Oswego, NY to Campbellford, Ontario

Redhead getting her mast stepped

We finally left Oswego, NY on Wednesday after waiting out the weather.  We were not alone in our decision as several powerboats joined us in the marina.  The sailboats on the other hand had their masts stepped and headed across the lake on Monday and Tuesday.  Any sailboat using the NY canal system must have its masts lowered in order to make it under the fixed bridges along the way.  As a result, there are several places along the canals prepared to do that.  The Oswego Marina was one of those facilities, so we got the chance to see it done firsthand.  We had it done to our sailboats over time but never with such limited equipment.  The crew at Oswego was very efficient.  Once the mast is in place, it's up to the boat crew to tighten and adjust all of the stays and replace the boom and sails.  Redhead left the next morning (Tuesday) for their summer home in Henderson Harbor on the lake.
On Wednesday, we were up at o-dark-thirty to head out before the winds could come up.  There was a little sun but eventually just clouds.  We both noticed - but neither commented - that the skies were slightly pink early, and the "red sky at morn, sailor take warn" adage crossed our minds.  Nevertheless, we headed out with the engine wide open in order to maximize the chance to cross the lake in good conditions.

Oswego Light

On the wing

Once we cleared the Oswego Light we never saw another boat in the 40 miles across the lake.     The conditions were perfect - flat, little wind and fast.  We navigated around the small islands on the approach to Upper Gap and the approach to Adolphus Reach.  We had a beautiful cruise - much slower now - to our destination of Picton, Ontario.  Again, we met very few boats but the sailboat pictured on "the wing" was too peaceful not to warrant a picture.
   

Picton Harbor

 We made it to Picton Harbor by 12:30 - what we considered record time.  The marina was a no frills facility - Tip of the Bay - but it was convenient to town; and considering the amount of rain/mist we experienced, it was a good location.  Once we docked, we raised our quarantine flag which is required until clearing customs.  We made the call to the Canada Border Service.  While they didn't recognize the town of Picton, they did have the marina on the approved list of entry sites.  We answered all of the questions including how many people, pets, quantity of alcohol and cigarettes and negotiables exceeding $10000 (I wish!) and were given our report number which verifies that we checked in.  Once we were "legal"    we struck the yellow and raised the small Canadian flag.

Raising the Canadian Maple Leaf

Despite the incessant rain, Picton was a nice little town where we honed our metric skills - chicken at $17.96/kg is not as bad as it seems, diesel at $1.28/litre is not as good and 22 degrees Celsius is warmer than you think.

Looks are deceiving here!

 We exchanged some American $$ for Canadian at par which was better than we expected.  The "County" folks were generally nice - most spoke when they passed us on the street, including the police.  The area has lots of wineries and has a vigorous art scene as well as cheese producers.  We spent 3 days here and enjoyed them all.
We left on Friday - yes, in the rain.  We headed for Trenton which is mile 0 for the Trent-Severn Waterway and the road to Georgian Bay.  We docked at the Fraser Park Marina where there is no wasted dock space.  Bob did a great job of backing in between 2 other boats - our 34 foot boat in a 35 foot space!

Waypoint sandwich!

 We spent 3 days in Trenton, met several boaters doing the same as we and caught up with our friends Cheryl and Peter whom we had met last summer on the ICW.  It was great to see them again and catch up on the last 9 months.  We plan to spend time with them on Georgian Bay with other friends of theirs that they have met along their boating travels.
While in Trenton, we hiked to Lock 1 of the Trent-Severn on Monday to have a look at the Canadian system of locking through.  Five boats from the Trenton Marina were there at 10:00 as the lock opened.

Draining the lock before opening the gates

Boats approaching the lock

Moving into the locks

All in and the lower gate can close

20' up and ready to exit

Lock tender manually opens upper gate

And they're off to the next lock

The lock tenders are friendly and happy to help; however, they have had serious staff reductions, so the tenders at Lock 1 leapfrog number two to open three for you.  They do that for 5 or 6 locks which means if you are late for the opening of the first in a series, you have to wait until the tenders are able to re-start the process.  The boats that we watched were of varying sizes, and the tenders did a great job of directing traffic to make sure everyone fit in safely.  The lower gate is generally opened hydraulically while the upper gates are opened manually by the tenders.  As you enter the lock, one member of the crew on the bow grabs one of several cables hanging from the top of the lock.  A second person grabs a cable from the stern.  You wrap a line around the cable and hold it to keep the boat close to the lock wall as the water rises.  Pretty efficient!
We set-out on Tuesday morning and cleared six locks to arrive at Frankford, Ontario in early afternoon.  Since we have canal passes, we can tie-up at the lock walls.  The grounds here were lovely:  trees, groomed lawns, picnic tables, birds (including Canadian geese and all of their "trappings") and electric for an additional $9.80 per night.

Waypoint at the Frankford lock wall

 We spent three nights here.  It was a convenient walk into town where there was a grocery and laundromat.  We met several boaters on their way north and south and several locals.  Frankford is near the Royal Canadian Air Force base located in Trenton.  We

Frankford lock gate on right, dam runoff on left

had a chance to talk with a young man stationed there who was out walking his dog around the lock.  During the course of our discussion about his duty stations he commented that a hot tub has more jets than the RCAF.   We roared with laughter, but he laughed with us as though he had cracked that joke before.
We left Frankford and headed for Campbellford.  We passed through six locks with one other boat headed for Wisconsin.  Each of the locks raised us 20 to 24 feet; however, the last two - or flight - totaled 48 feet.  We entered the first, rose 24 feet, and immediately went into the second lock to go another 24 feet.   Pretty impressive when you're in the bottom of the first lock.

2 sets of stairs indicate the 48' lift

The Toonie

We arrived in Campbellford anticipating a nice weekend - a visit to the highly touted Dooher's Bakery, the butter tart shop (each served with a side of Lipitor) and a small farmers' market on Saturday.  We stayed on the wall At Old Mill Park - home of the Toonie Monument (Canada's $2 coin featuring a polar bear on one side and Queen Elizabeth on the other)  We expected lots more boats at this point, but due to the heavy rains in upstate NY, the NY Canal System is basically closed and may be for several more days.  The rains - an extra foot in recent weeks - have sent much of the canal system close to its height limit leaving the engineers to release water to lower the levels.  Fortunately, we missed those delays.  We are headed out tomorrow for Hastings, Ontario - inching closer to Georgian Bay. We'll keep you posted!

The Grillmeister!

Canadian "navy" - loaded with depth charges