Belleville to Frankford, Canada

Stats: Day 14

Travel Time: ~ 4.5 hours

NM today: 16

NM total: 431

Locks today: 6

Locks total: 34

Before leaving Belleville we decided we needed to replenish some of our food supplies.  We biked into town to an independent grocery store.  We took 2 backpacks to carry the goodies back to the boat.  Someone at the yacht club told us that to avoid traffic, we could take a bike trail along the water to get to the store.  I don’t have an odometer on my bike, but based on time taken to and fro and an idea of my max speed, my guess is about 2.5 miles each way.  It would have been a pleasant trip if it were experiencing better weather.  We had a lot of cloud cover, and it rained on and off, so we had a soggy ride.  We got back to the boat just before 10:30, stored our supplies, and decided that we should proceed on our trip to our next stop despite the rain.

We said goodbye to our new Canadian friends and left Belleville around 11:00 to head up the Trent-Severn canal.  Our soggy bike ride was nothing compared to our locking through as we experienced constant rain for several hours.  There is nothing so wonderful as standing out in the pouring rain to lock through.  I soaked through my first coat and pair of pants, so in between locks I ran into the cabin to put on dry clothes and a better layer of rain gear including rain pants. 

poor visibility today - no windshield wiper on the canvas cover

lock attendants working the lock doors manually

We locked through 5 locks in the steady rain.  It stopped raining just before our last lock of the day, so at least we could tie up for the night without being drenched while we did it.  At the fifth lock the attendant came out and gave us a small Canadian flag and pin to help us celebrate Canada Day on 1^st July.  Clark took a picture of dripping wet me holding our new little flag.

Happy Canada Day!!

We heard from one of the lock masters that there is a laundromat in Frankford.  We decided that with nothing better to do and a bag full of laundry just begging to be dealt with, we might as well take advantage.  Again I am only guessing, but the walk to and from town to the laundromat was probably just over a mile round trip – not bad except for the fact we were dragging our laundry behind us, or rather, Clark was dragging the laundry.  The town is all torn up due to some roadwork being done.  The streets are all mud, so Clark ended up carrying the laundry bag for a portion of the trip even though the bag has wheels.

As we locked through the 6 locks today, we got a chance to chat with a couple also traveling through to Frankford.  They noticed our AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruising Assoc) burgee / flag right away as they too are doing the loop.  They are from South Carolina and have been on the loop since April 11^th, so they have a full 2 months more time on this trip than we do.  We moored behind them for the night on the lock wall after completing Lock 6.

stop for the night with electric – woohoo!

After mooring and check-in was completed, we performed the ritual of the boat card exchange with the SC couple.  Boat cards are like business cards but give name, contact information, and size and name of vessel.  Most serious boaters carry boat cards with them, and I made up a batch before leaving Rumson to make sure we had plenty to share around on our trip.  I made sure to include my blog address on our cards.

After returning from our laundry trip, Clark got into a long chat with the captain from the SC boat while I made dinner.  After dinner Clark turned on the TV.  We have a digital converter box.  The TV channel search found 1 analog and 3 digital stations which translated into basically one choice - watching reruns of NCIS all night long. 

The SC folks say they will be on their way before 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, so we won’t be locking through with them.  We may well find them again further up the Trent.  The next place we are both going to has no electric or other amenities, so Captain Clark sees no reason to rush to get there.  The only concern is has much boat traffic will we experience with July 1^st being Canada’s Confederation Day, which when asked, we were told is the Canadian equivalent to the U.S. July 4^th Independence Day.