July 7, 2025 Thousand Islands Club to Horizon Marine Alexandria Bay (for diesel & pumpout) to Kingston, ON Confederation Basin Harbor Marina 30.7 NM, 3:35 h. 9.9 kn. We made it to Canada! After a stop for diesel and pumpout before leaving the USA, we cruised through more of the 1000 islands on our way to Kingston. We experienced some bumpy (2-3 foot) seas but arrived in Kingston with plenty of time to clear customs & immigration before our visitors (#99 and #100) arrived. Lori and Gordon drove down to Kingston from their home in Ottawa to see our boat, catch upon the past 30 years and have dinner with us. We are so happy they made the trip. It was absolutely wonderful to see them and to share our stories from the past 30ish years since we were last together. Gordon was a year ahead of Doug in the pediatric dental residency program at Columbus Children’s Hospital in 1989/90 and Lori was a hygienist in the clinic there. Lori and Gordon make their own maple syrup now and brought us some which we can’t wait to try! We hope it’s not another 30 years before we’re all together again. *An update on the homemade maple syrup, it was delicious on our Sunday morning pancakes!

July 8, 2025 Kingston Confederation Basin Marina to Trent Port Marina Trenton, ON. 61.2 NM, 5:00 h, 12.9 kn. We left Kingston bright and early (6:45 AM) and enjoyed cruising quickly across beautiful calm waters. After passing a bunch of small sailboats out on the water in Belleville, we arrived in Trenton in time for lunch, a visit to the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) and the grocery.We joined in docktails with I-Float, Sweet & Salty, CC & Water, Blue Moon, Sea Cottage, Decompressing and more. It was time for a rest day to reprovision and get ready for our 2 week journey across the Trent-Severn Waterway. So on Wednesday, we got our bikes out and rode to Canadian Tire and revisited the LCBO with our baskets to carry our purchases back to the boat. We had dinner at Tommasso’s celebrating Robin’s birthday early and said farewell to our friends on Sea Cottage as they won’t be leaving with us in the morning as they are waiting on a part for their engine.

July 10, 2025 Trent Port Marina to Frankford North East Lock Wall 6 NM, 3:14 h, 3.8 kn. 6 locks! We departed the marina about 8 AM and headed out under the gateway bridge to the 1st lock of the day. We locked through with Martine and Jean on Le Flot-Ralie rafting off of them in each of the locks with Shay Chalet II in the lock behind us. After exiting our 6th lock of the day, we tied up in a lovely shady spot under a willow tree with power for the evening. We walked to town for lunch , enjoyed Kawartha ice cream at the nearby campground and then hunkered down for the evening in the air conditioning on our boat to try to recover from the excessive heat of the day. There is and Extreme Heat Warning for the next week.

July 11, 2025 Frankford Topside to Campbellford Town Dock East 20.1 NM, 5:15 h, 5.5 kn, 6 locks! Upon arrival in Campbellford, we were greeted by our boat’s name designating our wall space. It was a hot, exhausting day of travel and we were happy to see Mike (Doda II) waiting to catch our bow line as we arrived. Once our group cleaned up and cooled off, we were off to celebrate Robin’s (Livin’ It) birthday with a little pub crawl, a picture with the giant Twoney (Canadian $2 coin) and dinner. A good time was had by all!

July 12, 2025 Campbellford Town Dock to Hastings Village Marina 16.8 NM, 4:50 h, 5.7 kn, 6 locks! After a visit to Dooher’s Bakery for some amazing donuts and butter tarts and the Saturday Farmer’s Market for cherries and raspberries, we departed for Hastings. It was another brutally hot day and we cooled off at McGillicafey’s with drinks and dinner followed by ice cream from Sweet Bee’s (Kawartha ice cream is pretty darn good!) It would have been a perfect evening if FC Cincinnati had been able to hold on to their 2-0 lead (2 goals scored in the 1st 5 minutes!) and won the Hell is Real match at home.

