Fenelon Falls to Barrie - June 4 to 13

We ended up spending a third night in Fenelon Falls because of weather.  Emboldened by his call on the toilet gasket, Rusty tackled the depth transducer problem.  The thing did not read at all even after our tape job.  In fact, it broke loose from the silicon seal.  We realized that we were missing an O-ring too.  Rusty figured out how to cut a spare O-ring he had to fit and then rebedded the base of the transducer to the hull.  24 hours later we were able to attach the top of the transducer and the readings matched those of the old depth finder. 

Thursday was a tough navigation day.  The channels were narrow with rocky sides.  We met only two boats and had to proceed very slowly as we passed each other.  That night we stayed at the bottom of Lock 40 and had a peaceful time.

Friday, June 5 we crossed Lake Simcoe and arrived in Barrie where we stayed for one week.  We were treated with the visit of children and grandchildren on the weekend. Barrie hosted a Celebrate Barrie on Saturday.  There must have been a hundred booths highlighting organizations in the Barrie area.  Nearly every booth had a children’s activity.  Needless to say the grandkids had a ball.  Our visit continued into Sunday and we thoroughly enjoyed the time together.  James lent us a Rogers stick so we have internet in Canada.  On Monday, we rented a car and visited my Mom and sister in Hamilton.  My Mom turns 90 this year.

And now the other side of our Barrie stay.  The inverter monitor indicated the charger was not switching from bulk to absorption mode.   We shut the inverter off when we went to bed on Friday and the voltage went from 12.9 V to 11.9 V overnight and that was with no load.  Something was wrong.  Rusty disconnected the batteries and noticed one of the batteries was steaming.  Long story made short:  one of the batteries had bad cells and was blocking the charger from working properly.  A well recommended electronic mechanic assessed the problem with our wiring, batteries, and gave a quote to replace the 8D 12 V batteries with 6 Vgolf cart batteries and to replace our old Freedom 10, Link 1000 with a Magnum MS charger/inverter.   He discovered that the two batteries were the cranking type not deep cell.  Thanks Dog River.   We posted our problem to a Trawler website and the responses verified the issue as well as a recommendation to consider the Magnum inverter/charger.  This is something we knew would be in our future so we are going to have it done in Orillia our next stop.  We both have confidence in Gene, owner of Marine Electric Technologies.  Fingers crossed!

So, in the meantime we have discovered a few interesting places in Barrie, all revolving around food.  Within walking distance are a Dutch store, a German bakery, and the best stocked health food store ever seen.  Our fridge and freezer are full which is a bit of a problem because we are headed for Orillia today (Friday) once the rain stops, and there is an amazing bakery and deli (Mariposa Landing) near the marina.

I almost forgot to mention that we contacted a couple of boatyards in the Michigan State area about heated winter storage.  It seems that the prices are comparable to what we are paying in Brewerton and it would eliminate a trip back through the locks in the fall.   That would mean a years delay doing the downeast loop though.  Something for us to think about!

Hastings to Fenelon Falls - May 28 to June 4

The run from Campbellford to Hastings was short but with the delays at the locks it took us from 10 am to 4 pm to get from the bottom of Lock 13 to the bottom of Lock 18.  We had hoped to get through 18 and then get an early start to Peterborough.  But we arrived at 3:45 pm and it was a no go.  That set things to motion for a little episode the next day.

In the meantime we had a lovely visit from friends, Hilda and Hector Cowan, who live about an hour and a half away, catching up on our lives and reminiscing about our times while serving in overseas posts.  We saw them last two years ago while transiting the Rideau Canal.   Both have developed hobbies that are so interesting and useful that if ever we had to live off the land, we would want them as close neighbors!

The next morning, while waiting for the 10 am lock opening, I went to the local coffee shop to use their wifi again.  If we had been able to leave right away, I would not have been at the coffee shop, and I would not have left my purse there.   I discovered it missing when we arrived at Lock 19 in Peterborough at 4 pm. 

Then a really remarkable thing happened.  I called the Remax realtor in Hastings who runs a laundromat near the coffee shop.  The number was in an advertisement in the Trent Severn guide.  He checked and confirmed the purse was there, and offered his wife to bring it to us on her way to work in Peterborough.  Talk about dialing the right number!  Thank you Dennis and Sandy!

We spent two nights in Peterborough walking along the waterfront from Lock 19 to downtown one day and over to Lock 20 and 21 (the big hydraulic lift lock) the next day.  Franz the butcher shop and the Saturday morning Lansdowne farmers market helped reprovision.    We also bought some herbs for our planter box.

We had noticed some dripping of steering fluid at the flybridge helm.  Cleaned it up and read the manual and we think the seal might need replacing and that involves finding a boatyard with a wheel puller.

By Saturday evening we were at the Young’s Point Lock 27.  One of the cottagers offered water and so we were able to top up our tanks.  YEAH! Even Gigi got a bath.

Sunday’s run to Bobcaygeon included a stop at Lock 31 in Buckhorn to buy some incredible butter and breakfast tarts, sticky buns, and one of their frozen homemade shepherd’s pie (for emergencies!)

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about Bobcaygeon but by the time we arrived we discovered that the butcher shop was closed and wouldn’t be reopening until Wednesday and the bakery until Thursday.   There is a huge shoe store, Bigley, in town.  And I saw just the pairs of shoes I was looking for.  

That evening we took a walk and were approached by group of four children (imagine Charles Dickens era ragamuffins).  “Do you have children?”  “No”  “If you did we are having a children to children garage sale”.  They showed us their toys lying on the sidewalk.  $2.50 each.  $5 got us three toys which we returned to them to give to someone.  As we left, their cry became, “$2.50 per toy, some are free”

We are now in Fenelon Falls.  On the way we noticed our Garmin depth finder was not reading at all.  One of the tabs on the top of the transducer has broken off earlier and we decided we had better tape the thing together.  So we did. It required both of us to be down in the “holy place”.  One to hold the top down and the other to fix the tape. 

Yesterday, June 3^rd, we rebuilt one of the toilets.  By the time we were finished, we had removed the entire thing from the base to replace gaskets, etc. etc.   The instructions were limited and we had to rely heavily on the exploded parts diagram, studying it for about an hour, labelling the parts, and then delving in.  It went better than expected.    Rusty and I disagreed on one aspect of the refit. So now we have an uninstalled piston gasket.   Yes, I won the argument but Rusty was correct. The seal needs to be replaced after the piston gasket is installed not before.  Other lesson:  do this sort of job if there is access to a Laundromat.  Thankfully there was a great one just two blocks away.

We also have two more window box planters and planted geraniums.  Rusty’s idea.  It sounds very much like a nesting activity and if I wasn’t sure our boating trip would end in September I would be worried.

To congratulate ourselves for all the things we got done,  we decided to go out for dinner only to discover that the two highly recommended restaurants were closed.  So off to Sobeys, and we ended up with a delicious salmon dinner on the boat.

Wednesday, June 4^th, we are headed to Barrie and will arrive late Thursday.  No internet until then.