We left the boat on October 9th as planned, spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Bancroft—I had more KIC-20. We then travelled around Ontario and visited with friends and family. We attended Caitlin and Christina’s wedding in the beautiful Elora Mills. It was absolutely amazing. We then started home, visiting more friends along the way. We arrived back in Winnipeg on October 24th.
This fall was also a sad time, three very dear people passed away. A good friend from Eastern Star/Job’s Daughters that I knew for over 47 years- Louise who was 103. My former boss from the CGC- Phil who was 93, and my cousin- Maureen, who died in a car accident . They will be missed.
Andy will be having a knee replacement in late November, so there will be very little travelling over the winter. I going to need a big knitting or sewing project to keep me occupied this winter!!
On Saturday the 28th, we walked to the Bush Plane museum, which is located on the waterfront in the Sault. Here’s one of the planes, also information on how to become a forest ranger- which I thought might be of interest for Jack.
On our return to the marina, we met up with Pat and Marcia and had drinks and appies at Montanas, which is located next to the marina. On Sunday we left around 8:15 and travelled the St. Mary’s river to Hilton Beach, we did not see a single freighter, only a couple of fishing boats. We stayed here for the night. We had this coyote on our dock, to scare the geese away. It seemed to work, as there was no goose droppings anywhere to be found on our dock. We had a thunderstorm in the evening followed by rain throughout the night.
On Monday we left just after 7 am, and crossed all the open water of the north channel, passing by Bruce Mines, Thessalon, and Blind River. We ended up going up the Whalesback channel and anchoring in Moiles Bay, off of John island. Long day 72 miles in 7 hours.
The skies were overcast, but it was relatively calm. On Tuesday, Canada Day we travelled 37 miles, in and out of fog in order to reach Little Current at 11 am. We walked up to the grocery store and got a few things as well as ice cream ( not Kawartha). In the evening, we met with Betsy and Allan, loopers from Florida, as well as Mike a gold looper from Michigan.
Wednesday was to have very little wind and waves, so we left at the 9am swing bridge opening and went outside of Killarney past the Bustards, but by this point the wind was starting to pick up. We went near the Outer foxes and vixen island, 2 places we had stayed before, but couldn’t get the anchor to hold. We travelled a little further and anchored near Dead Island in mud and weeds and were good for the night. Another marathon day of 69 miles. On Thursday morning, our 15th wedding anniversary, we only had a short 18 miles to travel to reach Wright’s Marina in Britt. Here we fuelled up, had a pump out and refilled our water. For an anniversary gift, I picked out this t-shirt. I’ve experienced both of these choices, and prefer the first one!
We went to Ice Cream on the rocks and had our first taste of Kawartha Ice cream KIC(1) Black Raspberry Thunder& Pralines &Cream. People have asked me how often we have Kawartha- so I’m going to try to keep track this year. We ordered a Pizza for supper, and Sean, one of the marina staff picked it up for us. It was huge, we had it for supper and for lunches for the next 3 days.
We left Friday at 7:45, and traversed the Norgate rocks, followed by the Hangdogs. There was hardly a ripple in the Hang dogs, but you can really see how low the water is in Georgian Bay, as there are many new rocks above the waterline. We continued on as the waves and weather held and crossed Parry sound. At 2:30 we anchored near Falkner island in Spider Bay Saturday, we did a few cleaning jobs—I was trying to rid the boat of May fly carcasses, as we had an invasion 2 nights in a row with them. Also took a dip in the water, as it was quite hot. Finally a Time to Relax!
On Sunday our friends, Tom, Peggy, & Nyla from Water Lily and Randy and Audrey from Heart Tug, came to the boat by dinghy. They were anchored in Echo Bay a few miles away. The day was mainly overcast, with some wind. Rain was to start in the early evening. I watched this loon for awhile and go this picture.
On Monday morning we left the anchorage around 9:00 and continued south east towards Beausoleil Island. We tied up at the dock at Cedar Springs at 1:15. We were the only ones on the dock, but there were a couple of other boats anchored out. Once we had check-in, we went for showers, and got rid of our garbage and re-cycling. My plants are doing well. Have about 10 tomatoes, and the lettuce is almost ready to eat.
On Tuesday we left around 11:30 and travelled the 9 miles to Queen’s Cove marina in Victoria Harbour. We got into our slip A10, which is actually Water Lily’s regular spot. We went to the marina office and paid for our slip for 2 nights, and tried to find out when the electrical work might be scheduled, as the parts that we ordered had been arrived. On Wednesday morning the service tech arrived around 9:00, and by noon he had replaced the external voltage regulator and installed the dc to dc charger. With these additions, our alternators will be able to charge our house lithium batteries while we are running.
To celebrate we went to Queen’s Quay for wings and beers for supper. It was quite hot, so we ran the AC to cool down the boat. On Thursday we went the 9 miles to Port Severn and did our first lock on the Trent Severn Waterway. Will stay here a night or two, we walked over to the Ice breaker, and had KIC (2), coconut this time, also picked up some books from a book sale at the post office.
