Aug. 12-18, 2024 – Fenelon Falls, Ontario to Orillia, Ontario, Candada
Highlights this week: Surviving the shallow, narrow channels -several actually called “the Narrows.”
Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024 – Fenelon Falls, ON to Gamebridge, ON (Lock 41, Lower Lock Wall)
Today, was the most stressful cruise of our entire two years on HOMES. We were underway 4 hours and 22 minutes, going 25 miles (22.1 nm), at an average speed of 5.9 MPH (5.1 knots). Add in the 7 locks and our slow speed in the shallow, narrow waterway, the duration of our trip was 6 hours and 52 minutes – but it seemed much longer.
Fortunately, we had a fun, restful two days in Fenelon Falls before we took off on this day. When we left you last Sunday evening, we had just taken the last spot on the upper lock wall in Fenelon Fall. That spot didn’t have electric or water, but on Monday morning, many boats left, so we moved up to a place that had an electric/ water pedestal- which only cost about $40 US for two nights.
The power pedestals on the Trent-Severn have a 30 amp outlet on each side of the pedestal. Since HOMES needs 50 amps, we have an adapter that allows us to plug into both sides. Today, one side of the power pedestal kept popping the breaker. The boaters behind us saw us having trouble and offered to switch spots with us, because they only use one side of the power pedestal. That switch involved pulling their boat around HOMES and us sliding back to their spot.
That was the beginning of a fun day with Alex, Karen and their dog, Cuba. We bought them a round of drinks at Fenelon Falls Brewing Co. that evening. Since most Canadian restaurants close at 8:00 PM, we went back to the dock next to our boats and enjoyed talking until 11:30 PM – way past our usual bedtime! Alex is a firefighter in Toronto and is originally from Cuba. Karen, a life-long Canadian, had lots to share about the areas where we’d be traveling for the next week.
Tuesday was a domestic day. I did laundry, since we were hooked to water. We also walked to the grocery store and Tim did some cooking. In the afternoon, we said good-bye to Alex, Karen and Cuba.
Wednesday, we woke to a foggy morning. However, we knew the fog would lift by the time we went for coffee at Waterbridge Chocolate Cafe and a final walk around Fenelon Falls.
As anticipated, the fog lifted by the time we pulled away from Fenelon Falls and headed out the narrow channel to Cameron Lake. It only took about 30 minutes to cross the 2-mile width of Cameron Lake to Rosedale, where Lock 35 and the canal took us over to Balsam Lake.
Lock 35 only took us up 4 feet to Balsam Lake, which is the highest point to the Trent-Severn Waterway – it is all downhill from here!
However, before getting out of the canal, we stopped at Rosedale Marina for a pump out of our waste tank. Here begins our stressful day. The marina told us that they have 5.5 feet of water at their pump-out/fuel dock. However, coming in at an angle, there is not 5.5 feet! We hit bottom with a scrapping noise and despite going slowly, the impact caused the starboard engine to stall. Fortunately, the starboard engine started normally when we left the dock. And, learning from our mistake, we trusted away from the dock until we were in the channel, before heading toward Balsam Lake.
Balsam Lake took us to a man-made canal, called The Narrows. This several-mile stretch is so narrow that boats over 40-feet long, like us, must call out on the radio announcing that we are entering the canal, so that other boaters can hold back and wait for us to exit. However, since no boaters in Canada use radios, it was futile. Many little boats met us along the way. At one point Tim just stopped and let a boat go by, because we could not get over any further. With the clear water, we could see the rock shelf beside us.
The Narrows took us to the Kirkfield Lift Lock (Lock 36) – the second highest hydraulic lift in the world. We did the highest one last week at Peterborough. However, while the Peterborough Lift Lock took us up 65-feet, this lift lock took us down 49 feet. Like Peterborough Lift Lock, this lock was also opened in 1904 – which seems like high-tech for the time.
