I pulled into Campbellford early this afternoon and stayed put. I had noticed the starter seeming a bit sluggish – I’m locking down every few miles on this stretch, and at the last lock I lost engine instrumentation after starting.
Fortunately there are nice municipal facilities here with power. And groceries and takeout very local. So I plugged in, confirmed charging, and had a lovely afternoon tidying up and getting provisions. I’m not concerned about the batteries. I already have plans for tearing the charging system apart this winter.
It’s also nice to have heat. The last couple of nights have been in the low single digits, and it’s been sunny but cool in the daytime. The portable electric heaters plugged in fore and aft tonight are a welcome luxury. I was tied up at the locks in Lakefield and Hastings but without shore power or working generator.
I was frustrated when I dug out my heated matress cover and it wouldn’t work. Turns out that it doesn’t work on the inverter, but works when plugged in. One more argument for a fancy new inverter.
One nice thing about extended shakedowns is that you can try out various situations and use cases as you go along. I was in a deep lock today and had the opportunity to consider my railings in that context. I thought I had this solved last week, but that was in the context of boarding and open water. It won’t work at all for vertical walls. Back to the drawing board. It might just be a really robust hip strap and more handholds.
I also noticed a noise today that I took to be play in the linkage to the backing rudder. On investigation I found the linkage to be broken, and the noise was the cone swinging around and coming up against the prop shaft. I secured it in the centered position.
I’ve had a bit of a fascination with this device. I may have broken it when reversing aggressively out of Buckhorn the other day. It’s a rigid linkage and one of the threaded pipes broke at the fitting.
I had to take on fuel at Peterborough. I have sight tubes, and both tanks were low. I’ll empty one by transfer before I refuel to get exact capacity, but as suspected these tanks are small, no more than 300 l each.
Boat is fabulous. Lots of compliments from the lock tenders on this stretch, and I’m spending more time appreciating the inside now.
This is a lovely stretch of the waterway. It’s completely different, far less jagged and threatening. I’ve been able to relax and look around a bit.
Sunset on Rice Lake
Boating Adventures 