Admirals Marina, Honey Harbor

Our goal was to check out Admirals Marina since that is where we wanted to put the boat for the winter. The Marina caters mostly to cottage boats (cottages only accessible by water) but has great depth in the docks (15 feet) and a large hydraulic lift to pull the boat.

Ed is in his diving outfit changing the props because we dinged the port prop in Rosedale in the channel. He changed both props in 45 minutes--pretty good for a beginner under water.

44 52.416'N

79 49.047'W

Bay Port Yatch Club, Midland, On

We reluctanly left the Trent Severn Waterways after spending about 39 days moving from beginning to end. It was a wonderful experience and we met a lot of very nice people. By now we are very much behind the loopers (those doing the loop continuously are closing in on Chicago). We headed over to the port of Midland via the Waubaushene Channel. The lockmaster at Port Severn was very careful to instruct us on the change in color of markers as we made passage out of the Port Severn area. There is some shoaling around the markers and he told us which side to favor. It is tricky because the buoys change from green, then red, then green again on starboard. Well, we made it okay. It was a very different feeling going out into a large body of water after being in lakes, rivers and canals for so long.

We needed a new battery for our generator which brought us to Bay Port Yatch Club. Ed also repaired the syncronizer switch on the flybridge.

We met Pete who had been to the Newport Boat Show and spent some time in Mystic area and has a Walker Bay dinghy just like ours.

44 45.584'N
79 53.899'W

Lock 45 Port Severn

A view from the lock wall. This is the last lock in the Trent Severn. We are now about to enter Georgian Bay and a new adventure.
44 48.268'N
79 43.267'W

Big Chute

44 53.138'N

79 40.471'W

Big Chute is a marine railroad that lifts the boats out of the water on one side, moves the boats over land and puts them in water on the other side. The drop for us was about 58 feet. You stay on the boat while they are doing this.

Big Chute

The is a view from our boat on big chute. Big Chute is like a dry dock.

Swift Rapids Lock

The lock picture shows how much the lift is on this lock. It is the biggest lift of the conventional locks. Once they start the process they have to fill it or empty the lock. The other picture shows the narrow passage, McDonalds Cut.

44 51.421'N

79 32.327'W

Anchorage McLean Bay

The weather prediction was for winds about 10 knots. It turned out to be more like 25 knots and stormy. We decided to anchor out, the winds finally subsided around 10pm and it was calm after that.

44 50.694'N

79 23.540W

Day 2 Orillia

The is part of the beautiful Couchiching Park on the waterfront in Orillia. It's quite large and the marina has room for about 200 boats. There are not many here now. The weather has been rainy and overcast. It is quite warm and humid. As you can see Ed and I are still talking.

Bolsover to Orillia

44 36.833'N

79 24.760W

We did 22 nautical miles yesterday (total nautical miles is 800) and met this large cruise ship picture above with his bow up in the narrow channel. We went across the largest lake in the system, Simco, very smoothly. We decided to go on to Orilla because the winds were calm the first time in three days.

The paddle wheeler came into port just after we arrived. The staff at the marina had their end of season party on it last night.

We are at a marina for a few days, Orillia is a nice town. We are hoping to see a play here and provision the boat. It is rainy and we are expecting a few storms.

Hole in the wall

On our passage from Kirkfield to Bolsover we had to pass under this very narrow bridge. We had to go dead center to make the height and depth. Our neighbors tonight at the marina did not line up right and are having their prop replaced tomorrow.

We are at Sunset Cove Marina in Bolsover.
44 31.177'N
79 04.587'W

We arrived at the marina early and the owner drove us to West Trenton Golf Course where we played 18 holes. It was very picturesque next to the waterway but we forgot the camera again. We are at 778 nautical miles and we are still talking.

Kirkfield Lift Lock

The whole pan that we drove into moved down while the pan on the other side moved up. If you enlarge the top photo you can see that we overlook the canal 55 feet below.

44 35.86'N

78 59.477'W

We spent the night here and watched the very light traffic go through the lift lock.

Securite, Securite, Securite

East meets West

The channel was very narrow and we had to pass a large boat. We did our securite and knew he was coming. They held for us in a "wider" section of the channel.

