Thursday - Saturday, July 25 - 27, 2019

Orillia Waterfront Centre, Orillia, Ontario

The plan for the day’s travel was to descend 38 feet through three locks, then cross Lake Simcoe, stop to pump-out and fuel-up, go through Atherley Narrows to enter Lake Couchiching where we’d find Orillia, our destination, totaling 19 miles for the day’s adventure. Considering weather predictions and the fact the Orillia is the last major city we’d see until we’d reach the Georgian Bay, we made reservations for a few nights so we could re-supply and catch up on “housekeeping.”

Since the locks don’t open until 9AM, it was an easy going morning after our overnight stay on the upper wall at Portage Lock 39.  This section of the Trent Canal is very narrow and straight, in fact, you could see right on through to the next lock, which was Thorah Lock 40, then Gamebridge Lock 41. As we entered Gamebridge, we saw a boat approaching from the other direction. Due to the narrow channel and even narrower lock chamber, when the lock gates opened for us to leave, we were happy to see that the other boat had made it to the blue line on the wall outside the lock entrance. Boats must be able to pass each other outside the locks, so the walls are spaced a little wider in that area than the width of the canal itself. After another 1.5 miles and we’d arrived at Lake Simcoe, the largest of the lakes along the TSW.

When the winds are right (or actually wrong!), Lake Simcoe can be very rough and those with experience suggest waiting it out a day or two if needed. We were fortunate that it was a fairly smooth ride for our 15 mile crossing, after which we stopped at Bridge Port Marina for our pump-out and fuel. Many Loopers stop at this marina to at least pump-out because the marina at Orillia does not have fuel or pump-out services.

This was our first purchase of Canadian diesel, so we had to do a little math in our heads to come up with liters (litres in Canadian spelling) needed. At every fuel stop in the US and Canada, they always ask how much you think you’ll need. Sue’s thought is – “enough to fill us up” because without a gauge, it’s a little difficult to guess in gallons, much less in liters! We do have sight gauges** which are helpful. Typically, Sue raises the galley steps and sits at the opening to the (hot) engine room to watch the site gauges for the saddle tanks*. If we need to fill the aft tanks, Brian lifts the hatch in the floor of the fish cockpit and watches the sight gauges there. We were told that the Ontario rules require everyone on board a boat to get off while fueling. So we got off, but that made watching the gauge impossible. Every 40-50 liters we’d ask them to stop pumping and Brian would get on the boat to check the sight gauges. It slowed the process down, but we eventually got to a satisfactory full-ish point without over-filling.  

*Saddle and aft tanks: We have four fuel tanks: 2 on the port side, 2 on the starboard side. However they are connected to each other in pairs: 2 saddle tanks (one port, one starboard) under the salon (living room) each holds about 125 gallons; 2 aft tanks (one port, one starboard) under the fish cockpit in back, each holds about 114 gallons. Even though they are connected, flow between the paired tanks is slow when compared to the speed of filling them from a fuel nozzle, like the nozzle you use for your car. So, we have four fuel tank fill-openings to be able to get to each tank. Usually, we only fill the side closest to the fuel pump. Before we entered Canada, we filled up all four tanks because we knew fuel would be expensive in Canada.

**Sight gauges: about a ¼ inch diameter clear plastic tube that runs vertically along the wall of the engine room next to the tank. Watching it means watching the fuel rise in the tube as the tank fills, and letting Brian how many inches are left to fill. We usually start the process at about a foot without fuel in the tube and eventually make it to about a ¼ inch from the top when we stop. Generally when we stop, the saddle tank on the other side still has four to six inches empty in its sight gauge, so over time they will even out to about 2 to 3 three inches of empty tank space.

Back to our journey…

From Bridge Port Marina, we travelled through a very narrow section that was only a few hundred feet long, Atherley Narrows, and we emerged onto Lake Couchiching (another fun word to say!). About a half hour later around 1:30, we tied up at our slip in the Port of Orillia at the Orillia Waterfront Centre. Our first encounter on the dock was with a really big, brown, dock dog – thankfully friendly – that we had to go past to get Bo to the grass. Fortunately, both dogs seemed to accept each other’s presence.

The park next to the marina was very pleasant and busy. There was a piano sitting under a small shelter that anyone was welcome to play – we heard some beautiful music, as well as some that was not so beautiful. After an exciting afternoon of boat maintenance, we walked across the street from the Waterfront Centre to a popular restaurant called Studabakers to catch a bite for dinner. Uh-oh - there was a long line. As we got to the hostess stand, we learned most folks were waiting for the outside tables. We’d already been outside for much of the day, so we were able to get seated right away inside. On the way back to the boat we saw Loopers we’d previously met who invited us over to a Looper “docktails” near their boat. There were about 8 of us, 4 boats, all together, only one boat that we hadn’t met yet. Unfortunately as the sun went down, the biting bugs got bad so it was time to call it a day.

The next couple of days were busy …

• Brian took a taxi to the auto store to get a five-gallon bucket of oil for the soon-to be-done engine oil change. Riding a bike with a 5 gallon bucket of oil just wasn’t going to work.
• Laundry in a new-ish and free laundry room with 2 washers/2 dryers. It’s extremely unusual, but Sue got all 5 loads done with no one else around or waiting! It’s the little things that can make her day.
• A bath for Bo – all his bedding was washed, so we thought he should be too. He didn’t appear very happy about it, but he was good at putting up with it.
• Defrost the frig – ugh! - never fun but needs to be done every few months.
• Draggin’ the wagon around town since everything else we needed was within walking distance: Grocery store for our food, pet store for Bo’s food, and LCBO for our beer/liquor supply.

The rain came in as expected so the decision to stay an extra day was a good one. We had a chance to meet the couple on a nearby boat name Costa Lotta. 😊 They were interesting to chat with and headed in the opposite direction from us while on vacation. Their home port was in Sarnia, ON, at the southern-most point of Lake Huron on the US – Canadian border.  

For our last dinner in Orillia, we had a fantastic wood-fired pizza at a highly recommended place called Rustica Pizza Vino. They also made some amazing cheese meatball appetizers – so good and of course so good for you! 😂  We noticed a sign on the wall in the restaurant with words of wisdom:

Drive German, Wear Italian, Drink Scotch, Kiss French