The Saga of the package continues

Monday, June 28^th

Shopping in the morning so we will be ready to leave for Kingston, Ontario as soon as it gets here. While working on the boat I looked up and saw the UPS truck past the Museum. When I went to the museum they told me it did not stop. I wanted to call UPS, but did not have a tracking number. We had to wait until noon when Radiolab opened in California. At noon the company called UPS and was told that the package was refused- refused? The driver did not even stop! What is going on? I get hold of the company and the tracking number, called UPS and got hold of a supervisor. Once again it was sent to the Post Office, the address never changed. More phone calls and the package will now be sent to Trenton, Ontario. We can wait for it there.

Off to Kingston, Ontario – 3 hrs. later we are out of the country! Kingston seems nice. Large well protected Marina. On arrival we are greeted by a looper (the one who sent us a picture of Serendipity at Boldt Castle he took as he went by on a tour boat). We are invited to a BYO cocktail party on “Mas Buenos”. After checking through customs – five minutes on the phone – they had all of our information from last year – we joined the cocktail party. Seven other loopers of which five were from Tennessee. We had a good time and got some Kingston Information. They were all leaving in the morning, no room at the Marina with Canada Day coming up. We were able to stay another day since we were smaller and they did not need our dock.

We finished off the day at the “Pilot Bar” with Fish and Chips for Carole and Steak and Kidney Pie for me. A nice ending after a disappointing start. It seemed like two different days.

Tuesday, June 29^th

Shopping this morning. Carole for Art Supplies and I for a new USB Mouse. Both very successful. Kingston is a great stop. The downtown area is right on the waterfront. The art supply store was only six blocks from the waterfront with the computer shop two doors away. We even took Annie in to the stores and no on e seemed to mind. Actually many of the stores had dog treats for her.

Kingston is the largest city in the area and yet feels like a village. No one seems to be in a hurry. Even the cars are not rushing from one light to the next. And lots of people walking. Today was farm market day in the town square, really nice looking produce from local towns and islands. This time of year it was Radishes, garlic, lettuce, peas onions, and asparagus. The town square has a freezer coil under it and doubles as an ice rink in the winter. There is even a building for the Zamboni machine.

In the afternoon we took the Trolley tour. The tour covered the historic parts of the city and several of the forts (had to keep the Americans from taking Canada in 1812).

Later we went clothes shopping for Annie. Carole wanted a harness to make it easier to get her out of the water if she fell off the dock. I did not think we needed it - until  she fell off the dock and I had to drag back on to it by the scruff of her neck.. She looks kind of spiffy in her new harness.

There are so many restaurants here that we had to eat out. I was opting for a brewery pub, but Carole won out with an upscale french place where she could get Duck Confit. Meal was excellent.

Westward Ho – tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 30^th

Clear and cold ~ 51 degrees with west winds about 15- 20 Kts. The Gods must think we have a sailboat, the wind is right on our nose. We are looking at whitecaps on the lake and 2-3 ft. seas. We have to go about 5 miles across the lake and then we will get some protection in North Channel (not THE North Channel – that's much later) behind Amherst Island. The seas drop to 1-2 ft and it is quite comfortable. Annie who is nervous in bumpy water is asleep on the bridge. The wind continued and as we turned in to Picton Bay it seemed to increase. It has stayed cold all day. We stayed at Tip of the Bay Marina on the skinniest docks we have seen yet. The base of our two step ladder that we use for boarding almost does not fit the dock. We stick out about 6 ft off the end of the dock, and then they dock a 50ft. Tugboat next to us!

Town of Picton is smaller than Kingston and yet feels more like a city. Still very nice. There was a Juried Art Show for local artists and there were some really good works there. A first class show. Also the marine artists guild has there headquarters there and they were also showing some good works.

This would be a primo stop if it weren't for the docks. The town dock was nice, but it only has room for two boats.

Thursday, July 1^st Canada Day

Clear and cold again, 55 degrees. Calm at 7:00 am, we shall see as we get underway.

It started to warm up and by midmorning the wind had gone to 20 Kts. Gusting to 25 and still from the west – the direction we are going. Another 5 mile stretch (Big Bay) with whitecaps.

We arrived in Trenton, Ontario to find 12 other loopers already there. Including the Tennessee contingent and “Two Turtles” our friends Tony and Liz. Marina Managers Sandy and Craig decided to put on a Canada Day BBQ for all of the boats. We all brought the sides and they grilled Hot Dogs and Burgers. We talked until dark when there was good fireworks show preceded by the lighting of the new “Quinte West – Gateway to the Trent Severn” sign for the first time. We had front row seats with two other couples on our bow.