On Saturday we moved on to the Big Chute railway, and tied up on top at the docks. t was really hot with very little breeze, in the afternoon, we went to the Marina for more KIC(3)- not much of a selection, so I had Chocolate. On Sunday morning Andy called the next lock, Swift rapids to see if they had space at the power pedestals- they did so we untied and arrived there before 11 and took a spot with power. It was suppose to be hot, and we wanted to run a fan or the AC, as the night at the big Chute was extremely hot and uncomfortable. We decided to stay for 2 nights, as there is only one more lock before we reach Orillia. We met with some loopers and the captain pulled out his charts and showed them some of our favourite spots. I have recently read the book- a respectable ditch, about the building of the Trent Severn Waterway between 1833 and 1920. Definitely an eye- opener– so much politics involved, and the ideas for it’s use kept changing, in the early days it was used for moving lumber through log chutes, then they thought it could move grain from western Canada down to Lake Ontario- that never happened. It was used for pleasure craft and Steamers, taking people on vacations. I did learn that Swift Rapids was originally a marine railway similar to the Big Chute. Stewart from the lock, showed me some pictures of what it was like prior to the lock opening in 1965, and where the rail lines used to be. Couchiching was the last lock built.
We left Swift just after 10 on Monday and arrived in Couchiching around noon, it was very busy and the grey wall docks were full of people going to the nearby restaurant, we bobbled around for a bit, and finally got a spot and tied up. Later in the afternoon we met people on a sailboat, who had come all the way from Norway- they had been in North America for almost a year, and were headed to Georgian Bay.
On Wednesday morning, we heard from the lockmaster that the bridge would be opening shortly, so we rushed to it and were through by 9:35. We arrived at the Port of Orillia and were tied up by 11:15. We heard on the radio that there were issues at the bridge, and it was down for maintenance. Very glad we came through when we did. Once we were settled, I did a few loads of laundry, and later walked to the Metro store for a few things, thank goodness it is close by, as it was over 30 C here. One of the items was a tub of KIC (4) Salty Carmel Truffle. As the afternoon progressed many boats came in, to get power as it was well above 35 with the humidex. Rain and wind was predicted for the evening and Thursday, so I expect many of them to stay.
Later in the afternoon, the Diesel mechanic who is going to do some work while we are away stopped by, so that Andy could tell him what he thinks needs to be done. In the morning David, the electronics guru will be paying us a visit as well. We are going out for supper with Brian and Helen, they will be taking us to Barrie tomorrow to catch the bus for our 20 hour bus ride to Thunder Bay, there we will pick up our vehicle and drive home to Winnipeg, stay there a few days and then off to Swan River for my great nieces wedding.
In early January, we decided that we would like to spend a couple weeks in Ireland, after we had put the boat to bed in Buckhorn. We’d drive to Toronto and fly to the Emerald island but that didn’t really work out with the issues in Lake Superior, so we came home for a couple weeks. We left Winnipeg early on Tuesday September 17th and travelled as far as Thunder Bay. We stopped by McKellar marine and dropped off our newest lithium battery, we also were given 2 props that needed to be taken to Buckhorn. We stayed at the Choice hotel called the Courthouse, as that is what it previously was. We were given a room on the lower floor that had a wheelchair accessible shower, which was great but it was badly designed as when we showered the next morning it flooded the bathroom.
We checked out and drove towards the Sault. We spent the night, and went to Wacky wings for supper. We left early in the morning and travelled as far as Buckhorn arriving around 3pm. We picked up our refurbished props, and dropped off the other set from McKellar’s. We then drove up to Bancroft to spend some time with Brian and Helen.
On Friday we had lunch and a visit with Brian Hayton. We left around noon on Saturday, we stopped at Kawartha, as we were leaving Bancroft, as I had a craving for coconut ice cream. We arrived at Linda and Rick’s in Oshawa around 3 pm. We had some snacks and drinks and then Rick, Linda and I spent some time in their pool.
After dinner, I learned how to play shuffleboard, we also played a game of skip bo. On Sunday we relaxed, swimming, and playing games. Following lunch on Monday, we packed up and headed for Toronto. We called our parking garage, to see if we could arrive early, which was fine. We arrived at park 4u around 4 pm, and were given a ride to the airport. We got our boarding passes, and had to wait in departures, until we could check our large bag at 8pm. We then went through security and moved to our gate. We boarded our Air Transat around 11:15, and left Toronto at 11:55. At 1pm we were given a full meal, we then attempted to sleep, I was in the middle seat, between a man in the aisle and Andy, at the window, so a little cramped. It was a 6.5 hour flight and we arrived in Dublin at 11:30 a.m. once we were through customs and picked up our checked bag, we took a taxi to the Marine hotel in Sutton Cross, just outside of Dublin.
