Wednesday 26 July 2017

We’ve completed the Great Loop: Lovesick Lock to Penetang Ontario – July 26, 2017

Jul 24th – It was a cold rainy day with moderate to high winds.  My brother-in-law called to tell us that my Mom passed away this morning … very sad news.  The funeral is planned for Friday thus we need to get home quickly so we can drive up north to support my dad and the rest of our family.  We left Lovesick lock this morning and travelled 60 miles through 7 locks to Bolsover lock.  We have 5 more locks to go before we get to Lake Simcoe and another 4 locks to get to Georgian Bay.  We figure that we should be at Hindson’s marina by Wed afternoon at the latest.

Jul 25th – It was a warm sunny day with moderate winds.  We left Bolsover lock this morning and travelled 62 miles through the Trent Severn including a Lake Simcoe crossing and pulled into the blue line of the Port Severn lock.  All the lock masters worked hard to get us through the locks as quick as possible so we can get back for my Mom’s funeral.  We crossed our wake today as we entered the narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching thus we are now officially “Gold Loopers”!  It’s hard to believe that we completed the Loop … it doesn’t feel like we’ve been away for more than 1 year.  Tomorrow will be our last leg from the Port Severn lock to Hindson’s marina in Penetang.  
Jul 26th – It was a warm cloudy day with some scattered showers and moderate winds.  We left the Port Severn lock this morning and travelled 15 miles to Hindson Marina and pulled into our new slip marking the close of our Great Loop voyage.  Neither Maria or I can believe that our dream trip has come to an end!  Dave and Sue, Gold Looper friends of ours from Manana, met us at our slip and helped us load up the car so we could make a quick dash home for my Mom’s funeral.  Here are some interesting facts that I collected during our trip:  Our loop lasted 391 days, we travelled 6,788 miles, we spent $13,700 on fuel (4,690 gallons of fuel), we put 770 hours on our engines, $9,700 on marinas (158 nights on anchor, 16 nights on a mooring ball, 176 nights at marinas and 40 nights at free docks), our repairs amounted to $6,500 and in total we spent $51,000 for our Great Loop trip.  Note that all the dollar amounts are a mix of both Canadian and US funds.  I might scare myself if I converted all the US costs to Canadian!  We collected 145 boat cards and met many other boaters that did not have them … It was a very social trip.  I have many other statistics however I don’t want to bore you with details.  We really enjoyed the trip and if you ask us if we’d do it again our answer would be “Yes”, however not for a few years.  Thanks for following our blog and it’s time to say Goodbye, Farewell, ….  Over and Out.
Hold on … we can’t say goodbye yet … we haven’t put up a picture with us and our Gold Looper flag … Hopefully we can get to this sometime after the family matters we need to deal with.  Stay tuned for our final post sometime in the future!

Tight quarters on the Trent waterway

The Kirkfield Lift Lock

The Waubic ... Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to stop and say Hi

Everyone knows this lock .... Yep, you are right ... Big Chute


Our view from our celebration dinner - We are Gold Loopers!

Georgian Bay is calm ... It's welcoming us to our new home

We managed to fit this stuff into our son's car that he left for us at the marina


13 comments:

  1. Congratulations Mike and Maria!
    What an epic accomplishment.
    It's been wonderful following your blog.
    Thank you so much for sharing your experiences on this "trip of a lifetime".
    My condolences on the passing of your Mother.
    I'm sure she was immensely proud of you and will be watching over you on the rest of your voyage through life.

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    1. Thanks Andrew! I'm glad you enjoyed our blog and I'm sure you are right about my mom.

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  2. Hi Mike and Maria,
    We met at in Rogersville, Alabama at the fall rendezvous. I have truly enjoyed your blog. It has been the inspiration for starting our Great Loop Blog as we started the trip 25 days ago.
    Condolences to you and your family.
    Take Care and Congratulations1
    Mike and Patty Boynton
    Parrot Bay

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    1. I'm glad our journey inspired others to do the same. We wish you all the best during your trip of a lifetime!

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  3. Congratulations on "going gold"! We had an exxxcellent time meeting up with you guys! Will miss following you on the blog, but all great things must come to an end. Let's meet up at the border sometime.

    Also, our deepest sympathy on the passing of your mom.

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    1. Thanks Mark & Karen! We'll miss seeing Captain's Choice anchored in a bay and exploring with both of you. We still can't believe that we've completed the Loop however we are being kept really busy with my Mom's passing as well as all the stuff we're trying to catch up on. Hopefully we see you again in the future!

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  4. Sorry for your lose. After some time passes I'm sure you will sit back and realize you just finished a dream trip of a lifetime. We can't wait till our turn comes.

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    1. Thanks Jeff. It has been an Exxxcellent trip and your turn will arrive quickly ... I remember when we were thinking about the trip 6 years ago and that time went really quick and now our trip has been completed!

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