July 13, 2025 Hastings Village Marina to Peterborough Marina 33.3 NM, 5:38 h, 6.5 kn, 1 lock. Woohoo! Only 1 lock today! We did cruise through quite a squall. Fortunately, it was brief and we were able to slow down and stay between the bad stuff. All’s well that ends well. After what turned into a another hot day, we tied up easily in Peterborough and set off to explore the town. We took a long hot exhausting walk out to the Peterborough lift lock and it is indeed as impressive and intimidating as I imagined! The lock is very cool. Completed in 1904, it was considered an engineering marvel at the time. Each of the 2 pans weighs 1300 tons when filled. With 1 pan up and 1 pan down the 2 balance each other. It doesn’t matter how much a boat weighs or how many boats are in each pan because a boat displaces it’s own weight in water. When it is time to lower 1 pan and raise the other one extra foot of water (130 tons) is added to the upper pan. This weight allows the upper pan to push down and raise the lower pan to the top level as it descends to the lower position. The 2 pans are then locked in place and the extra water is let out of the lower pan allowing boats to exit the pan. After we returned to the marina, we cleaned up, stopped by docktails and then headed out to dinner at icy cold Riley’s Pub. On Monday, we visited the Canadian Canoe Museum which was quite interesting (pictured below is Gordon Lightfoot’s yellow canoe), then we met our friends for Mexican Monday lunch and returned to the marina to prepare (the usual pumpout and diesel) to head out bright and early Tuesday morning.

July 15, 2025 Peterborough Marina to Lakefield Marina 8.7 NM, 4:14 h, 4.1 kn, 7 locks! Today we did the Peterborough Lift Lock, SO COOL! Another long, hot cruise and it felt so good to be tied up for the evening in Lakefield. They even had Kawartha ice cream at the marina office! We went for a walk to the local market for some shrimp, sourdough bread, fresh horseradish and other goodies we couldn’t live without. Doug picked up Pizza Hut, 2 medium, 2 topping pizzas for $20 (Canadian!) what a deal! And we had a nice relaxing evening on the boat.

July 16, 2025 Lakefield Marina to Buckhorn Upper Lock Wall 17.7 NM, 4:51 h, 6.3 kn, 4 locks. What a day! We got an early start, bringing up the rear of our looper contingent of Decompressing, Shay Chalet II, Madi Hati, and Livin’ It. We waited for the 2nd lockage of the morning about 9:30 and began our day of hurry up and wait. It was the hottest day we’ve had so far and a different group of boats in every lock. Lots of rental houseboats to contend with in the locks keeping it all interesting. The lockmaster had to hold onto one of the houseboats with his boathook through their upper railings because the woman couldn’t quite grasp the concept of holding on to her line. Wow! It was quite the show. We also shared the locks with lots of “cottagers” out enjoying the beautiful day. While we were in the Buckhorn lock, Mike and Jan (Doda II) came over and told us a spot on the wall with power had just opened up behind them up on the topside and we jumped at the chance to tie up with power (yay! air conditioning!) and were thankful for our guardian angels (Mike & Jan) who let us know about the spot and helped us tie up. We were pretty much toast at that point and the rest of our contingent were far ahead in Bobcaygeon where we weren’t sure we could get a spot even without power. After catching our breath, we explored Buckhorn, enjoyed wing Wednesday at the Main Street Grill, Kawartha ice cream at the General Store and later on dinner and locktails with Mike and Jan. Lots of people were swimming not far from the lock but we couldn’t quite muster the energy. Maybe another day…

July 17, 2025 Buckhorn Topside to Bobcaygeon Topside Lock Wall 14.6 NM, 2:02 h, 10.4 kn, 1 lock. We were full of GO – NO GO indecision and were closely following the weather forecast (we see no need to run into another squall if it can be avoided). At 5:30 AM Doug chose NO GO and by 8:30 AM he was regretting his choice a little bit and we chose to GO. The forecast was looking good until the winds would kick up later in the afternoon after we were safely docked. All was well. We had a little sprinkle in the lock as we were going up and a pretty good downpour as we tied up but we didn’t melt and our friends on Decompressing and Livin’ It were there to help in spite of the rain. Once we were settled we took a walk about town and had a lovely lunch then I joined Robin and Loraine for some shopping and Dougie set off to explore on his own. We went to Happy Hour and an early dinner with our buddy boats (Decompressing, Livin’It and Shay Chalet II) and then returned to our flybridge to listen to the concert in the park nearby. Melissa Payne kept us all entertained and it was a lovely evening with the temperatures finally cooling off. The low temperature was 49 degrees (Fahrenheit not celsius, being in Canada this long, I am beginning to regret not paying more attention when they tried to teach the metric system in junior high).

