Aug 17th Day 37

Had a great night last night, we cooked out and had dinner with Steve and Sue. Had a nice talk and went over some more charts and anchorages. While we were sitting around chatting an Osprey swoops down and snags this huge northern pike flies up to a tree branch and starts to chow down. The pike had to be as big as the bird. Nice breeze last night so sleeping was great Had to wait for the lock to open this morning so did not get underway till 8:45. The course we took today was narrow and when we say narrow we mean it, at times you could almost reach out and touch the trees on both sides. We went into the Kirkfield hydraulic lift tub. When you pull into it you are up some 5 stories in this tub. After you tie up they add a foot of water to the tub which makes it heavier than the other tub and down you go 49 feet. It is a little more of a thrill than the Peterborough tubs as this one is in the open where Peterborough you were kinda enclosed. The wind really got strong and they recommended to stay off Simcoe lake as high winds could produce 8 footers. We tucked in at lock 39 at 2:15. We are hoping the winds will be better tomorrow and we can get across the 20 mile lake. Today we traveled 22.3 miles in 4.5 hours. Soon we will depart the company of Steve and Sue and head on our way across the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron headed towards Lake Michigan.

Lin & Rich
Lock 39 Portage Ontario