Day 114: Lost Channel to Penetanguishene, Ontario
Day 114: Sunday, August 7th: Last night the stars were out like we hadn't seen since we were kids. With no lights around, the sky was a blanket of star speckles. Beautiful. Sadly, we could not get pictures.
This morning, the little bay has a low mist drifting along:
We got underway about 7:45am and the mist was even prettier:
We finally got to sneak up on a Loon and take his/her portrait. They are beautiful birds!
The first lock for the day was "The Big Chute" which is actually a marine railway. We were locking down from the upper pool. How it works: there is a giant carriage that rolls on rails which are engineered to keep the carriage fairly level. The carriage is lowered into the water and the boats drive into it. There are straps that are tightened to keep the boats in place. Then the carriage is pulled with cables up over a highway and into the other pool. Here is the carriage with several boats in it coming into the upper pool:
And the floated boats drive out:
It is a true wonder! Next, the down bound boats enter the carriage:
We entered right behind the first boat, still positioning herself in the holding slings:
Looking down into the water, you can see the strap mechanisms; hope you can see it:
Bill chats with the lockmaster as the straps are tightened to hold the boat in position. The boat actually sits on its keel in our case. These guys have locked thousands of boats through and really know what they are doing:
The carriage starts up over the hill that acts as a dam, a highway bridge and home to the machinery. Here you can see the carriage, the cable runs, the clever railways, the highway we cross (they treat this as a railroad crossing with barriers and everything), the cedar visitor center and the pool below. It is a long way down, so Bill disappears into the cabin (fear of heights, remember?):
Once over the highway, you can really see the steep ride down:
At the bottom, the carriage just keeps traveling into the water and floods the boats off as the slings are lowered:
Off we go through the waiting upbound boats:
Looking back, this is where we were:
Soon we came to a sign that made us want to turn around:
However it was just another pretty (but narrow) channel:
We soon came to the last lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway and we felt as though we were saying farewell to an old friend. Although the sign says Lock 45, there are only 44 locks in the system; one was replaced when two locks were de-commissioned and one modern one was built.
This was a tiny little lock. Here we were warned that the channel markers change sides again (red is now on the right). That's our friend Casey on the left aboard Caysea; they are Loopers:
Below the lock, the outflow is impressive:
Then we move down the last part of the Severn River. We passed under the Highway 69 bridge. We have driven on this bridge many, many times on our way to Ruth's family's cottages in Muskoka. It seemed very familiar, but so different when viewed from the boat:
Weaving our way out toward Georgian Bay, we were corralled by low rock islets. Note the cairn on this one. The origin of a cairn is left as an exercise for the student:
On the edge of Georgian Bay we encountered this unusual sailing vessel that looked like it was a training boat:
A few miles west we turned into Penetang Bay and passed the city of Penetanguishene with the impressive church twin towers. There are seven marinas in this bay:
We pulled into Beacon Bay Marina which is owned by looper friends Bob and Karen Jantz. They had hosted a huge gathering of Great Loopers only a couple of weeks ago. We missed it due to our various delays, but it was wonderful according to all accounts. This marina is home to more "Loopers" than any in the world. It is a very nice facility, offering wi-fi to all customers. Cool!
We had happy hour aboard with Karen and Bob and caught up on happenings. Nice time!
Total locks so far, and the last one until we enter the Chicago River in September, 114.
Position tonight: N44 46.060 W079 67.107
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