July 18, 2025 Bobcaygeon Topside to Fenelon Falls Topside Lock Wall 12.7 NM, 2:20 h, 7 kn, 1 lock. We departed Bobcaygeon at 7 AM and had a delightfully smooth cruise to Fenelon Falls. We decided to lock through and were tickled to find 4 slips with power and water! Aaahhh, the simple pleasures! Doug washed the boat and I joined an admin committee meeting with my MCF friends. After we were done, we walked about the town and down to view the falls. After a nap, we met our buddy boats for Happy Hour at the Fenelon Falls Brewery and then we enjoyed a lovely romantic dinner just the two of us, complete with live music, at Ziraldo’s Italian Steakhouse, what a treat after so much bar food lately! It was a glorious day with beautiful weather and great company.

July 19, 2025 Fenelon Falls Topside to Thorah Topside 21.8 NM, 6:27 h, 5 kn, 5 locks. Whew! It was a long day of locks and narrow, shallow canals and channels. At the Kirkfield Lift Lock, (which was wild, driving the boat into a pan of water suspended 5 stories in the air), we began locking down instead of up and the red channel markers are now on our left with green on the right as we head towards Lake Huron. Navigating through the shallow, narrow canals and channels kept us on our toes and we were happy to tie up for the next couple of nights above lock 40 at Thorah. We had a quiet, relaxing evening. It was like anchoring out but we were securely tied to a concrete lock wall so no worries of dragging anchor in the forecasted winds. There was no water or power but we ran the generator to cook dinner, the temperatures were cool enough to not need air conditioning, FC Cincinnati won in Salt Lake City (thank goodness for Starlink!) and it was a wonderful evening aboard Hiatus Too. Sunday morning we took a lovely walk between locks 39, 40 and 41 before Lake Simcoe with lots of wildflowers and followed that up with a delicious breakfast of pancakes with homemade maple syrup from our friends Lori and Gordon. Our friends on Decompressing and Livin’ It joined us at the lock (they stopped earlier yesterday above lock 38). And Lock 41 reopened after a brief concern that a boat hitting the gate last night had damaged it.

July 21, 2025 Thorah Topside Lock Wall to Port of Orillia 17.9 NM, 2:32 h, 8.9 kn. + 2 locks. We had an easy cruise through locks 40 & 41 out onto Lake Simcoe and up to Orillia. We arrived in time for lunch, exploring the town, laundry and tapas & wine for dinner at Picnic in downtown Orillia. On Tuesday morning, we went to the Orillia Museum of Art & History to see the Gordon Lightfoot exhibit (Orillia is his birthplace) and the Mariposa Folk Music 65th Anniversary photography exhibit. It was very interesting and took me back in time with black and white photos of John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and more musicians I’ve enjoyed since my younger days. Another lovely day with blue skies and perfect temperatures!

July 23, 2025 Port of Orillia to Big Chute Marina 29.8 NM, 10:00 h (not a typo, it really was a 10 hour day!), 6 kn, 2 locks and a 4:15 h wait for a railroad swing bridge! What a day! We started our early and had smooth cruising up to the railroad swing bridge. When we arrived at 9:10 AM the automated sign said, Next Turn 10 to 10:30 AM, so we settled in to wait. Soon it changed to 10:30 to 11 AM and shortly after that a train went through a bit too fast and damaged the track. The bridge operator announced that he would have to assess the damage and would make an announcement in the early afternoon but that they may not be able to open at all that day. A few boats turned around, a couple of others lowered their canvas, radar, antennas etc and barely slipped under the bridge. That was not an option for us so we anchored and decided to wait as patiently as possible until 2:30 or 3 PM which would still give us enough time to make it through locks 42 and 43 (before they closed at 5:30) and get to Big Chute Marina before dark. Early afternoon arrived sooner rather than later and at 12:45PM the sign changed to Next Turn 1 PM! Woohoo! We all (Decompressing and Livin’ It were with us) pulled up our anchors and got ready to move along once the bridge opened. As we passed the bridge, the sign read, Thank You for Your Patience. Next up we cruised through locks 42 and 43 without any complications and arrived in Big Chute in time to see the last boats of the day come up the marine railway. We got ice cream and walked around the old railway and the new one checking out the “rail car” that we would be riding on the next morning. It was a bigger hill than I had imagined and looked more like a roller coaster than I expected. We made dinner on the boat and enjoyed a peaceful relaxing dinner in the air conditioning after a long day on the water.

