Days 312 and 313 - Flying Monkeys — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $65, daily high temperature 82°f

The diesel fuel cost in Canada is $1.10 per liter. A liter is 1.06 quarts. An imperial gallon would cost $4.40. The equivalent US gallon would cost $4.15. With the exchange rate of .76 the actual cost in $USD would be $3.15 per gallon.

We have been working on our itinerary for the Trent Severn Waterway. We have to cruise 240 miles and transit 45 locks to get from Trenton, Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay. The plan is to be in Orillia which is 208 miles and 41 locks by August 18. John and Priscilla will get off the boat for three days and meet their family at Niagara Falls. This will be the first time the cousins will meet. Eleanor will be 9 months old and Jackson will be 8 months old. Alison is arranging a professional photographer to take our family photo.

We will stay in Trenton until Monday, August 1. I have posted our rough itinerary below. There are always a few extra days built in incase we really like a marina and want to stay longer. Several times we will be docking on lock walls overnight. We have been told to always dock at the top of the lock to get a good breeze at night. There is no air flow at the bottom of the lock. The other bit of advice is to loop our dock lines through the rings on the lock wall and secure them on the cleats on our boat. Nefarious youths in the towns along the waterway find it humorous to untie the boats on the lock walls at night and let them drift away. We will be vigilant. Perhaps those youths have since moved away.

Our trip plan is based on miles traveled, locks transited and fun places other Loopers have told us to visit.

August 1 – 2 – Cambellford – 32 miles and 13 locks
August 3 – 4 – Hastings – 19 miles and 5 locks
August 5 – 6 – Peterborough – 49 miles and 3 locks
August 7 – 8 – Young’s Point – 15 miles and 6 locks
August 9 – 10 – Stony Lake – 5 miles and 0 locks
August 11 – 12 – Bobcaygeon – 33 miles and 5 locks
August 13 – 14 – Fenelon Falls – 15 miles and 2 locks
August 15 – 17 – open days
August 18 – 21 – Orillia – 47 miles and 6 locks
August 22 – 23 – Port Severn – 32 miles and 4 locks including the Big Chute
August 24 – Georgian Bay

The cost for a “Transit one way pass” is $4.65 per foot X 45 feet = $209. With the exchange rate the actual cost in $USD will be $161.

The posted speed limit on the waterway is 10 km/hr which is 6 mph. That is idle speed for us. When both engines are in gear we go 6 mph. We will have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.

On Sunday morning Maravillas pulled in next to us at the Trent Port Marina. We have not seen Randy and Ellen Beck since we were together at the Alligator River Marina in early April. I remember their boat because they have a psalm notation on the stern Ps. 107 : 23 – 24.

23 Some went out on the sea in ships;
they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,
his wonderful deeds in the deep.

Bonus photo from in front of the Bistro restaurant in Trenton, Ontario.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life. ”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was “Solitude”, which contains the lines, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone”. Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death.

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sails,
And Not the gales,
That tell us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As we voyage along through life,
‘Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.