July 8,2010 Lakefield, Ontario

Marc- The Lucy III is still docked at the Hastings Village Marina awaiting a rebuilt engine from Moyer Marine. We were told that it was shipped out today and should arrive Friday. I am expecting that it arrives on Monday. We are currently aboard Windsong in Lakefield, Ontario after doing seven locks from Peterborough. Locking through the Peterborough Lift Lock was most exciting, We entered a huge tank and tied the boat to the side. We were next lifted vertically about 70 feet. The view over the side of the tank was most impressive. Sue had camera in hand to show how the lift lock works. Sue was invited to tour the engineering spaces as well as the control room. See Jay and Joan's blog for some excellent photos and descriptions: http://www.svwindsong.blogspot.com/

We do encounter some large craft in these waterways. The Kawartha Voyager is the largest at 120 feet long and 22 feet wide.

This was another super hot day of 100 degree high humidity weather. We passed by many kids swimming in the river, some swinging out from the trees, and yet others jumping from bridges. The local people have been friendly and helpful in providing suggestions for tonight's stop. The swimming here is excellent with the water temperature is 85 degrees. We are expecting a cold front to cool us off overnight.

July 7, 2010 Hastings, Ontario

Sara- The engine died, utterly and finally after 30 something years of rebounding from the grave, coaxed back to this world by my dad who knew it was gone the moment he heard the first shuddering crack! yesterday afternoon. Lucky for us, we’re traveling with the most wonderful people, our friends Jay and Joan who have offered us a spot on their fantastically spacious, air-conditioned, dog-inhabited (Molly, Marley, and Rosie are the sweetest, funniest chocolate labs) catamaran. They have at least two bathrooms so, though it may be a tad claustrophobic, we’ll survive quite nicely.
The mechanic came this morning to confirm what my dad already knew and now he’s gone and we’re packing. I’m packed and just sent Steph over to do the same. I’m not exactly sure how she’ll manage to cram her entire, extremely fashionable and voluble wardrobe back into her suitcase and onto Jay and Joan’s boat, but I’m sure (with plenty of help from my dad) she’ll manage it.
My mom bought the coolest, bluest bucket hat the other day; it’s huge with a wide, floppy brim. I wore it while playing UNO with my sister yesterday afternoon when the heat was driving us mad and am thoroughly convinced of its lucky, if not magical, powers.
I think Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is keeping me sane through all this craziness. It is a crazy book though, but in the best way, of course. This morning Mom, Steph, and I walked over to a 50s style coffee shop where we consumed bagels and hot chocolate while Steph, and then I read the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows aloud. It’s an absolutely brilliant book. We’ve been listening to all the Harry Potters on CD read by the amazing Jim Dale in the car and on the boat and all I can think is Wow... JK Rowling’s a genius!

















Marc- What a change in plans and now, thanks to the extremely nice Gehrig family, we are aboard the catamaran Windsong while our engine is being replaced. This is extremely good fortune for us since Windsong had two empty cabins and air conditioning during a very hot and humid week.

July, 5, 2010 Healey Falls, Ontario

July, 5, 2010 Healey Falls, Ontario

Marc- The trip up from Frankford on the Trent was hot. Summer has arrived to this region. We did have a nice dock space near two large Willow trees in a park like setting. The town was tiny and did not have a great deal to offer. We were treated well by the lady at the local Subway shop. Sara and I went for a jog and then a swim with Stephanie. Dinner was enjoyed on board Windsong with even a vegetarian option. From Frankford to Campbellford was mostly motoring in weedy canals with some stretches of clear river. There were several locks to negotiate as well. Some of these locks were rather modern metal hydralic structures while others were clearly working well using 19th century technology and wooden gates.

The morning treat was swimming at the Blue Hole. We rafted up to Windsong that was already anchored in the Hole. The swimming was excellent and enjoyed by all. Our afternoon stop was at Campbellford. This town had a nice park and a giant $ 2 Canadian coin, a Toonie, in it. The ice cream was good and we were able to fuel up the Lucy III at MacMillan's Wharf. An afternoon shower helped cool up off before climbing several more locks to the basin at Healey Falls.
The basin was a wonderful spot for swimming, dinner at a picnic table, and even a marshmallow roast. Sue cooked us a great dinner of pasta, salad, fresh vegetables.

July 3, 2010 Toronto, Ontario

July 4, 2010 Frankford, Ontario

Sue- So I showed up yesterday, a week into the trip. Marc made arrangements for me to fly to Toronto. It was a great flight on a little American Eagle plane, it took only 1-1/2 hours, there were no clouds. I saw the Boston Harbor Islands sitting in clean water so that they looked like they were growing out of the water. I could see their rock and sand bases. Then I saw so many pretty parcels of land, as you do from a plane, though I had no idea where we were until the flight attendant pointed out Niagara Falls to me. That was very cool. Then we flew around Lake Ontario and into Toronto.
Marc and the girls were there when I cleared customs and we had a nice reunion. They had called me seventeen times a day each day since they'd left, and it was reassuring to know they were safe. We were amazed by Toronto! It is huge, clean, there were swarms of people walking everywhere. There are no cars parked on the sides of the roads, but there are parking garages underground and at ground level everywhere. There is a tremendous amount of building going on. There appear to be a lot of apartment buildings all around the city, and as we drove out of the city we saw fairly tall apartment buildings for MILES. I have never seen so many apartment buildings. We must have been 15 or 20 miles out of the downtown area before we saw a single family home. The downtown is huge and right in the middle of it is parkland and the stately University of Toronto campus. We also walked through the Fairmont Hotel (The Royal York Hotel) where Marc's Uncle Clement worked in his youth. The population was very international and we had dinner at a waterfront Chinese restaurant. The Tall ships were docked right out front. Marc drove us back to Trenton to CFB (Canadian Forces Base Yacht Club).

Today at Trenton, we entered the Trent-Severn Waterway, saw a Swan couple and their babies, an Osprey, and 6 locks. It was really HOT, but there is a breeze, the skies are clear blue, so it's hard to find fault with the weather. Our spot in Frankford is idyllic. We are tied up in the lock, we have weeping willows for shade, benches and picnic tables. We even went for a swim in the canal.

July 2, 2010 Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario

July 2, 2010 Deseronto, Ontario

Stephanie- The fireworks last night reminded me of the song titled “fireflies,” which I predictably began to sing, (pretty much the only song I know the lyrics to.) Dad awoke early and pulled the anchor and set sail before Sara or I were even awake; always the early riser. The Lucy III headed west down the beautiful Bay of Quinte for Belleville and eventually the Canadian Forces Base Yacht Club at Baker Island in Trenton, Ontario. We saw before us a promising day, and, as if to prove this, a clear, unfaltering azure sky. I was, as always, exhausted for no apparent reason, feeling zombie-like as I groped the sides of the boats' walls to keep from stumbling in the turbulence of a wave. By the time I had washed up in the cabin and finished applying all of my intricately-arranged makeup, we had almost arrived at our destination. As I helped Dad and Sara arrange all the lines so that we would be ready to dock, we spotted the marina and military base we would be staying at for the following two nights. The first piece of scenery that caught my attention was a great checkerboard tower, which we later discovered to be a lighthouse for the Canadian Forces. In the distance, I could see lots of greenery and infinite beauty. The marina was nice and the food was excellent at the Yukon Galley on base. They allowed us to use a crane to lower both masts for passage in the Trent-Severn Waterway and its low bridges.

Marc- This was an excellent stopover location. We were able to do the mast lowering as described by Stephanie with lots of help for our friend Jay Gehrig. Once the rig was secure, we moved the boat to a new dock and then I called Enterprise for the rental car. The service was excellent and the local office was just on the edge of the base. We used the car to do some shopping and sightseeing in town. We also made a stop at the best laundromat we have seen in our travels.

July 1, 2010 Canada Day !

