We spent 2 days in the Canadian Armed Forces Base Trenton Yacht Club and with the help of 3 very friendly and helpful members, and the manager Michael, we managed to get the mast down and on the cradles on the deck. The crane there was too low for a mast of our size so we had to manhandle it as the sling point was closer to the base of the mast vs. the top....meaning it was top heavy! all went well however and we even had a chance to visit the Air Museum on the base. Finn had fun chasing squirrels and saw his first ground hogs.

We left Trenton on Friday morning and are in Hastings at lock 18 on the Trent. The staff have been fabulous to us and very helpful. It's been hot and sticky, especially when you are in the bottom of a lock waiting for the water to rise up. The current within the locks is a bit of a handful as well when they open the valves to let the water in. It hits the side of our keel and tries to paste our boat to the wall. So, I sit on the deck at midship with my feet on the wall trying to keep the boat back, while Sam keeps the bow in order with a boat hook against the wall. We've had a close call due to, no kidding, a power boater who didn't know how to handle his boat, even with bow and stern thrusters and he'd brought it all the way up from Florida! No harm done but we did end up doing a bounce off the bottom when we were trying to avoid him.

Tomorrow they're calling for rain and possible thunder storms in the afternoon so we're hoping to get across Rice Lake before that hits.

It's tough updating the blog due to lack of internet access. Right now it's 9 pm and we're sitting on a bench outside the Hastings Civic Centre as they leave their WiFi on (don't tell anyone though...we had to bribe a local for this intel!)