What great people! We spent 4 days with the loopers, the marina managers and some seasonal people on the dock. Rides were offered when we needed something as well as good conversation. We – of course were waiting for our packages. What with Canada Day and July 4^th we did not expect them to get there until Monday. We were hoping for Friday, but of course that did not happen and Canada does not have Saturday mail delivery. We did get to visit the RCAF air museum. A trip worth making. There is a restored WWII DeHaviland bomber that was recovered from a lake in Norway after 50 years underwater. The rest of the time we worked on the boat and harrassed Craig and Sandy.

Monday came and went without any packages arriving!

Wednesday, July 7^th

We waited for the mail and when it did not arrive we made arrangements with Sandy and Craig to figure out how to get it when it did. At 12:30 we left Trenton. It is now very hot and humid. We only went 7 miles and 6 locks, before stopping at Frankford above lock 6. A Pastoral setting. Stopped at the top of lock 6. There was a beach on the river below the canal and campsites in the park. The lockwall had electricity available also – a rarity here.

So far all of the locks are manual. The lockkeepers have to push a “T” bar around in a circle 12 times to open the lock doors. It was really hot at the bottom of the lock as we entered. We are locking up for the first 36 locks – so we enter at the bottom, they close the lock door, putting us in a concrete box and no wind until the lock fills up and we are at the top. Annie likes it here. Water to swim in , ducks and geese to chase and of course, lots of well aged goose poop to roll in.,

Thursday, July 8^th

Package #1 has arrived and Sandy will drive it up to us. We decide to stay another night since she does not get here until afternoon. I went for a swim (?) in the river. Felt great, but it never got more than 3 feet deep all of the way across and had a very rocky bottom. Later I went for a real swim in the canal, weedy but deep. Happy Hour with three other couples. One US and two Canadians. All going to the Georgian Bay but not on the full loop

It is still hot and sticky.

Friday; July 9^th

Slightly Cooler, 6 locks to go to Campbellford. Sandy expects to visit her son in Peterboro on Monday and the packages should be in Trenton so she can bring them up to us there on Monday.

The Alternator died today. Crap! This is the second high output alternator that I have tried. I will put the original one back in and see if I can fix it. The Canadian locks do not allow you to run your engine in the locks, but without an alternator I am worried that I will not be able to start the engine at the top. The first operator said not to worry, let it run. At the second lock I started the Generator and shut down the engine. In the third lock the operator (the first woman we saw) would not let me keep it running. We had a shouting match (we were at the bottom of a twenty foot lock and she was on the top wall. After I refused to stop the generator she opened the lock door and told me to back out of the lock. There was another boat behind us (their sympathy was with us – they were one of our happy hour mates) and I refused to back out. She finally said that if I did not get started she would help tow us out of the lock.so I agreed and shut down. I started the generator first and then the main. I ran the rest of the day with the generator on and had no more trouble at the locks.

Had dinner that night in Campbellford with same couple. Canadians that had a house in Mexico, where they spent the winter. In the summer they spent on the boat, so they only used their house near Kingston about four weeks a year.

Package did not come today.

Saturday, July 10^th

A lot cooler. Moving on we passed up a quiet lock wall since it would leave too long a day tomorrow. We want to be in Peterborough on Sunday night since Sandy will be coming up on Monday. We continued on to a stop above the lock wall in Hastings. Very busy place on a Saturday. We stopped below the lock and I walked up to see if there was any room on the upper wall. The upper wall is usually preferred as the breeze is better and you do not start the day with a lock. There was just enough space up there so we locked on through.. Turns out all of the boats were only day trippers so we had the wall to ourselves that night. We walked down both of the streets in Hastings, but not much to see. One Pizza bar, a beer store and an LCBO (liquor and wine) that was closed by the time we looked. I talked with the lock operator for a while about the locks and where the fish might be. While I was talking to him two young Indian (Asian) women came over with a plate of food (Chicken & corn) for him. They were part of a family gathering and said that they came there to picnic every year and wanted to treat the operator. The lockkeepers are really very nice (with an occasional exception). They seem to want you to enjoy your trip and will go out of their way to be helpful. They always ask if you are going to the next lock. If you ask if there is room at one of the other locks for you to stay overnight, they call ahead to check. Need a restroom key for the evening they have them for you. And most of them will sit and talk with you if there is no lock lock traffic.

We ran the generator for a while so I could watch the soccer match and make popcorn. I also finally found a site that I could download TV shows to watch when we have no internet. Hulu will not send shows to Canada. I could really use that WiFi antenna now. I hope that the second, third time around is the charm.

Sunday, July 11^th

Cool and clear with a light wind. - Off to Peterborough!

