It's the railway

On July 17, we left the Trent Severn and landed in Georgian Bay. The next lock we face will be in Chicago.

We left an hour before the locks open to get on the blue line which means in the queue to enter the lock at the Big Chute. The Big Chute is a one of a kind lock on the Trent Severn Canal as it is a marine railway. There were 3 boats on the blue line ahead of us. Basically, as one boat is called for the railway, all the other boaters untie their lines and walk their boats forward to make room at the end of the line. Approximately 5 or 6 boats can fit on the blue line and the rest idle out in the bay waiting for their turn on the blue line. It takes about 40 minutes for one boat to get their turn. We arrived at 9:30 am and were on the railway at about 11:30 am. When we were on the railway, they announced that it would be a 4 to 5 hour wait for the boats at the end of the line. Basically, when they call your boat, you go to the rail car where they have slings hanging down – much like a lift at a marina. You drive onto the car and the lock masters adjust the slings for your boat. The slings then support your boat on the car as it carries you over a hill to the next portion of the Trent Severn.

After the marine railway, there was only one additional lock to go through to get to Georgian Bay which is north of Lake Huron. We were able to get through it with minimal wait time. It is a smaller lock than all the rest, so only two boats fit with a couple of jet skis. Finally we were through and into the bay.

We decided to go to Midland as it was touted as a good replenishing site. Unfortunately, there are no grocery or liquor stores within walking distance of the town marina where they stuffed us into a too small slip (30’) and initially with one 30 amp plug. When it is 90 degrees, we want either 50 amp or two 30 amp plugs to run our air conditioning. They ran an extra 30 amp cord to our boat from the small cruise ship dock and wa la, we had our air. A windstorm was expected so we trussed the boat to the dock like a turkey at Thanksgiving. It was blowing 20 to 30 mph this morning and our lines started stretching and we could move formerly solid cleats on the dock with our hands. After getting the stretched lines under control, Kevin went to the office and asked for additional tie up points. The Dock manager came out to reassure us that the cleats would not come out as they were through bolted to 4x4 pieces of wood. They tried to put another cleat into the dock and found they did not have long enough bolts available to complete the job and there were none in town to be had. The wind seems to be dying out and hopefully by morning it will be down to a cruising level.

We plan on a 45 mile run tomorrow to Parry Sound which is on the north side of Georgian Bay.