Author: mvwhiskybusiness

August 11

Breakfast of mimosas and bloody’s on Here’s to Us with the Crouses and Farrells. Oh yeah, I think there were Belgian waffles and plenty of bacon as well. Yummy!

This Great Lakes cruise ship came into port this morning.

A 16 mile cruise to our next destination, Snug Harbor for a night on the hook. Another day of beautiful scenery.

This is an image of our radar screen. Whisky Business’ location is at the bottom of the vertical white line. The large green blob is Golden Daze. It’s green because they are moving away from us at a faster speed. If we were moving faster and closing in on them, it would be red. Below the end of the white line in the center of the image you can see 2 red-ish blobs. Captains Dan and Sam were doing such a splendid job of matching WB’s warp like speed (that would be 9 MPH) that the doppler effect built in to our radar isn’t really sure if we are going faster or slower. Maybe fast-ish.

Idyll Time III and a really cool lighthouse. This is the entrance to Snug Harbor. Since this was to be the first time Sam and Rev on Here’s to Us have anchored we let them drop their hook first. Then Idyll Time came in.

Took a dinghy ride to Gilly’s for lunch. Only place around and not very accessible.

Damn airplane took up a whole slip. “Honey, let’s fly the plane over to Gilly’s for lunch!”

Sam and Rev. She is a SCREAM! Celebrating her newly acquired anchoring skill set.

A few words about Sam – Ass Hole.

At our last marina he checked their boat in before Deb and I did. Told ’em don’t believe me if I said our boat was less than 65 feet long. They charge by the foot. Sam was a U2 pilot while in the Air Force. For anybody reading this that is younger than 50, google Gary Powers. He was a U2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in the early 60’s. Really interesting guy, Sam is. The other evening while he was on board WB we asked him if there were any stories he could tell us about his exploits in the U2 without having to kill us afterwards. With a ceiling in the 70,000 foot range, the U2 pilots had to wear a pressurized space suit like the astronauts. He proceeded to tell us how to pee in the space suit.

Queen Rev.

Screaming along in Half Pint, our dink.

End of another great day.

August 10

We left Henry’s Fish Restaurant today for Parry Sound. The winds were pretty high but we were hidden by lots of islands that prevented the waves from building up. We saw winds as high as 20 MPH but no wave action due to the lack of fetch. Fetch? What the heck is that you might ask. Fetch is the amount of space wind travels over water to have an opportunity to build waves. Yesterday, you know, the day we got our ass kicked? There was plenty of open water for the wind to build waves and then throw them at us. Traveling narrow channels prevents the wind from having the opportunity to build waves. We saw winds as high as 20 MPH but since there was no opportunity for the wind to build waves over long distances of open water we had a smooth ride today. Notice in the photos below that the water has no more than a light chop.

It was such an uneventful cruise that we were able to take lots of pictures for your enjoyment. So, enjoy!

In the photo below, you can see the 2 horns on the side of Whisky Business. They are loud. I mean really loud. When I press the horn button I am certain it can be heard as far away as Inner Outer Mongolia. Swear to God!

Oh Hell, more narrow channels.

Another alien craft floating in the Georgian Bay

This swing bridge opens on the hour for 15 minutes. It was a couple of hours into our voyage for the day and we got there early. It absolutely kills me to write this, but my brother says there are only 2 times in a day. Early and Late. We decided to be early so we waited for 20 minutes for the bridge to open.

Idyll Time III making a pass. Pretty boat and great owners.

We

Trying so hard to rain on our parade.

The town of Big Sound.

Bunch of tourists…

I call BS! I’m NOT goin’ in there.

Great restaurant. Deb and I had the Jager Schnitzel. Almost as good as the Gasthouse in Louisville next to Party Mart. They had great memorabilia in there. The timeless image of Louisville’s own Muhammed Ali standing over Sonny Liston after knocking him out was displayed prominently. That’s Rev Crouse from Here’s to Us taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. Bet she puts it in her blog.

