Bobcaygeon to Lake Simcoe

Monday, August 11,2014

Nice cruising day, 75 mostly sunny, windy in the PM from the South, we traversed 44 miles and 8 locks including the Kirkfield Lift Lock. This is the second of two lift locks the first at Peterborough we locked up and this one we locked down 49 feet. Driving into a bathtub cantilevered 50 feet above the ground is a new experience. We were located toward the back of the lock and that was acceptable to both of us. We moved from lake to lake today with canals between the lakes. We are now positioned at the entrance to Lake Simcoe the biggest lake on the Trent Severn 16 miles by 20 miles. We stepped down 6 locks from the previous lake to move to this position. There has been very strong weed growth in these last couple of lakes and the depth sounder at times reads the tops of the weeds rather than the bottom of the lake, seeing 1 or 2 feet on the depth sounder is always of concern. Between the 2^nd last lock and the last lock today our speed decreased almost a full mph, I don’t know if we were dragging bottom or gathered a bunch of weeds on our prop. The next stretch was back to normal, a puzzlement. In Canada, engines must be turned off in the locks and ours did not restart in one of the locks today. I jumped the solenoid to start the engine and stopped at a nearby city dock to attempt repairs. I believe one of the connectors on the solenoid lost contact, I crimped the connector a bit tighter and had no problems on the last 6 locks.

Dinner on the boat was sumptuous, grilled chicken, baked potato, rice, green beans and corn a treat.

Trailer Park with a Marina

Narrow Channels between the lakes

Channels cut from rock

Carol at the Kirkfield Lift Lock

At the top

We are moving down while the adjacent lock climbs

Leaving the lock, 50 feet waterline to waterline

Hole in the wall bridge

Cabin in the woods

Building a completely new dam, replacing one from 1902