We woke up to another beautiful morning! We were anxious to get moving again, but still needed to take care of a few items of business so we motored close to the marina trying to pick up their wireless signal. Finally, about 8:30 am, we tied up at the marina dock to walk to the post office and get a stronger signal. It was nearly 11 am before we were on our way again. We transited Lock 20 with a lift lock excursion boat carrying quite a boatload of folks up to see the big Peterborough Lift Lock at Lock 21, the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. The Peterborough Lift Lock was completed in 1904 and uses two pans that weigh 1300 tons when filled. With one pan up and the other down, the two balance each other. It doesn’t matter how many boats are in either pan since a boat displaces its own weight in water. When it is time to lower one pan and raise the other, one extra foot of water (130 tons) is allowed to enter the upper pan. This extra weight allows the upper pan to push down and raise the lower pan to the top level. The two pans are locked in place and the extra water is let out of the lower pan. Boats enter and exit the upper and lower pans and the process is repeated. The lift up was 65 feet!! Gale has a bit of a “heights” issue so he was very interested in the mechanics of the lock, but not so keen on the ride. Maureen, on the other hand, loved every bit of it!
After Lock 21, we had five more locks within a mile or so of each other and came through Lock 26 at Lakefield around 3:30 pm. Lock 27, Young’s Point, was another six miles down the way which we were not going to make by 4 pm, the last lift of the day. We did arrive at the lock at 4:30 pm and tied up to the wall for the evening. Gale tried to catch some fish, but nothing was biting so we cooked up the fish we had in the freezer.
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