So here we are – at the end of an adventure that started May 2022 and ended now, August 2023. Totalling it all up, we spent 184 days sleeping on the boat; did a total of 1689 nautical miles; and went through 125 locks. The furthest east we went was Big Rideau Lake on the Rideau Canal and the furthest west was Little Current on Manitoulin Island. We showered at marinas; used laundromats when ever we could find them and ate a variety of poor to nice restaurants. Yet we loved it all. Beautiful vistas, clear fresh water, deserted bays, challenging channels – it was better than staying at a five star resort.

Our biggest extra expense by far was shipping the boat from the west coast and back. The rest of expenses are the same as any summer spent on the water. In a small trawler like Dauntless, if the engine is running well and you don’t hit something, it is a relatively cheap way to travel. Throwing down an anchor in a deserted bay costs nothing and we did that one third of the time. The overnight mooring pass at lock walls along the Trent Severn Waterway, Rideau Canal and Georgian Bay Islands National Park was $10 a foot for the season. Parks Canada maintain beautiful grounds around their locks and take away your garbage for free. This is one of the best deals going. Marinas are more expensive ($2/foot/night) but they provide useful services like laundry, pump outs, shore power, showers and fuel.

Could we avoid the shipping cost by leasing a boat in Ontario? This is the big question and the answer is ‘maybe and depending.’ There are time share schemes like ‘Le Boat’ out of Europe which has beautiful rental boats available on the Rideau Canal. Problem here is that they limit where you can go (Rideau Canal only), and don’t put anchors on their boats. We didn’t come to Ontario lakes and rivers to be told we couldn’t put down an anchor or go where we wanted.

We came across a company in Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island (Canadian Yacht Charters) that would manage an AirBnB arrangement for boat owners to help offset costs. They supplied captains and mechanics if needed for a reasonable price. But the people we saw using this service, were only renting the boat for a week or two. And the number and type of boats available were very limited.

One big advantage about using our own boat is that it has everything we want. Other boat owners will understand that comment. Every tool, every kitchen implement, every kayak, every chair, every electronic, every ‘everything’ on our boat has a purpose. Two to three hundred square feet of living space is so small that it makes you pay attention to the unnecessary stuff. And the stuff remaining is usually important.

Our boat is a salt water boat, which causes corrosion and shorter engine life. Selling our boat into a fresh water area like Ontario could be hard which means less money at sale. For that reason, we never considered selling Dauntless now the trip is done. That saltwater issue seems to influence how much we pay for shipping. There are many boats that head west to be sold and few that come the other direction. We got a half price deal coming to Ontario because the shipper could fill a usually empty truck that deadheads back to Ontario. But we are being forced to pay full freight going home.

Shipping the boat to Ontario and back was expensive. We could have gone on a extended trip to Africa or a cruise to the Antarctic or travelled first class to Europe staying in fine hotels. So I guess it comes down to a matter of choice. We loved it, couldn’t get enough of it and if we could, we would have two boats – one in the Pacific Northwest and one in Ontario.