July 24, 2025 Big Chute Marina to Rawley Resort Port Severn 7.4 NM, 1:56 h, 5.2 kn, Big Chute Marine Railway! Today’s the day! Lock 44 on the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Big Chute Marine Railway. Wow! It was truly amazing! Big Chute Marine Railway works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change in height of about 60 feet (18 m). It is the only marine railway of its kind in North America still in use. It was kind of like a boat roller coaster for boats of all shapes and sizes. We went through with 4 jet skis. Our Canadian friends, Lori and Gordon and Gordon’s brothers, Bob and Kenneth joined us for the ride. It was great to be able to share the experience with them. (They grew up in Canada and didn’t even know the marine railway existed!) After our ride, we docked to let our guests off the boat to return to their vacation on Lake Simcoe while we had ice cream and watched more boats of all shapes and sizes go up and down the railway while we waited to take pictures of our friends, Robin and Bob on Livin’ It, as they had waited to go to the blue line until after they had taken our picture. Then we cruised on to Port Severn together where we enjoyed the pool (it was another hot, hot day!), weathered a squall and were rewarded by a gorgeous sunset for our last night on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

July 25, 2025 Rawley Resort Marina to Wye Heritage Marina Midland 8.4 NM, 1:32 h, 6.6 kn, lock 45. We locked through the LAST lock of this loop about 10 AM and headed out through some rocky, shallow, circuitous channels to Midland on the Georgian Bay. It was a short cruise and we arrived at Wye Heritage Marina with plenty of time to pump out, fill up with diesel, have lunch at the marina and enjoy the pool. Wye Heritage is a huge marina, it was a .6 mile walk to the pool from our dock! We took an extremely sketchy Busy Bee taxi to dinner at Lily’s Italian Eatery in Midland where enjoyed chatting with the co-owner, sommelier brother who was our server while the co-owner chef bother prepared our delicious meals. The wild mushroom ravioli was phenomenal as was the company and conversation. We really enjoy meeting the locals everywhere on the loop and hearing their stories. We returned to the marina via a much nicer Uber and made plans for our cruise to Parry Sound on Sunday.

July 26, 2025 Wye Heritage Marina, Midland to Big Sound Marina, Parry Sound 44.9 NM, 4:30 h, 11.8 kn. We had a lovely smooth cruise from Midland up the bay to Big Sound Marina. We arrived about 15 minutes early for the 11 AM swing bridge (this bridge opens every odd hour, on the hour, from 7 AM to 7 PM, except at 1 PM, then it opens at 1:15 PM) and waited out in the bay until it opened. We tied up at the marina and set out to explore the town and later enjoyed dinner with Robin and Bob at DiSalvo’s Bella Cucina (best chicken parm of the loop!). Sunday, we visited the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame (very interesting), walked out to the beach on the fitness trail and had lunch at Trestle Brewery – great brewed root beer and we tried our first poutine. It wasn’t bad but I’m not in a hurry to try it again. I did my usual Sunday load of laundry, it was 2 loonies (Canadian $1 coins) per wash. Then we grilled out dinner with Livin’ It and enjoyed a wonderful evening on our flybridge with a nice breeze and cooler temperatures.

July 28, 2025 Big Sound Marina, Parry Sound to Killbear Marina, Pengallie Bay 11.8 NM, 1:52 h, 7.2 kn. We cruised across Parry Sound from Big Sound to Killbear passing through Hole in the Wall and Killbear Provincial Park along the way. After lunch aboard, we took the dinghy over to Kilcoursie bay for a swim at the beach, the water felt great! Later, we enjoyed dinner at Blake’s Memories of Muskoka – Killbear at the marina and the pizza was great and the frozen peanut butter pie was a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

July 29, 2025 Killbear Marina, Pengallie Bay to Wright’s Marina, Byng Inlet 40.6 NM, 5:05 h, 8.3 kn. We cruised through (what felt like) the 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay past Pointe au Baril Lighthouse and the site of the original Barrel marking safe passage. We cruised up Byng Inlet without difficulty to Wright’s Marina, backing into our space between Sweet Dreams, the stern of a sailboat and another dock like pros. The young lady from the marina who was helping us dock commented that it was a really “ballsy” move and executed perfectly. It was all I could do not to laugh. Doug and I took a walk to Britt, pretty much a one stop/shop town and purchased some medical tape to buddy tapes my toes together as the 4th one is sticking out at a weird angle after banging into a doorway a few days ago. On another note, when searching for medical/athletic tape on the boat the day after my injury, we did not have any in our first aid kit, but I did find and envelope of $5 and $10 bills for tipping dockhands that I had apparently stashed in the first aid kit prior to moving aboard, so that was nice. We entertained the crews of Livin’ It and Sweet Dreams over docktails on the fly bridge before risking grilling dinner at twilight in bear country. A dockhand mentioned to Doug that our dinner smelled great but that he might want to be careful because they have a 500 pound bear who frequently comes around at dark to forage for food. Probably would have been nice to know that before he started grilling! Fortunately all’s well that ends well and there were no bear sightings that evening.

