Good morning from Midland, Canada. We are now out of the Trent-Severn Waterway and into Georgian Bay. Since the last post we moved through the end of the waterway and into Georgian Bay, but not without incident!

We finished off our time in Orillia exploring town and, with some buddy boaters, having a nice Japanese dinner out with a modern waiter!

You can order with an app and then the robot brings out the food and a server helps us know what we are getting.

Always had a smile on its face and seemed pleasant!

It did change its expression from time to time and we even heard it sing Happy Birthday to a table near us.

Pano of the Orillia marina from the city boardwalk.

All secure at our deep-water T dock. More on that later!

So many of the town halls look similar.

We left Orillia and planned to move two days before getting out of the waterway. We planned to move to Big Chute and then to Midland. As we have discussed all plans have to be soft!

We left Orillia by 7:45am so we could get through 3 locks and 32 miles in the waterway before spending the night near the Big Chute railway lock. As we arrived at the first lock, we were greeted with the news that the lock was closed because of high water in the system. We waited for an hour, but they got things moving again by opening dams and dumping more water out of the system.

This sign is the Canadian information system. When you arrive and see no lock master’s, you get off and walk up to the office to find this by the door. A little different than the New York Canal System were they send out emails the minute a lock has an issue. I never thought I would compliment NY on a system!

There were 5 boats waiting to get through the lock before they opened. We are the second boat on the blue line and were able to get through on the first opening.

After getting through, we came across this house with an old caboose on the property as a party room set up with a large deck system.

Continuing down the waterway, and the shallow water. Before we arrived at the Big Chute railroad lock, we heard from other loopers waiting at the lock that it was closed as well. We made a call to the Big Chute Marina and were able to get a slip at their fuel dock for the night. We thought this was great so we did not have to try to find an anchor spot on the tight canal for the night.

When we arrived, we were told we had to back into the slip so they could see people arrive at their fuel dock. I told them I was not comfortable with this approach because of shallow water behind the boat. They insisted we back in and told us the water was deep behind the boat. So, we backed in and I stopped the boat when I saw 6′ of water on my depth finders. We secured the boat with the two dock boys and shut everything down. At that time the owner walked out and told the two dock hands the boat had to come back more so they could see in their camera system and that other boats could get around our bow at the fuel dock. I took a look at the area behind the boat and could not see the bottom because of all the seaweed. As the owner untied my bow line and instructed the two dock boys to pull my boat back further, he assured me it was deep and just lots of seaweed. I had already turned the boat and electronics off, so I trusted him as they moved my boat.

We walked around the town for a couple minutes, as there really isn’t a town, just this small marina and the lock. We walked over to the lock to see what the afternoon would look like and they informed us that they were about to start moving boats through by 2PM. If we got in line we would get through the lock before closing and would most likely make the final lock downstream and be in Midland that evening. We called Midland and our slip was open so we decided lets get out of here and move on to Midland. I walked into the office and told them we would not be spending the night. We had only been there for 1 hour. I asked about a refund and was told no. So we walked out and prepared the boat to move again. I looked behind the boat and did not like the look of the area, as we were really close to shore. I turned on all the electronics and saw we were in 5’3″ of water. We draft 5′! I pulled the boat forward as hard as I could and then jumped on the boat and put it in gear. What happened next made me sick to my stomach. After successfully navigating the Trent Waterway with all the shallow water and not hitting bottom, we ground our props on the bottom at the dock. The owner and his dock hands had pulled the boat back so far that we were almost on the bottom. When I put the boat into forward the props dug in and hit the bottom. I did severe damage to my starboard prop and a little damage to my port prop. We continued out of the marina and moved over to the blue line for the lock. I called the marina to talk with the owner, and he informed me that it was my fault because we did not wait for his kids to help us out. I asked him what difference that would have made after he had instructed them to pull my boat back into harm’s way. All he could say is it was my fault! I wrote a review on the AGLCA site so this would not happen to anyone else coming through the area. In the three days since this happened, 8 loopers have canceled staying in his marina, and I hope that trend continues! We got through the railroad lock and moved on to the next lock but did not make it in time since we can only idle along with the damaged props. It made for a very long and emotional day for Amy and me and I almost made a wrong turn late in the day as I was so mad at the damage caused by the marina and the owners mis-guidance on depth.

The NEBO log combined the two moves for the day.

We are waiting on the blue line watching boats ahead of us being lifted out of the water and moved across the road and down into the lake below.

Our turn to go. They put a small boat in front of us. You pull into the chamber or carriage and then they lift straps that hold you in place while letting the bottom of the boat rest on the carriage.

All strapped in and secure.

Starting up and across the road. You can see the small boat in front of us just sitting on the deck of the carriage.

This is our second to last lock for the entire trip, but by far the most unique.

We got across the railroad lock just fine and moved another 9 miles before tying up to the blue line for our next and last lock in the town of Severn. We arrived two minutes after they closed for the day and that was fine with us as we were having trouble focusing on the canal and markers around all the little islands and rock piles. We needed to be done for the day after all the emotions of grinding the props. This is the last town on the Trent-Severn system. You start in Trenton and end in Severn.

