- Feb 5, 2009
- 827
- Boat Info
- 560DB
2 x Raymarine e125's
Walker Bay Generations 360 Centre Console w. Yahama 60HP
2 Seadoos
- Engines
- CAT 3406e (C15's) @ 800HP
First a warning - this is a picture intensive post! The pics are all reduced size (800x600) but it may still take a while to load on a small connection.OK, with that out of the way - I'm bored and desperately missing my boat. I alway go stir crazy as we work our way into March, with another 6 weeks or so to go until we're back in the water again. In the meantime, I went back through my pics of last year, reducing thousands of pics down to a few to share with those who are interested (or perhaps are finding themselves in the same predicament and want to see some water... :grin
.
Normally, we do a big trip each year, spending a couple of weeks in the North Channel, however for a number of reasons, last year we decided to stay closer (not going North of Parry Sound) and broke down our vacation into three, one-week trips. We visited Parry Sound for Canada Day, went back down the Trent Severn to Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe (old stomping grounds) for the first time in four years and spent a week lounging on the hook at The Massassauga Provincial Park.
These pics span those trips and a bit more.First pic is our Christmas Card photo, taken in June at Henry's (Frying Pan Island) in June.
We've been taking this family photo for about seven or eight years, so I need to go back and pull out all of the years to make a montage for myself (noting my growing boys)."I have my ship and all her flags are a flying" - if you know this musical reference you've won a Molson Canadian, just need to drop by to pick it up.:grin:
Here's our boat with her flags a-flyin' for Canada Day at Parry Sound.
We've now been visiting Parry Sound for Canada Day with an expanding armada of friends for the past three years.
Here's a few friends hanging out waiting for the show to start, while my younger son compares bellies with our pregnant friend, Resha.
Great fireworks...
and an excuse for a little cruise!
The following day, we always stop in for an overnight at The Massassauga Provincial Park, where I shot this sunset:
Then time to head for home, rounding out a fun week.
Next trip was to head through the Trent-Severn for a trip back to Lake Couchiching, where we had kept our previous boats for about nine years.
I'd never made the trip in the current boat and was a little apprehensive as to how I'd squeeze through a couple of choke points like Potatoe Island Channel, under the Hwy 400 bridge to name a few for those who know the area.For those who don't know the area, the Trent-Severn is a series of locks (45) and canals that connected various waterways and lakes to provide a route from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. It was originally constructed to facilitate commerce, however now it's entirely recreational and is maintained by Parks Canada.
It's a neat trip. One of the highlights of the trip (at least for the first 50 time - after which it begins to lose its appeal) is Big Chute - The Marine Railway.
Many of the original locks were marine railways, which were subsequently replaced by more efficient and effective locks. Big Chute was kept and upgraded, to eliminate the spread of an invasive species (the lamprey eel) from Georgian Bay back to the lucrative fisheries in Lake Simcoe. Seems to have worked.
Here's a shot from the bridge as we're heading up the Chute:
As you can see by the folks walking up the stairs taking pics, you become a bit of a tourist attraction as you head over the rail.
Most of the boats going over the Chute would be smaller than the 560, so we were loaded alone, although it can take vessels up to 100' in length. Most trips would have multiple boats loaded onto the rail car.
Here's a shot of JJV heading up over the Chute:
Essentially, at the bottom they drop the rail car into the water and call you in to drive over the car. They they use various slings to stabilize the vessel while resting it on its keel. It only takes minutes to load a vessel - these guys are pro.
However, as you can see in the zoomed in shot, with props and shafts hanging below for inboard, you need to hang the boat over the back of the car, which is a little unnerving when you're heading up thinking about where the fulcrum point is...
The rail takes you up a vertical distance of 67', you cross a hwy and then get dropped back into the water on the other side when you drive off to continue your trip.
Pretty neat really!
And we had to take CSR on our trip up the river:
Here we are back at our former marina (Hot Knots Landing) in Orillia.
