Hastings, Ontario, to Peterborough, Ontario

We arrived in Peterborough, Ontario, on 29 June. The trip from Hastings (Lock 18) to Peterborough was beautiful. We only had one lock to get through, and the day was perfect. We crossed Rice Lake, and then returned to the canal, and it is hard to describe the beauty of the water and its surroundings. The water is clear, clean, and on this particular day, calm and smooth.

We spent the Canada Day holiday weekend at the Peterborough Marina. We were advised by nearly everyone we talked with, to include all of the lock operators, to be safely tied to a dock during Canada’s Independence Day, which is 1 July. Canada is 140 years old this year. Similar to the 4th of July in the USA, Canada Day is a huge holiday here, and anyone with a boat will be on the water. We took their advice.

As with many of the locks and marinas in Canada, the Peterborough Municipal Marina is located right in the middle of town, which makes sight seeing and obtaining supplies quite easy. It is also collocated with the Peterborough Municipal Park, which is where the Canada Day celebration was held.

The festivities began on Saturday, 30 June, with a concert in the park, attended by untold thousands of residents of Peterborough. We could, and did, watch the concert from our boats, mainly because it was too cold to stand and watch from the park. Later, we watched fireworks from SEAQUEL. The fireworks were beautiful, but did not last long at all. They were nothing like what we are accustomed to in the US. Yes, it is cold here in Canada this time of year. Cold enough to wear long pants, sweatshirts and a jacket.

Sunday we watched the Peterborough Canada Day Parade, which was reminiscent of a small town parade in the USA. Farmers and politicians were equally represented, as were civic organizations and scout troops. We even saw a real live member of the Royal Canadian Mounted police. It was fun to watch. In the park there was also an arts and crafts show and international food festival on Sunday. All of these festivities were right here at the park adjacent to the marina.

We enjoyed the weekend with the crews of SEAQUEL, STARGAZER and XPLORER. Ginger and Laura of STARGAZER departed on Saturday, headed for Muskegon, Michigan, which is home. Since they are this close, they are anxious to close the Loop and get home to friends and family. We will see them again as we make our way south on Lake Michigan. All of us biked to Peterborough Liftlock to witness Ginger and Laura pass through the lock. This lock is over 100 years old and is quite intimidating.

Being in a marina is nice for a few days. We enjoyed hanging out with Barry and Sheryl of SEAQUEL, and Mike and Cathy from XPLORER. We had dinner together a few times, and drinks aboard either their boats or ours each evening. If we haven’t said it before, one of the greatest parts of this adventure is meeting a lot of wonderful people along the way. We also took advantage of the time to do some laundry and for Mike to change the oil, check batteries, and do some preventive maintenance in the engine room.

By the way, we are updating this blog at a coffee shop in Peterborough that has a wifi connection. Since we can’t use our Verizon Air Card here in Canada, we have to take advantage of wifi sites that are available now and then. We plan to update the blog as often as we can this way.

Tomorrow we will move on, heading west on the Trent Severn Waterway, provided our mail from the US catches up with us. Stay tuned…..