If you are from Louisville you would be looking for the GoatMan.

Sea plane coming in for a landing. Would have like to have flown in one of these but no time.

Relaxing on the bow of WB.

Just before we took this photo we walked the dock to find all of the Looper boats that were on our dock. Found 8 including us. Our friends from Here’s to Us told us to look up the Looper folks on Golden Daze if we ran across them. Found their beautiful 60 foot Fleming down the dock from us. Great folks. They were entertaining Jamie and Trish Mackey from About Time. The party just keeps getting bigger!

And then the sun went to bed.

August 9

Weather was not looking good for traveling today. Below is a report I get daily showing wind and wave height in particular bodies of water. In the case of the Georgian Bay at 8AM this morning winds were 21 knots (almost 24 MPH) with wave heights of 4 – 5 feet. Was gonna cruise with a 48 foot Bayliner captained by a retired Coast Guard fella Dan Farrell and a 50 foot Carver with airline and Air Force pilot captain Sam Crouse at the helm. After reviewing the below info I sent them a text backing out of todays travel. Felt like the safe and prudent thing to do. After discussing with the Coastie and looking at the maps with all of the little islands that would block all the wind action we decided to go.

Big mistake. Got hammered. No photo’s as Debbie and I were too busy hanging on. Below, 30 mile an hour wind.

Water was pouring in around the windscreen as the bow of the boat would ride down a wave. So now we look like the equivalent of a boat trailer park. Carpets were soaked so now they are drying out on the bow of the boat.

Water looks pretty tame as we leave Midland at 9 this morning. Look at the really big flag blowing in the wind. Shoulda known…

Idyll Time III led the way today. He was really rolling in those seas.

It’s a Wonderful Life (from Bedford Falls, no less) and Here’s to Us.

Beautiful sailing vessel.

This is an image of Georgian Bay from our Aqua Maps software installed on our IPad. Bottom right of the photo is Midland where we had been staying. In the square above Midland you can see the our boat icon. Only 30 miles.

Finally made it to Henry’s Fish Restaurant.

These belonged to some hapless boaters.

In planning our route tomorrow, Sam had purchased paper charts from our marina and the manager there marked routes to cool anchorages and marinas. I too, purchased these charts ($128) but when Debbie went by the marina this morning he was too busy to mark the routes for her. I went over to Here’s to Us while Sam, using the paper charts made waypoints on his navigation software that is on his phone and then downloaded them onto his Garmin chartplotter. Saaaay, I too have a Garmin chartplotter. We took his phone to WB, synched it with my chartplotter and VOILA! All of the waypoints are now on my chartplotter.

Smooth Sailing tomorrow for a 15 mile run to Parry Sound.

August 3 – 8

Dinner out for a few nights with fellow Loopers in Orillia.

Cool visual at our marina in Orillia.

Underway from Orillia to Rawley Lodge just before our very last lock.

Had to wait for these boats to clear the chamber before we could bring Whisky Business in.

Same lock chamber from the west side.

Steal Away, a steel ketch (a ketch is a sailboat that has a second mast located in front of the rudder. If the second mast was located behind the rudder it would be called a yawl. Whatever…) doing the Loop.

The Admiral on Steal Away, a Kentucky girl!

Our turn in the lock chamber. There were 7 jet skis in with us, Steal Away, Carolina Dream and 2 other cruisers.

Had to remind the captain of this vessel that this area is a no wake zone.

More narrow channels…

Yes, a fire hydrant.

HA! A rope on a tree!

The Peterborough Lift Lock was pretty cool. Never seen anything like that before. The Big Chute however, has to be the craziest way to move a boat! The granite in this area was too hard to blast through so the Canadians built a big rail car that transports the boat over the granite on railroad tracks.

This is it, Lock 45 at Port Severn. Our last lock until after Chicago. Such a great relief to put those 45 locks behind us.

