Resting in Midland

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!  Okay just pretend I know how to sing and think Oklahoma!  The weather has finally taken a turn and the humidity is down along with the temperature.  We are here in Midland Ontario at Wye Heritage Marina for the next 3 night, resting and attending to some boat chores, like grocery shopping, tackling this ever growing pile of laundry, and raising the mast.  We had heard great things about this marina and they have lived up to their reputation.  Being that we are Loopers the third night for us is FREE!  And as we all know FREE is good!  They have beautiful showers, a small boat store, a courtesy shuttle to town, laundry facilities  and a pool!  And guess what we took advantage of all of it, except for the boat store.

I tackled the laundry first thing and Mike was kind enough to help me take over the load to the laundry facilities.  This is a great marina but a large one so things are pretty spread out.  While at doing laundry we met another couple from California they too were doing the loop.  It's amazing who you meet while cleaning your clothes.  Laundry took about 2 hours so afterwards we came back for a small lunch and then went to the office to see if the shuttle could take us to town so we could pick up some food.  That went well and we were able to stock up on all the things we wanted.  Why is it though the minute you get back from the store you can think of about a dozen other things you should have gotten.  Oh well next time.  We arrived back to the boat around 2:30 ish, put things away and just hung out for a while.  Then Mike said how about going to the pool?  Why not was my thought, so off to the pool we went.  It wasn't very crowded and the pool actually was kind of heated (about 80 degrees) so it was really quite comfortable.  I must admit we acted like a bunch of kids, it was so much fun just to relax for a while.  

After swimming we returned back to the boat for a light dinner and then spent some time topside just watching the evening sky.  There was a full moon or at least it looked like one, Blue Moon I believe.  Tomorrow we would work on putting up the mast and figure out where we would head off to on Saturday.

Yay!  swimming

Pool Selfies

This will embarrass our children, but he was being so silly I couldn't resist

The view from our fly bridge Thursday evening.

Ok I admit it I am a cloud whore, I just love clouds and all their different forms.

Contemplative Captain

One more sky photo

One last shot of the sky with a beautiful blue moon.

The BIG CHUTE and on to Georgian Bay

Wednesday morning was here!  Today was the day we would take the Lady J over the BIG CHUTE.  We decided not to rush to much in the morning as there were already 5 boats on the blue line when we awoke and we knew it would take a while to get everyone through.  So once we noticed the boats were beginning to move we pulled up our lines and moved over to the blue line.

Waiting on the Blue Line

Our turn would be soon to go over the BIG CHUTE

We spent about 30 minutes waiting on the blue line.  Once it was your turn they come over a loud speaker and call your boat and tell you exactly where to place it.  Mike did a great job getting her into the chute as there is a bit of a current right before you enter the chute.  Once in the chute the rest was easy.  The Chute tenders did all the rest of the work.  It was AMAZING.  I took a video of our journey over but unfortunately I am having difficulty posting it on this site.  So if you have Facebook please feel free to view it on our Facebook Page of Journey of the Lady J.  This was a once in a lifetime experience and we were not disappointed.

Captain brought her in without a problem

Once we were in place the Big Chute did all the work.

These large straps are what kept us in place as we were taken out of the water.

And off we went.

A friend of our Pam from Sea Bear took this photo of us while we were on the Chute.

After exiting the chute you then transit on to an area called the little chute.  This is a very narrow passage with some serious currents and rocks.  Once again Mike did an amazing job getting us through this part of the journey.

Little Chute was very narrow and turbulent.

We had one more lock to get through and this would be the last lock of our journey on the Trent Severn Waterway.  Lock 45.  We approached the lock and noticed there were a lot of boats on the blue line and tied up all around the blue line.  What we soon came to find out was that this lock is notorious for being backed up, one because the lock is so small and two because the boats are so big, makes sense.  Long story short we waited a little over 2 hours to get through this lock.  Then found out that it was the hottest day of the year.  No kidding, I think we were melting just standing still in the shade.  But we made it through and then were finally in Georgian Bay, where we planned to spend the next three days at Wye Heritage Marina to rest, do some provisioning and tackle this ever growing pile of laundry.  What a day!  We can now mark off the Trent Severn Waterway as being completed.  On to the rest of our journey.

The back up at Lock 45

We luckily were stuck at Lock 45 with our friends from Sea Bear

Finally into Georgian Bay!

