The Lady J: 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.