Who’s got the “bedhead” in this photo??? Not me! So glad to be finished with locks for a while. That’s the entrance to Lock 45 behind us.

After 45 locks the T shirts we protected our fenders with were retired to the nearest trash receptacle.

More narrow channels as we head to Midland on the Georgian Bay.

Getyerass outta that chair. Time for dinner and cocktails!!!

Such a saucy wench!

We stayed at Rawley Resort for a night before heading to Midland. Had a great meal there.

At the fuel dock at Bay Port Marina we saw this pretender.

T shirt my buddy John was sportin’.

Our friends on Steel Away got bumped from the list to get their masts raised so the intrepid gang of Loopers chipped in and raised these 2 mighty tall masts.

Quite a job to raise a steel mast without the help of a crane.

But in the end…

Goterdone!!!

Debbie and I took John and Deb Neal from Saltaire to Toronto today to catch a flight home to see the new grandbaby Hank. Found the stadium where the BlueJays play. They must really love us here!

Our last night out in Midland. Charlene and Sam had never heard this joke before.

Our Looper family in Midland. Debbie and I will be traveling with 2 other boats tomorrow to begin our exploration of the beautiful Georgian Bay for the next few weeks.

August 1 – 2

Entered the Trent Canal on Thursday. This home sits on the eastern edge of the Canal.

This is the canal. It is narrow and we never saw more than 3 feet of water beneath our boat while in this narrow channel for 2 days. It was grueling and stressful.

You can see the side of the channel. Granite not mud.

At a few points along the way there were some wide spots but there was never much depth.

Can you see the granite outcropping on the left of the photo? Thats a prop eatin’ monster!

This bridge is known as the Hole in the Wall. If the water is perfectly smooth it makes a circle. Boaters will take turns taking pictures of each other in the “circle”. We didn’t as there was just a bit of wind.

Entering a lock. We will be to the left of Idyll Time III.

Floating docks at the top of Talbot Lock. This was our home for the night. Got here in the early afternoon and enjoyed the parklike setting.

Took a swim behind the boats.

Walked around the lock after dinner. These are a few photos of the equipment used to operate the lock.

Had to lay down on the bridge over the dam to take this photo.

Nick and Haley gave us an Instant Pot that we had yet to use. I told Debbie I would fix dinner. Found a recipe that looked pretty good. The description of the recipe said it would be a “creamy” chicken and mushroom dish served over egg noodles. Nothing in the recipe that would make it creamy.

And it wasn’t

Debbie recommended I bring out the one secret weapon that can improve almost any entree.

Worked out just fine.

For breakfast this morning, Debbie and John Neal made fresh blueberry pancakes and fried ham, bologna and bacon. Debbie Rogers scrambled up some eggs. All is right with the world.

Today we started downhill. We start in locks that are full of water and now we are lowered instead of being raised. The last 6 locks will take us down to the Georgian Bay

A short video of Saltaire entering the lock behind Whisky Business. It gives you a pretty good idea of how tight these small locks are and what an able bodied Captain my friend John is. At the end of the video you can see how we fix ourselves to the side of the lock.

The item on the right of the picture is the bow pulpit of Saltaire. A wee bit close as these locks are very small.

Crossing Lake Simcoe on our way to Orillia after the Trent Canal we passed Whiskey Shoal. That’s it in the blue outline on the right.

Folks we had dinner with from Saltaire, Idyll TimeIII, Here’s To Us and My Old Beauty (gotta change the name of that boat!)

July 30 & 31

Made a short run on Tuesday to the town of Bobcaygeon, Ontario.

Below is a photo of the wall that runs alongside the lock. There are 6 Looper boats tied up here and we met at 5 for “docktails”. For some reason Saltaire does not show up on Nebo here. I swear, I think those Neals are in the witness protection program.

