Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.























Sunday, June 26, 2011

Ambling along the Trent

We left Frankford yesterday at 8:30 under cloudy skies and 22 degrees Celsius. Peggy brought us some delicious warm muffins when she came to bid us farewell. There was not much traffic as the forecast called for rain.  We were the only boat locking through so all locks were ready and waiting for us. There is not much to see along this stretch of the system, mostly cottages and marsh. It is still nice to be on the water and moving along with the swans, king fishers, geese and the blue herons.

We transited through 6 locks including a flight lock at Campbellford. We arrived just before the rain at 13:45. We are tied up at a wall near Tim Horton's (N44 18.201' and W077 48.185') away from the Marina and the lock wall because this spot is free.  Sound familiar? We have a cute little park near us with a bench.  There is a nice bicycle path along the river which we took full advantage of to get some exercise for our sea legs. Canadian Tire and a no frills is very close by.  There is a convenience store where you can get gas, diesel, propane, bait and ice directly across the street.  There was a flea market/yard sale across the street yesterday.  We know we can't buy anything because there is no more room on the boat but we are still drawn to them just the same. 

This town is very boater friendly. It is home to the World's Finest Chocolate Factory and the well renowned Dooher's bakery.  The artist who created the polar bear on the Canadian Tooney ($2.00) is from here.  

We are doing some boat chores and provisioning so we will travel tomorrow.  We rode our bikes up to the Rainy Falls lock which is the flight lock we went through yesterday.  There is a suspended bridge that runs across the gorge over to Ferris Provincial Park.  There are many trails in the park for walking or bike riding. We went swimming several times since the water is clean and warm.

We rescued a sea gull that was caught up in some string. It was relieved to be free I'm sure.

We are ambling along visiting friends and waiting for some to catch up to us in Balsam Lake.





Free wall in Campbellford

Rainy Falls

Bicycle trail in Ferris Provincial Park at Rainy Falls
Dare devils in Campbellford
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Location: Campbellford, ON K0L, Canada

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