We rested a little, and then I switched the SIM card in Andy’s phone, so we would have phone and internet capabilities. We then for a walk to scout out the Dart tram station, and a grocery store. We ran into some friendly people who set us in the right direction of the station. Upon returning to the hotel, we ate in the restaurant, having soup and an Irish cheese plate for dessert. In the morning we went for breakfast, and then called a taxi to take us to Heuston station, where we were catching a train to Cork at 11:00. While waiting for our train, I scouted out where the Luas tram station was, as we will be using it on our return trip. On our 2 hour and 40 minute ride to Cork, we saw lots of fields with cattle and sheep. It rained for most of the trip. We picked up our standard rental car which was a little Mazda, we requested a GPS, which was an older model Garmin, which wasn’t very useful. We missed a few turns, but finally arrived at the cottage called Glen cairn, near Lismore. Rural roads were very narrow, hardly wide enough for 2 cars to meet, no shoulders on the road, roads are typically bordered by a hedge or rock wall. I was thankful that I wasn’t the designated driver. After unpacking at the cottage, which consisted of a bedroom, small kitchen and a bathroom, we set off for Lismore to pick up a few groceries.
We found that the cottage, was cold, so Andy emailed the owner and he turned on the heat. We also seemed to have a fly problem, it didn’t matter how many I killed or let out the window, they seemed to be multiplying. On Thursday, we drove back to the car rental place to get some more instructions. We then drove to Blarney castle, where we walked around and explored the gardens and the lower parts of the castle. We did not join the 1 hour wait to kiss the stone, especially since my husband has no problem with the gift of the gap, and “long story short”.
After a stop at the gift shop, where Andy found this saying that he liked, we left.
We then headed to the port of Cobh, pronounced Cove. The GPS took us the shortest wait, but involved taking a ferry across the harbour, which we didn’t want to do. So we revised the route, and after several missteps, arrived in Cobh. After finding parking, we went into the Cobh heritage centre, we started by eating, and then toured through the centre where we learned about Irish emigration, as well Cobh’s link to the Titanic. There was a cruise ship parked nearby, so the centre was very busy.
We stopped at a grocery store enroute to the cottage and picked up something to cook for dinner.
On Friday morning, I put in some clothes to wash, but the washer did not seem to be functioning properly- we informed the owner, and then left for the day. First stop was Waterford, another port city. After finding parking, we walked around, checked out some of the stores, and saw this artisan blowing glass.
We then ventured north to the town of Kilkenny. We went to the Smithwick brewery aka Killkenny tour and learned that Guinness actually now owns Kilkenny beer. Following the tour we went to Kytelers Inn for a pub meal and more beer for the navigator.
When we got home we learned that the washer was broken, so Katherine had taken my laundry to her mother’s place to wash and dry our clothes. She dropped them off after 9pm.
In the morning, we set off for the Rock of Cashel, enroute we stopped at the Vee, which is about 2000 feet above sea level. The V refers to v shaped turn in the road in a gap in the Knockmealdown mountains, from here you can see multiple counties. Upon arrival at the Rock of Cashel, we learned it is the greatest cluster of medieval buildings in Ireland, it was originally a seat of the Munster kings but was given up and repurposed as a church in the 11th century. It also has views of the plains of Tipperary, one of the most fertile areas in the republic.
We came back to the cottage, Andy cooked supper and then we started packing up our stuff. We left shortly after 7, as it was more than an hours drive to Cork, and it was raining quite hard and was very windy. We got into Cork, by 8:30, and had to find a gas station that was opened to fill up the tank. After dropping off the car, we were given a lift to the train station with our bags. We left on the train at 10:25; headed to Dublin. Enroute we learned that flooding, and some trees were down in Cork due to the rain and winds. Once in Dublin, we transferred to a Luas tram to get us to Connelly station, 2 very kind Luas employees helped us with our luggage and escorted us to our destination. We left Connolly at 2:50, on a train bound for Belfast, however due to construction of a new Grand Central station there, we were only able to go as far as Newry, we were transferred once again to a bus for the last hour. We arrived at Lanyon station, and called a cab to take us to our hotel. What a travel day in 10 hours, we travelled by car, 2 trains, a tram a bus and a taxi, going from Cork to Belfast in Northern Ireland. We met some people on the train, who said they would never go that far in a day. Andy explained we live on a boat in the summer and think nothing of driving 22 hours to get to it.
Our hotel was located in the Cathedral quarter of Belfast, close to city centre-called the Quarter by Warren, the room was very small, but adequate. In the morning, we went to the kitchen room, for breakfast, of toast, pastries, cheese, ham and beverages. Following breakfast we called a cab to take us to the Titanic exhibition. The exhibit had information about life in Ireland, the famine, emigration, and industry making of linen. The focus of the exhibit was on ship building, as well as the fate of the Titanic. Very well presented!
After lunch, we walked about 10 minutes in the rain, to the Public records office of Northern Ireland. we signed up for membership cards, and then went up to one of the research room, and got some assistance and guidance on what we needed to do to find Andy’s ancestors.
