Leaving our delightful anchorage around 8:30, our trip was broken into 2 parts today. We cruised about 5 miles to Trenton, Ontario, to the nicest marina yet. Built in 2015, the docks were immaculately maintained and spotless clean. The small ship store was very accommodating to my friend, Dale, who needed a new battery for his bow thruster. They didn’t have what he needed on the shelf, but 1 hour later, the proprietor of the store was back with it in his truck, finding it in town. The place was so nice, as were all the boaters in slips nearby, who dropped by to chat, find out where we were going, where we’ve been, etc. My deep philosophical observation of this boating community: everybody is looking for somebody new to talk to. With an abundance of time on hand, after most have had high impact careers interacting with people, boaters are always interested in new folks. Amanda and I laugh often that people are looking for some “new material”, as they have run out of fresh info with just the 2 of them on board.
Marina office and welcome center 
The grounds are beautiful
With a new battery and a properly functioning thruster, we left Trent Port Marina and headed North/Northeast up the Trent River.
The beginning of the Trent River (actually the mouth that flows into the Bay of Quinte.
Lock 1-the Canadian flag flies proudly in the background as the USA invades.
Like the Erie and Oswego Canals, the river is loaded with locks, so progress is even slower than our normal blazing speed of 7.5 knots (about 8.6 mph). Today, we negotiated 7 locks. When passing through Lock 1, the Canadians hold your boat in the lock until you pay the lockmaster. We were truly “locked up” in Canada for about 20 minutes, but posted bail, also known as, lock fees, and they released us, since we seemed to be fairly legitimate visitors to their country.
The locks are narrower than those we’ve learned to negotiate previously, so another nervous moment creeps in as we pull into the tight quarters. After a couple of passages, they too, became routine for us. The most interesting difference I noticed with these locks is the gates are manually operated. As Amanda said, when they open the gates, it’s like watching the old movie Samson, grinding the mill stone.
This lady handles her gate with no problem 
Gates slowly open 
“Samson” walks in a tight circle until his gate is wide open.
The train once paralleled the river.
We passed through the last lock of the day, just before closing time and made it to our planned anchorage, a spot called the Blue Hole. There, we shared the space with our friends (On Misssions) and one other boat. Feeling a little like home, we were surrounded by marsh grass, biting flies, and mosquitoes. Not as overwhelming as the green heads of Atlantic City, we managed to avoid the worst of them, as once the sun set, it was too cool for them to bite. We sat on the back porch (aka cockpit on a boat), enjoyed the cool, the food, and the landscape, all gifts to us from our Creator.
Americans eating Mexican in Canada. Cultural overload. 
What’s a day on the Loop without another sunset picture? 
I wish I had a closer view of this beautiful farm. 
My Honey Queen…on the bow of the Honey Queen
Tomorrow, we sleep in a little, as the locks don’t open here until 9 am. We’re 30 minutes away, so sleeping in is always icing on the cake of boating.