FENELON FALLS

Woke up to a boat totally covered with bugs - mostly dead, but some still very much alive. Small bugs, apparently attracted by our solar lights, medium sized bugs, apparently attracted by the small bugs and large bugs apparently attracted by the medium sized bugs. The struggle of life played out - the bigger ate the smaller, although I don’t know why the bodies of so many of all sizes littered the boat. The next struggle that played out was trying to get the boat clean. I pulled out the hose and used the anchor wash-down pump to spray off the whole boat, and wiped it down quickly before more bugs landed on it.

We finally got under way by around 8:30, went through a couple of locks and stopped at Bobcaygeon around noon. We tied up to the lock wall and looked around town, with it’s array of clothing and shoe stores. We both ended up buying shoes, Elaine bought a new bikini and we had lunch at a new cheese sandwich restaurant.

We are now, heavily in the area of rental houseboats. Since many of the operators of these boats are complete novices, going through the locks with them is a real circus. The good news is that the boats are built with a metal hull and are indestructible. The bad news is that this makes everything around them destructible. We followed one in to the lock at Fenelon Falls, and I am very glad that I was behind him, rather than in front of him. He cleared one wall of small runabout boats as he wandered toward them out of control, bounced off the lock wall, bounced off the lock gate, then when he left the lock, ran into a railroad bridge. The fact that it was Sunday, and there were a lot of boats out didn’t help, but I can’t wait until we are out of range of the rental houseboats in a day or two.

We lucked out and got a spot on the wall at Fenelon Falls, one of the nicest lock walls we have seen. It even has water and electricity and is situated right in the middle of town (the rental houseboats going through the locks is major entertainment for the townsfolk). It’s a nice little town with coffee places, a supermarket, stores and several restaurants within a few blocks. There’s also a museum here right by the dock, although it was closed today. We may make a late start tomorrow AM, so we can see more of the town, maybe even find an internet connection…