A beautiful sunny warm day for a change. Greg Mant and Peter Charron bade us a fond farewell and left in Peter Jones’ car for the drive back to Montreal. Peter Jones, who had spent the night before in a hotel, officially joined the crew and at 0930 we were on our way to Port Severn and the entrance to Trent-Severn Waterway It was a magical day of steady motoring through beautiful lakes and rivers interrupted only by several lock passages including the famous and unique Big Chute marine railway portage system that lifts the boat out of the water on huge slings, lifts it 55 feet and transports it 500 feet up, over and down to the other side and gently refloats us – a fascinating experience.

Theyre spent almost the entire day at the helm, deferring to Capt Lee only for the entry and exit of the various locks, a learning experience for the crew who became more adept at mooring, unmooring and fending off with each repetition. Although the weather was great all day long, it turned ugly in the evening with thunder, lightning, hard rain and strong winds and plunging temperatures just as we came into Orillia Harbour. The docking was nevertheless handled by expertly by Carl, the crew did their stuff and we were safely secured in our berth by 7.30 p.m. We were then almost immediately picked up by David Bumstead (ex EVP of Noranda and a close friend of Peter and of Fednav) and taken to his and his wife, Janet’s, charming country cottage on nearby Lake Simcoe for a sumptuous dinner and then redelivered to the boat. Thank you so much, David and Janet; that was a wonderful welcome and a real treat for all of us. 

And so to bed. We had only done 30 miles but we were on our way. We expect to be in the Trent-Severn Waterway system for about a week.