Canada Day in Hastings, Ontario

Flight locks, #16/17 were new to us on Thursday.   The boat enters Lock #16 and is raised part way and then the doors open again and the boat enters into Lock #17 and ties up again. The lock gates are the tallest we've seen.  See the dark blue waterline on the lock doors.  The water level will go up to that height before the doors open to enter the next lock.  You feel like you are below a dam.

It takes about 30 minutes to enter the lock, tie up and move to the next level. This shows the size of the flight lock.  We traveled the day with Timbers, a sailboat out of Florida, that is captained by a retired towboat captain.

Beautiful homes along the waterway.  Most homes have colorful accent Adirondack chairs.

We arrived in Hastings and spent five wonderful days tied to the lock 19 wall.   It is a small town of 1,700 friendly folks and everything a boater needs within walking distance of the city lock wall. King got to be on a first name basis with the owner of the Home Hardware store.

We had to eat here twice, excellent halibut and chips.  Next door is the combination ReMax Realty Office and laundry; $2.75 a load, just to wash - the most we have paid.

The trimmed Canadian Maple trees in the park are very dense and provide good shade.

Church service by the riverside, songs were appropriate, "Shall We Gather at the River" and "Will Your Anchor Hold".  We made new friends, Henry and Diane on boat DeDe joined us.  They completely built their boat, what a job!

We stayed at Hastings over the holiday weekend rather than be out on the waterways with the many Canadians on a long holiday weekend.  Canada Day is July 1st and we were honored to be invited by locals to help celebrate.

Sharon visiting with Master Card III with Canadians, Terry and Cindy from the town of Cobourg, Ontario.

The Canada Day Parade (see Home Hardware in the background - King's other home).

This picture is taken from our boat, looking up the lock wall.  The boats are rafted together because all boats must move out of the marina across the river on July 1st.  The fireworks are set up and shot from that marina.  It is a quite a show.  They even have fireworks that come up out of the water.

Watching the fireworks atop of Master Card III.

We met a family on their boat Grace.  The oldest son, 12 year old Luke, was eager to have a job, so King put him to work cleaning off the Chesapeake Bay mustache that sticks to the front of the boat, called the Chesapeake mustache.

We said good bye to Hastings and our new friends on Wednesday and came across Rice Lake and the Otonabee River.  This was an amazing stretch of twists and turns, about twenty miles long, very narrow and often shallow.  Somehow we didn't take any pictures. Maybe we were too busy watching the markers to make our turns.

Now we are in Peterborough.  We are spending two nights at Lock 19, Scotts Mills.