I am constatly learning new tidbits of info on this adventure. For instance, see the large orange fender (it has a 2X T shirt on it to keep it from getting nasty from the gunk on the lock walls)? Notice the line that runs forward from it? When WB is on a wall or dock and we pull away, the fender can roll around the back of the boat and allow the swim platform to hit the wall. Not anymore! That line running forward keeps it from rolling out of position. A Kiwi (fella from New Zealand) onboard Mo Whisky gave me this idea.

In the photo’s above and below you can see that we deployed the gangway or stairway to Whisky Business. This makes getting on and off the boat a breeze when the swim platform is too low to reach the dock or the deck is too high to reach the dock.

When I went to put the gangway in place I noticed the rubber foot had fallen off where the stairway mounts to the boat. Without the rubber foot over this aluminum tube it would put a really nasty gash in the fiberglass hull.

Taittinger Champagne to the rescue!

Fit perfectly.

VIOLA!

Only cruised 15 miles and 1 lock to Fenelon Falls today. This is a very popular stop on the Trent Severn so we were wheels up and left Bobcaygeon at 7:15 this morning. Arrived at Fenelon Falls at 9 just in time for the first lock thru of the day. Fortunately for us a boat had just left the wall that has power pedestals so we would not have to run our generator here.

Took a stroll through this lovely town and shot these photos of the dam and other boats locking through.

Tried the Cow and Sow for breakfast but they did not open till 11.

A few doors down from the Cow and Sow was a pretty neat looking shop that had this T shirt in the window. Had to go in and buy it for a particular family member.

This killer 1970 Dodge Challenger with a 440 Six Pack (real car guys know what a Six Pack is on a Chrysler automobile) was sitting in front of the same shop. Had a sign in the window.

Bought 20 chances to win this baby. Deb thinks I’m nuts but I’m feelin’ it baby!!!

It’s 3 in the afternoon on Wednesday and Debbie is taking a nap. Got out the Instant Pot Haley and Nick gave us. Hope I don’t screw this up…

Found this on the boat today. Don’t say anything to Jonathan, y’all…

A few weeks ago I showed you a photo of a boat with a great boat name, “Check Magnet”. So funny.

Greatest boat name for a steel boat.

This is Steve and Kathy Parnell on United 771. Great folks! Steve is the kind of guy, the rest of us guys love to hate cuz he makes the rest of us look so bad. Their boat name, United 771. Where did that name come from? Steve had met Kathy while she was a flight attendant for United Airlines. They eventually fell in love and married. When they bought their boat Steve was trying to come up with an appropriate name for their newly acquired vessel. He goes back through his notes and finds the flight number of the flight where he met Kathy, United, Flight 771. There ya go.

Manhattan’s on board Whisky Business with the Neals from Saltaire, Parnells from United 771 and Dan and Janet Farrel from Idyll Time.

Night all…

July 29

Woke up at 5AM to this prelude to sunrise.

Left a bit late in the morning as a new bridge attendant was getting trained and a swing bridge would not be open until 9:15. On our way in the next couple of photo’s. Look how narrow this channel is, maybe 35′ wide. WB is 15′ wide.

E

A few rather shallow spots. Glad I’m running with light fuel and water. The inland rivers have mud bottoms, Florida and the east coast have sand bottoms. Here, it’s granite.

I suggested to Todd, the owner of this boat he may want to change the name as many would think the reference was to his lovely (and young) wife Cindy.

Crammed 3 boats in this lock.

Saltaire was a wee bit close to us in another lock.

Photo’s of Peterborough as we cruised through.

Best redneck pontoon ever!!! Belongs in Kentucky.

This is Majestic Island and below how it appears on our chartplotter.

The approach to our 31st lock in 5 days. This lock is only accesible by boat.

Dropped the IPad on my toe. Bloody hurts!

July 28

What an exciting and crazy day! We left Hastings around 8:45 headed to the famous Peterborough Lift Lock. More on that later.

Below is the lock door in Hastings. Notice the doors are made of 13″ X 13″ X 21′ long timbers.

