July 26…puttered around and finally left Port of Orillia around 10 AM…two locks and planned to arrive at the Big Chute for a night on the wall. One small detail we forgot to factor into our plan was that this was Sunday…and we’ve been warned about weekend traffic on this end of the Trent-Severn…OMG…we waited an hour at the first lock and almost two hours at the second lock…in the heat (85 degrees) and with loads of other frustrated boaters. We arrived at the Big Chute basin docks and there were our friends on NEARLY PERFECT, another looper PLANE 2 SEA we hadn’t met, and a gold looper CHER III. Chatted and traded cards…inspected the shade awning that CHER III had (think I can do that)…then the lockmaster came by to visit. We decided that in order to make time in the morning it would be in our best interest to spend the night on the blue line…so three of us went at 7…leaving CHER III alone on the dock. She is headed the other direction and so not part of this plan. Floyd, Charlie and Jack had a little captain time….cigars…and we were done in. Tomorrow is the Big Chute and we plan to head into Georgian Bay …we want to stay at Frying Pan Bay, one of our favorite stops on the last trip. Shouldn’t be an issue, we are third in line so probably will be off the Chute in plenty of time for the 30 mile trip.