It was good to stop in, visit and catch up with folks.
Then we headed back to Big Chief Island to anchor out for a couple of days.
On the weekends, this is a bit of a party spot however it was nice and peaceful during the week. The bottom is all nice soft sand and it's great to get in the water to wander around.
This is the Admiral (the original Jackie J) taking in another spectacular sunset.
The week of this trip was the hottest of the summer - great time to be around the water.
We dropped by a friend's cottage on Grape Island (Lake Simcoe) for an overnight during our trip.
Even though it seemed we were pretty sheltered tucked in behind the island, conditions can change quickly. We had a wicked thunderstorm pop up during the night. Had to get up in the middle of the night to start-up the engines just in case the anchor pulled.
During our trip, we were missing one of our usual companions as Jason and Resha were having a baby (remember the belly shots). When we got back we got to see our newest travel buddy for the first time.
Jackie is a sucker for babies! :smt001
After another trip to The Massassauga for a week that seemed to disappear in swimming, naps and Mohitos... We spent the balance of the year mostly around Beausoleil Island, most specifically Frying Pan Bay. This one was taken on Labour Day weekend as we had six or so boats in our raft:
Another shot taken as all hands prepare the evening meal.
We had basically laid claim to this one spot, trying to get one of us there early enough to drop anchor.
Didn't always work though and we had to move around, which is not all bad as our next spot seemed to have a natural patio built into the rocks behind the boat:
Here's the view back at the boat where our dogs (Buddy & Holly) are checking out what we're doing on the patio:
Figuring this patio situation wasn't such a bad thing, we now laid claim to a new spot, including on Thanksgiving Weekend (which was spectacular this year);
My boys on the rocks above "the patio":
Friends relaxing with the Admiral on "the patio"
And a nice calm evening at anchor, taken from "the patio". I think we'll need a new spot next year...
Finally, as we prepared the boat on the final weekend of the year, I was up early (as usual) snapping a few sunrise shots. Here's the sun coming up over St. Anne's Cathedral in Penetanguishene, as viewed from our marina:
And here's a shot from the boat just a few moments later.
Then we went out on the water for the final run of the year, where I snapped this shot as we were heading back to port.
Oh yeah, did I mentioned yet how much I miss my boat.... :smt100
Paul
.Normally, we do a big trip each year, spending a couple of weeks in the North Channel, however for a number of reasons, last year we decided to stay closer (not going North of Parry Sound) and broke down our vacation into three, one-week trips. We visited Parry Sound for Canada Day, went back down the Trent Severn to Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe (old stomping grounds) for the first time in four years and spent a week lounging on the hook at The Massassauga Provincial Park.
These pics span those trips and a bit more.First pic is our Christmas Card photo, taken in June at Henry's (Frying Pan Island) in June.
We've been taking this family photo for about seven or eight years, so I need to go back and pull out all of the years to make a montage for myself (noting my growing boys)."I have my ship and all her flags are a flying" - if you know this musical reference you've won a Molson Canadian, just need to drop by to pick it up.:grin:
Here's our boat with her flags a-flyin' for Canada Day at Parry Sound.
We've now been visiting Parry Sound for Canada Day with an expanding armada of friends for the past three years.
Here's a few friends hanging out waiting for the show to start, while my younger son compares bellies with our pregnant friend, Resha.
Great fireworks...
and an excuse for a little cruise!
The following day, we always stop in for an overnight at The Massassauga Provincial Park, where I shot this sunset:
Then time to head for home, rounding out a fun week.
Next trip was to head through the Trent-Severn for a trip back to Lake Couchiching, where we had kept our previous boats for about nine years.
I'd never made the trip in the current boat and was a little apprehensive as to how I'd squeeze through a couple of choke points like Potatoe Island Channel, under the Hwy 400 bridge to name a few for those who know the area.For those who don't know the area, the Trent-Severn is a series of locks (45) and canals that connected various waterways and lakes to provide a route from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. It was originally constructed to facilitate commerce, however now it's entirely recreational and is maintained by Parks Canada.
