Association Forum - Living on board full time & going South (PART 12)

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Living on board full time & going South (PART 12)

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

zeil
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

Canada
1314 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/12/2007 : 10:05:09

Living on board full time and going South (PART 12)

June 10th, '07... we're halfway up the Trent/Severn waterway at mile 120 and 560 ft up above the level of Lake Ontario, our starting point. Buckhorn(150 full time inhabitants) is a pretty little place with the lock right in town and beside a local road. A highway bridge passes over the canal and the rapids a short distance away. During the day this is a busy place with cottagers stopping by boat to get supplies, tourists browsing around and families coming to buy and eat ice cream Young people walk the lock wall admiring the dozen or so moored motorboats, elderly stroll through an adjacent park and several four-generation family groups picnic in the park. The concrete wall and shore are lined with fishermen. Couples stop by our boat for a chat and offer to tell us their life story and sailing experiences. There are several good restaurants almost next to lock #31 with a post office, library, laundry and hardware store a short walk away... We're moored with our C250 WB right in the middle of all this activity. A nice change from all the beautiful scenery we have just passed through. The weather is just great after experiencing the fourth thunderstorm of our trip on the system. In fact, the day we left for Buckhorn, we started early after listening to the forecast, which predicted high winds and thunderstorms later that day. With the mast down we button up and feel quite snug inside the cabin while the rain pelts and thunder roars. Last night two large sailboats, one 35 footer from England and one 40 ft from Toronto, Ont. moored next to us. Spiked with humor we exchange waterway experiences including weed woes and groundings. They seemed to be in a hurry so we won't motor together which would have been fun. Twice we caught up with Bill on “Loon”, from Maryland, US who single hands his 35 ft through the locks and went for dinner both times.

3675 BUSY BUCKHORN

Going back to May 31st, '07 when studying the charts before we left Hastings, Ont. , we observed a 30 mile stretch without locks, bridges or overhead wires, including the 23 mile long by 3 mile wide Rice Lake. In anticipation we stepped our mast for the first time with the boat in the water. instead of on the trailer. Raising the mast using the on-board baby stays, halved & sleeved gin pole, with block and tackle secured to an eye in the anchor locker, went without a hitch. It felt good to have the mast up and sails tied on the boom ready for action. If the wind would not have been on the nose the entire trip we could have sailed at least part way.

3550 HASTINGS MARINA WITH RAISED MAST

But... as we got closer to Rice Lake we noticed more and more weeds outside the channel. Sailing was obviously out of the question... By the time we reached our destination at the marina at Harris Boat Works next to Gores Landing, we had to stop, back up and replace the rudder's wooden kick-up pin several times. There was no way that we could have sailed the weed choked Rice Lake. Jim Baumgart from San Diego mentioned in his log, when some years ago he and his family traveled, that this lake was one of his favorite spots, and Jim, you're right... apart from the weeds it is a beautiful lake.

3553 MISTY RICE LAKE

3564 SUNSET

3574 NOSTALGIC '44 FORD TRUCK AND '68 WOODEN BOAT (MY DAD OWNED A TRUCK LIKE THIS FOR HIS COAL BUSINESS IN FOXHOL HOLLAND IN 1946)

3579 LOWERING THE MAST AT RICE LAKE

A little disappointed, we removed the boom & sail and lowered the mast again at Harris Boat Works on Rice Lake, again without incident, proving that our C250 WB is versatile. It was even more disappointing for our guest Nathan Hoddenbagh, a young man, who joined us on board for two nights and the 25 mile leg from Rice Lake to Peterborough. Anchoring along the way and taking a dip in the canal made up for this somewhat. His “first ever” boat experience... keen, observant and totally interested, Nathan absorbed all he could about the trip and the many metaphors to real life. We parted Sunday afternoon with... “Keep your eye on a fixed point and stay in the middle of the channel”. We will remember his “crewing” with fondness.

3584 OUR GUEST NATHAN HODDENBAGH

3589 ANCHORED FOR A SWIM

3591 COOL SKIPPER

3607 APPROACHING LIFT LOCK

3619 AWAITING THE LIFT
Once we arrived at the world's highest hydraulic Lift Lock located in Perterborough, Ont. we tied up for two nights above the lock and spent time admiring this work of engineering. The lift was completed in 1904 and is still the highest in the world with a lift of 65 ft. It is massively built with un-reenforced concrete and in a style that reflects the era. It takes about two minutes to complete the actual transfer up/down once the “chamber” has been loaded which can take, depending on traffic 10 to 20 minutes. You can pull up the boat to either side when you enter the chamber and tie up to a horizontal bar. Unlike conventional locks there is no turbulence rocking the boat since the entire “chamber” filled with water is transferred. In order to drive the huge pistons the top “chamber” is filled with one extra foot of water driving it down and the other piston an equal distance up... Some interesting figures:

