Travels with KOKOMO II: Sept 9, Port Severn, ON

Today we headed from Sparrow Lake to Port Severn which is just before the last lock and at the end of the Trent-Severn Waterway. It rained all night as the front passed through and we expect the weather to clear later today. Started about 9 am in a drizzle with heavy cloud cover and with the air temperature in the 50’s. Even so, cruising today is about the prettiest we have had on the Trent-Severn Waterway. We are going through the Severn River with granite boulders and granite shoreline with areas of wilderness and sprinkled with several areas with lots of vacation homes.

Ken, Jodie and Linda

Jodie at the top of Trent-Severn Lock #43

We had two very interesting locks today. After a morning run of about an hour and a half we went through lock # 43 at Swift Rapids which has a drop for us of 47 feet, the largest amount of any of the conventional locks on the waterway. We entered on the high side and dropped the 47 feet in just a few minutes.

Linda at the bottom of Lock #43

The second was lock # 44, and one of the most famous on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Lock # 44 is known as the "Big Chute Marine Railway". In this lock we motor into a giant steel carriage (three stories high and twenty seven feet wide and they lift us out of the water with slings under the boat (just like we use to get hauled out at a marina for a bottom paint job) and then the entire steel carriage moves on railroad tracks up out of the water, over a small road and down the hill to the water at the bottom of the railway. The total ride moves the boat 600 feet forward and down 57 feet to the water at the lower level. The ride is up, over and down, and takes less than 10 minutes. The lockmaster here is an expert on the getting boats safely into and out of the slings. This lock could not have been easier for us.