Dragonfly Boating: Peterborough to Lakefield, ON. Misplaced buoy leads to grounding!

We got to Lock 19 in Peterborough right at the 9:00 AM opening, but had to wait while they dumped water downstream, due to recent rains. We went through with three other boats, and would stay with them for the rest of the day, which was only nine miles, with seven locks. There was one highlight and one low point of the day. The highlight was going through the Peterborough Lift Lock, the world’s largest hydraulic lift lock, which still moves boats up and down 65 feet by gravity only, as it did when it opened in 1904. The lock uses two pans of water on hydraulic pistons. Boats enter the upstream or downstream pan and the gates are closed. An extra foot of water is added to the upper pan, and the 100+ tons of weight forces it down, simultaneously moving the lower pan up. The entire lift/drop takes less than two minutes and requires no external power. It’s a pretty amazing piece of engineering. Link: Peterborough_Lift_Lock

The low point was between Locks 25 and 26, where a green buoy had broken loose and was way out of position. We were the lead boat, followed what we thought was the correct route and promptly hit bottom on some small rocks. We dinged our rudders, which kicked up as designed and thankfully, our propellor didn’t hit. The second boat ran aground, then also freed themselves. The other two vessels stopped in time when they saw something was up. We reported the incident to the Lock 26 staff, who immediately got on the phone to get the issue investgated and corrected. Last year on the U.S. rivers, we regularly saw channel markers washed up onshore, but were told that it doesn’t happen in Canada, which was why we honored a buoy whose location didn’t make complete sense. After tying up on the upper lock wall at Lock 26 in Lakefield, ON, we met with the Lockmaster again, then took a bike ride along the river. As we passed the spot where we ran aground, we saw that the errant buoy had already been removed.

After our ride, we walked into town and had dinner at The Loon Lakefield, then spent a quiet evening on the lock wall, which was completely full when we returned. Map Link: Lakefield, ON

Bonus Question: What is the difference between sherbet and sorbet? (Answer at end of post)

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