Burleigh Falls, ON, CA, Lock 28
Nice cruising day to Burleigh Falls, Lock 28, from Lock 22.
Six locks today, rather uneventful except for the first lock of the day, Lock 23. The lock keeper thought we would be more comfortable at the back of the lock because they fill the lock from the front and there is a bit of turbulence. So, based on his request, we stopped at the back of the lock after previously agreeing with our buddy boat for the day, Bertha, that we would stagger in the lock with us going in first and them coming in second. Good thing both boats had lots of fenders cause we were mere inches apart. It worked out better than expected but, after that, we decided we’re the captains of our boats and we’ll do what we want. So, we went back to stagger and came through the remaining locks with no angst.
Something else we were reminded of is the dichotomy of locks. The stretch of locks from 22 - 26 are some of the oldest on the Trent-Severn. The gates have manual paddles built into them below water level that are raised and lowered by the lock keeper standing on the gate and cranking a manual windlass. This happens to both fill the lock and empty the lock. Then the gates are manually opened by the lock keeper pushing a handle around in a circle (like a horse in a horse sweep going around in circles to generate power or turn gears). This all takes time, the locks empty and fill slowly, the gates open and close slowly and the entire exercise to raise a whopping 10 feet takes 45 minutes. Then you get to Lock 28 which is a 24-foot lift. The doors at both ends are hydraulically actuated so they open in about a minute. There are multiple valves to empty and fill the lock so it is fast. We were in and out of Lock 28 in about 15 minutes. We hardly had time to banter with the visitors.
The water on the rivers is still high due to recent rains, and the last of the snow melt. All of the dams are letting a lot of water over in order to keep the Waterway water level navigable. As a result, there was a lot of current in the river between Locks 22 and 26, about ¾ of a knot, which you can see in the pics of the red and green buoys. In our full displacement boat, which has a lot of hull under water, current has a big effect, especially when slow entering a lock or trying to moor. Just need to be aware.
After Lock 27, Young’s Point, you’re up the some lakes, Clear and Stony, which are always beautiful. Houses (and a church) on the rocks, new vistas around every island and corner, and the cumulus clouds were astoundingly white agains the vivid blue sky. You will see on the Nebo Summary that we got up to 9.4 knots on Clear Lake. It’s good on the open water to run the engines a bit so we cruised for a ½ hour or so at higher engine settings. Fuel use goes way up so we don’t normally cruise that fast but the engines get hot and run better than the low rpms we use all day in the locks and no wake zones.
Of course, several families of geese came by to say hi. The goslings are almost as big as the adults but have no wing feathers and are still covered with down. We didn’t get a picture but did witness a couple of boxing matches between the adults.
We took a short walk at Burleigh Falls to see the falls (the falls are really more like steep rapids) and the dam and you can see what we’re talking about with the water over the dam and through the rapids. After the threat of thunderstorms, it turned into a beautiful evening for a stroll. The Lock park is also nice with plenty of picnic tables, a boat launch and some Adirondack chairs for watching.
Relatively short day tomorrow so we’re going to go to breakfast at the Burleigh Falls Inn. We’ll let you know if you need to put it on your list.