Rice Lake was beautiful – calm – I took the opportunity to swing (adjust) the autopilot compass. It worked! The autopilot now agrees with the GPS. From the lake we head up the Otonabee River. It starts with wooded marshy islands, becomes grassy marsh and as we get close to Peterborough it gets rocky. The lock before Peterborough is the oldest lock in the system, and has the worst lockkeeper! I guess not all of them are great. We approached the lock and there was another boat going up, so we knew we would have to wait. The lock came down and I thought I had seen a boat in the lock, so I thought that the lockkeeper would be talking to them for a bit. We then watched the two keepers with their back to us talking to each other. Not only did they not let the boat out, but we could not get in. I thought that maybe they had not seen us, so I sounded the horn signal (three shorts). They looked up told us to wait, and when we finally got in told us that they had seen us and proceeded to tell me that they were not upset with us, but we are pretty big and that if we can see them they have seen us. They treat each person in the lock with as much time as they need and we should be patient. HAH they were talking to each other and could not be bothered to open the lock.

As we left the lock and turned in to Little Lake we were treated to a huge fountain at the entrance to the Marina. The dock hands refused a tip! And after checking in they insisted on giving me a tour of the facility. The showers here were really hard needles – great – helped make the day. It does not take much to get my mind off of the stupid stuff. And we arrived in time for me to watch the World Cup final. Spain won in overtime.

Riley's Pub was So So. Wings were breaded and fried. Flavor 1, Heat 3, meaty 2, Crispy 3, total 9. I need to weight the ratings. A nine is way too high a rating.

Tomorrow the package?

Monday, July 12^th

Fished off the boat for a bit in the morning. Little Lake is supposed to have a number of of Muskies. You could not prove it by me.! Not even a nibble.

At noon I checked on the packages. The good news is that one, the antenna came in. the bad news was that Sandy's son decided that Monday was not good and so she was not coming up until Friday. We decided that we would wait until both packages came in and then Craig would next day them to where ever we would be.

Wednesday, July 13^th

Heading out of Peterborough we found 7 other boats at the first lock. We thought we would have to wait for a while since up until then the operators were only allowing two boats at a time in the lock. Luck was with us. Only four boats were actually waiting and they put all four of us in at once. The next lock is the lift lock and before the lock is the canal visitors center so we stopped. to visit. A good movie of the canal construction was the highlight, also a pretty good explanation of how the lock works. This is the lock that uses an hydraulic cylinder to push a container of water up sixty five feet., and we are in the container. It is counterbalanced by another container that goes down as we go up. To provide the driving force the upper container stops 12” short of the water line and fills with 130 tons more water than the lower container. A valve between them is opened and the water from the upper container pushes the lower container up as it goes down. A quick and easy ride. This lock is 106 years old and still going strong.

Four locks later (in the pouring rain) we arrive at Youngs Point for the night. Fairly isolated, only a few buildings around. No room at the top so we tie up below the lock. Met up with several of our eating and drinking friends and spent some time socializing.

We had a power emergency. We had been using the generator running to use the slow cooker. I noticed that the batteries were running down and I found that there was no voltage from the generator., It then failed to start and the engine start battery was dead. I was able to start the main engine from the house battery (the generator only works from the engine battery) and then could start the generator after I reset the circuit breaker. I was still not charging the engine battery from the inverter/charger for some reason. And then I was not charging anything. I shut down all electrical & started the main engine. I let it run for about an hour to ensure that it would start in the morning.

That was the end of the slow cooked dinner! The pot roast came out of the cooker, a piece of it was cut off and put on the grill. Rice was cooked (the stove is propane) and all else was kept off.

Earlier we confirmed that both packages had arrived and they would be shipped that afternoon via Purolator next day to a resort on Stoney Lake, where we expected to be. Here is hoping.

Wednesday, July 14^th

Engine started easily and we were off at 8:50 – by 10:30 we were at the resort and at 11:00 THE PACKAGES ARRIVED! We were checking in when the Purolator truck pulled in and two packages were delivered. Carole made me go in to make sure that they were not refused, but the driver came out empty handed so we had them finally, YAY! No more stuff sent to Canada unless we have two weeks lead time and we do not have a clue where we will be in two weeks. Everyone tried their best, but with this lifestyle we just have to do things differently.

The three unexpected checks in the mail probably just made up the costs we incurred trying to get the packages.

Nice resort, even though the hot tub is out of service they have a nice beach for Annie to play in and a pool for me. We took a walk in the woods that was cut short because I did not think to put on insect repellent and the mosquitoes were ravenous.

Also I checked the electrical systems and everything is working fine. Who says boats don't have antibodies! Actually I believe it was a power management problem. Too many things on at once and then we turned on the microwave which popped the breaker. I am hoping that I have a handle on it now. Time will tell tomorrow we are going to be at anchor for the first time just off the island that Carole's Family went to in August for several years. She is pretty sure she located it on the chart.

Stoney Lake is …
                                     well stoney.