June 27/28, 2019 – Because we had come a bit further the night before, when we got up on Thursday we had only about 20 miles to go before we reached Trenton. We got a reasonable start, after checking with the marina by phone that it was ok to do an ‘early check-in’. We were told that the slip we were assigned was vacant, and arriving early wasn’t a problem, so we headed out to arrive about 11:30.
We were met at the dock by no less than four dockhands at the Trent Port Marina, all with matching T-shirts and wearing inflatable PFDs. That kind of an operation was something that we hadn’t seen before.
We were tied up and checked in by noon, to a state of the art marina with great facilities, including for security on the docks. We were issued a pair of proximity cards, with lanyards, to get us onto the docks, that were each secured with gates and cameras. As a former national security professional, it made me feel right at home. Sort of.
We explained the LCBO situation in a previous post, but here’s the rest of the story. The Ontario provincial government contracted with “The Beer Store” to be the exclusive distributor for beer in quantities greater than six. So if you want a 12, 15, or 24 can/bottle case of brew, then you have to head to The Beer Store. Which is what I did after getting lunch at the fish & chips place-bike with trailer over to the store, and back with three ice-cold boxes. Now, which one to sample first?
We took advantage of the nearby grocery store, and free laundry at the marina, to get ourselves ready to head north into the Trent-Severn Canal.