We're in Midland / Penetang 7/29/2008

Hello All:

We are at the eastern end of the Georgian Bay, the far northern section of Lake Huron. We will be leaving tomorrow to cruise the Georgian Bay and the North Channel and should be in Michigan in about 10 days. There are about 12 looper boats spread out over 3 marinas in the area. We spent all of yesterday together hearing about the waters ahead of us. You could spend weeks here and not see all there is to see. We, along with several other boats, have hired a captain familiar with this area to guide us along our way. He will be staying on "MoJo" since Rick is alone on his boat for a while. We are looking forward to relaxing and letting someone else take the responsibility of navigating and planning routes, etc.

We passed through the Big Chute on Saturday morning. What a thrill that was. I'm posting pictures - most were taken by Diane aboard "Bella Luna". We traded cameras so that we could take pictures of each other. We drove the boat onto a wooden frame, were lifted out of the water and transported to a lake several hundred feet down a hillside. What a thrill - like a giant roller coaster.

See you out there somewhere . . . .

Ann & Rob

We're in Bobcaygeon July 22, 2008

Hello All -

We were able to locate the prop and the repair shop just delivered it here to the wall at Lock 32. The Trent Severn Waterway is beautiful - we have been having rain every morning and clearing and sun in the afternoon. Today we traveled through several lakes with lots of rocks - every rock that was large enough had a cottage perched on it. Some very small and modest and some quite large and lovely. Access is only by boat - no hydro (electricity) or water.

The lift lock at Peterborough was amazing. See the picture of "Phantom" and "MoJo" entering before us. There is another lift lock at Kirkfield - maybe tomorrow.

I mentioned in by last blog about the pot luck we were going to have in Peterborough. We set up on the back of our boat - expecting about 12 to 15. We ended up with about 30 folks - mostly loopers or guests. A good time and lots of food were had by all. Rob and I just went to bed - missing the free concert and fireworks. Oh Well . . . .

See you out there somewhere . . .

Rob and Ann

Peterbourgh July 19, 2008

Hi Everyone: Sorry we have not blogged for several days. We have not had Internet service anywhere on the Trent Severn Waterway - until today. We are in Peterbourgh - 4 days into the Trent Severn. Most of the locks in the Trent Severn are hand operated. Notice the picture of Rob and I opening up the gate - usually this is done by the terrific Parks Canada staff - but they will let you help.

We finally were able to leave Kingston on Tuesday, June 15th. We had to have an engine part shipped from the US and wait for the mechanic over the weekend. We had a diver check the props after our "incident" on the Rideau. Then we had to have the boat lifted by a crane (see the picture) and have one of the props changed out. We had extra props on board. We sent the damaged prop to the shop to be repaired and as of today, it is lost between Kingston and Peterbourgh. Don't know how such a big heavy box could be lost. I suspect it'll be found by Monday and we'll have to arrange to either rent a car and come back and get it or risk another shipping.

We have been traveling off and on with 4 other boats, "Victory", "Bella Luna", "Prime Time" and "Phantom of the Aqua". "Bella Luna" ran aground yesterday outside of Campbellford - it took the rest of us half a day to get them off the rocks and repaired. There are a couple of divers among us and they were able to replace the props in the water (see the picture).

Tonight we are attending a free concert and fireworks. We're having a pot luck dinner first for all the loopers in our marina.

We expect to be in Penatang... by next weekend and will be having a get together there on the 28th.

See you out there somewhere . . . .
Rob & Ann

Viva the Rideau Waterway!!! 7/8/08

Hello All:

We are in Kingston, Ontario after 4 wonderful days on the Rideau Waterway, a series of canals, rivers and lakes connecting the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario. It was a wonderful experience - with all kinds of scenery from the suburbs of Ottawa (beautiful lawns and terraced gardens) to marshes (bird sanctuaries), pristine lakes with rock cliffs and narrow passageways between. There are 47 locks which are easy to manage. All the locks and many of the bridges are hand operated - an interesting process.

We stayed on the lock walls or town docks (no power or water) but lots of nice people and pleasant little villages. We just had one small problem (hopefully small. . . .) which happened today. We hit bottom on a very narrow stretch of canal and then hit a log or rock. There was no way around this shallow area. We reported it to the lock master at the next lock and they were going to try to locate whatever it was that had moved into the channel before there is serious damage. We only draft 3 1/2 feet - many boats are 4, 5 or even 6 feet. Both small boats in front of us also hit it. We're going to have a mechanic on the boat tomorrow - so we'll see.

We'll be here in Kingston until Friday. Then we're going to Trenton, about 45 miles west on Lake Ontario and then we'll be about a week on the Trent-Severen Waterway.

See you out there somewhere . . . .
Ann & Rob

Ottawa July 4, 2008

Hello All:

We have been in Ottawa for the last few days. We anchored out across from downtown on Tuesday, July 1st, Canada Day. We rafted off with "Double SS" and "MoJo" and had a wonderful picnic dinner as we waited for the fireworks. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of boats, mostly well behaved. The fireworks were terrific. Much fun was had by all.

On Wednesday, we moved to the blue line and waited for the "flight" locks to open. We were able to crowd our three boats into the locks along with one more small one. It was a tight squeeze but we navigated them just fine. It took about 5 hours to go through. We all ended up sunburned and very hot. We had lots of spectators and conversations with people from all over the world as we locked through - really fun. We were glad to get settled on the lock wall on the up side of the locks.

We are right in down town Ottawa, handy for sight seeing and shopping but not very quiet or safe, as it turns out. Last night we attended a concert with Pinchas Zukerman conducting and playing Rachmaninov. Absolutely wonderful!!! However after a late evening drink at an Irish pub in the neighborhood, we walked back to the boat and found about 15 of Ottawa's lovely teenagers, doing with teens like to do. A little while later we discovered a boat floating down the canal that they had untied. Luckily there was nobody on board. We called the police and made our way across the canal and caught the boat and retied it up. The kids disbursed when the police arrived. Today, the Canadian National Park folks came by and assured us that this was only the second incident this year, a vast improvement over prior years. They see to be doing what can be done. For those of you coming this way, I would invest in a couple of feet of chain and a couple of padlocks and simply lock your boat to the lock wall. The kids would simply move on to an easier target.

We're leaving tomorrow morning and moving down the Rideau Canal towards Kingston, on the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Old stomping grounds for us as we spent weeks there last summer.

See you out there somewhere . . .
Rob & Ann