Right next to where Whisky Business was tied up were spare timbers for the doors. Notice the rail tracks? I am guessing these really heavy timbers are placed on a tracked vehicle and rolled over to the lock which was immediately behind our boat.

Very picturesque day. Check ’em out.

Maybe a big blue alien spacecraft???

Narrow channels and lots of very shallow areas required constant vigilance. Not really stressful but our attention could not waver.

A lot of No Wake signs which required slow running. Lots of cottages along the water that kept our speed at around 6 MPH. If you wake one of these cottages with their boats, residents will call the next lock and the lock attendants will hold you there till the police arrive. A boater is responsible for any damage their wake causes.

Two buddy boats we are traveling with.

The majority of the waterway is lined with cottages and their attendant boats. Better not wake ’em.

So here’s where our day got really interesting and challenging. We entered the 18th lock at Scotts Mills. These locks are quite small, only 2 boats the size of WB will fit in one of these locks. Nothing like the huge locks you see on the inland rivers of the US. While we are waiting for the lock doors to open along side comes this tour boat. We are set up for a starboard (right) side tie when one of the lock hands comes and tells us the tour boat ALWAYS ties up on the starboard. Now Debbie has to move a fender to the other side of the boat and now we are tying up on the port (left) side of the wall and the wind is blowing the back of WB towards this tour boat full of tourists. Had we tied up on the starboard side of the lock the wind would have held us there and we would have had no problem. That tour boat is a big sail so that is why he always takes that side of the chamber. We never touched him but it was really tight.

Next lock is Number 19 at Peterborough, the worlds highest LIFT lock in the world. This is a 65′ vertical lift lock built in 1904. The engineer who designed and oversaw the construction was a guy named Rogers. Who knew???

Following are a number of videos and photos of this amazing feat of engineering.

Our departure from Scotts Mills lock and approach half a mile later at the Peterborough Lift Lock.

Our “lift” to the top.

Our arrival 65 feet later!

Some more photos of the lock. One of the two locking “pans” in the raised position.

Another angle of the same pan.

Our boats at the top tied up to the wall.

The tour boat we shared locks with in the lower pan.

This is how it works. Took a picture, too lazy to re-type it.

Once we get to the top and WB is secured to the wall, Deb and I get to take turns operating the lift lock.

This is how Debbie did it:

This is how I did it. The lock attendant really screwed up by giving me the microphone…

THEY LOVE US HERE!!!!

Went to this spot for dinner. Quite good.

Couple sitting to my right are Cindy and Todd, owners of My Old Beauty, an extremely well cared for 30 year old Symbol motor yacht. They are from Ontario and are thinking about cruising the Great Loop. We even met a couple on a boat called Mo Whisky from New Zealand. Remarkable that people literally from the other side of the world come here to do this.

Saltaire tied up at the top.

These are the stairs we had to climb to get to the top of the lock.

Took these photos after dinner.

July 26 & 27

This waterway is simply stunning. The lock passages have been totally uneventful as they are quite small. Only 2 boats the size of Whisky Business can lock through at a time. Some channels are a bit narrow as evidenced by the photo below.

This guy found his own shoal. We know this is a shoal because it does not have a ____ growing on it???

Double lock.

After 5 locks yesterday we tied up to a wall in Campbellford, Ontario. Our great buds, Deb and John had waited a few days there for us to catch up.

Since John was instrumental in getting us going again when our water pump went south on us Debbie and I had a special bottle of Woodford made for the Neal’s from a photo I had taken of their boat.

One of the 18 locks we have been through in the last 3 days.

Livin’ the dream.

Some cool summer homes.

When was the last time you were in a blow up pool.

The last few days have not been long ones but locking through can be stressful. My able bodied crew takes a much needed break.

Beautiful home and boat house.

How ’bout a fixer upper.

Jeez, another 6 MPH speed limit posting.

Love seeing this guy!

Deb says she wants a home on the water…

John took this video of a double lock we went through today. You can see WB in the lock.

Whisky Business in front of one of the locks waiting for the doors to open.

