Thursday 12 July 2012

July 7


July 7/12
Glen Miller #3 - CFB Trenton Yacht Club   3 locks  2 hours

OKAY it was bitter sweet to come to the end of Severn-Trent (Trent-Severn), part of our adventure.

When we got to lock 2, we both said we could of stayed here, the traffic dies down at night, it was nice kept grounds, and at lock 1, the actually beginnings of tghe waterways, the VIA Rail, rumbled thru and I could not get the camera in time because we where entering the lock .... there was a motor boat already in the lock, they where waiting on us  .... oh yeah it was raining cats and dogs, a real good soaker, this area needs the rain and it was refreshing.  The lock master helped us tie up in the lock, then we realized that the skipper from the boat ahead of us, was walking the gate closed behind our port side ... I guess the LM was alone on this lock, cause you need two people to lock the gates closed or open.

It was hard to finalize this part of our adventure, cause you can only look so far in advance when you are planning a trip ... this was my hurtle ... but now that it is finished and we both survived, ...   haha   ..   what is in store for us next.

We motored to CFB Trenton Y.C., and radioed on 68 to the Dock Stewart, he directed us to the mast crane,  it was a bit of a challenge, they too have problems with weeds, in a still basin.  Joe powered up to 2000 RPM'S and went .00 knots ...we inched, and I mean inched our way in.  They have mats on the floor basin to stop weeds, not working. The mats are 12' to 80 ft long and they have at least 4 of them.    If you power up too much you lift the mats from the basin floor.

We paid $85.00 to use the mast crane, by our selves and $1.00 a foot dockage, (the next day we realized that on the crane was hydro, sorry we missed that).

Scot Mundle, (Brian and Elaine's son) was waiting at the mast crane, watching our slow, stop, slow, stop docking in weeds.  Scot was here to pick up the Trent-Severn charts that his parents lent us .... ooops we forgot to included the Ports book and a few charts ... we will get them back Brian in October.  THANK YOU again ... Even if you have a chart plotter the paper ones are better for an over all view.

Joe and I started to unwrap our (sail) boat ... Once again we where in humid temperature.  We got off the deck, boom, whisker pole, which was tied on. Dodger and Bimini and covers removed.  

We aligned the boat, practiced rotating the mast crane, back and forth, they use a rope, not a handle like we do at GYC.  Hung a sling line, readjusted again, talked out what could go wrong, waited for Peter, then  2 members, Manfred and Roger came and offered to help.  We jumped at their help, because they knew the crane, and we where ready and in the humidity again.

We had lowered our mast differently this time, it was from the front ... so on raising it we didn't have to worry about the furling because it laid beside the mast.  We still needed 4 people to raise it.

So once again I got wounded, on my right leg.  We took the wooden cradle away from the bow, so Joe could attach the forestay (which is really hard to do because of the bow roller)  The raw edges of the wooden cradle sliced my upper leg, and we could not stop for a bandage ... so the blood rolled down my leg  ... it looked worse than it really was .... so now I have a good sized bruise to go with the cut.

When Peter arrived, we put him to work taking the cradle apart, we kept the chains and gave him the wood to burn. Also got the bimini and dodger back on and secured the boat for the evening .... Peter had promised us homemade wood fired pizza at his house.

Joe and Dave Manners helped Peter deliver his Pearson 30 sailboat, from Owen Sound to Picton (Waupoos Island) a few years back.

We thought it was a 15 min drive to their house, but I think it was closer to an hour each way ..... thanks Peter for driving us old salts.

We enjoyed an evening of meeting new friends, David and Hilary, and Eva Marie, we had fantastic wood fired pizza, and left with arugula leaves from their garden.

Good night had by all !!!!

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