Dot's Way Cruising Cat: Kirkfield to Mile 198.8 Port of Orillia Marina, Ontario, Canada

We left Kirkfield with a 6:30 am departure crossing Canal Lake and through the Hole in the Wall bridge before noticing that the Simcoe Street Swing bridge would not be opening until 9 am. So we pulled out of the channel and anchored and fixed breakfast and then poked along to make the 9 am opening. We then passed through Lock 37 Bolsover, Lock 38 Talbot, Lock 39 Portage, Lock 40 Thorah and Lock 41 Cambridge. We had to wait on the Lakeshore Road Spring Bridge to open behind a line of local boats and the jet ski family that came up the lock and down with us for the ride. We passed through the narrow jetty walls out into Lake Simcoe and luckily it was a smooth ride as we we warned to check NOAA weather buoy before heading out. We got through the Narrows stopping at Bridge Port Marina for diesel and pump out before heading around to the protected Port Of Orillia City Marina. This was our first marina since we entered the Trent Severn Canal and were next to Bliss who we were across from in Port Trent Marina. We immediately headed downtown to Rustico Vino for a late lunch with the best pizza and house red wine and decadent chocolate cheesecake dessert. We stopped at the Metro Grocery and the Shoppers Drug Mart before returning to the boat. We dropped off groceries and then headed over to the Centennial Park to the Orillia Scottish Festival. We caught the final awards of the bands as they paraded to the beer tent. The gated docks of the marina are along the several parks just a block away from shopping and restaurants.

Mist on the water

Geese off the bow

Hole in the wall bridge

Classic looper boat Vagabond

Cute waterfront cottage

Float plane taxied through the marina fairway

Sea plane took off on Lake Couchiching

Headed to the marina office with great showers and free laundry

Here we are at the dock with front row view

The Orillia Scottish Festival

On Sunday morning we got up at our usual time at 6 am and walked through Veterans' Park and the Milineium Bike Path until it got buggy. We walked to the historic Guardian Angels Church on the way to 125 Breakfast Club for outstanding Belgian Waffles. We made another trip to Metro Market and then came back to the LCBO Liquor Store to stock up. We spent the afternoon in a cleaning frenzy of scrubbing the decks, sorting and putting away and vacuuming since we had power. We took a long shower at the bath house and did a free load of laundry while we had happy hour at the picnic table on the water front. The wind had picked up and we had rain overnight so this was a great stopover.