This is our first lock taking us down, since we are now at the summit of the Trent-Severn Waterway. The view is much different when you cruise into a lock going down, especially at this lift lock, when you can see the water 49 feet below! As with the last lift lock, there was a “tub” going up and one coming down. This time, there was a boat in the the lower “tub” that passed us going up as we came down in our “tub.”
We continued our stressful journey along the narrow canal to Canal Lake – which looked like a wide lake, but the channel was narrow. We could see geese sitting next to us on rocks.
Halfway across Canal Lake, we went through the Hole in the Wall Bridge. This bridge, constructed in 1905, is the oldest concrete arch bridge known to remain in Canada.
Once through the Hole in the Wall Bridge, we continued through Canal Lake to the narrow opening of the Talbot River, where we had to wait for a swing bridge to be opened for us. When closed, this bridge only has a 5-foot clearance. We radioed the bridge tender for an opening, but per usual, we got no radio confirmation back; however, the bridge began to swing open as we approached. So, even if the Canadian lock and bridge tenders do not listen to the radio, at least they watch for approaching boats.
Finally, we reached Lock 37 at Bolsover, which lowered us 22 feet. This is the deepest manually operated lock in the waterway. Since we are now coming into a full lock to go down, we cannot reach the cables on the lock wall, so we give our lines to the lock tenders who wrap our lines around the cables and hand our lines back to us.
Locks 37-39 are so close together that we could see one from the other – dropping us 49 feet in total. These locks are all manually operated.
After Lock 39 we entered a wider, but not deeper part of the Talbot River. Tim had to double check the chart to make sure we were on the proper side of an island – neither side was deep, but we followed the channel markers. With relief, we made it through the 5-foot spot. Finally, we were funneled back into a narrow man-made canal, which took us to Lock 40.
Finally, we were funneled back into a long, straight man-made canal, which took us to Lock 40. After dropping 14 feet, we pulled alongside the lower lock wall of Lock 40, where we tied up for the night.
Lock 40 was a peaceful setting, surrounded by farms. A nice place to end our stressful day. The main source of our stressful day was caused by HOMES’s 4’8” draft. The channels are supposed to be 6-feet deep, but when you can see the rocks a few feet on either side of the boat, it is nerve racking. Plus, we heard a few “clucks” along the way – besides hitting the rock that stalled the starboard side engine at Rosedale Marina. All ended well – no engine vibrations. We are glad to be done with this section of the Trent-Severn Waterway!
Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 – Gamebridge, ON (Lock 41, Lower Lock Wall) to Orillia, ON (Port of Orillia Marina)
Today, we were underway just 2 hours and 56 minutes, going 21 miles (18.1 nm), at an average speed of 7 MPH (6.1 knots). There was some narrow, shallow water, but nothing like yesterday!
Last night, we only shared the lock wall with a family of Canada geese. The species name for these geese are Branta canadensis (meaning from Canada). So, it is correct to call them Canada geese, but not “Canadian” geese – which would be any goose from Canada. However, the term Canadian geese has become synonymous for them, much to the disgust of true bird watchers. I enjoyed watching the mom and dad watching over their three goslings, which are now almost as big as them. These geese mate for life, anywhere from 10 to 25 years.
We had a short journey up the canal to Lock 41. Again, these canals are supposed to be 6-feet deep, but when we see rocks and weeds directly beside HOMES, it’s hard relax.
Once through the swing bridge and out the narrow channel, Lake Simcoe gave us a nice journey with flat water. This is the fourth-largest lake wholly in Ontario. The native Wendat/Quendat (Huron) people called it Quentironk, or “Beautiful Water.” Today, that name surely applied.
Coming out of Lake Simcoe, there was another channel called “the Narrows,” which took us out to larger water again, before turning up the channel to Orillia, ON.
We pulled into Port of Orillia Marina, where there were already several Loopers, with more to come, as we all choose to wait out the predicted stormy weather. This is a nice, secure marina, so we are opting to head home for a visit. It seems like a long time since we were home in June.
We’ll get back to you after our visit home.
Thanks for reading.