July 5, 2019 – As we left the marina in Peterborough, we actually have to go through the Ashburnam lock right on the edge of the lake, before getting to the Lift Lock itself. We had noted that there were half a dozen boats tied up there the previous evening, so we gave them a chance to clear out in the morning, and headed over about 9:30. Well, apparently they weren’t all interested in going up early, and we had to thread our way into the lock between them. A smaller 40 foot boat came in behind us, and then….wait a second, they can’t be serious!!! The tour boat was coming into the lock, too???
Holy xxxx! The curve of their bow just barely cleared the dinghy on our stern by about two feet. Hang on tight! We had our hands full making sure that the lock fill didn’t toss us around, so not able to snap any pictures…
Once out of the lock, we got out of the tourboat’s way by tying up before the lock, to go see about the inside tour; we had been corresponding with the head of the waterway, and his PR guy about getting some inside pictures (with our 360 camera) of the lift lock, and we had gotten the OK. The crew from Justified rode up on their bikes as we arrived, and some lock staff came down to meet us.
Absolutely incredible! We got to go all the way in to see the pipes and mechanisms that operate the lock, and go under the pans and see the big hydraulic cylinders.
We took lots of 360 video footage, but unfortunately, the file sizes are so large, and the video editing surpasses the capability of the computer we have aboard, so we can’t really edit and share it yet.
We had a great time seeing the innards, but now it was time to take our boat for a ride. Going….UP!
Wow! What a ride! About a minute and a half – to go up 65 feet – here’s the video
We continued on, eventually staying on the other side of the Lakefield lock -near a nice shady spot with a picnic table. We met a very nice Canadian man with his grandchildren, and talked with him quite a while about advice for further up the canal. Interestingly, we would actually see him again a couple times along the way.
We walked across the bridge to town, and had lunch at a pub, and then back to the boat to celebrate a great day.
