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