Trent-Severn - Bringing the Boat Home

Early morning start, BEST time of the day.

We found our boat in Gananoque, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because to get it home to Georgian Bay we had to take it through the entire length of the Trent-Severn. WHOO-HOO!! THAT in itself was a check off item on the bucket list.

But, as we bought the boat in the fall, it meant many five-hour drives back and forth as we worked with the previous owner, Doug, to learn about the boat and get 'er winterized and tucked  away for the winter and then again in the spring to get it all spit-shined and ready for launch.  He was very generous with his time.  We were lucky.

Lake Ontario

         
We planned the trip home for the May two-four long weekend. When we arrived on the Friday the boat was in it’s slip and ready to go. After last minute tips/lessons on board from Doug we were off. Jeff drove and I was the navigator, with a brand spanking new chart-plotter on my lap as we hadn’t had time to permanently install it yet.

First lock.  Ewe, those walls are gross!

Things were going along smoothly enough for the first fifteen minutes or so. The chart-plotter was making the trip through the Thousand Islands easy-breezy, guiding the way through those thousand little rocky tree-covered nuggets. It displayed depths, all the markers, a little boat icon showing where we were and a magenta line for us to follow along safely.  This thing was great!!.... until my thumb inadvertently hit the man-over-board button.

John, crew extraordinaire

The Start of the Trent Severn (note the lawn chair beside
 the captain's chair.  That's where the chart-plotter
 lived for the remainder of the trip. DON'T TOUCH THE PLOTTER!!!)

That MOB button would be very handy if there actually WAS a man-overboard. It removes all chart detail from the screen and shows only the boat icon and the route leading directly back to the poor sucker in the water, making rescue easy. No distracting islands, rocks, depths, markers or magenta line leading the way safely through the hazards. As well, there's a handy-dandy ear-piercing alarm that goes off every sixty second (even if the unit is turned off and/or un-plugged! Trust me, I tried).  I’m not sure if that alarm would continue to sound if the unit were submerged on the bottom of the lake as I had to fight off the captain to put an end to THAT little experiment. I had no clue how to turn the MOB function off and get our chart back. You get the picture. Our first experience of zero to sixty - tranquility to PANIC - on our new boat.  

Marine railway at Big Chute

Luckily, I had printed the manual off the internet so it should have been an easy fix to figure out how to shut the thing the f*^# up and get our chart back. Oops, second mistake. As I was frantically flipping through I realized I had the WRONG MANUAL!  Also luckily (really this time) I had all the paper charts there and in order. I quickly grabbed the correct chart, Jeff slowed the boat down to a crawl and we somehow figured out where in the world we were.  I got on the cell phone and called the store we bought the plotter from and begged for support before my new chart-plotter and I were sent swimming. Hold the button down for four seconds, if it ever happens to you.  The captain and I were still speaking afterwards, which is a good sign I think, and carried happily on our way.

Nesting swans

The rest of the trip was fun, fun, fun!! The chart-plotter became our best bud. I stayed on the boat for four days and traveled part way through the system with Jeff. We car shuttled and his buddy, John, met us on Monday evening so I could go back to work. Then I met them in Orillia on Thursday night, slept on the boat and went to work from there in the morning.  Jeff and I completed the final portion over the next weekend.  So, nine days in total, with a day to hang out in Orillia.  And this was with the new "reduced hours".  I know people question if they can make it through in ten days but it was NOT a problem.  It was warm for May (at least for the days I was on the boat). We were the fifth boat in line as the locks opened for the season. It was a leisurely trip with lots of time to take in great sights.  There was a mind-blowing fireworks display in the little town of Frankford, Ontario on the May 24 weekend (they have free electricity hook ups there, and I think a few other towns are following suit since then). We made new friends and so many great memories....A perfect week.... Except for a bit of floatsam in the locks and the "little" storm that Jeff and John encountered while I was safely at home...  but that's another story.