3638 EXPLANATION OF LIFT LOCKS

Boat chambers:
Length: 42.67 m (140ft) Width 10.06 m (33ft)
Depth: 2.13 m (7'1”) Weight with water 1542 tonnes (1700 tons)
Volume of water: 1040 cubic m (228,093 imp. gals)
Weight of extra foot of water: 130.6 tonnes (144 tons)
Hydraulic Rams
Lifting reach 19.81m (65')
Ram diameter 2.28 m (71/2')

3635 TOURISTS AT THE LIFT LOCK

A visitor center located next to the lock has interesting displays, videos, a working model and a wealth of information on the construction and operation of the lift lock. A boat tie-up is provided next to the facility. Oh... by the way... if you ever come to Peterborough we recommend that you make time to visit the “out of this world”, Belgian Beer Temple, called St. Veronus at 129 Hunter Street West, Peterborough, Tel 705 743-5714... It is one the best, reasonably priced, dining locations, bar none, and they have a European beer called Duvel(tje) (I had this years before while on a 6 week house exchange with our kids in Gent, Begium).

3649 BRIDGE TRAFFIC HOLD-UP

From Peterborough to Lakefield is an easy, pleasant and scenic canal cruise with 5 locks. Johanna ably skippered us through this portion of the trip including locking through all 5 times... I was very proud of her boat/motor handling and was totally happy to be the deck-hand!! On arrival we moored in an idyllic location just above the lock together with 3 rental house boats. Provisions, a haircut, fuel, and dinner in the Cassis Bistro were “must do's”, while exploring the town and Home Hardware were nice options. We stayed two days in Lakefield and loved it!! By the way the fancy French style dinner at Cassis Bistro was a feast for the eyes and the palate.

3655 RENTAL HOUSE BOATS AT LAKE FIELD, ONT.

3658 TOWN SCENE

The next day, June 7th, '07 we left for Young's Point, which took us through another weedy lake called Katchewanooka, where we arrived in the early afternoon. Time for a little exploring of local merchandise and to take a well deserved afternoon nap. Up till now looking after our way-ward dinghy has been a bit of a nuisance. It provided for us the freedom to anchor and the ability to row to shore but have used it very little... Looking back during the 15,000 km (10,000 mile) trip , during trailering, it threatened to bounce off the bow, shed its tarp, it was angled sideways by the buffeting hurricane winds, bred fungus under its cover, went on a harbor cruise all by itself, hid behind a dock for a night and tried to dump us both several times... now it was time to give it some freedom... We untied it from its painter, took off the tarp, unloaded some contents, dried its insides and locked on the two wooden oars. Cautiously and with trepidation I approached and boarded it for a nice little outing, just the two of us and struck up a relationship... Fun to explore Young's Point by dinghy...

3659 DINGHY AT YOUNG'S POINT

From Young's Point to Buckhorn is all of 25 miles and took us right into the Canadian Shield. We crossed several small lakes with lots of rocky islands and formations protruding from everywhere... sticking to the well marked channel is essential for the preservation of the hull and one's sanity... Several route decisions can be made with a choice of exploring other lakes and areas... we stayed for now on the main route. The scenery is peaceful, typically northern, changing from deciduous trees to evergreens. The shores are dotted with cottages, many appearing to be permanent residences and quite a few as mansions including boat houses and windsocks for landing equipment. The water temp is a balmy 22 C and gets clearer as we progress upstream.

3662 COTTAGE COUNTRY

There is an abundance of fish, with some people we talked to, reporting daily catches of up to 200 fish a day... some species do not have a catch limit. The fishermen claim “they nearly jump into the boat”. Boaters generally, including “stinkpotters”, are helpful and courteous. Apart from some huge, enormous floating palaces, the majority are local boaters with inboard driven 15 to 23 ft boats... The thing to watch for, (and everybody agrees on this point), are the 20 to 40 ft rented pontoon houseboats, especially in lock 31 located in Buckhorn which is the first lock away from the rental place and everybody is a greenhorn... Rather hilarious though, listening to people on board yelling opposite commands... nobody listens..., “full ahead”, “full speed astern” is more commonly heard than “dead slow” until BOOM... another dent added to the many already received during the last boating season... Yes we are leery and cautious of them and come to high alert at the sound of OH BOY... another shouting, swinging, full powered square “breadbox” moving erratically up/down the system... Adds spice to the whole atmosphere of boating in the Trent/Severn system...

Love you all

Until our next report

Henk for Johanna too

``

Henk & Johanna
"Floating", a few off your "barnacles".
"Someday Lady" '95 C250WB #151 ('03 - 2016)
"Sea ya" 30ft Bayliner (04-2018 - 09-2018)
"Mariah" '96 C250WB #191 (05-2019 - 15-05-2023)
"Lady J" '00 C250WK #499 (05-2021 - 09-2022)

Edited by - on

ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

3072 Posts

Response Posted - 06/12/2007 : 21:30:34

Great adventure Henk. I'm sure looking forward to my own retirement in a few years.