WEDNESDAY JUNE 8TH 2011

Today’s journey took us from Hastings to Peterborough. We had a pretty stiff headwind all the way across Rice Lake but when we turned to go up the Otonabee River the water became flat.

The river, and much of the water around here is filled with seaweed. I get the shivers when I look in it. Several times today the low water depth alarm went off. Which sends our adrenaline pumping! It was the mass of weeds under the boat triggering it. Every so often Ross brings the boat to a stop and puts it in reverse to spin the weeds off of the props.

We always have our VHF radio on, but there is little if any radio chatter. The canal system being a national historic site, doesn’t allow radios. They keep in contact with one another with cell phones. Most of the boats in the area are pontoons, fishing boats, or runabouts and they rarely have radios.

We came upon this workboat changing out one of the marker buoys. First they measured how deep it was to the bottom with this pole.














Then they measured the pole and measured a length of chain.

They will attach the length of chain to a new red marker buoy and then attached the other end to the block of cement. The crane will lift it into the water. We were long gone by the time they got to that point.

We saw lots of wildlife today. Ospreys, herons, kingfishers, loons, fish feedind and lots and lots of geese.


This group of parents and their babies were in the middle of the channel and not happy when we came along. The parents finally led the babies toward shore but not without protest. The parents were bobbing their heads up and down and some were lowering their heads down and squawking. (at Ross, not me! )

So here’s your goose facts for today. The females return to nest in the same area that her parents nested in. They eat A LOT!! And spend up to 12 hours a day eating. Which may explain why they spend probably 12 hours a day doing you know what. They are the most “talkative” animals after humans and the babies start to communicate with their parents while they are still in the egg.

They don’t mate until they are 2 to 3 years old. This group didn’t have any goslings to protect so flew away as we came near.

The Canadians LOVE their flag and there’s hardly a cottage we see without one, or several red and white maple leaf flags flying.  That’s why when we spotted this flag we had to do a double take. The stars and bars?? Being a bit bored at this point in the day, we came up with several scenarios as to why. My favorite being is this is the  cottage of a draft dodger from the 60’s. Bit colder here in the winters down south though.

Like I said, they are proud of being Canadian and for that have my great respect. We have yet to see a flag from some other country that perhaps one of their relatives left because it offered them nothing. They seem to consider themselves Canadian, period! Not Swiss Canadian, Norwegian Canadian, Swedish Canadian, etc. Even folks we have talked to who emigrated recently from another country. Americans could take a lesson.

We arrived in Peterborough, Ontario early in the afternoon. It was hot and muggy out. We took the bikes off the boat and took a tour around as our plan is to stay a day or two. As we were heading back the weather turned from no wind to a blast that hit that almost knocked you over. The dirt was swirling through the air and people ran for cover. We could hardly see because of the sand and grit in the air. We took cover in a pub (how handy!) with others escaping the storm. After a day of sunscreen, heat and boat travel, the grit was caked on us. Yuk. And a sideline for any of you beer drinkers, a tap beer up here is $6 bucks!!! Most of the cost is probably taxes. They have a VAT tax (value added tax) up here of 17%.

The storm caused quite a bit of damage to the area. One town was to be without power (hydro) for several days. Many trees blew down taking out power lines.