RETURNING TO PETERBOROUGH

There was only one other boat moored at Lakefield lock last night, and that Toronto-based sailboat started down river about the same time we did, so we ended up locking down together, along with another powerboat (a Krogen 42) which showed up when the lock opened. Since this stretch of the Otonabee River has several locks, each spaced a mile or two apart, the three boats ended up locking through all of them together. It was a fairly leisurely pace for the morning, since the sailboat travels pretty slowly, we ended up going at his pace as far as the Peterborough Lift Lock where they stopped off to tour the Visitor Center.

Elaine, at the controls of the lock

At the top of the lock, ready to be lowered

We went through one more lock with the Krogen, then decided to tie up to the lower lock wall in Peterborough since the wind was strengthening and the skies looked quite threatening.

Dark skies over Peterborough

If we had continued, it would have put us in Rice Lake about the time winds of 25 knots were forecast. Rice Lake is a very shallow, long lake running Southwest to Northeast, and the wind was from the Southwest, so this amount of wind would have built up an uncomfortable about of chop. Since we're not in any hurry we will just wait it out overnight where we are, and where we are tied up has a nice park and a view of the fountain in Little Lake.

Our site for the night

Once securely tied up to the lock wall, we grabbed our rain jackets and went for a walk to a recommended butcher shop a little over a mile away. As dark as the skies were, it didn’t rain, and we picked up meat for several meals.

Back at the boat, we tried sitting up on the flybridge for cocktails, but it was just too cold and windy, so went below, waiting for this weather to pass…