The Ontario Loop, The Beginning

Hi Everyone, just a general update for those who are interested. We are moving along quite well. We are now (July 1) in Barrie at our friends, Mike and Susan's place. We will stay the weekend and in fact are planning on playing golf tomorrow, July 2. Just to get you caught up I will start from the begininng.

We left Crysler Park Marina On Thursday June 24 and had dinner with my cousin in Gananoque that night. We then headed for Belleviille for 2 days and met up with Bill and Sandi who used to be at CPM last year. They are doing fine and have a nice spot there. The Bay of Quinte was a little rough, at idle speed, water was splashing over the flybridge. Thankfully it was a fairly small bay and we were in Belleville in a half hour or so.

Last Sunday, we started the Trent-Severn Canal. It was our first time in a small lock and (touch wood) things seem to be going pretty good. We did 12 locks on that first day and spent the night in Campbellford; a beautiful spot on the town waterfront. We managed to get to Peterborough the next day. Had great Kalamari (their spelling) at a pub called Riley's. I do recommend the place. We did the lift lock the next morning. Really neat and easy, but not as neat as the Kirkfield lift lock where we went in on the high side and had to drive the boat up to the barrier and all we could see from the flybridge was a 40 or 50 foot drop. I thought it was neat but I think Linda thought differently.

The third day in the T-S got us to Young's Point where we stayed at a really neat, but small, resort and marina. Beautiful beach, patio restaurant within 10 feet of the boat and excellent food and service. Another recommendation, in fact highly recommended. On Wednesday we stayed at a nice lock (#35) called Rosedale. Had a good BBQ, swam and took it easy for the evening. On Thursday we finished the last of the Trent Canal before hitting Lake Simcoe. Boring and awful. It was narrow, shallow (in fact I had to turn off my depth sounder because it was in constant alarm state for shallow water.) weedy and filled with deer flies. Oh well, that is behind us now. We had trouble getting into a decent marina in Barrie and so we were stuck out at Big Bay Point Marina. A dump with no service and no hydro for my boat. Thankfully, Mike and Susan have taken us in.

The Promenade Days and Live-Aid concert have made this a booming town. We are having a good time, although Linda is moton sick now that we are back on land. She says the house won't stop moving. ??? We will keep our fingers crossed; there has been very little wind for all of the locking that we have been doing. Linda says locking is more work than sailing. It has been very hot and we are glad that we are finished for a while. Our friends, Denis and Bonnie, are meeting us at Queen's Cove marina in Victoria Harbour next Saturday, July 9 for the 2 week tour of Georgian Bay. Should be a good time.

I'll send a short note again when I get a chance. Enjoy your summer. Tom

Anyway keep in touch and keep the rubber on the road. Tom