Day 152 - A Harrowing Day

The locks are now on a “fall” schedule, operating 10:00 am to 4:00 pm rather than 8:30 am to 6:00 pm (on weekdays, 9 am - 5 pm on weekends).  Seems a bit early to cut back to me, but I suppose it makes sense.  We needed a few grocery items so went to Sobeys, a short walk from the lock.  On the way, we stopped in a nautical shop that had been closed on Monday. 

We left the dock wall at 11:30 am, through an open swing bridge into Cameron Lake.  The weather was warm, humid and cloudy The lake was weedy, like others here, and the Captain noticed that the steering was a little stiff.  A few drops of rain fell that later turned into a drizzle, then a light rain that lasted most of the afternoon.

We hit the Rosedale Lock, #35 at 11:50 am and were out by noon.  At this point, we were at the summit of the waterway, 841 feet above sea level, and the highest point in the world that a boat can go under its own power.  It is all downhill from here.   Balsam Lake was next, deeper but still weedy, with a large island in the middle.

At Laidlaw Point we entered the extremely narrow Trent Canal.  This stretch of the Trent was nerve-wracking as there were shallow lakes with tree stumps and narrow canals with rock ledges that required boats over 40 feet to announce their location and direction on the radio to avoid meeting in places where passing would be impossible.  Captain Randy made the "Securite" call to alert other boaters of our size and that we were coming through from the east.  Stepped rock ledges are visible on both sides meaning you must stay in the center to avoid them.  There is no way another boat could pass us as we had no wiggle room.  We were almost to Mitchell Lake when we heard a Securite call from a 40 foot boat, Grace, headed our way.  The 2 captains traded information on their exact locations and decided to meet and pass at a “wide” point on Mitchell Lake.  In the meantime, a  very small boat passed us without incident.

Mitchell Lake has numerous hazards: tree stumps, weeds, twisty narrow channel through rocks and small islands.  We waited at a relatively wide part of the channel for Grace, and soon saw a boat approaching us.  Turns out it was not Grace, but a boat about 20 feet in length, with another similar one behind.  A few minutes later Grace appeared and approached us very slowly, keeping to the left.  Captain Randy was going about 2 knots and navigated to the right.  We waved as we passed with just enough room to keep us both in the channel.

 

No time to relax, because we went right under a causeway bridge and towards a working barge in the channel (thankfully Grace’s captain had warned us about this).  I walked out onto the bow to ask if it was OK to pass.  The guys offered to grab lines and “walk” us past, keeping us right up against the barge and away from the shore.  We took them up on that offer and the Captain shifted into neutral for the pass.  We went through another canal that connected us to Canal Lake, not as narrow as the last, but still rocky.

 

 

The Kirkfield Lift Lock (the second tallest Lift Lock in the world) was next, and there was a small group of people with umbrellas waiting at the lock to watch boats lock through.  This lock operated like the one in Peterborough, where there are two lock chambers that rise and fall by changing the water levels, making one heavier.  Since we were now going down, it looked like we were about to go over a cliff when we pulled into the chamber.  It only took about ten minutes for us to drop down 49 feet.  The navigational aids (markers) switch here; now we will keep the red markers to the port and green to the starboard.

The area surrounding Canal Lake is noted for many different species of birds but we had not seen many in the rain.  Then I got lucky and saw swans swimming to our port.  Further on, there is an old stone bridge to go under, built in 1905, called Hole-In-The-Wall Bridge as the opening is small and rounded.

Our last body of water for the day was the Talbot River, another narrow passage with homes on both banks and a golf course to the starboard.  A swing bridge lies in front of us and the operator saw us coming and had it open.  Sunset Cove Marina was to the port and we docked there at 3:40 pm, grateful for the 20 foot water in front of it.  We were also grateful and relieved to have made it through the day of shallow water and narrow channels without hitting anything!

The nearest town was miles away, but we took a short walk around the marina and across the main road now that the rain had stopped. We saw a huge barn with the words “Riding Stable” and sure enough, we saw horses and cattle grazing in a pasture next to it.  We ate on the boat and hoped tomorrow would be less stressful.