I had a busy fall, we had added a couple of additional tests to the Harvest sample program, so a dozen more technicians were required to do the added work.  I spent a lot of my time interviewing and filling out paperwork to make this happen.  In the end we test 8800 samples in a 4 month period- crazy days- I worked 10-12 hour days for most of it.  The good thing was that I accumulated almost 27 extra days of vacation. So the plan is to use them in June and July for a trip to Lake Superior “On Business”.  One of the reason’s for this destination is that Marathon, on the north shore, where Andy grew up is having their 75^th anniversary of the town, and Andy wants to go by boat.

Andy has been prepping for this trip since Christmas, as he got the Bonnie Dahl book: Superior  Way in his stocking.

He also order a chart book and individual charts for the north shore of the Lake,  and had marked them up with the best places to anchor or hide from a storm.  Santa also brought us “marriage saver” blue-tooth headsets – which should cut down on the need to yell at each other while on the boat.  The shoreline  is very remote, and not a lot of pleasure craft or marinas are available on the route that we will be taking.  Andy contacted a couple of boaters from “Last Dance” , members of  AGLCA  that had been on Lake Superior in the summer of 2017 for some advice, and received some very useful information. Since cellphone coverage and internet is likely going to be unreliable, I bought Andy an InReach Mini for his birthday—it is a satellite communicator, that we can send out  text messages, track  our course as well as sending SOS  messages to the proper authorities if we get into trouble.   You can follow our progress on Mapshare using this link: https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/BYK46   and password: T&A2019

Andy had a fair bit of time to do research this winter as he was in recovering from hernia surgery in January.  He had been suffering since the previous April, so the surgery was long overdue.

We had made the decision to upgrade all the navigational electronics in the boat. So all new Garmin- plotters, screens, sonar, radar, autopilot and radios for both helms are to be installed.

I did my part for the upcoming trip by sewing new curtains for the salon and master berth- I’m hoping the measurements that I took last summer were correct, or I’ll be piecing them together with pins.

Andy drove to Ontario with a load of stuff for the boat during the second week of May to meet with the electronics guy, and confirm what we wanted replaced.

The long weekend in May we drove the 500 Km up to Swan River to visit my family.  It was also the occasion of my mother’s 89^th birthday.  On the Sunday afternoon, we took a short trek into Saskatchewan to check out the garter snake pit near Fort Livingstone.

 

– It was a family affair, my Mom and both my sisters went, we tool 3 cars and a dozen people including all 5 of my great nieces and nephew.  Everyone touched the snakes

—they were everywhere slithering through the grass.

We went back to Swan River, had dinner at a restaurant and then went back to my sister’s for Birthday cake.

 

The  birthday girl!

We returned to Winnipeg on Monday.  I planted the garden a week ago with tomatoes  that I had seeded indoors in late March, and had transplanted them a couple times into larger pots.  I knew I had a lot, but when I finished planting them, I counted 29.  If we have a bumper crop- I’ll have plenty to give away this fall.

So that leaves 3 more sleeps in Winnipeg, until we leave.  We plan to be all packed up Tuesday night, and Andy will come pick me up from work on Wednesday and we’ll travel  as far as Fort Frances for the night at Andy’s sisters’.

We do have one circumstance   that could hamper our plan.  Andy has an appointment with his hernia surgeon on Wednesday morning to discuss the next surgery.  The January surgery didn’t go as well as it should have, so Andy will be having hernia surgery #3 sometime soon.  It will be the doctor that decides whether this trip happens.

If we get the green light the plan is call Buckhorn to splash the boat on June 6^th.  We will spend June 6^th in Sault Ste. Marie and arrive in Buckhorn late on June 7^th.  Once unpacking, provisioning and getting acquainted with the new electronics is complete, we will start through locks on the Trent Severn,  cross Georgian Bay and the North Channel with the goal of being as far as Marathon by June 23^rd.