Anchorage on Balsam Lake

We spent sometime at anchor in a cove on Balsam Lake. These are some of the sights we saw. The hot air balloon came by towards evening as well as the wooden boat. The wooden boat was five years old. The fellow stopped to talk to us and told us that there were some black bear in the property around us. We never saw any black bear.

Ed was just trying to get rid of some spiders.

Coboconk - Day 2

It was so windy yesterday that even the lilly pad leaves got blown around!

This "seagull's" wings look out of focus because he's still in flight. He just dipped down and hovered for a second while taking a drink.



Today we watched a houseboat, all dolled up with balloons and streamers, arrive at a nearby resort dock. There was a wedding going on. We're not sure if the boat is for the honeymoon or some of the guests.

Coboconk on Balsam Lake 44 39.304'N, 78 47.959W

After Rosedale Lock we ventured out onto Balsam Lake but the weatherman forecast heavy winds again and the possibility of a thunderstorm. So we went to the little town of Coboconk on the northern end of the lake and watched the clouds build and the thunderstorm blow bye with 54 mph wind gusts! It's comforting to be tied up to a dock while the weather rages by.

Rosedale Lock 44 34.30N, 78 47.06W

Spent the last two nights at the Rosedale Lock. It's a beautiful park-like setting, as are many of the locks. Only planned to stay one night and then go into Balsam Lake and anchor out but the winds have been very strong, with gusts up to 35 mph, so we elected to stay tied-up at the lock.

5 nights in Fenelon Falls

Full house tonight!! First time since we've been here the walls are totally full. Met some nice folks doing "The Loop" and had dinner with them. Finally got the part we needed and plan to be on our way in the morning.

Linda's favorite store in Fenelon Falls!

View from our boat in Fenelon Falls

Seems like the national pastime for Canadians near the water is fishing.

Still here in Fenelon Falls. Located a replacement exhaust elbow but it won't get here until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not a bad place to be stuck though, food stores, restaurants, and Linda's favorite - jewelery stores!!

Fenelon Falls

One of the fancier lake "cottages" along the way.



Lots of old Chris Crafts in this area.

Arrived today at Fenelon Falls.

44 32.122N, 78 44.159W. A real pretty, and popular, town. We should sleep well tonight with the sounds of the waterfalls to put us to sleep. One disappointment, the bakery that had the best stickey buns is no longer here.

We may be here a few days since we discovered our first mechanical problem. One of the rubber exhaust elbows sprung a large leak and we have not been able to find a replacement. Tomorrow Ed will start improvising!!

Eaganridge Golf Course

We left Bobcaygeon this morning in search of Eaganridge Golf Course and Spa which is located on Sturgeon Lake. It was not that easy to spot across the lake. The people answering the phone are not boaters. Anyway, we found it and had a great day golfing and enjoying dinner. Tomorrow we will probably play tennis before we leave. Sturgeon Lake is in the distance.

Our GPS position 44 31.521'N/78 36.796'W

Views around Eaganridge GC & Spa

Bobcaygeon

Parasailing on Pigeon Lake near the entrance to Bobcageon.

Our position is 44 32.302'N; 78 32.603'W

Buckhorn Lock

Spent the night at Buckhorn Lock

They put all sorts of boats, canoes, jet skis, etc in the locks. They added one more houseboat to this group before they closed the gates.

Trip from Stoney Lake to Buckhorn

Left: One of the interesting islands along Stoney Lake.








Below: Lovesick Lake lock on the way to Buckhorn.

Google Earth

Ed's brother requested that we put in our GPS location so that you can go to google earth and see where we are located. Right now we are in Stoney Lake anchored by a big rock and some houses trying to escape the wind.

Here is the GPS 44 35.156'N
78 03.385W

Put that in the upper left corner of the google earth site.

We have gone over 700 nautical miles and we are still talking!

P.S. You can double click on any picture to enlarge it. The Plane is pretty cool.

Seaplane buzzing our boat.

We were anchored in Stoney Lake and the seaplane came in for a landing just behind the boat.