Sara -
Having slept in, I awoke to my dad's shuffling and my sister's singing. “Happy Canada Day,” I called drowsily from my bunk to delighted exclamations of “Oh yeah... Canada Day! Whoo! Canada Day!” from Steph, a Canada-obsessed, McGill-headed high school sophomore.
After a satisfying breakfast of crepes and an hour of waiting for Steph to finish showering, we motored out of the Collins Bay Marina, all those lovely Canadians we'd met there waving us off and Dad calling out our blog's address, while Steph and I waved smilingly, pajama-clad (to my fashionable sister's horror, that was my outfit for the day).

Once out of our sweet sanctuary, the wind decided to test Steph's Zen-ness (I've been trying to teach her not to freak out about things too much). Sadly, she succumbed, totally freaking out as the wind wrapped the sail's ropes around our bikes and, as she attempted to fix this, her white sweater was dirtied. “Da-a-ddy!” Her anguished cries reverberated around the boat. Dad frowned, offering help. I grumbled.
After Dad had cleaned Steph's sweater, she flounced off to do her makeup and we were allotted a moment's peace. We took turns steering the boat and adjusting the sails, but Dad did most of the work as I chomped on the best gum in the world (peppermint Orbit), reading On The Road by the brilliant Jack Kerouac whose style reminds me of my beloved J.D. Salinger's.
Assured that her sweater was no longer in danger, Steph joined us in the cockpit with a repentant smile, and snuggled in a corner with a blanket, Pringles, and her iTouch on which she watched that new Sherlock Holmes movie. Dad steered, relaxing into routine. I read, annoyedly ignoring my newly and, I was afraid, fleetingly-sane sister. As I focused my attention back onto Kerouac's masterpiece of a novel, I quickly forgot all about Steph and her sweater, and forgetting, forgave (if accidentally).

Deseronto, a quaint nowheres-ville (as my mom calls all sparsely populated places), was celebrating Canada Day as we motor-sailed in and anchored near a moon-bounce surrounded by balloon-carrying parents and cake-eating kids ( we later learned that the cake was free, so after consuming a delicious dinner of poutine, we got some too). Tired and too lazy to walk to town, we took the dinghy back to our boat where we were soon joined by our friends Jay and Joan who have been traveling with us on a catamaran with their three fantastically enthusiastic chocolate labs, Molly, Marley, and Rosie. Their whipped cream and our brownies made for a delectable dessert. Bellies contented, Steph and I proceeded to jump off the boat (with trepidation at first but then with great gusto). As we first started doing a couple summers ago in idyllic Lake Champlain, we shampooed each others hair and attempted not to drop the soap into the dreaded sea monsters' lair (Steph kept going on half-jokingly about how horrible monsters were slumbering beneath us and would get exceedingly angry if we let anything sink down to them). Splashing and screaming and laughing hysterically about sea monsters, we stayed in that surprisingly warm-ish water for about an hour. Later, as Steph and I were playing UNO, Dad called us up to watch the fireworks which, to our amazement (as we didn't think such a small town could afford such a spectacle), were breathtakingly brilliant bursts of glittering color, their dying embers floating off like fireflies.

Sailing again with the Holts 6-28-2010 and Departure from Clayton 6-29-2010

Marc, Sara and Stephanie- We have enjoyed a great afternoon sailing with our friends, Shep and Emily Holt, who came over from Grindstone Island to join us. There was an excellent breeze to sail about the River. Both Shep and emily knew where all of the unmarked rocks were and just how close we could approach to any island with reference to any charts or electronics. I am not sure who enjoyed themselves the most.

-Our friends Jay and Joan Gehrig arrived on their beautiful Voyage 380 Catamaran today. We joined them for lunch at Koffee Kove in Clayton, New York and then sailed off to Gananoque, Ontario to clear customs and enjoy a new ice cream shop. The Gehrigs will meet us with us on their boat Windsong in Kingston. The winds were right on the nose at 25 knots for a trip to Kingston so we opted to sail around Grindstone Island and head northwest instead. We had no problems tacking among the Canadian Islands that almost all are part of Parks Canada. After clearing customs in town, we headed off in search of one of these islands for the night. We chose Mermaid Island and were warmly welcomed by a boating family. This proved to be a very nice spot for the night. We explored the Island's trails and then Sara and Stephanie enjoyed a refreshing swim. I even saw a mink racing across the pink granite rocks jump into the river.

Marc