1-3 June 2014

We decided to take a travel break and go explore Ontario while in Trenton. We had stopped at the Chamber of Commerce information center and picked up a map of places to go. There was a Cheese festival scheduled for Picton (about a 40 min ride) so we headed off to do that.

Minor snag, it was Sunday and we had not really planned ahead to rent a car. Craig, the Fraser Park dock master to the rescue. He knew who to call and by noon we were headed south.

Lunch was at the Culinary School in Picton. We ate at their Pub and the food was good. They had a new beer, Barley Days Brewery – Wind and Sail Dark Ale . Very nice, the brewery was next door and I was able to get 6 to go. Our orginal plan was to come via Picton so we drove the downtown harbor area. Very pretty, it would have been a good place to stay.

It turns out that Prince George’s County Ontario is like the Finger Lakes of NY, loaded with small family run winery. Lots of them only produce 2000-3000 cases of wine per year. Most of their production is sold on site. To sell in the stores they need to have a pretty good production run. One place we stopped had sold the entire run of one wine, so there wasn’t any to try. It was a pretty day, we saw lots of cool stuff and it was fun to play tourist.

We also got a pretty good education in wine making. At one place the wine maker was there and I asked how she got started. She was studying at University to be a bio-chemical engineer. She was working at the wine store on the counter when the wine maker quit. She talked with the owners, lots of her training was similar to what is needed for wine making, so they hired her on. So another cool example of a STEM job!

Sunday dinner was at the local Fish and Chips shop across from the marina. Susan opted for traditional, I went for scallops. They were both good, but the fries were the best part.

First thing Monday we got up and worked on the boat. While I worked on getting the air conditioner running, Susan was able to get all the pollen and water stains off the windows. I got them treated with RainX (thanks Tom!)to help with our visibility issues. I was also able to get the stains off the swim platform.

We soon headed to our first Trent-Severn Lock. We had a partner, Miller Time from Michigan. They lead the way through the six locks. Six locks took us 3 hours and we only went 7 miles. The entire distance is done at No Wake (6kts/10kmh) speeds. We opted to stay at the top of Lock 6 in Frankford, Ontario. They pushed on, they are trying to get back home.

Locks in Canada (so far) have been easier, since they have cables that run up and down the walls. Susan picks the cable she wants, and points (like Babe Ruth into the outfield). I follow her direction and get us to the cable. She loops a line around, one end on a cleat, the other end under the cleat and to her hand so she can control the boat. Once she is secure, I bump the boat into reverse, and it backs slowly to the wall. I go back and do the same “line around the cable” move. This will be a little trickier on the down locks. On the up locks the cable is right there, on a down lock it will be close to the water line.

Our stay in Frankford was nice. We set up lawn chairs on the grass and read. The lock is part of a park, there is RV’s, a stage (next week is a Jazz festival) and a small snack stand (where I got a blue freezy pop and turned my toung blue) Later in the afternoon I got out my ham radio equipment and was able to make contact with three other radio operators. We had a nice 20 min chat before I packed up for the night.

Susan made a wonderful pot roast, salt potatoes and a zucchini/squash/tomato dish. It is truly amazing what she can make in such a small space. After dinner, she tried her hand at fishing. I was watching the kids on the dock wall, they were tracking a “yellow belly turtle” in the lock entrance. It swam our way and I was able to scoop it up. The kids were thrilled and everyone had a good look before it went back into the water.

It rained overnight and was still raining in the morning. It was supposed to clear off, but we decided to wait for a nicer day to move north. Susan made us pot roast sandwiches for lunch. While she worked on her videos and got a nap in, I spent time learning about the other ham radio I brought aboard. I also put together the Trip Summary Chart to show how far we’ve gone (650 miles) and how much fuel we’ve burned. Our estimate is holding up, we’ve done about 10% of the distance in 10% of the time and we are getting about 1 Mile Per Gallon. The long runs along the ocean and Lake Ontario make up for the pokey days in the locks.

For dinner Susan made some sausages we purchased on Sunday. They were wine infused and they were very good. She also made her zucchini straws with garlic, very nice.

I spent another hour with the ham radio trying to make contacts with some partial success while Susan tried her new fishing lures.

It’s off to Campbellford in the morning. A little farther trip at 20 miles, but 6 locks so it will be some work.

(Trip Summary can be found at the About group at the top of the page, it’s the third choice)