COLDWATER, ONTARIO TO PENETENGUISHENE, ONTARIO

Sunday, July 26th, 2015

Day 356

Miles Traveled: 23

Total Miles Traveled: 5353

  At shortly before 9:00 am, we anxiously left the dock and headed over to the blue line to get in line for our turn on the Big Chute Marine Railway.  We ended up being the first in line.  A Parks Canada worker came over and advised us and the other boats on the blue line that there would be a slight delay due to a mechanical problem.  After about 30 minutes, they called to us over the bull horn and advised we could proceed to the railway.  We were placed behind a smaller boat.

waiting for The Big Chute Marine Railway

  The staff at the marine railway were all very helpful and nice.  They guided us into the slings and lifted "Seahorse out of the water skillfully and efficiently.  Once secured the fun began.

"Seahorse" in the sling of the Big Chute Marine Railway

starting our ride on the Big Chute Marine Railway

  We made our way up a small incline and then leveled off and proceeded down the 58 feet to the lower pool of the canal.  It took about 10 minutes from beginning to end.

at the bottom of Big Chute Marine Railway

  They lowered the boats back into the water and off we went.  It was a lot easier than we expected.  We made our way to the last lock of the Trent Severn Waterway - Port Severn.  This is the smallest lock in the system and also one of the busiest.  Being a weekend, there was more boat traffic.  On arrival, the blue line was already full and several boats were trying to maintain their place in line out in the water.  We had to wait on three lockages (two up and one down) and then were able to enter to lock down.  This would be our last lock for a while.  The next locks we encounter will be at Chicago, IL.  Our journey through the Heritage Canals of Canada were amazing, but, we were glad to be done with locks and looking forward to the waters of Georgian Bay.

  

  After leaving the Port Severn lock we had to battle a pretty swift current under a bridge before entering the small craft channel of Georgian Bay.  This channel is 168 miles long and will take us through some very scenic waters amongst numerous islands.  Georgian Bay is often referred to as the 30,000 islands.

entering small craft channel of Georgian Bay

  The small craft channel of Georgian Bay is very well marked, but, stray outside the channel and rocks will greet you in an unpleasant way.  Some sections of the channel can be quite narrow, as we experienced in Potato Island Channel.

Potato Island Channel - very narrow

  After Potato Island we entered the open water of Severn Sound and crossed over to Outer Harbour and down Penetang Harbour.  There are six marinas in Penetang Harbour.  Given the beautiful sunny Sunday day, the boats were plentiful.

busy Penetang Harbour

  We docked at the Port of Historic Penetanguishene and were greeted by fellow Looper Jeff from Gran Vida.  He is now the harbormaster for this marina.  We met him and his first mate, Susan, on our arrival at Dunedin, FL back in December.  They were both kind enough to fix us a great dinner after our long Gulf crossing.  Jeff went back to work, and, we set off to check out downtown Penetanguishene.  On our way to the main street, we passed by a nice park.  It had a statue of Kitchekewana.  The story of the Huron Giant Kitchekewana in interesting.  Spurned by the Princess Wanakita and overcome with grief, he scooped a handful of earth and threw it into Georgian Bay creating the 30,000 islands.

statue of Kitchekewana

  Susan joined us for drinks at Flynn's, an Irish pub.  After, she graciously drove us to a nearby WalMart for some needed shopping.  Once Jeff got off work, the two of them prepared us a great BBQ dinner and we got to catch up on our travels since we left them back in December.