The Lady J: Cooler day and on to Campbellford

Oh the weather was soooo much better this morning. The storm from Sunday night cleared out a lot of the humidity and left us having a much cooler morning to wake up to. With the cooler weather came better dispositions from both of us. So off we started this morning to Campbellford. We would go through 6 locks and travel 24 miles in 6 hours. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it took a while, specially getting through the locks. Our first lock we were squeezed in with two other boats, one that we followed out of Frankford and another that was at the lock wall waiting for the lock to open. The term for that is literally "wait at the blue line". (Because of the blue line painted on the wall.

Leaving Frankford

This mornings experience locking through went much smoother, the wind was under control and we had learned a few handy tricks from a couple of the lock tenders on how to best get through the locks. Oh my heavens these Canadians are so very nice.

Once we go through the first lock we had about an hour of just plain cruising, yay time to get ready for the other 5 ahead of us. We decided to slow it down a bit and let the two boats that were in front of us get much further ahead so that we could lock through on our own or with just one boat. 3 boats in the lock was a bit squeezy. So we took our time and enjoyed the scenery and boy were we treated to some BEAUTIFUL scenery.

Exiting the first lock

Whew one down 5 to go.

Captain Marty, who I took a ton of pictures of his boat and some how lost his boat card, Marty if you read this leave me a message with your email so I can send them to you.

Yes we could live in this house. Not so much in the winter time.

While we were working our way to the second lock we ran across our friends from S/V Heron, oddly enough I didn't recognize them at first until I realized that Grace their 6 year old granddaughter was on the bow spritz cleaning off their anchor. They were getting ready to leave and were soon right behind us. So we slowed the pace even a little more thinking we would lock through with them. Well little did we know that at the second lock they were holding it for us with one of the boats from the first lock we went through. Came to find out they slowed down their pace to transit through with us. So we ended up going with them through the locks and our friends on Heron were a lock behind us.

S/V Heron, just getting ready to shove off.

We had seen these two guys yesterday, hmm would we run into them again?

Look there they are in front of S/V Heron.

We ended up going through all 6 locks today with the folks on M/V Marquesa they were awesome guys . (Again Marty on Marquesa I lost your boat card, leave me a message with your email and I will get those photos to you.)

Captain and First Mate with some sunny dispositions.

Tied up in the lock with the guys

One of the lock tenders, so many first time students working, they were all so delightful.

Passing two BIG boats in the canal.

Waiting on the blue line for the lock to open. They were bringing down the lock with some other boats.

Look at what collects in the lock walls

So very peaceful

Getting through the last two flight locks with the guys. Hope to see them again.

Today's lock passages went smoothly

We arrived in Campbellford around 2:00 p.m. At that point there was only one other boat at west wall of the dock. We pulled the Lady J up to the wall and got her all settled in for the night. Checked in with the folks at the visitors center who were kind enough to give us all types of information on the activities of the town. The large toonie, chocolate factory, ice cream, donuts were on our list. Hmmm that doesn't sound to healthy, but I will continue on. First the toonie. (I think I am spelling that correctly). A toonie is a Canadian $2.00 coin. It's my understanding it is fairly new. And of course here in Campbellford they have a HUGE statue of one in the park. I guess the guy who designed it is from here.

Mike with an actual Toonie next to the HUGE one.

We rode our bikes over to the Chocolate Factory, after tackling two large hills on the ride over we felt we deserved to purchase a little chocolate. We quickly returned from the factory and put the chocolate in the fridge as the heat fluctuates so much on this boat we didn't want it to melt. Oddly enough we haven't eaten any yet, you noticed I said "yet".

The Chocolate Factory was, well AWESOME!

We then decided to get some ice cream, I know chocolate, then ice cream. Remember we hadn't eaten the chocolate. Ice cream was yummy but again a bit pricey. $10.00 for two cups. Well between the chocolate and the ice cream we blew our eating out budget so on board we would dine.

We enjoyed our ice cream while sitting at the canal on a bench in the shade and along came two gentlemen in a canoe. Yes these were the same two guys we had seen earlier in the day and yesterday. We quickly went over to their canoe to see if they needed help tying up. Which they gladly accepted. I was amazed though the size of line they use to tie up compared to ours.

The canoeing guys were back.

This size was a great deal different than what our lines are.

We then spent the next 15 minutes or so talking with the two wonderful young men. They said they saw us eating ice cream and decided they would like to enjoy some themselves. They were truly on an amazing adventure, their goal was to canoe/camp their way to Thunder Bay. And then continue their journey from there. They were extremely fit and they were a delight to talk with . We wished them the best on their journey and who knows we may see them again down the way.

Group picture with the timer. I barely made it through the rail in time (hence the awkward position).

By this time the wall was starting to fill up with boats. So many folks that we had met in the last week came to tie up along the wall in Campbellford. We caught up with everyone and filled each other in on where we had been and what we had done in the last couple of days. One of the boats that tied up where our friends, Jim and Elizabeth from S/V Heron that we met in Kingston. As I may have told you before their granddaughter Grace was with them for this part of the journey. She is such a fun little one and so at ease on the boat.