It's a neat trip. One of the highlights of the trip (at least for the first 50 time - after which it begins to lose its appeal) is Big Chute - The Marine Railway.
Many of the original locks were marine railways, which were subsequently replaced by more efficient and effective locks. Big Chute was kept and upgraded, to eliminate the spread of an invasive species (the lamprey eel) from Georgian Bay back to the lucrative fisheries in Lake Simcoe. Seems to have worked.
Here's a shot from the bridge as we're heading up the Chute:
As you can see by the folks walking up the stairs taking pics, you become a bit of a tourist attraction as you head over the rail.
Most of the boats going over the Chute would be smaller than the 560, so we were loaded alone, although it can take vessels up to 100' in length. Most trips would have multiple boats loaded onto the rail car.
Here's a shot of JJV heading up over the Chute:
Essentially, at the bottom they drop the rail car into the water and call you in to drive over the car. They they use various slings to stabilize the vessel while resting it on its keel. It only takes minutes to load a vessel - these guys are pro.
However, as you can see in the zoomed in shot, with props and shafts hanging below for inboard, you need to hang the boat over the back of the car, which is a little unnerving when you're heading up thinking about where the fulcrum point is...
The rail takes you up a vertical distance of 67', you cross a hwy and then get dropped back into the water on the other side when you drive off to continue your trip.
Pretty neat really!
And we had to take CSR on our trip up the river:
Here we are back at our former marina (Hot Knots Landing) in Orillia.
It was good to stop in, visit and catch up with folks.
Then we headed back to Big Chief Island to anchor out for a couple of days.
On the weekends, this is a bit of a party spot however it was nice and peaceful during the week. The bottom is all nice soft sand and it's great to get in the water to wander around.
This is the Admiral (the original Jackie J) taking in another spectacular sunset.
The week of this trip was the hottest of the summer - great time to be around the water.
We dropped by a friend's cottage on Grape Island (Lake Simcoe) for an overnight during our trip.
Even though it seemed we were pretty sheltered tucked in behind the island, conditions can change quickly. We had a wicked thunderstorm pop up during the night. Had to get up in the middle of the night to start-up the engines just in case the anchor pulled.
During our trip, we were missing one of our usual companions as Jason and Resha were having a baby (remember the belly shots). When we got back we got to see our newest travel buddy for the first time.
Jackie is a sucker for babies! :smt001
After another trip to The Massassauga for a week that seemed to disappear in swimming, naps and Mohitos... We spent the balance of the year mostly around Beausoleil Island, most specifically Frying Pan Bay. This one was taken on Labour Day weekend as we had six or so boats in our raft:
Another shot taken as all hands prepare the evening meal.
We had basically laid claim to this one spot, trying to get one of us there early enough to drop anchor.
Didn't always work though and we had to move around, which is not all bad as our next spot seemed to have a natural patio built into the rocks behind the boat:
Here's the view back at the boat where our dogs (Buddy & Holly) are checking out what we're doing on the patio:
Figuring this patio situation wasn't such a bad thing, we now laid claim to a new spot, including on Thanksgiving Weekend (which was spectacular this year);
My boys on the rocks above "the patio":
Friends relaxing with the Admiral on "the patio"
And a nice calm evening at anchor, taken from "the patio". I think we'll need a new spot next year...
Finally, as we prepared the boat on the final weekend of the year, I was up early (as usual) snapping a few sunrise shots. Here's the sun coming up over St. Anne's Cathedral in Penetanguishene, as viewed from our marina:
And here's a shot from the boat just a few moments later.
Then we went out on the water for the final run of the year, where I snapped this shot as we were heading back to port.
Oh yeah, did I mentioned yet how much I miss my boat.... :smt100
Paul
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