Back in Business

We finally left Peterborough. Tuesday morning Ralphie the master diesel mechanic who installed our new pump finished up and we were on our way. Excited but a little nervous that we would be okay again we went through the famous Peterborough lift lock. This lock is a pan lock that acts as a two way elevator for boats. It takes boats on top and bottom of the lift. When boats tie up to the sides the bottom moves to the top and the top the bottom. It's hard to explain so here is a picture. Maybe Hilary can provide another YouTube:)

We went through 6 locks for the day taking us 5.5hours to go only 9 miles. We happily tied up to the lock wall in Lakefield and we relieved to be back loopin and done for the day. 

After we were securely tied up a man came by who was a few locks back with us and asked if we got our part and how the boat was doing. I kind of recognized him but he knew all about us and remembered us. He was really nice and recommended that we walk into town and try a restaurant called the Canoe and Paddle. "Town" was a very short 5 minute walk from the boat and consisted of about 3 or 4 stores/a restaurant/gas station. We went in to the Canoe and Paddle and got a couple of cold Canadian beers, some fried pickles and calamari and were happy for the recommendation. We made an early night of it because tomorrow was going to be an early and long day. 

We were up and on our way by 8:30 on Wednesday on our way to Buckhorn in order to make up some of the time we had lost in Peterborough. Also, this is where the shop was that fixed the boat and Jeff owed them some money. We had planned to stay at the lock wall there but when we arrived it was full. We continued on to Buckhorn Yacht Harbor where Jeff paid his bill, met the service manager he had been dealing with for a week on the phone and Ralphie hopped aboard to inspect his work and make sure everything was okay. After the 15 min stop we continued on through Stoney Lake. This was such a unique place. It has so many little stone islands all over the place and we just made our way through tiny channels some of which were very narrow and kind of hairy.

Finally 7.5hours later we were tied up at the lock wall at Bobcaygeon. It was a long and exhausting day going through 5 locks and constantly navigating with Jeff on the charts, depth finder and GPS in order to insure we didn't go aground in the slim rocky channels. We cooled down for a bit in the air conditioning before venturing out into the town. Compared to Lakefield, Bobcaygeon was a "real" town. It probably had 20 different business and much more charm to her. We went to lock 32 pub and grill in search of cold beer. 

We had another quiet night back on the boat. I made dinner and we read our books and went to bed early out of sheer exhaustion from a long and tiring day. Since we were only traveling two hours today we deiced to not set an alarm and have a leisurely morning. I got to sit and drink my coffee slowly in the chair while I stared out the window instead of throwing it back as I made breakfast. It was slow and peaceful and not rushed. Today's destination was Fenelon Falls which has hydro (power) and water for only 13 dollars at their lock wall. A real treat I was looking forward to. It meant we could run the a.c. without worrying how long the generator was on and just gave us the security of power that being on generator power doesn't. Well I guess we weren't the only ones who felt that way because when we got to the lock it was packed full of boats. When we asked the lock master if we could stay he looked at us like we were so stupid and said, "it's 1o'clock." Jeff asked him if that was late and he told him they had been full since 10am. Damnit! When we inquired about a marina in the town they told us they couldn't handle a boat of our size nor was the water deep enough. We would have to go onto the next lock which was 3 miles away. No Fenelon Falls for us. Needless to say I was not happy about that. I was looking forward to a short boating day after our 7 hour marathon yesterday and saw how cute the town of Fenelon was. What could we do? Not a damn thing so we proceeded the 3 miles to Rosedale (which keeps reminding me of Jeff's Memphis apartments - Rosewood, yuck!) and here we are tied up to the lock wall. While not a town it is in a serene park setting with lots of lush green trees and nothing else around besides nature and boats. Earlier we walked for an hour and went to the local trading post which consisted of a market, restaurant and general store all in one building. It was actually pretty interesting and sweet. Jeff got some Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream- the regional treat around here and we got a couple more butter tarts for later. Tomorrow is another long day 50 plus miles to Orilia.