Peterborough to Young's Point, Ontario

Saturday, July 29, 2017.  This was not a good day.  Our original destination was Burleigh Falls, Ontario at the top of Lock 28.  But, because of the late start getting through Lock 20 and because we stopped at the visitor’s center for the Peterborough Lift Lock, we were pretty much behind schedule from the get go.  We also had to pass through eight locks to get to the top of Lock 27 at Young’s Point.  First the good stuff.

The Peterborough lift lock was totally awesome.  There are four lift locks remaining in the world, and two of them are in Canada on the Trent-Severn Waterway.  And the Peterborough Lift Lock is the highest of them all (48 feet).  Lift locks can best be described as two giant bath tubs connected together teeter-totter style.  When one bath tub (filled with boats of course) goes up, the other bath tub (also filled with boats) comes down.  It takes about one minute to make the transition and it’s totally silent.  When you are in the bath tub, you tie your boat to the side, just like you would tie your boat to a dock or wall.  After locking through the lift lock, we stopped on the wall at the top and went to the visitor’s center.  Now the bad.

                                            Approaching Peterborough Lift Lock

                                                From The Bottom Looking Up

                                   We're Going Up, The Other Boat Is Going Down

             Lock Half Way Up - Or Half Way Down, Depending On Which Pan You Are In

For some reason, it seemed like the Captain Carey forgot how to drive the boat into and out of locks.  The boat was never in the correct position, he sometimes forgot that the boat was in gear (not good in the confines of the lock) and often used the wrong thruster (also not good in a lock).  There was also some miscommunications between Nancy and Carey, mostly because Carey can’t hear very well in high ambient noise environments.

Little Church On An Island On Clear Lake - Parishioners Travel By Boat To Attend Sunday Services

                            Clear Lake - Many Small Islands and Rocks To Navigate

When we arrived at Lock 27 at Young’s Point there were no spaces available for us on the wall below the lock.  So we locked through and tried to find two spaces on the upper wall.  Catalina found a space right away.  But we were not so lucky.  Paul got busy trying to consolidate or move boats to make room for us.  Not knowing what else to do, we locked back down and were in the process of trying to figure out what to do when Paul contacted us and said he had a space for us.  So we locked back up and docked the boat.  A stressful end to a long and less than stellar day (in terms of driving the boat).  Until Lock 27, we had no problems at all finding space of the lock walls in the evening.  In the end, it turned out ok, but it was pretty frustrating.  The total lift for the day (all locks) was 131 feet.