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!