Getting close to the Big Chute!

We left Orillia for Lock 43 – Swift Rapids. If you recall, there are 45 locks in total, so we are excited at this point to be so close to Lock 44 – the Big Chute – and then to Lock 45 – Port Severn – the end of the Trent-Severn Waterway.

On the last few locks we are going down, rather than up. You loop your boat line to a the cable at the top of the lock (not the bottom) and your line then goes down with you as your boat descends. The lockmasters at these locks are most helpful. They take your line and loop it for you, even using a boat hook if necessary.

The Swift Rapids Lock is another engineering marvel. This is the “largest” lock. Your boat descends 47 feet!

Another interesting feature of this lock is it houses an electrical power plant that produces hydro electric power. Canadians still call electricity “hydro,” as originally most of the power here was hydro generated – with waterfalls. There is an incredible waterfall here.

We spent two nights at this lock. Planning to enter the Chute (the next lock) takes some strategy. Our “guide book” recommended going through the Chute during the week, with less traffic from local boaters. This year there are a record number of Loopers – around 500. (There was a significant decline the last two years due to COVID.) Granted, all are not doing the same routes at the same time. But there were several trying to make the Chute around our timeframe.

The other challenge is that the Chute is having trouble finding workers. Several senior employees have retired, and new employees need to be trained. The Chute announced that on the weekends there are now boat size restrictions. The boat cannot be over 30 feet long and 11 feet wide. Sunshine is 34 feet long and 12 1/2 feet. So we had to wait until Monday.

Our stay at this Lock was fun. The setting was rural, with country roads to walk on. And this was a holiday weekend, so we saw several campers and local boaters. We also befriended a couple on the boat docked behind us, Paul and Darlene. They are from Orillia and familiar with traversing the Chute. They are a lot of fun!

Paul and Darlene invited us to take an afternoon ride on their dinghy to check out the Chute. It was a windy and chilly ride but we finally arrived! Paul felt bad it was so cold. He kept saying “It’s just around the corner.” We finally told him we didn’t believe him!

This visit to the Chute proved to be very helpful. We talked to a lockmaster who gave us some great advice. She told us to come Sunday to the Chute, and hopefully we will find a dock for the afternoon. Around 6:15 p.m. we could then move to the blue line to be ready to enter the Chute 9:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Sunday morning we followed Paul and Darlene down to the Big Chute Lock. Their boat was small enough that they were admitted into the lock on Sunday, and off they went.

We did secure a slip at the Big Chute dock for Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day. We met a nice Looper couple – David and Ellen – in a beautiful Sabre they just had build in the Maine factory. I went shopping and swimming, and Patrick spent the afternoon cleaning the hull with a special, magical ingredient – lemon juice! He was most happy with the results. We then had a nice dinner at the one and only restaurant there – complete with live music!

Other Looper boats arrived, with the same idea to get a prime seat at the blue line wall around 6 p.m. to be ready for that 9:00 a.m. big Chute opening. More on that in our next blog!