Day 42 & 43: Goodbye Trent Severn Waterway

Note: We have had little to no Internet while traveling through Canada so it’s next to impossible to maintain and post our blog! I plan on inserting pictures and backtracking to log our trip through the Big Chute once I have a good Wi-Fi connection, In the meantime I’m logging what I can while it’s fresh in my mind! 

Day 42: August 29: It was a beautiful morning. The water was flat calm and there was no wind. The conditions were awesome as the wall would be a bit difficult to get off of if the wind was blowing like it was when we tied up last night. We made preparations and pulled out, ready to travel through Port Severn Lock #45 and say goodbye to the Trent Severn Waterway. 

Lock #45 is the smallest lock on the Waterway relative to its length of 84 feet, limiting the number of boats that can be in the chamber at the same time. As it turned out we were the only boat locking through at the 9 a.m. opening. We were a bit anxious about this one as we had been told to watch out for the current as we exited the chamber. The water flows from the dam on our port and some other source on our starboard. John prepared by having only the starboard engine engaged so as to be able to power through against the rushing water from the dam. All went well and we immediately entered a well marked, albeit narrow and winding channel; we were on our way to explore the Georgian Bay's Thirty Thousand Islands. Located on the east side of the Bay, the islands comprise the largest freshwater archipelago in the world. 

We knew that upon exiting this lock you return to red right return (which the Lock-tender reminded us of); however as we got a bit out onto the bay we noticed we were right back to green on the right. It was a bit confusing for a moment until John realized there was another channel shooting off in the opposite direction. That was the red right return channel. Good thing we can read the chart plotter and the buoys! 

Since it was such a lovely day, we decided to find an anchorage early so we could enjoy some downtime. Traveling through the locks usually involved 7 or 8 hour days, tying up around 4 for the night and getting UW again early the next day, leaving little time to read, make necessary phone calls or tend to some business back home. 

We found a spot on the west side of Beausoleil Island (“The land to appear floating afar”). Beausoleil was designated a national historic site of Canada in 2009 for many reasons including its long history of settlement of the Anishinaabeg people and its stunning landscape. Located in the Thirty Thousand Islands in Georgian Bay, it is the largest island in the Georgian Bay Islands National Park. 

While at anchor John took the opportunity to clean up the fenders which had taken quite a beating going through all of the locks. They sacrificed themselves for the sake of Slàinte Mhath; sliding up and down slimy, jagged lock walls and being squashed like a pancake as the turbulent water rushed into the chambers. Seeing what they went through I can say they definitely needed some love and care. 

After dinner I went up to the fly bridge to relax and wait for the sunset. Within a few minutes the wind seemed to shift and pick up and the water started to get a bit rough. I went down to tell John. It wasn’t long before there were white caps rolling us around and wind gusts of at least 15 KN if not more. It was already dusk but we made the decision to pull up anchor and travel to another spot that was more protected from the north wind. This was so weird because we had looked at the wind forecast and it was predicted to come from the south. Guess the weatherman is not to be believed! Reminds me of my days as superintendent deciding whether to call a snow day or not! 

We traveled across the bay for about 20 minutes in the dark with rain and wind creating a not so pleasant experience. We did end up in a better spot off of Whiskey Island, dropped anchor and called it quits for the night. 

Day 43: August 30: Woke this morning in the same spot we anchored in last night (thankfully). John does have an anchor alarm but I can never relax completely when we are in stormy weather if we are unsure of the anchorage area which might be sandy, rocky or muddy. The day was projected to be stormy with a bit of intermittent rain and wind which was expected to calm down overnight. So we picked up anchor and headed into a more protected inlet called Chimney Bay located on the east side of Beausoleil. We dropped anchor and spent the rest of the day here catching up on phone calls and business from home. If it wasn’t for concern about wind and anchoring, I usually relish the downtime after being so busy on the water. When unsure of the area, the night can be a bit restless. Tomorrow promises to be sunny and calm so we plan on heading toward Parry Sound. 

As night fell the view became breathtaking with August's second Supermoon rising up over the water. All was silent except for the sound of ripples quietly slapping against the boat. To top it off we soon heard the haunting call of loons announcing their presence. Another moment we were thankful to have experienced.