We enjoyed a drink at the wall with some fellow loopers and then headed out for dinner as Amy and I were not in the mood to sit on the boat after what had happened earlier that afternoon. Sorry I did not take any other pictures in Severn, I just wasn’t in the mood. Hope you understand.

I didn’t sleep well that night as my mind was going on how I would solve this problem. I contacted the largest marina in Midland, Ontario first thing in the morning, where we already planned to stay, to see if they could pull a boat our size out of the water. Not only could they do it, but they could also pull us the next day and remove the props to send off to be rebuilt. This was great news. Then they informed me that it would take 2-3 weeks to have the props rebuilt and that they could not put the boat back in the water as they had no place to put us near the lift well. This meant we could not stay on the boat and would have to get a hotel room, or leave the town for three week because we have Memphis along.

So, we headed to Midland as soon as the lock opened at 9am. This was our last lock and then we were done with the Trent! Amy could not be happier to be done with locks. 107 total locks for us on this journey.

Fortunately, it was only a 12-mile run, as we did it in idle speed so not to damage any other parts of the drive gear due to vibration.

Leaving the Trent and crossing into Georgian Bay. This is part of Lake Huron, or next of the Great Lakes.

Arriving at Bay Port Marina in Midlan, Ontario.

We did take time to explore a little and restock the boat with a few items from the store.

We also found a pet store and were able to get Memphis a rawhide chew. She has not had one for almost 6 months.

Memphis was a very happy girl and taking in the new area on her perch!

Oh yeah, we still have damaged props and need to solve that issue!

As we learned early on, all plans are soft. We decided not to stay here for three weeks or more in a hotel and made a call to our friend Pete. This would be PLAN B due to the marina’s timeline.

We have a great friend who Amy and I now call our PROP ANGEL! I own an extra set of props, but they are so large they do not fit anywhere on the boat. They were strapped to pallets and sitting in our garage in Sister Bay in case we did hit something on this trip. Never would I have imagined that we would successfully navigate so much shallow water, over 6100 miles, before having harm done because of a marina and its crew!

Pete, our PROP ANGEL, drove up to our house in Sister Bay, picked up the props with help from my brother, Skip, took them back to Green Bay and loaded them on his plane that day. Pete then jumped through all the hoops for him to be able to fly into Canada with our props, and then return home with our damaged props the same day. After Pete’s generous offer to help us out and arranging all his logistics to be able to fly in and out of Canada, I worked on the logistics with the marina. The marina would have to lift the boat, have the props removed before Pete would arrive, lend me a truck, or drive me to the airport, to exchange props, and put the new ones on all-in-one day. It was all coming together.

I arrived at the lift well at 9:15am to start the process on this end. Pete had already been in the air for an hour at this point.

Getting ready to lift the boat out of the water.

She’s out and the work can start.

The props don’t look bad from a distance! I took them out of gear so quickly we did not damage any other parts of the gear. Lucky again.

It was great until they had a little trouble getting the props off because they did not have a large enough prop puller. These props are 38″ diameter blades and weigh approximately 90lbs each. It took them over two hours just to get them off and they damaged a shaft lock washer in the process.

This is the starboard prop, and you can see the bent over tips.

This is the port prop in much better shape. Only one tip has damage.

Pete arrived on time and had to wait about 30 minutes before we got to the airport for the prop exchange.

At least we are both still smiling! The new props are already out, and these are the old props strapped down and ready to return to WI.

Pete getting ready to return back to Green Bay! Amy and I can’t thank him enough for taking the time, jumping through all the customs hoops, and flying to helping us out. Pete is such a great person and friend! It just shows us how great people can be!

Back at the marina, they had a local machine shop make new shaft lock washers and started to install the new props.

Props delivered and getting ready to be installed.

Just need to keep them looking like this from now on! I ran 4 seasons and almost 10,000 miles on the last set. By the way, this is the first time in my boating life that I have hit bottom and damaged a boat.

We are getting close!

WHO DAT is going back in the water.

Our timeline for Thursday 7/25/2024:

Pete leaves GB around 8am CDT, boat comes out of the water at 9:15 am EDT, Pete lands in Midland Ontario at 10:45 am EDT, We arrive at the airport to exchange props at 11:15am EST, Pete takes off, props are installed, 12:00 PM new lock washers are being made at a machine shop, 2:30pm EDT the washers are done and picked up, 3PM the props are done and the boat is back in the water!

I can’t thank Pete and Bay Port Marina enough for all the logistics and hard work that made this day possible so Amy and I can continue our journey.

We will spend today exploring Midland, cleaning the boat, and planning for our move through Georgian Bay and all the great anchorages we have been hearing about.

I will try to post again when we arrive in Killarney, Ontario and have good internet again. Until then I hope you all have a great weekend and start to next week!