Had some adventures cruising on Thursday June 30. We were told to lay low on Canada Day which was Friday July 1 so our goal was to get to a nice marina, Starport Marina. This meant going 38 miles through 7 locks including another lift lock at Kirkfield (#36), going through a long stretch of very narrow canal lined on both sides by jagged rock walls, through very shallow water, across a big lake notorious for big waves before making it into our marina.
Well, we finally made it after 11 hours and a couple of exciting moments. The Kirkfield lock takes you down 49 feet as opposed to the Peterborough lock that took us up. So, you drive into the chamber all the way forward until there is no more water only a steel gate beyond which is nothingness, very different. Then you are gently lowered down to water level. Everything was going very well until we got down. Jane had tied off her line because she was convinced that we were going over the edge. And... once again TB was strangled against the wall and again we had to cut our line to get off the wall. This has to be some sort of Trent-Severn record.
Second most exciting moment was going thorough the Trent Canal. Narrow enough for one boat but not necessarily wide enough to pass anyone going the other way. So you announce via your radio you are entering the canal as a heads up to other boats. So we did and did not hear from any other boats. But about halfway through two boats showed up coming the other way. Crap! It all worked out mainly because we were lucky enough to be in a wide spot that allowed the other boats to pass, just barely.
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