Orillia to the BIG Chute

I awoke the Tuesday morning to a beautiful sunrise.  This morning we left about 7:45 a.m. to get a good start over to the BIG Chute.  The winds were calm and sky was sunny and the weather was HOT but we had plans to get to Big Chute spend the night and then transit through the chute the next morning, so on we went.

A fan for the Captain was the order of the day.

Clear morning sky and calms seas

First thing we arrived at was a swing bridge.  We waited probably 15 minutes for this to open, I think the guy was late to work that day

Again more beautiful homes out on a rock.

And talk about rocks, HUGE masses of rock everywhere.  Some tricky cruising.

Mike talked with this gentleman during our first lock of the morning. He cruised alone with his faithful pup.

Our second (and last) lock of the day was at Swift Rapids, this would be the largest lock we would go through on the waterway, it was a 47 foot drop.

Needless to say the gates at this level were a bit overwhelming

This was on the other side of Swift Rapids, I can understand now why they call it Swift Rapids.

We arrived at our final destination of Big Chute Marina around 2:00 p.m.  We would spend the night here and travel through the Big Chute in the morning.  The marina was just the kind we enjoyed most, very laid back and smaller.  The weather was so very warm and by the time we had the Lady J settled in for the night we were over heated and exhausted.  Luckily the marina had a small area that you cold go swimming in the waterway, so off we went to hang out in the water and boy did it feel AWESOME.  Sorry no pictures.  We had dinner at the only restaurant attached to the marina.  I would suggest not to go there as there was one cook and one waitress.  We ordered some sandwiches and it took us an hour to get them.  Ugh!  Back to the boat we went.  We skyped a little while with our daughter Amanda and Grandson Jacob, he has learned now how to wave to us.  Afterwards I stuck my head out the hatch and noticed there were already 4 boats lined up on the blue line to be first in line for the Big Chute in the morning.  Popular place.

We made it

Big Chute Marina was a nice place to spend the evening.

Check out the blue line already 

Sunset Cove Marina to Orillia

Our trip from Sunset Cove Marina to Orillia was pretty uneventful.  We went through 2 locks and crossed Simcoe Lake.  

First lock of the morning and what a beautiful morning it was.

A little construction going on next to the lock

Tending to the lines in the lock

Second lock of the day was a good size one.

If you look at this photo on it's side the tree is back together again.

Lori Skoog, I thought of you when I saw these Stables.

Great day for cruising

Simcoe Lake is the largest lake on the Trent Severn Waterway, 20 x 30 miles, but we only had to cross a corner of it.  We picked a good weather day since there are literally warnings as you enter the lake saying it can be dangerous with possible 8 foot waves in bad weather.  Thankfully this day it was calm and warm and hardly any wind at all.  We crossed the lake without a problem and first mate was not bothered with motion sickness.  We arrived at the Orillia Park Marina around 1:45 p.m.  

Entrance to Simcoe Lake

The Captain was so happy to be on big water again.

The marina was a really good size, with 200 slips that were primarily for transients like us.  We quickly got the Lady J settled in her dock, put up the sun shade since there was not an ounce of shade to be had and the temps where racing toward the high 80’s.  It was too hot for site seeing so we stayed on board and caught up on, oh heck we just tried to keep cool and looked at plans for the following day.  While I was checking Facebook I noticed that Pam from Sea Bear was on line so I sent her a quick note to find out where they were.  She quickly responded back that they had pulled into the dock behind us.  Hmm must of snuck in while we were closed up and cooling off.  I told her we were planning to go out to eat since cooking in the boat was NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Too much heat already.  I asked them to join us for dinner and as they too didn’t want to heat up their boat replied “absolutely”.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner out with Pam and Mark.  After returning to the marina we stopped at the ice cream stand and each ordered a small cup.  I still don’t understand why ice cream is so expensive here in Canada.  Small portions for what we think is pretty pricey.  Tofts has us so spoiled.  It was still enjoyable and definitely helped adjust our mood.

In Canada they ask you if you want Gravy for your fries, sounds strange but oh so yummy!

These boats were everywhere around the marina in Orillia

What a cute little lunch wagon

What is it about having ice cream on a hot day always makes ones disposition a lot brighter.

A little PDA

Lady J with her Conestoga sun shade