Today…uhm Friday, was a short day for Northern Whisper, but not any less interesting!  We left Lock 8 this morning and covered 10 miles to Healey Falls Lock 15, so even though the distance was short, we sure had a lot of lock time.  We are currently sitting (again) under the shade of a maple in the park with absolutely no one around, things will be different in August on our way back!

Today marks the day that the Waterway extends its hours for the summer, and it’s also the first day for the students who Parks Canada hires for the high season.  We met a lot of very happy young people who are no doubt grateful for the opportunity to work the summer.  The first lock it was a daughter of the lockmaster, I watched him give her a lesson in raising the flag (the flags are great for those navigating into the locks, to see which way the wind will coax our boats approaching).  The second lock we met a young man working his sixth season, he was very knowledgeable and gave us some advice as to where the best place to position the boat to minimize turbulence and where the best swimming holes were.  Cindy also made friends with Rudy, a lovely 9 year old Golden mix lock dog with a predilection for sitting on your feet when you pet him.  There were other fresh faces on the way as well, I am waiting for a first-year rookie to ask if the lockmaster has shown him/her where the wall wiper is to take the slime off the lock walls…

We also went through our first flight lock today.  They are different from the ones we have been using up until now.  Our Ottawa friends will be familiar with this style lock, as it is similar to many of locks we see in that area.  Basically, it raises you up to a certain level and then the doors open and you enter a second lock directly to raise you up again.  This particular set brought our boat up over 50 feet!

We stopped after that in Campbellford, the first town since Trenton where we could get off the boat and re-ice (new word) and, on the lockmaster from Percy Reach’s suggestion, we went to a bakery that makes these heart-stopping cream filled doughnuts.  Once the Coors Light and Blackfly Margarita coolers were chilling we made our way to lucky lock 13.  The Lockmaster Whitney came to meet us at the tie up spot and asked us if we had maybe lost a chart overboard.  It turns out it was her dad that rescued it the day before!  He had called her and told her to keep an eye out for us, we had a great laugh!

This is another thing we are getting used to as we are making our way down the Waterway, every time you leave a lock, the operator calls his/her partner and lets them know we are coming, they all know our story and cheer us along.  We had some sage advice from the Lock 10 Lockmaster when we were telling her about our nervousness going through.  She told us the secret was to never to get impatient, because mistakes happen.  She has seen boats turn around 180 degrees because they were so upset.  I have seen that happen many times at docks and anchorages with couples who are unsure of each other’s abilities, luckily the captain and the skipper on this boat don’t have that problem!

Tomorrow is a “town day” (read shower) complete with shore power and Wi-Fi, so pictures then!

TTYL!