Peterborough

Thursday, July 9

First no more complaints about the weather (at least for a while). Yesterday was forecast high near 70, light wind and 60% chance of rain, actual three or for periods of light sprinkles (never more than five minutes) light winds and high in the mid 70s. Today was more light winds, beautiful clear skies and high near 80. About perfect except if we were racing sailboats.

The plain for today had been to do less than 20 miles with seven locks and go into the Peterborough Municipal Marina, right down town. Last night I decided that a change was needed. For almost the entire trip I have been getting an accumulation of water in the bilge under the engines. There are stuffing boxes around the drive shaft where it goes through the hull, they are designed to be water lubricated and should leak a very little (or their too tight).

There are three section of the bilge divided by stringers, one under each engine and one in the middle, there is an automatic bilge pump in the middle. The stuffing boxes have been leaking enough that every third or fourth day I would go down and bail the water out, either with a sponge and bucket or use the small shop-vac we have on board. Port engine has been worse than the starboard, but in the last few days the starboard has gotten worse and I need to bail almost daily.

I found in the guide small marina about four miles (and one more lock) beyond Peterborough that showed mechanical services. I called and Tom said he could help us, if we came in tonight he would work on the stuffing boxes in the morning when the engines were cool. I called Peterborough Marina and cancelled our reservation.

With the idea of a relatively long day we got underway a little before 8:00. We cruised the short distance out of the Young’s Point channel into Katchewanooka Lake, the last of the beautiful Kawartha Lakes. It was a six mile run to the first lock of the day at Lakefield. The geology of the area has changed; we are out of the heavy granite and into limestone with much different shorelines. There are more marshy areas and the shoreline is much softer. From Lakefield to Rice Lake we will be in the Ontonabee River. We have been seeing more raptors in this area both osprey and about six bald eagles.

At Lakefield there is a narrow channel around the dam to the lock. We head in and around the corner meet a large trawler headed the other way. We slowed to almost a stop and pulled to the side and he squeezed by. We got to the lock and tied to the blue line as they were locking others up. The first out was a lovely 44 foot trawler cat with a 19 foot beam. I sure glad we didn’t meet him in the narrow channel.

The lock staff said they would leave the gates open and we could go in and tie up, but they had to go back to the dam and make adjustments to the water flow, it would be 15 or 20 minutes. It made for a bit of a slow start. Soon they were back and we were on our way.

From here on the next four locks are between a mile and a half and half a mile apart, the lock masters communicate with each other and try to be ready for you. The next two the gates were open and we went right in. Diana got a picture along the river bank of this blue heron contemplating the morning breakfast menu. Also a picture looking back at the dam structure as we left a lock.

At the next lock the lower gates were open and they were waiting for boats going the other way. When they finally exited there were not only the three big boats pictured but four more small boats in the back corner of the lock. They do an amazing job of squeezing boats into the lock.

We were soon through that lock and the next and then it was on five miles to the lift lock. Much of that is in a channel separate from the Ontonabee River; most is remote and scenic until you come to Trent University which sits right beside the water. This building looked like it could be the library. Soon we had the lift lock in site with the Island Princess coming out. She is a seventy foot tour boat that runs out of Peterborough, through a conventional lock, then the lift lock, and turns around for the return trip.

We had been locking through the earlier locks with a Mainship and a small I/O, we loaded and the lock staff said they would like to get the Island Princess in too. We all squeezed forward and she just got in.

The Peterborough Lock is the highest lift lock in the world at 65 feet, but the operation is the same as Kirkfield. See the Kirkfield entry for details of operation. The biggest differance in the two locks is that Kirkfield has a lot of structural steel and Peterborough is mostly concrete. Because of the problem I have with too many pictures I have created a separate pictures only blog entry of all the pictures from the lift lock.

It was very different to stand on the boat and look down on the roof of the visitor’s center and the cars across the way. Another highlight of our trip.

We proceed down to the next lock only half a mile away and the three of us locked through together, the small boat had turned around and were going back up at Peterborough. The Island Princess apparently had been a lunch cruise, they were serving cake as we locked through, I didn’t manage to get any. We exited the lock and the Island Princess turn into little lake past the fountain to their dock while we continued down river to the last lock of the day about a mile ahead.

I have praised the helpful Parks Canada lock staff in the past, today at Lock 19, Scotts Mills; we meet Chad the champion of hospitality (at least so far). He was friendly and helpful. He asked for our camera and took pictures of us together on the boat, and then he suggested we should know how the lock works and invited us to close the gate.

We left Chad and had another few miles to the little marina with the mechanic; we got there just before 4:00 closing. It was a long day, but very enjoyable, we are both exhausted.