Inspiring Boating Stories & Travel fun from the Great Lakes and beyond!
Along with travel posts, I also share boat repairs and upgrades, tips and hints.
* Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases via links.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
On Our Way To The Bay!
It's that time again kids - Holiday Pictures!!
Hey! Stop the groaning. And no whining, as this is going to take quite a bit of time to get through, so you might as well get comfortable while I take you all along for the ride. And this is only the first of many parts to come . . .
Pre-Departure Check. Sanja goes over the charts one . . . last . . . time the weekend before we all headed out to make sure she finds her way to the rendezvous location on Georgian Bay. Will she make it? Will she run out of highlighter? Will we see her studying these same charts again during our holidays? You'll have to look for the upcoming episodes to find out.
4:35 PM, Friday, July 24th - 'Boogaboo' departs slip # B5 and WE ARE OFF!!!!!!
Not a lot to see in this video clip, but the sound of my voice says it all. Watch and listen;
Wow, look at that lake. Calm as glass as we put 'er up on plane to cross Simcoe.
Still not out of the woods from bad weather though, as this is the reason I pushed the throttles forward. That rain in the distance is just off of Georgina Island. Luckily, we were able to get ahead of it. Too bad that wasn't the last rain we would see, as we saw lots of it the over next few days. But heck, we were on holidays & MOVING!!
I was dead tired from the previous couple of weeks of overtime work, so we decided to pull into Orillia for the night. I think we were in bed by 8:30 that night.
This video is the next day as we left Orillia behind us and continued moving northward;
The 'Bowling Alley' at the top of Lake Couchiching;
For your entertainment I have will share this time lapse video of us locking through Couchiching Lock. Yes, I know I did this last year at this spot, but this time it's even longer. Wow, eh? Yes it is. Hey, if you had anything more fun to do, you wouldn't be watching this right now . . .
Next lock, #43 at Swift Rapids;
As we had a few minutes to wait to take the boat through the Swift Rapids lock, I had some time to do some video capturing. Much like I am capturing your imagination with these intriguing moving pictures.
Admit it - it IS both intriguing and imagination catching ;-)
I took this shot after exiting the lock to show how much water was being released from the dam beside it and to give an idea of how much excess water was in the system. In case you didn't notice, we had lots of rain this season & all that extra water pushing it's way along showed itself in the narrower passages one had to drive through with some really strong currents;
Arriving at the Big Chute, we found that were already ten boats ahead of us waiting to go over. Given the time of the day, I figured we wouldn't get a chance to make it over the big train ride, so we went right to the overnighting docks to call it a day. That night (???) we were again in bed really early;
The next morning we awoke to see that a number of boats that were there the night before hadn't been able to go over the Chute. So, at least we got a really needed good night's rest.
Check how far out this boat on the marine railway is sticking out. The boat is a British made 'Broom'. The skipper was so nervous about taking his vessel over the big train, that he spent the night with the boat on the dock while he walked back and forth to see how the thing operated and to make sure there wouldn't be any problems with his baby.
Some people worry waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much;
Weeeee, it's our turn to go over! See the hook on our railing to the right? That's from my buddy Cam helping out. This is the easiest lock on the system, as they take your lines and do all the work. All you gotta do is drive your boat to where they say and they do the rest;
One of the most fun parts about going over the Big Chute Marine Railway is watching all the pedestrians who are all watching you! A good time for funing with them, as well as the guys operating the railway;
Another 'Stern Shot', this time leaving The Chute. Again, you can see how much water is being released through the chute (at the right). Hey look, it's Adrian behind us in his Bayliner;
One more storm to race, this time it's just before the last lock. Well, our luck wasn't as good as when we left home because we got caught in this one. Nothing to do but pull the throttles back and hit the wipers;
The rain was still coming down when we got to lock #45 at Port Severn. As a matter of fact, the rain was there when we arrived, while we waited 1-1/2 hours to lock through and when we got onto Georgian Bay. Actually, that last part was a full blown thunderstorm;
Looking out from the top of the lock. That's Georgian Bay on the bottom side - the part with all the water rushing into it. Because the way this lock is situated, boaters transiting either way have to deal with the current from the main dam to the south, the outflow from the water control dam on the north side and the water rushing out for the lock itself. On days like this, it proves to be a challenging venture. But what a rush!
I'll be sharing the videos I took here - as well as us going through it - for the next installment of 'Boring Summer Holidays 2009' . . . .
Fear not, there will be lots of SUNNY shots coming up :-) And lots of wonderful memories.
4:35 PM, Friday, July 24th - 'Boogaboo' departs slip # B5 and WE ARE OFF!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment