July 18th ...Day 1

We are off!  We left Thursday @ 7:30 ish in the sweltering heat and humidity.  Our good neighbor and buddy Dick came over to take our picture.  As you can see, Benji is happy to finally be underway.  The lake crossing was nice and smooth, probably 1 footers and that's such a nice ride.
We entered the Murray Canal around lunchtime and the dockmaster held out his little can for us to toss our fee into:

We ate lunch as we traveled through the Bay of Qunite and the entrance to the Trent Severn Waterway in Trenton ,Ontario.

 

We traveled to Lock #1 only to be sent back to a marina in Trenton to check in with Customs.  Funny, we could not find that little bit of info on any signs or  in any of our cruising books.  Oh well,

no biggie.  We then went back to Lock #1 and locked through.  As it was quitting time for the lockmasters we tied up to the wall, went for a little swim in the river, ran the generator for air conditioning and made a really nice dinner than Lin had prepared before we left (stuffed manicotti)  yum.  We tried to watch a movie but we all passed out quickly and called it a night.

 

Up @ 6:00 a.m. (why--I don't know!!) hung out and made breakfast and waited for the locks to open at 9:00 a.m.

 

We met a nice couple who are also doing the loop who just came up from Florida.  They ended up locking through all the locks with us until the end of the day.  They are also going to Georgian Bay and beyond.

 

He is a pic of the lock attendants who have to manually open and close the lock doors.  I felt bad

for them today because the heat was brutal!

 

At one point I looked back at the stern and there was a pretty hefty tree branch being dragged by our boat.  Dave slowed down and kinda backed up and it got chewed up and shot out.  Thankfully it didn't seem to hurt the precious propellers!

 

We were also pretty darn hot but got through the day with LOTS of water.  It was also very windy and gusty and we kept reminding ourselves how lucky we were to NOT be crossing Lake Ontario today.

 

 

We made it through Lock #12 to Campbellford and tied up for the night just as a wonderful refreshing rain shower hit and cooled things off nice.  I have never seen a boat get tied up so fast!  Between the pelting rain and the desire to be through with locks for the day we nailed it.

 

Due to the power outage in the town because of the storm, we had to run the generator while we cooked dinner until the power came back on. 

 

The town is supposed to have a really good chocolate store and bakery so we are planning on hanging around in the morning until those open.  We are just happy that the heat wave is over for now and waiting  in the locks won't be so sweltering.

 

For now it's movie/pass out time.  Each day seems to be a test of patience and just getting through the day!  There was just a loud crack of thunder so I guess it's time to blog off.  Never a dull moment.