Good Morning!  It is a glorious Saturday morning.  We have been reluctant to travel in the Trent-Severn on the weekends because of the extra local boaters on the water.  The weather is too good to pass up.  We are going to do the “Big Chute” today and leave the Trent-Severn Waterway.  The Big Chute, the last lock and just a few miles from the end of the Trent-Severn to Wye Heritage Marina in Midland, ON.  A bit cloudy and in the mid 60°F to start our day.  We heard last night that the last lock, Lock 45, is having a big celebration today.  We wonder what that means to our travel.

Are we all strapped in and ready to go on the Railway today?  It is going to be an exciting day, for sure!

Early morning fishermen – still water

Leaving Big Chute Marina for our space on the blue line

Caution?  Now they tell us when we are on the blue line?

Approaching the Big Chute

The Big Chute took the first load of boaters over the street promptly at 9am.  The lock master told us via his megaphone that we would be next.

Looks pretty simple.  Just drive Always Home into the carriage and listen to the lock folks about what to do next.  We were on the Big Chute all by ourselves!!  Our props were hanging out the back of the platform.  If you look closely in front of our Always Home are those yellow paddles.  They use them for smaller boats, jet skis, and the like.  With us, the straps are used to keep us balanced as the weight of the boat is on the keel.

By the way, we shut off the engines, generator, and the air conditioners.  Anything that needed water access had to be shut down since we were going to be riding on air for several minutes.

Wayne’s View after getting into the Chute

Up we go! Out of the water…. The street barricades are down. Safe for us to go across now.

Over the road

All strapped in! We lifted the fenders so they wouldn’t be in the way.

As we are going down, the back view – looks pretty steep!?

Have you ever taken a train ride?  When the train passes over streets, there are bumps, noises, groans, squeeking and strains.  We heard that!!  Wayne can’t remember the vibrations and noises.  My video of the event is too big to put on the blog.  Maybe later I can add it.

Approaching the water on the other side of the road

Gently put back into water!

The crew of “Sweet Sensations” went on the first trip of the day.  They were on the bottom of the Big Chute and kindly took some pictures of Always Home coming off the Big Chute.  Thanks!!

Big Chute rising back to the other side of the road

Looking back at the Big Chute Railway as it is rising back up the railway to bring down the next load of boats.  It seems unusual to see it move empty, but I guess it was too early in the morning for boaters to go up the Trent-Severn.

Out of the Big Chute and into the Narrows on our way to the last lock, Port Severn.

Entering the Narrows

As we approached Lock 45, we saw boats, boats, and lots of people!!  Most of the boats were smaller ‘go-fast-boats’, but they were like flies, just buzzing around jockeying for a position somewhere along the lock wall, the small dock, somewhere.  We saw a group of boats entering and filling the lock so we gracefully glided to the front of the blue line.  Then people swarmed all over the area!!  Oh no!!  Hundreds of people are going to watch us lock through.  We are going to lock through?!?!  Wait….

People everywhere celebrating the 100th Year of the Lock

We were on the front line of the Hundredth Year Celebration of the opening of the Lock 45, Port Severn.  They were conducting the “re-enactment” of the first lock up river!!  In this photo below, which I found on the internet ( http://www.orilliapacket.com/2015/07/25/lock-45-turns-100), you can see all the charming little boats that are originals or reproductions of the original boats using the lock for the first time.  You can see Always Home on the back left.  We waited for over an hour for the festivities to be completed before we could move onward.

Centennial Celebration of Lock 45 – 

We had a front row seat of the re-enactment.  It was fun.  When we finally were able to get into the lock, there were still dozens of people watching carefully as we entered the lock.  After all, we were the First boats locking down on the first day after the 100 year celebration!!

We were alarmed, however, when we go to the bottom of the lock, there were boats on both sides of the lock walls waiting to go up.  Smaller boats but they took up half of the space available.  People brought out their boat hooks to maybe push us off them should we get too close?  I held my breath as Wayne squeezed us by.  As we squeezed by, a couple of the boaters applauded at Wayne’s masterful handling of the Always Home.  Whew!!

Up ahead?  Debris??  More debris in the Georgian Bay?!  Officially, leaving Lock 45, we had completed the Trent-Severn Waterway!  Yea!!  We are now entering the Georgian Bay.  But debris?  I get the binoculars out to verify the debris field.  They are birds!!  Not a pile of logs!!  Wonderful!!

Birds!! Not debris, after all!

The color of the Georgian Bay water??  Clear and cold water.

Georgian Bay Water

Our marina for the night….

Wye Heritage Marina

We did “The Big Chute” and successfully completed the Trent-Severn Waterway today!  A very wonderful day!!

Sunset at the Wye Heritage Marina