We were able to find the marriage, and birth records of his grandfather and 2 great uncles. We also found that there were McKendry’s in a cemetery in Portglenone. Leaving PRONI, we caught a bus to city centre, as it was raining, and went to White’s pub for dinner- rather than beer I have been trying the Irish apple ciders, and had a rockshore, which I think is made by Guinness—quite refreshing. On Tuesday morning after breakfast we walked around near our hotel and saw St Patrick’s church as well as St. Anne’s cathedral.
We checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the car rental office. This time we have a 2022 Hyundai Tucson, automatic, with an on board GPS , so a little easier for the driver. We found our way out of the city, and got to our cottage in Broughshane which was about 35 miles away. We dropped off our luggage then drove to Ballymena for some groceries.
In the main house, which our west wing rental is attached to , there is a film crew using it for series. I was told it was for BBC, and was about one of the Parnell Hall, puzzle lady mysteries. Interesting, people were buzzing around, until well past dark. Our accommodations were amazing, the kitchen was well equipped, it had 2 bathrooms, 2 TV’s and plenty of storage. We were very comfortable!
In the morning, after breakfast we set off up Carnlough road for the Antrim coast. We followed the road, stopping in Ballycastle, and took some pictures of the marina, which has more than 70 slips. Ballycastle, no longer has a castle it was destroyed hundreds of years ago. We did stop at Dunseverick and Dunluce castles. We proceeded to the Giant Causeway, which is an UNESCO heritage site of 40,000 basalt columns which remain after a volcanic eruption some 60 million years ago.
Following the causeway we then went to Bushmills Distillery and took the tour. Bushmills was started in 1608, and is one of the oldest distilleries in Ireland.
Following our tour, and tastings, we met some other Canadians, from Charleswood- small world! At the grocery store, across from the distillery I picked up some red wine for Andy and a 4 pack of OUTCIDER, another Irish cider for me to try.
On our way back to the cottage, we stopped at the Thatch inn for appetizers and drinks. Andy also enquired if anyone knew any McKendrys, and learned that there was a regular who typically came in on Thursdays- we may have to return.
On Thursday we started the day by going to Robert McKendys plumbing in search of relatives. We talked to Helen, who called her father in-law, who suggested we go to Portglenone, which was already on our list for today. At the cemetery we found a headstone/braid where Andy’s great great grandfather, great grand father, great grand mother and great uncle were noted.
Here is the inscription on the headstone at the townhill Portglenone cemetary:
Erected by Andrew McKendry, Mayboy, in memory of his father Frank who died 17th August 1887; aged 71 years. Also his mother Jane, who died 28th February 1857; aged 35 years and his brother James, who died 16th October 1889; aged 42 years. The above named Andrew McKendry died 28th March 1926; aged 76 years. also his daughter Mary Jane, who died 11th January 1931, aged 32 years and his wife Agnes, who died 13th June 1931, aged 71 years.
Following our visit here we drove to Londonderry, and once we found parking, we set off walking to see some of the murals. We could have booked a 2 hour guided walking tour, but we did not, which I was glad of. At one mural, there was a tour, and I couldn’t understand a word that the tour guide had said.
On our way back to the cottage, we had planned to stop at a pub in Ballymena, but couldn’t find parking, so we stopped in Broughshane, and bought some groceries for supper. On Friday morning, I put in a load of laundry, before we set off the “Candy” laundry machine, washes and dries clothes but takes about 6.5 hours for a load.
Since it was raining,we decided we needed indoor activities,so we drove into the outskirts of Belfast, and toured the Belfast castle and had lunch.
On on way back we stop at a grocery store in Ballymena, and purchased a few things. We drove back to the west wing, and noticed that the film crew had left. The laundry wasn’t complete, but it was on the drying cycle. Around 7, we went into Broughshare to the Merchant, and ordered fish and chips- I ordered smoked haddock and Andy had cod- the orders were massive- we likely could have shared an order. I enjoyed a couple outciders and Andy had wine. We then watched coronation street- in Ireland it is on Mon, Wed, and Friday for an hour, typically in prime time between 8 and 9. Ireland, have lots of game shows, and you can find one at almost any time of the day or night. We watched a lot of the chaser, but also bull’s eye- that combines darts and trivia, as well as tip-it, more questions, and moving markers to win money. This part of the world love their quizzes.
On Saturday, we packed up around 10 and headed for Belfast to return the car and catch our train to Dublin. Since we arrived early at the train station, we were able to take the noon train, instead of the 2 pm one which I had booked.Once again, we took a bus to Newry and then switched to the train. We arrived at Connolly station at 2:15, and got a cab to take us to the Marine hotel in Sutton.We were happy to learn that our room had been upgraded to a sea-side view. This will be our home for the next 5 nights as we explore Dublin. Here’s our view, with a few brave souls taking a dip in the Irish Sea.
For supper we went to Cucinos, an Italian restaurant in the hotel, where we shared a pizza. On Sunday after our breakfast of eggs, ham, hashbrowns, black and white pudding, we decided to venture into Dublin. It was overcast with intermittent showers. We walked the 10minutes to the Dart (Dublin area rapid transit)station, and took a train, getting off near Trinity college.
