Sunday August 27, Day 73: The weather is holding, and while exceptionally cool – in fact cold – at night, the days are clear and with light breezes. This is good for our last three days on the Trent River over the 52 miles and 18 locks it will take to get to Trenton Port Marina on the Bay of Quinte. Each day we will go through 6 locks, many of which are in quick succession.
We start her up, and immediately go into our first lock, at Hastings itself, and, on exiting, commence our day by the captain making an alarming error: he had left the port engine in reverse when it was turned off, and on restarting this meant a mad scramble to prevent us proceeding backwards to the gates of the lock and damaging the dinghy in the process. Fortunately, no other boats were in the lock with us. A close call, and it somewhat flavoured the rest of the day.
After a pleasant stretch on the peaceful river, we enter the very deep double locks at Healey Falls 17 and 16, and in the second one – no kidding – the captain makes the same error, only this time with both engines. Nerves are jangled and embarrassment levels soar, but no damage is done. Are we getting tired?
Through Lock 15, and then Crowe Bay (14) and Campbellford (13), we are more focused, and gladly tie up at the top of Ranney Falls locks 11 & 12 for the night, despite it being a somewhat semi-urban spot on the edges of Campbellford, after what had turned out to be a fraught day. We had covered 21 miles and the 6 locks. We are joined by a small Ranger Tug on its way back to Trenton.
The next morning we are up and into the Ranney Locks at 09:00, along with the tug, and get through with no mishaps. Hagues Reach, Meyers and Percy Reach Locks all come up quickly, and then we have a decent stretch of river and marsh along which we can appreciate the scenery and the kingfishers.
At Glen Ross we have a delay due to bridge maintenance, but then move on to tie up at the top of Frankford Lock 6: a very peaceful place (and with shore power, too). We’ve done our 23 miles and 6 locks.
Day 75: Tuesday August 29. The last, short, day on the Trent: 6 locks in quick succession, then a marina with all the facilities, including hotel-standard showers, free laundry, etc., for us to take a breather before the last leg to Bath.
It’s calm, though the locks are breezy at the top. We start up at 10:00 with a Sea Ray which is going to Trenton too, and head through Frankford, Trent, Batawa, and Glen Miller Locks and get to Trenton Lock 1 at 12:30. Here, the lock master, who remembered us from all our discussions with him back in June about water flow and closings, gives us a musical send-off: “Taking Care of Business” by Bachmann Turner Overdrive blasts out of the speakers wired under the bridge as we exit the last (first) lock.
We motor the last mile or so to the marina, and the landscape is now dramatically different…
The marina is just what is needed, and in the morning we’re off at 08:15 for the leg to Loyalist Cove Marina, our starting point, where we want to stay for two nights, missing the windy weather forecast for the next day.
It is a perfect “last official day” of the cruise: a brisk breeze, but calm waters all the way, and bright sunshine.
As we pass Picton, we leave the Bay and into Adolphus Reach as we are now in Lake Ontario. As we approach Bath, we get ready to dock at “our” marina, after the six hour trip across 56 miles.
Kim and the boys need to shuffle things around, because the marina is full, but they make room for us at the mast dock in perfect weather.
It had been 76 days since we left on the cruise; 48 days on the move; 28 days at rest, 10 of them due to, or to avoid, weather.
We spent 20 days on Lake Ontario and the Trent Severn Waterway getting up to Georgian Bay, 11 days on Georgian Bay on the way up, 17 days in the North Channel, 11 days in Georgian bay on the way down, and 17 days on the Trent and Lake Ontario getting back.
We spent 24 nights at marinas, 27 nights at the Locks, 22 nights at anchor, and one night tied up to a private dock.
We put 1200 miles under the keel; 167 hours on the engines; 82 hours on the generator; 2,000 litres of diesel fuel (440 Imperial gallons) in the tanks, giving us a thrifty 11 litres per hour fuel consumption (including the generator), meaning 2.7 mpg Imperial.
Overall, the bad bits were worse than we though they would be, the good bits were much better than we thought they’d be, and there were a thousand times more good bits than bad bits.
A three month cruise: too many highlights to list, but anchoring in the North Channel has to be the jewel in the crown.
What a terrific adventure. And all in our own backyard. Thank you so much for sharing. Super photos and commentary.