July 30, 2025 Wright’s Marina, Byng Inlet to Killarney Mountain Lodge 42.6 NM, 4:56 h, 9.1 kn. Happy 42nd Anniversary! We departed the marina about 8 AM, cruised across Georgian Bay to Killarney and were tied up safely in time for lunch at Herbert’s Fishery. Best fish and chips of our loop, the pickerel was delicious! We are hopeful that the smoke from the wildfires up north dissipates soon so we can enjoy clear skies and the beautiful views of this very special place on the loop. Our friends on Livin’ It and Decompressing treated us to happy hour at the Carousel Bar and we had a good time. On our way back to our boat to clean up for our anniversary dinner, our dockmates introduced themselves and invited us aboard for a drink. There were 4 couples enjoying their vacation on Hidden Agenda and it was a hoot meeting them and listening to their stories. We had an amazing dinner at The Ranch and the crew of Hidden Agenda were so sweet they bought our wine. After dinner we went back to the Carousel for live music and finished off an amazing day and wonderful evening celebrating 42 years of marriage. Thursday morning, the skies cleared and we took a glorious hike to the lighthouse with Robin and Loraine. Wow! It was quite a hike over rocks but the views and beauty were so worth the effort. Later in the day, Jimi and Fawn on Shay Chalet II showed up at our marina and we enjoyed having them join us, Robin & Bob (Livin’ It) and Steve & Loraine (Decompressing) for dinner at the lodge and live music at the Carousel Bar that evening.

August 1, 2025 Killarney Mountain Lodge to Gore Bay Marina 47.6 NM, 5:42 h, 8.8 kn, + 1 swing bridge that opens on the hour. We were sad to leave KIllarney after such a wonderful few days but it was time to move on. It was a nice clear, calm day to cruise through Little Current and on to Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island in the North Channel. It was after lunch by the time we arrived so we took a walk to the William Purvis Museum which was small but interesting. If we are ever playing trivia and the topic is random facts about small towns and ship wrecks in Canada, we should do very well. Our friends on Livin’ It and Decompressing joined us for a long walk to Water’s Edge for dinner where the lake trout was awesome. On Saturday morning after discussing the CBP Roam app and how to clear back into the USA and the Michigan DNR web reservation system, we went to the Gore Bay Museum in the old jailhouse – a very unique and interesting collection of random artifacts and then walked out to Janet Head Lighthouse (2 miles each way) followed by the reward of pizza and panzerotti at Buoy’s on our way back. And an extra special treat of fudgesicles from Finnia Chocolate (we are really 5 year olds at heart!).

August 3, 2025 Gore Bay Marina to Detour State Harbor, De Tour Village, MI, USA 65.2 NM, 7:22 h, 9.2 kn. We departed Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island bright and early at 6:30 AM and cruised through relatively smooth waters all the way to De Tour Village. It was very hazy and there were/are Air Quality Alerts due to the wildfires in Manitoba and Ontario. After a couple of rejections/denials, we were able to clear back into the USA via video chat (I did feel bad as the boarder agent had to wait while I rummaged around for my passport, who knew they’d want to see that after I’d already provided a picture of it? Doug’s of course was easy to find in the same place he always keeps it 🤪) Once we pumped out our holding tank (it took longer than my last colonoscopy!) and filled up our diesel tanks, we tied up in our slip and headed out to get a late lunch which turned into an early dinner. Our friends caught up with us at the De Tour Village Inn for bar food and beers and we had a delightful time. After getting back to the marina we kept the party going on Livin’ It where we played a rousing game of SkyJo until bedtime. Monday morning we relaxed, booked marinas for the rest of our trip and then went for a walk to the De Tour Botanical Garden and the local grocery with Loraine and Steve. We’re having steaks tonight after docktails and Skyline Dip!