Hastings

Friday, July 10

It was a very quiet evening in an older small marina, we were far and away the largest boat, and most of the others were all locals. The only power available was a 20 amp circuit on a long extension cord; we ran the generator and stayed on the inverter for the night. We were serenaded all evening by a choir of bull frogs.

This morning the local blue heron that had been around last night was standing on a finger pier right across from us. Diana took this picture from the door of the boat.

At 8:30 Tom the mechanic and his assistant Rick were down at the boat to look at the stuffing box. They had a terrible time getting to it since with the “V” drives it is behind the engine and under the drive housing. They final got it loosened, added one more round of stuffing and tightened it back up. It is still dripping more then I would like, hopefully the new stuffing will swell a little.

It was an absolutely perfect morning; cool earlier but with bright sunshine and light winds it warmed quickly. By 11:00 we were off. Today’s journey was down the rest of the Otonabee River about 18 miles, into Rice Lake for another 12 and 4 miles into the Trent River to the next lock at Hastings, ON.

This stretch of the Otonabee is easy boating with good water (12 to 20 feet) through the entire river. Most of the shore is undeveloped and much is low and marshy, there are occasional stretches of a few homes and cottages. The traffic was light except for many fishermen. We did pass two couples out for a quiet kayak trip.

We came around one corner to see in the middle of undeveloped shore this beautiful old home, it look like it has been there a very long time, Diana was a little slow getting the camera out. The captain was pushing eight miles an hour so things go by in a hurry.

Rice Lake is some 20 miles long and 2 to 3 wide is a large shallow lake. Large areas of the shore are productive wild rice beds, thus the name. The navigation is straight forward, the Otonabee enters the north side west of the middle and the Trent River exits at the south east corner. It is almost a straight shot for 12 miles. The only tricky part is there use to be a railroad trestle across the lake, the trestle is long gone but the underwater cribs it sat on are still there. There are buoys to get you safely through, you just have to find them.

Hastings is a lovely little town right along the river. The guide book said the best tie up was above the lock. As we approached we could see several boats already tied up but it look like enough room for us just in front of the boat at the left of the picture. We went in and tied up and Diana took pictures from the bow looking past the other boats at a very low bridge that is just upstream from the lock gate. The lock attend swings the bridge when he opens the gate. From the other side of the bow the view is of town.

I went exploring, found a RBC bank for an ATM, a grocery store and the town laundry. While Diana did a load of laundry I pick up a few items at the grocery and work on posting the Peterborough blog entries. There is a village marina right across the river and I can pick up their Wi-Fi from the boat.

When Diana got back from the laundry we walked to the bridge and a pizzeria right next to it. The pizza was good and there are left over for another day. After dinner we went for a short walk.

Another very good day.