our view while at the top of the Chute.

The Port Severn Lock #45, last lock on the Trent, is very small. Small in that it can only take 2 boats. Most of the time, they only take 1 (which causes back up and long waits). If boaters know each other; then, the lock staff can typically talk two boats to going at the same time. We locked through with Port-a-Gee (we met them for the first time in Orillia).

Port Severn is the northern gateway, and the smallest lock on the Waterway. It is 84 ft length limits the size of vessel that can through-navigate the entire Waterway. It is a quick boat ride from Georgian Bay Islands National Park. Lock 45 has large grounds for boater camping and picnicking. Boaters should exercise caution to the west of the lock where they pass under Highway 400, as the channel width is restricted. In periods of high water flows, boaters should be prepared to be buffeted by currents in the navigation channel below the lock.

We reached our destination, a bay called Beausoleil, around 3pm and anchored there for 2 nights. Long Gone 2 joined us around 5 pm and Arabella stayed at a marina due to winds (which tend to pick up later in the day).

Saturday, 8/5 - A low key day, we will remain at this anchorage for one more day (to allow some of the vacationing Canadians to clear out). We are near a Canadian park that we plan to dinghy over to. We are officially in the Georgian bay, see next week's blog to hear about Georgian Bay and more about this day!

Until next week, have a wonderful day and weekend!

Random Stuff & Miscellaneous Information:

BIG CHUTE RAILWAY:

Big Chute Marine Railway is a patent slip at lock 44 (in the township of Georgian Bay) of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada. It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change of height of about 60 feet (18 m). It is the only marine railway (or canal inclined plane) of its kind in North America still in use, and is overseen by federally operated Parks Canada. This railway is vital for those cruising the 6,000-mile (9,700 km) Great Loop route.

History

In 1914, there were contracts to have 3 locks built to connect the Severn River to Georgian Bay at Port Severn, Big Chute, and Swift Rapids. With the start of World War I, however, there was a shortage of manpower and resources. Lock 45 at Port Severn was nearing completion, so it was finished as a small, "Temporary" lock. (It remains in use to this day.) The locks at Big Chute and Swift Rapids were not completed, with "temporary" marine railways being built instead. The original Big Chute Marine Railway was completed in 1917, and could only carry boats up to 35 feet (10.67 m) long, preventing navigation by large commercial vessels. The Swift Rapids Marine Railway was completed in 1919, using the same plans as the Big Chute railway.

If you are interested to learn more about the BIG CHUTE, check this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chute_Marine_Railway

We posted some stuff on Facebook, but you may find this more interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpJnVGrgaHA (6 mins)

Grampy / Raymond Update:

He is now home from rehab with a few restrictions (no stairs without assistance), he will have assistance 3 days a week, to help with some Pt, quick errands, doctor appoints, etc. Jane Ruby & Ron Morgan picked him up at rehab, brought him home, set up the house and picked up groceries and meds for him. Thank you Jane & Ron (I think Grampy is going to trade us in for you two), we will never be able to repay you for all you have helped us with!

Additionally, he had several visitors during his rehab stay. Thank you for being our eyes and ears! Kellye, Patty & Marsha (and Tom too)- he really enjoyed seeing your friendly faces. Gave him a break from the rigorous therapy times! We appreciate each of you!

& if Jane and Ron didn't do enough for us... get this! Jonathan had his wisdom teeth taken out on Thursday. The original plan was for Jane to take Jonathan, support him and return him home (and set up for the evening). She was so good to Jonathan, she took Jonathan to her house and nursed him for 24+ hours, reminding him to take meds, rinse mouth and fed him. Jonathan's recovery was a lot less stressful thanks for Jane and Ron. If you guys EVER need anything ... we will BE THERE!

Thanks again, Nurse Jane (and Ron too)!

Jonathan has had a great summer! Prior to getting his wisdom teeth out, he vacationed with the Jesionowski's in Florida. He will return to school mid August. Thank you Kendall, Stan and family for including him!

DOUBLE YOKES?! WHO KNEW.

Apparently, the Canadians love double yoked eggs, the box indicates at least 50% of these eggs have double yokes! The loopers call out when they have a double yoke day, funny, huh?!

Maps of the Trip:

July 30 - can't locate this map; but, traveled from near BobCaygeon marina to Fenelon lock wall (one night without power and one night with power).

July 31:

Fenelon Lock (#34) wall (Fenelon, Ontario, Canada) to Lock wall #39 (Brock, Ontario, Canada)

August 1:

Lock wall #39 (Brock, Ontario, Canada) to Port Orillia Marina (Orillia, Ontario, Canada)

August 3

Port Orillia Marina (Orillia, Ontario, Canada) to Big Chute Marina (Coldwater, Ontario, Canada)

August 4

Big Chute Marina (Coldwater, Ontario, Canada) to anchorage: Beausoleil Bay (near Beausoleil Island, Georgian Bay, Canada)