Lots of Locks...

Sunday, September 13th.

The power was out Sunday Morning when we left the marina. Not a surprise, it's the power company doing some update. What we hadn't considered: many of the locks need power to run. The boats were stacking up when we got to the Lovesick Lock. We took our place on the wall and waited for the power to come back on... estimated time around 12:30.

While we were there, the three ladies we saw on kayaks coming out of Lake Simco came paddling up. They are doing the entire Trent-Severn... I was impressed. They are camping along the way, have had one shower in the past week, and their cell phones got soaked so no way to check in with family. I lent one of the girls our cell phone so she could call home. This is a pretty impressive feat.

We stopped at the lock where we left Big Red... she looks fine. The lockmaster who gave us a lot of info when we first launched is retiring tomorrow. We visited with him for a bit. This is a busy place right now - their power was out, too.

We moved further down the waterway. Our planned destination for the night is Peterborough. I asked the lockmaster at Lakefield if we were going to make it... he looked at his watch and said, "I really doubt it." He called the rest of the locks between us and Peterborough, so they'd be ready for us. Most of these are the historic locks and it just takes longer to fill/drain. While we had the lockmasters working with us, we came across a lot of kayakers, canoeists, rowing rigs, and kids on floats. Not a problem, we know we can stay on a lock wall along the way.


Two locks above the Peterborough Lift Lock, we could see that it wasn't going to happen. We planned to stay on the wall there. As we pulled up to the lift lock wall, one of the lockmasters met us. "Welcome to the Peterborough Lift Lock. I assume you'll be spending the night here?"

When I told him that was our plan, he handed Joan the Sunday newpaper, gave me a key to the washrooms, and said, "You'll have the place to yourself. No other boats will be coming. Enjoy the peace and quiet. I left a hose out for you if you need to top off your tank. There's a Tim Horton's less than 10 minutes walk. Anything else you need for the night?"

Pretty nice hospitality, eh?