We did some souvenir shopping and walked around. We ended up going through the national Archaeology. Museum. Here there were many displays of artifacts-pottery, bones, mummies, and metals. As well there was information on how the Vikings in the 10th century had a role in Irelands history. Many of the artifacts had been unearthed in bogs, which had preserved them intact. We met some Canadians here, from Brandon MB.
We left, but taking the Luas tram back to Connolly station to catch our Dart train. We also purchased 3 day leap cards for each of us. These leap visitor cards are good for buses, dart and luas trams in the Dublin area, and only cost 16 euros for 3 days. For dinner we went to the Golden Elephant, which was located near our hotel. I had a Thai curry, and Andy has beef with vegetables.
On Monday after breakfast, we took the dart to Connolly, and the walked up to O’ cconnel street to the hop-on, Hop-off (ho-ho) terminal. We decided we would spend the next 2 days seeing the sights in Dublin by this method. We started by doing the entire city loop with its 25 stops, and saw many of the highlights of Dublin.
We then went back to stop 2, and took the docklands tour, which showed some of the newer areas of Dublin. Following the tour, we went to Murphy’s Pub for lunch, as one of the perks from the ho-ho was a 2 for one lunch deal. I had a salad and an angry orchard cider- wasn’t as good as the rock shore that Andy had.
After lunch, we took the ho ho to stop 5, where we got off near the Oscar’s Wilde statue, we then went to the national gallery of Ireland. The artwork dated back to the 1500’s, and had several Renoir, Picasso and Van Gogh pieces.
We got back on the hoho and went to stop 8 which was near the Pearce dart station. We got a train headed for Howth, and got off at the Sutton station. Tuesday, was a sunny day without rain, we reversed our steps from the night before, and got off at Pearce, and got on the hoho bus. We took it to the temple bar area, and walked around the area, with wall to wall bars and restaurants.
Then back on the bus and we went to Dublin castle and toured the interior.
We caught the hoho and went to Phoenix park, I walked around some of the gardens, with many of the flowers still in full bloom in October.
Back on the bus, we got off at stop 23, and walked to O’Shea’s merchant for their lunch special which was Irish stew and a Guinness for 10 euros, I substituted Guinness for rock shore cider. Once we were back on the bus, we took it to Pearse and caught our Dart to Sutton, arriving at 5:30. After some snacks, I put on my bathing suit and did some laps in the hotel pool.
On Wednesday, our last full day in Dublin, had rain in the forecast again. We decided to take the dart train to the end of the line in Greystones. This town is about 30 miles south of Dublin, and much of the track runs along the coast of Dublin Bay.
We passed through Blackrock, Seapoint, Mallin, Dalkey, Killiney and Brey before arriving in Greystones.Upon exiting the station, we stopped for hot chocolate and scones at the grey cafe. I had a raspberry scone which was very tasty. When we left the cafe, rain had started, we walked up the street a little, but the rain was coming down harder, so we decided our exploring of Greystones had ended, and we would catch a train heading back to Dublin. The first train was headed to Malahide, but we were told we could take it to Brey and switch to a Howth train there, so that’s what we did.
We took the train to Howth, arriving there at 2:30. Howth is a fishing village, with many vessels in the harbour, and several fish mongers set up to sell the catch, and many restaurants. We stopped at the Oar house for a late lunch.
Over the winter we had seen a “you gotta eat here” show, and the oar house had been highlighted. Our meals were fantastic, Andy had a small order of the bay mussels in a white wine sauce- he had between 40 and 50 mussels for 11 euros, I had grilled salmon, and a salad also very delicious. When we came out of the restaurant, the sun was finally shining. We got on the Dart and headed to Sutton and the hotel.
I attempted to check in for our flight, but wasn’t able to so we decided we would leave the hotel around 8:30, to ensure we are at the airport 4 hours before our 1:15 flight. I took some pictures around the hotel, and went to the water’s edge and stuck my feet in the Irish Sea- it was cold. I picked up a few shells on the shore, as the tide was just starting to go out.
On Thursday after breakfast, we were picked up by taxi and taken to the airport, arriving shortly after 9:15.We got our boarding passes, and checked our bags, because our flight is full, they also took our carry on cases at no charge. Once we were through security, we stopped at another gift shop to spend more euros, and then went to our gate to wait for boarding, which commenced at 12:15. We arrived in Toronto around 3:30 local time, once we were through customs and had our luggage, I texted Park 4U, by the time we found the column where we were to meet, our car and driver were already there. He drove back to the compound, and turned the car over to us. I would highly recommend this service, very professional and prompt, and you don’t have to wait for a shuttle to take you to the car park. I’m not sure if we have this service in Winnipeg, but it would be great- especially in winter. We left Toronto and headed for Barrie, traffic was horrible, since it was the end of a working day. We arrived in Barrie around 6 pm, found our hotel, and picked up supper. Long day, crossing many time zones. On Friday, we left the hotel by 7 and headed west, saw that the leaves were a range of colours.
