About
Sharing stories with family and friends from the deck of Jack Tar as we explore the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the beautiful 1,000 Islands, the Trent-Severn, Rideau Canals, and Georgian Bay. Then, as we return through Ottawa and Montreal, down Lake Champlain, back to the Hudson River.
Follow us for five months along 3,077 miles and 173 locks. There will be 88 on the Trent Severn up and back, including two hydraulic lift locks and one marine railway; 46 on the Rideau Canal up to Ottawa; 8 on the Oswego Canal; the first 20 – a third of the way – on the Erie Canal; and 11 on the Champlain Canal.
The red line is our planned route up to Mackinaw City, and the blue line is our return route through Ottawa, Montreal, and down through Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal.
Logbook
Read our latest trip reports and view our routes.
Thurs July 30: Killarny to Bustered Islands
Nebo couldn’t save the route because we didn’t have cell service. We made the unfortunate decision not to go all the way to Makinaw City, our thought process being that we can get to Makinac…
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Sun-Wed, July 26-29: Bustered Islands to Killarny
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/45983ed1-eef8-4be3-b849-fbdfb358957b July 26: This morning was a tranquil cruise through the end of the Bustered Islands to the open bay. The water couldn’t have been more calm and flat. For about…
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Fri & Sat July 24 & 25: Hopewell Bay to Bustered Islands
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/98263980-ac3c-4c92-89ea-de4ad9483e0b July 24: We spent another beautiful morning on the small craft channel for about an hour and a half before we ran outside in the open on Georgian Bay for…
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Thurs July 23: Parry Sound to Hopewell Bay (Shawanaga Island)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/93ff2990-82a1-4a50-9492-941b251b3abc It was a stunning, bright day. The wind in the continuing narrow channels kept us, well, Peter mostly, on our toes. It was another day of spectacular scenery, but it…
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Mon-Wed July 20-22: Wani Bay to Parry Sound
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/852061cb-410b-4cdb-9672-02447d611832 July 20: We enjoyed another gorgeous, but windy cruising day. This area of Georgian Bay is called the 30,000 Islands, and in my opinion it puts the Thousand Islands to…
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Sun July 19: Ojibway Bay to 12 Mile Bay (Wani Bay anchorage)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/a04f1a82-d4a4-4690-bf34-2d45560f3a34 After we left Ojibway Bay, we passed Chimney Bay where many boats had been anchored for the storm. It wasn’t as secure as the dock we were on, but it…
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Fri&Sat July 17&18: Midland to Beausoleil Island
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/cb70ac2d-01d0-4ff9-aa58-e4e32949500c July 17: We made it to Georgian Bay! We’re done with locks for a few weeks as we make our way up toward the north channel and Makinaw Island and…
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Thurs July 16 & 17: Swift Rapids to Midland (lock T24, Big Shute Marine Railway & 25)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/8db3d023-e5ab-47f7-9326-ec9e011e3925 (I forgot to turn the tracking on after we left Big Chute so there’s a gap in the route.) We didn’t get underway this morning before the first group of…
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Wed July 15: Orillia to (locks T42 & 43) Swift Rapids lock wall
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/c3530084-3e34-4ac3-ab5d-bcb67d14b845 Today marked the second day of overcast skies and with the air thick with smoke from the forest fires in N & NW Ontario and Minnesota. We backtracked a half…
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Sun-Tues July 12-14: Orillia
July 12: Life has a way of changing your best-laid plans. I have to have a minor procedure on my eye tomorrow, so fitting under the bridge will have to wait. Fortunately, it seems I…
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Tues-Sat July 7-11: Kirkfield to Orillia ON (locks T36-41)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/04c6d730-5650-4214-a73e-a3625e49ff35 July 7: We were delayed leaving this morning by a couple of hours because the lock needed maintenance. Normally, the locks open at 9 AM, but this morning we couldn’t…
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Mon July 6: Bobcaygeon to Kirkfield Lock Wall (locks T32, 34 – no 33 side trip – and 35)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/b1527e4c-cf1e-4e74-a7c2-d108e62fd37d Because there were many very narrow channels between the locks and small lakes where only one boat our size can pass, boats are required to make a Sécurité call (pronounced…
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Sun July 5: Lovesick Island to Bobcaygeon (lock T31)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/b2d5d2a6-ea90-4304-ab05-9e81dc8e9a71 We thanked the boating gods again since we completely lucked out once more by snagging a lock wall spot – and we even got one with power. Usually on the…
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Sat July 4: Lakefield to Lovesick Island (locks T27-30)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/2b6c4194-2aa4-4d0b-9956-5ec68a6d3b6a Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇲 We buddy-boated with the three other boats today (the same couples we had dinner with last night) through each of the locks. Two of our flotilla…
