LAID UP AT RAWLEY RESORT, OUR TRANSMISSION SAID, “NOT TONIGHT HONEY”

July 26-31, 2026

We started on the Trent Severn waterway on July 13 and almost two weeks later, we were heading to a resort! We spent an enjoyable day traversing beautiful lakes, channels and waterways with a lot of beautiful homes on each side of the water. It was only about 25 miles to Rawley Resort marina and spa. We were really looking forward to some down time and this was a great spot for it.

Loons

The resort doesn’t have slips, just a long wall which was fine with us. We pulled in, attached our power cord and enjoyed a great lunch at The Grill which was next door to the resort. There was a great spot on the Rawley property to throw the ball for Bella. I did partake in a head, neck and foot massage at the Spa-very relaxing. We also used their pool before heading to the Lighthouse restaurant for dinner. Pretty much an amazing day all around.

We got up the next morning and went to the only coffee shop around, Trading Post Cabin which was a very nice spot-good breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Talked with Chris, one of my best friends, while throwing the ball for Bella. Went back to the Grill for lunch and the Lighthouse for dinner-another wonderful day!

Evening at the Rawley resort.

We were supposed to head out July 28 to go through lock 44 and then head to Midland Harbour. I took lines off and Howard, using docking mode, tried to move away from the dock but got a transmission failure and couldn’t control the boat. We put the lines back on and called the Volvo tech rep from Hindson marina in Penetanguishene, Ontario.

Howie went under the boat to inspect the pods.

Jake spent part of Wednesday and most of Thursday working on the boat, but couldn’t diagnosis the problem. He asked if we could we come down to Hindson marina where he has more equipment. Oh joy. That meant that we had to go through the last lock which is just 23 feet wide (the Bella Nova beam is 21.5 feet) while having transmission issues. Oh, and there was a Canadian holiday that weekend which meant everyone and their mother were out on the water.

Friday morning there was already a line of boats waiting for the lock to open. We started the boat and got in line. This was not an efficient group of lock hands. It was taking about 25 minutes to get through an entire round of boats going down and then bringing boats from the other side up. What was strange and frustrating was they kept taking the smaller boats (pontoons, small ski boats, and fishing boats) even though they were showing up after other larger boats had been waiting. After about 1.5 hours, we were finally up next. I was a bit nervous about getting through as the lock was so skinny, but we actually had plenty of room and got through without incident. We made it to Hindson marina and I was able to dock the boat pretty easily. We had a really nice welcome group of folks from neighboring boats greet us, plus the two dock hands, so plenty of help. One couple even dropped off homemade syrup!

Homemade syrup from a Hindson marina friend!

Little did we know that we would be in Pentanguishene for a week!