We stopped for gas a couple of times, and arrived at the Travelodge in Marathon at 6 pm. Andy called Gerry Ferguson, and we met him at the Tim Horton’s, as the Legion isn’t open on Friday nights- had a good catch up with him. On Saturday we were both up before 4 am, and left the hotel just after 6, although it was dark out, we were travelling roads that the driver knew very well, having grown up in Marathon, so I wasn’t concerned. We stopped for gas in Nipigon, and once we got to TBay, Andy dropped me off at Teresa and Maureen’s for a visit, while he took our refurbished props to McKellar marine. He picked me up, and we were off again. Originally we had planned to stay with Teresa and Maureen, but because our sleeping habits were out of wack, we decided to head home and to our own bed. We fueled up in Dryden, and arrived at our apartment in Winnipeg at 5:30. We unpacked the car, and I started some laundry. It was great to be home, after being away 26 days. Our Ireland trip was great, highlights were finding some links to Andy’s ancestors, the Irish people that were so very helpful, the castles and ruins, the fresh seafood however I didn’t like the narrow roads, and lack of parking in the cities, and all the walking. It was tough to select pictures for this blog, I think we took well over 500 pictures between us– so there was lots that we saw on the Emerald Island. The captain is already talking about our next adventure, which may involve a canal boat somewhere in the U.K.
We had quite a rain storm and wind event on Thursday night which was followed by the double rainbow.
We left Friday morning on the first lift down, and were out of Swift Rapids by 9:10. We proceeded to the Big Chute where we found Heart Tug and New Song on the wooden docks.
We visited for a bit and then we proceeded to lock down on the railway carriage. We arrived in Port Severn around noon, and tied up at the wooden docks. Around 3:00 we walked over to the general store and ice breaker for ice cream. We brought back ice cream for the 3 lock staff. Heart Tug and New Song tied up on the wooden dock when they arrived.
On Saturday Rick and Linda came for a visit and we went to lunch at the Grill. David had arrived to do more upgrades on the boat, and had brought his Mom, Grace, so she came for lunch with us as well. David worked most of the afternoon, re-wiring in the engine room. He took a break for supper, and continued on until well past 10:30. There was one issue he couldn’t resolve with the new conversion box, so he reverted everything back to how it had been set up.
On Sunday, there was a good wind, so we decided to stay at Port Severn one more day. We did however lock through after 5, so we were at the bottom, in order to get an early start.
We left on Monday morning at 6:45 and headed to Victoria Harbour. We tied up at 7:45, and I proceeded to walk up to Foodland for some groceries, while Andy waited for a pump out and fuel. By 9:15 we were on our way north west, we finally stopped at 2:45, and anchored near the Jones Island lighthouse, which is South of Parry Sound. There was one other sailboat there. **
It was a hot day and I cooled off in the water a couple of times. While sitting on the back deck we were swarmed by deer and black flies.
We left at 6:25 and travelled for about an hour, before we were hit by an incoming squall. We pulled off the channel and anchored for about an hour while it passed. We continue on and passed through the Hang dog reef around 10:30. It was a little choppy, with a 10 plus knot wind.
We continued on and exiting Alexander Passage we had a good hour of rollers. We made it to the Byng Inlet lighthouse by noon, and continued westward. To get out some shelter from the wind and waves, we moved inland, and finally anchored at 2:30 near Obstacle island in the French Rivers area. Just before reaching our destination, we had to go through the Parting channel, which is the narrowest channel with the green and red markers almost on top of each other- so very challenging to get through. A 72 mile day.
On Wednesday, we got up and started making our way back to the small craft channel. The waves were predicted to be about 0.5 meters, the first 45 minutes, while we were in sheltered waters was OK, but after passing the Bustards, we were in open water on Lake Huron for the next 17 miles. The waves were approaching a meter to a meter and a half- very rough, and the waves were hitting us broadside at times.
We had a few casualties- lost a 23L water jug, that fell on its side and went under the canvas, as well as a boat hook which was unsecured, and one of our fender holders, shook free and also went overboard. Luckily we didn’t loose the fenders that were in it, as they had been secured to the railing. A very scary couple of hours for the admiral. The captain did an amazing job of getting us through. We were both thankful to reach the sheltered waters of Beaverstone Bay and Collins Inlet. We continued on, and went through Killarney just after noon.
We anchored in Covered Portage, with several other boats. There were gusty winds in the afternoon, and our anchor dragged, so we repositioned it a couple of times, by night fall the winds had subsided. In the late afternoon, Kate and Tom from Molly Brown, kayaked by and we had a good catchup with them. We had first met them in Orillia a few weeks ago.
On Thursday morning we left the anchorage by 8:30, travelling the 23 miles to Little Current. We wanted to make the 11:00 opening of the bridge, we were there with 20 minutes to spare.
