In 2018, I left my home dock on the Napanee River in southeast Ontario and headed for the Trent-Severn Waterway, a 240-mile chain of rivers, lakes, locks, and canals leading all the way to Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay. My challenge would be to do this trip solo in SOL CANADA, a small wooden boat I’d built to be 100 percent solar-electric powered.I knew of only one solar-electric boat that had traveled the full distance from Lock 1 in Trenton to Lock 45 in Port Severn, so they were the first. I’d be the first Canadian using only the sun to charge my batteries. SOL CANADA's canopy would not only keep me out of the sun and rain (mostly), but the four solar panels it carries would also generate all of the power I'd need for the trip.
Photographs by the author
Read this article now for Free!
Ready for a second free article? Create a free account by entering your email address and a password below.
— OR —
Subscribe now for $29.99 a year and have immediate access to all of our content, including hundreds of small-boat profiles, gear reviews and techniques, adventure stories, and more! You can also browse our entire archive of back issues starting from September 2014, as well as post unlimited classified ads. This is an extraordinary value!
Quite a nice journey. Thank you for sharing. This home-bound old skipper really enjoyed your account of a journey few of us know about.
Thanks James, I am glad you enjoyed it. The Trent-Severn Waterway is a very unique system of man-made canals, lakes and rivers. It is also one of the routes taken by the Loopers, whom you see a lot of.
Congratulations, Phil, on making that fantastic trip through the great Trent Canal System with your solar-operated craft you built. We were so happy to meet you at the locks in Peterborough and have dinner with you. My family were happy to see you and I was pleased to be able to travel up the up those famous lift locks with you. What a great voyage for you.
Your cousin, Carl
Hi Carl,
Sorry for the late response. I enjoyed meeting up with you and Melba and Tod and the kids. Going through the lift locks is a bucket-list experience for sure. The whole trip is one I will always remember.
Great read. I thought I was there. Thank you.
Thanks, Perry. I am glad you enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed your trip. This was one of the few that I have followed all the way thru, and filled with much information. I am on the Gulf Coast and would love to take a trip up the Mississippi River one of these days, and would keep a running dialogue such as yours. Thanks for the journey and keep on tripping.
Ron
Hi Ron,
Glad you enjoyed the ride. The Trent-Severn is a beautiful waterway system. I hope you get your wish and do the Mississippi. A friend of mine kayaked down the Mississippi.
Enjoyed reading, and looking forward to my own retirement (25+ yrs to go) when I can do trips like this. I really love the story of your anchor, and that you got it back – adds so much to the history of that family heirloom.
Thanks Joshua, glad you enjoyed the article and 25 years will go by too quickly.
Great article but wished you’d had included details about electrical usage, state of charge and discharge of each day.
JD