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Wed-Fri July 1-3: Douro Lock to Lakefield (Locks T25&26)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/8ef769a7-65d4-4b18-8a1b-0a0cb4a41af5 HAPPY CANADA DAY! 🇨🇦 We were incredibly lucky to get a spot on the Lakefield lock wall. It’s a very popular spot because it’s shady and has power pedestals (fewer…
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Tues June 30: Peterborough to Douro Lock Wall (locks T20-24)
link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/5ba8a0bc-bf8e-410a-a3db-257288da0b5a The Peterborough lift lock is quite a spectacle! Now we know why it is the most famous of the Trent locks. It was considered an engineering marvel at the time…
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Mon June 29: Otonabee River Anchorage to Peterborough ON (Lock #T18 Peterborough Municipal Marina)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/a4bbc6af-33d1-4046-a573-d93eff290f78 We continued up the lovely Otonabee River toward Peterborough. Thus far, we have been locking by ourselves or with one other boat at a time. Today, though, we were in…
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Sun June 28 Healy Falls to Otanabee River Anchorage (lock #T18 Hastings)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/6ec63bb8-a412-4256-b233-b4fcd3303d61 We only had to go through one lock today, but oh, what a lock it was. As we approached, we couldn’t see the lock gate because it was around a…
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Sat June 27 Percy Reach to Healy Falls lock wall (locks T8-17)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/3fd5c3df-2481-4191-a3fd-ed0477a1205f This was a LONG day of locking. We locked with Under the Bridge until Campbellford. We had a long wait, about half an hour, at lock 13 for other boats…
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June 26: Trenton to Percy Reach Lock Wall (locks T1-7)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/ac283cdc-50f9-47d9-9dcb-bc507fbb655d We started our journey north on the Trent-Severn Waterway today and hit locks 1-6 immediately, so we only traveled seven miles in four hours (that’s almost worse than the beltway). …
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Wed & Thurs June 24 & 25: Wilton Point to Trenton ON (Trenton Port City Marina)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/03fefacb-b34d-4658-a5d8-f6efe5888fd7 June 24: Usually, dropping and pulling the anchor is my job. Like most trawlers, we have something called a windlass, which is a motorized winch that lifts the heavy chain…
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Tues June 23: Gananoque to Wilton Point Anchorage in Jay Bay ON
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/7689042f-e59c-4d60-8a77-c9963df82f78 Tues June 23: Gananoque to Wilton Point Anchorage in Jay Bay ON Our original plan was to dock for the night in Kingston, but we decided to continue on for…
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Sun & Mon June 21 & 22: Clayton NY to Gananoque Ontario
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/49c4ff8a-f21a-4060-89ac-1781fbcb08a0 June 21: We left the Clayton marina at the same time as three of our other neighbors. We stopped at the pumpout dock on our way out, and a boy…
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Tues-Sat June 16-20: Clayton NY (Boldt Castle)
Note to my subscribers (all 12 of you!): I have chosen not to send emails each time I publish a post so that I don’t clutter your inboxes. But when I do send an email,…
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Mon June 15: Cape Vincent NY to Clayton NY
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/72f6518b-dc80-49e0-8041-381e669f364f It was breezy, cool, and overcast this morning. We were anxious to get to the Clayton City dock because the weather was predicted to deteriorate again, and we wanted easy…
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Sat & Sun June 13 & 14: Oswego NY to Cape Vincent NY (lock O8 and across Lake Ontario)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/3816d6ab-b6fb-463d-8cfc-e39f8c8ff8ac June 13: We went through the last lock on the Oswego Canal quickly and uneventfully; it was only eight feet down. The lake crossing seemed auspicious as it was a…
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Fri June 12: Brewerton NY to (locks E23 & O3–7) to Oswego NY
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/f0a7406a-3257-4b48-a108-8c7f542c7785 This morning, we did our last lock on the Erie Canal, which continues west all the way to Buffalo. I’d like to take this opportunity to reveal a few stats…
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Wed & Thurs June 10 & 11 Sylvan Beach to Brewerton NY (crossing Lake Oneida)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/c91d5f2c-1a31-41ac-9834-3d173a5f11fe Wed June 10: Sylvan Beach to Brewerton NY The morning was overcast and humid, but still relatively cool. Suits me. We only had about a three-hour run today to cross…
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Tues June 9: Little Falls NY to Sylvan Beach NY (locks E18-22)
Link to today’s route: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/e319268e-11c2-4a03-bc86-391fb6e9a6b0 We had a glorious morning! Sixty-five degrees and sunny. We spotted a huge turtle swimming breaststroke right next to the boat, but I didn’t quite catch the pic in time.…
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Mon June 8: Amsterdam NY to Little Falls NY (locks E11-17)
Link to our route for the day: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/7a09e11a-6548-4f49-9b4b-37b66942f013 We hit our first Lock for the day almost immediately after leaving Amsterdam, where we could see Guy Park Manor when we got to the top. The…
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Jack Tar Adventures 