Once through the bridge we called the Port of Little current for our docking assignment. They originally had us on the town dock behind the Post office, but the new GFI power pedestal did not like our boat, and kept blowing the fuse. The dock people reassigned us to the floating docks which still had the older type pedestals, and we had no problem. Once we were tied up here, I set off to the laundry mat. Between washing and drying, I checked out a couple stores on the main street. On my return to the boat, I met Bill and Julie from Jubilee- loopers who also plan to circle Lake superior- we exchanged boat cards. Once back at the boat, I found that Molly Brown had tied up in the next slip to us. Later in the afternoon we walked up to the grocery store, and bought a few supplies. Leaving the store, a women offered us a ride back to our boat—which was very kind of her. We went to the Anchor Inn for supper, and had Pizza and wings. On our return Kate and Tom dropped by and we provided highlights for the North channel. Molly Brown is on a tight schedule and needs to be back in Florida by early September, so their time is very limited.
In the morning, we set off shortly after 9 am. We had planned to go as far as Spanish, to check out the marina, but Andy had noticed that the channel was very narrow and shallow- so we may just stop there sometime, while we are in the car. We continued through the McBean and Whalesback channels and anchored in Long Point Cove, which had been recommended to us by Randy and Audrey. We went about 45 miles and there were 5 boats in this anchorage by nightfall.
On Saturday morning we left Long Point cover, passing by Blind River, Thessalon, Bruce Mines and finally ending up in Hilton Beach on St. Joseph’s Island. We had originally intended on only going as far as the Grant Islands, located between Blind River and Thessalon, but the rain started before noon, and the winds increased as the day progressed. We arrived in Hilton Beach after 1:30, totally drenched, having gone 61 miles. After tying up, we had lunch, and then went for hot showers at the marina. Around 5:00, our friends Pat and Marcia Gillespie, stopped by for a visit, they live in the Sault, but have a camp near Bruce Mines.
We went for dinner at the Tilt’n Hilton, which is just across the street from the marina. It continued to rain and blow throughout the night and into the early morning.
Around 8:30, we decided we were likely not moving for the day, so I went up to the boater’s lounge and did a couple loads of laundry. We were both very impressed with how clean this marina is kept– immaculate! We spent the afternoon, looking over the plans for our trip around Lake Superior. Andy called the marina in the Sault, to book us in for a couple of nights, as Tuesday’s weather does not look good for travelling. He learned that the Canadian lock, which is usually used for pleasure boats, is under construction, so we will be using the larger American lock to get into Lake Superior. In the afternoon, it cleared up a little and several of the sail boats from the marina went out into the bay. Most of the boats in this marina are sailboats, the exception are 6 power boats, a couple of pontoon boats and a seadoo.
We caught up on episodes of Coronation Street. In the evening, I figured out how to access the marine traffic website- as I wanted to know how many freighters, are usually in the commercial channel. When I looked, I took this picture —we show up because we have an AIS system that sends and receives.
On Monday morning we untied and went to the gas dock for some fuel, as we weren’t sure if we had enough to make it to the Sault. We passed by the Samuel Risley, which was anchored and is a CCG ice breaker—I guess you can never be sure when it might be needed in these waters. At one of the lighthouses, we saw workers doing some repairs.
We started down the St. Joseph’s channel and eventually entered the commercial shipping channel. There was a freighter behind us, called the Evans Spirit, at a wider part of Nicolet lake, Andy pulled over and he passed us. About 45 minutes later we met the CSL Assiniboine, both boats, did not give off much of a wake- I was pleasantly surprised.
We arrived in Sault Ste Marie at 12:30 and took on more fuel and had our waste tank pumped out. Once we were tied up to the dock, we filled up our water tank, and had lunch. We went for dinner with Marcia at Lychee Thai, and then she took us grocery shopping.
On Tuesday morning, we were awoken to a thunderstorm before 6 a.m. The day was cloudy and overcast. We walked over to the Station Mall, in search of advice on cell phone plans for the USA. We checked with one provider, and they could give us a deal, but they wanted to upgrade our phones. We ended up going to the Bell Mobility store- we explained we would be in the USA for about a month and didn’t want the Roam better plan which was $13/day for each day we either used the phone or text. The Customer rep was very knowledgeable and offered Andy a plan for the USA and Mexico for an additional $16 per month immediately. He also found that for only $1 more than the $35 that I was paying for no data, that I could get 60 GB. So I signed up for that as well. Andy with his new phone plan called over to George Kemp marina in Sault Michigan, and asked about stopping there in the morning, in order to go through customs before locking. We were advised to come over around 10:00.
So now we are set for the start of our big adventure of circumnavigating Lake Superior- it starts tomorrow, on the American side, weather permitting. Our plan is to be in Thunder Bay by July 24th, as we have rented a car to go back to Winnipeg for about a week for some medical appointments.
