081: Trent Severn's Waterway Part Three: Stuck and no "Chunky Dunk"

 On the 25^th of July we woke up to a pretty nice sunrise at the lock with high hopes for the day’s travel.

 

We hoped to possibly get as far as the Smith Falls lock, but to quote Rick from Casablanca, “Destiny took a hand”.   It was windy and I checked the conditions on Lake Simco, a rather large lake that we had to traverse for approximately eleven n/m’s, and the Canadian weather service indicated 1.5-foot waves on our nose (technically they said .48 meters).   At the last lock before the Lake, Nancy asked one of the lock staff what they had heard and the gal said, “a boat said it was 1.5 meter waves out on Lake Simco” (five feet) which I knew was b/s, but caused a bit of anxiety on the good ship Hygge.     We decided to tie up to the lock wall for lunch and see if any boats came our way off the Lake for more direct information.  

 I got in a grove working on the previous blog posting and eventually some boats came off the lake reporting three footers from the northwest, which meant three footers on our nose.  Not great, but not terrible either.  A couple of larger boats that we had met that week came into the lock, and long story short, we decided to go for it, a few hours behind schedule.  

 It was a bit saucy, but not too bad (at most, three footers, no 1.5 but not 5 either).  Here is a “two for one” video:  lake conditions and our resident spider getting lunch:

As we approached the end of Lake Simco, reports came in that the Swift Rapids lock was broken, so we pulled into the Port of Orillia marina for the night.    We wound up staying four nights as the lock wasn’t fixed until Sunday (we pulled in on Thursday), but we didn’t leave until Monday as there was a big backlog of people wanting to get through.    If you had to be stuck anywhere on the TSW, Orillia is the best town to be stuck at on the TSW, IMHO.    A very nice town.   Here are some pictures from our stay:

 

Cool boat:

Street Art:

GORDON!

We filled our time watching the Olympics (the Opening Ceremony was “so French”) and Sunday night we went to a concert in the park and enjoyed some big band jazz music with a picnic dinner.  Nice.

 

We did learn a new term.  It was suggested that if we lacked entertainment during our forced stay at Orillia we might want to run up to Big Chief Island for the day.  Apparently this is like the "playpen" in Chicago where boats raft up and party, only with a bit more free spiritedness.  When I mentioned this to a Canadian couple to request some local knowledge, the response was: "Are you going to take a "Chunky Dunk?"   "What is a Chunky Dunk?" I asked.   The response:  "When you are young and thin, it's called a "skinny dip," when you are old and put on a few pounds, its called a "Chunky Dunk."  We passed.

On Monday, the 29^th, we finally headed out and made it to Port Severns where we stayed at a marina before going through the last lock on the TSW.   Along the way we took the famous “Big Shoot Railway.”   Rather than having a water-filled lock, the Big Chute is a railway that lifts your boat up and over a small spit of land from one body of water to another.   Quite the experience.  

 

Our ride on the Big Chute:

 It gets rocky and you go through some narrow channels:

We pulled into Starport Mariana that night, watched some Olympics and Nancy got this picture of a nice sunset.   The next day we’d go through the last lock on the TSW and officially be out on Georgian Bay!

 

 Dave

 

Odometer: 5,270 n/m’s