Day 383 – Peterborough, Ontario to Lakefield Marina, Lakefield, Ontario - July 23, 2012

We were not long on miles today, but we did transit through seven locks.  Things were pretty busy at the first lock with eight boats on the walls below the lock at 8:30am.  We were the second boat on the blue line so we moved into the lock behind Outport, a green and white Kady Krogen.  Then a Mainship 350 came in and tied up on the port side.  We were squeezed right in, but it seemed to work alright and since the next few locks are all the same size, we figured we’d be fine.

Our second lock of the day was the Peterborough Lift Lock that we checked out yesterday.  As we headed into the lock, the Mainship 350 decided they didn’t want to be quite that squeezed, so they stopped on the blue line and Outport and Boreas headed into the chamber alone.  This lock is the most amazing thing to “ride”.  It takes just two minutes to go up 65’ – it almost feels like an elevator it seems to go so fast.  And of course there is no turbulence since no water is coming into the pan, the pan is just moving.

The rest of today’s locks were mostly uneventful.  We did have some excitement in our sixth lock when I didn’t get the line on the bow secured tightly and the wind caught the back of the boat and moved it off the wall quite a bit.  We struggled some, but were finally able to get the boat back to the wall and tied up properly.

We have been carefully watching the weather as thunderstorms are predicted and we were definitely getting a build-up of clouds.  The wind was also coming up and the temperature and humidity were starting to get to us.  We decided to go through one more lock and then either find a spot on the wall above the Lakefield Lock or at Lakefield Marina.  Although there was room at the lock wall, we decided to go to the marina.  We got the boat secured and waited for the storms.  The first few passed both north and south of us.  It wasn’t until early evening when we finally got rain – it didn’t rain long, but it came down hard and fast with lots of wind.  We will keep an eye on the weather as it doesn’t appear that the storms are completely finished.   

            Miles: 9.6        Bridges: 10      Locks: 7

all the boats waiting this morning at Lock #20

Outport in the Peterborough Lift Lock - we are headed in next

Boreas and Outport in the Peterborough Lift Lock - secured and ready to go

looking out the back of Boreas - the chamber is almost to the top

at the top of the Peterborough Lift Lock - waiting for the gate to be lowered

one last look from the top of the Peterborough Lift Lock

following the channel toward our next lock

one of the buildings of Trent University

the gates of Lock #23 are opening for us to enter

secured in Lock #23 and watching the chamber fill

a momma loon and one of her babies (she has two, but I couldn't get them
into the same picture)

the channel is very narrow after leaving the Lakefield Lock