HA! Gotta love it!

I mentioned in the last post the method used to open the locks on the Trent Severn. The 2 Debs were walking to see the Loopers on Mo Whisky and when they crossed the bridge, Debbie asked if she could open the lock doors for 2 Loop boats in the lock chamber. Here’s Debbie making here debut as a Trent Severn Waterway Lock Hand!

Day 1

July 25

Pulled out of the docks at Saint Lawrence Restoration at 8:15 this morning. Pior to going home we had to leave the marina where we had stayed for a few days as there was a Poker Run scheduled and the marina was booked. Since our trip home was thrust upon us I was a bit desparate to find room at the inn for Whisky Business. A short walk from the Clayton Municipal docks is Saint Lawrence Restoration. A business that has probably 50 boat slips and they refurbish old wood boats. Our boat was a bit big for the slips there but Nuggen, the manager moved a boat and made room for us. Must be a dog lover too cuz when I ‘splained my predicament, he found a way to accomodate us. I did not even ask what they were gonna charge us. Other marina was $113 per day and we were gonna be gone for 9 days it turned out. When we returned I went to pay, the office manager asked why we had to leave so quickly and I told her about Jake. Said she didn’t know just yet what the charge would be but come back in an hour and she would have a bill for me. Took that time to return the rental car that got us back to New York. Came back and she handed me this bill. Bear in mind that on top of the $1.50-$2.00 per foot marina’s here charge, they also tack on $10 – $15 daily for electricity.

$25 per day. Almost fell over. Coulda charged $1,000 and I would have gladly paid it. Something Debbie and I have found out on this trip about folks. There are people out there that will come running to help their fellow man when in need. Deb and I have found more than a few of these kind souls on these travels. I do my very best to pay that kindness forward.

Last night we anchored out ILLEGALY in Canada. Decided to wait till this morning to check in with customs. Cruised to Picton, Ontario to do that. Interesting, tie up the boat near a customs office, give ’em a phone call and that’s it. They ask if we have firearms? Nope. Pot? Nope. Liquor and/or wine? Uhhh, yeeeaahh, we are carrying “ships stores” which I think means just a bit for personal consumption. With a boat name like Whisky Business? We were allowed to bring 1.5 liters each.

After dealing with beauracracy for a bit we make our way to the Trent Severn Waterway. A rather narrow, shallow waterway that will take us to the Georgian Bay which many Loopers have said is the best part of the trip. Photos while underway.

City of Kingston, Ontario.

This is near the start of Trent Severn. Look at the bottom right of this image. See the “10” in a circle? That’s the speed limit on the TSW. And it ain’t MPH. It’s KPH (Kilometers Per Hour) which translates to 6.2 MPH. For 250 miles…

The first of 45 locks on the TSW. And they are really small. Maybe 2 boats the size of WB will fit in one of these locks.

Lock hands at Lock 1 making sure we know which way to go.

A video of our transit through Lock 2. Couple of things to watch for. Notice how the wind whips us around while we are waiting for the lock to open. Also near the end of the video when WB has been fully lifted watch how the lock hands open the doors. Crazy!

This is the device you saw the lock hands use to open the lock gates.

The lock gates are made from 13X13 inch timbers.

Notice how far WB’s “boot stripe” (really black line with a slender white line running beneath it) near the water line. The TSW has a controlled depth of only 6 feet. With 2 running aground incidents fresh in our minds we have cut our complement of fuel and water in half. Diesel is a tad lighter than water. Even so, we lightened WB up to the tune of around 2500 lbs.

This is our home for the night. No room for us at Lock 6 so we tied up to the wall at the top of Lock 5. Nobody else here. Very peaceful.

Saw this guy swimming around. Can’t see his tail in the photo, but wide and flat. Beaver me thinks.

This is why we have locks. Boats do not traverse shallow, rocky waters very well.

This is known as a “Whisky Lick”. Kinda like a dent in your car. Must have scraped a lock wall today.