We left early Saturday morning, after packing the last of the things in the car. There was a gift card for Tim Horton’s on the windshield from Gisele, a new friend from our apartment building, so we could have coffee and a muffin. We made it to Marathon by 5 pm. To occupy myself in the car, I crocheted snowflakes, we had overcast skies most of the day with rain and fog in places. Sunday, we woke up early to get on the road, and again had rain and fog. We arrived in Midland around 5:00, another 11 hour day. On Monday morning we drove to Queen’s cove marina in Victoria Harbour, we wanted to find out their prices for storage. We also had coffee with Tom, Peggy and Nyla, on their boat Water Lily. We then set off for Buckhorn, arriving there around 1:00. The boat was in the water at the launch ramp, we started unpacking the car, and were asked to move the boat to the wall by the gas dock. We finished unloading and headed to Bancroft, where we were spending the night with Brian and Helen. Brian Hayton joined us for supper, so we got to visit with him as well. After some grocery shopping Tuesday morning we headed back to Buckhorn to continue with unpacking. This is our 9th year using the Parks passes, and my 10th year of writing this blog- Yikes- where has the time gone?
On Tuesday night, when Andy went to start the BBQ, it wouldn’t work. After 14 years our Magma had finally quit. We drove over to Home Hardware, just before they were closing for the day, and bought a Grill Pro replacement.
On Wednesday morning, we finally untied and headed down the Trent Severn Waterway. Our first lock was Bobcaygeon, followed by Fenlon Fall, where we stopped briefly to make a LCBO run, and then on to Rosedale. We shared the night at this site with this 92 foot boat- Encore.
Our friends, Julie and Glen, picked us up from the lock and invited us to dinner at their place on Balsam Lake. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of years, so it was a good night of catching up.
Thursday morning, we headed to the Kirkfield lift lock, which had been closed the previous day for inspections. The work to repair it from the 2022 breakdown has almost been completed. Only one tub was working, and we locked down with one other boat. The Encore was there, however he had to lock by himself, because of its length and weight. We did another 3 locks before stopping at the top of Thorah for the night. In the morning we locked through this lock and Gamebridge, and were out on Lake Simcoe by 10:00. Winds were between 10 and 15 knots per hour, so a bit of a bumpy ride, with 2 1/2 foot waves.
We took on fuel at Bridgeport Marina at the Atherly narrows, and then headed to Port of Orillia. It was great to get off the lake, and we relaxed. There was an event in the park, so we bought lunch at one of the vendors.
On Saturday, Brian and Helen stopped by on their way home from Barrie. Just after noon, David, the electrical engineer/magician arrived. We had a list of issues that we needed addressed, including the external regulator, being reprogrammed, a 12 V socket, Star link install, and source the issue with the batteries not being charged while running. David spent several hours Saturday, and returned on Sunday to continue.
On Sunday, I walked up to Wilkies for Chelsea buns and tarts. I saw these street decorations on the sign posts, I then walked over to Home Hardware to buy some potting soil- I bought 25L of soil and then had to walk back the 9 blocks to the boat, carrying it. But my garden is complete- 3 tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and radishes.
David left Sunday night to return to Hamilton, but since there were still a few more items on our list, he agreed to meet us at the Port Severn lock on June 15th to knock off a few more. We stayed in Orillia one more night as the winds were still blowing. On Tuesday we left at 10:15, and made it to the CN swing bridge, and had to wait for about 45 minutes for a couple of trains. We dropped the anchor in the channel. Andy found that something was jamming the gear cable on the starboard side, he investigated and found that the starboard turbo exhaust screen clamp had broke. He tightened it to get us going to Couchiching, where he could make a proper repair. The bridge finally swung for us around noon, and we arrived at Couchiching, and tied up. The first lock of the day was just going down, as the lock staff had been away tending to water and dam issues for most of the morning. All the boats entered the lock and went down, so we were alone for most of the afternoon. We took the time to do a few tasks around the boat; after replacing the broken hose clamp, Andy also replaced our Canadian flag, and cleaned and re-greased the starboard door. The sun was shining, and that along with the house batteries now charging, while we are running our batteries were at 100%. By nightfall we were joined by 4 other boats. One of which was Heart Tug, which we had first met in 2017, Randy and Audrey gave us some tips on their favourite anchorages in the north channel.
On Wednesday morning we locked through with 2 other boats and headed to Swift Rapids, we passed through Sparrow lake and McDonald’s cut.
We arrived just after noon and were able to get close to one of the power posts to plug in. There are 5 boats at the top of Swift Rapids.
In the afternoon we put deflectors over the starboard windows, and affixed the Norek PT-35 sign.
On Thursday morning, with the help of Jean Francois from Felixo, we were able to put a plate under the teak railing join where it was cracking. All the boats left and we decided to remain plugged in, as severe weather was predicted for the afternoon. We did some cleaning and encountered intermittent rain showers. We will leave in the morning and go through the Big Chute and then on to Port Severn lock, where we will meet David on Saturday. Our tentative plan is to re-provision in Victoria Harbour on Monday, and then start heading west towards the North Channel. Our Star Link is wonderful- love having internet at my fingertips!
We had a fairly busy fall and winter. We participated in 2 person stick curling after Christmas. I’m saying I participated, as I really couldn’t figure out how to throw my rocks using the stick to have them end up where the skip wanted them. Needless to say, there weren’t many W’s beside our name! We had a relatively mild winter here—here’s a picture from our balcony on my birthday in February—it was raining, first time that ever happened in Winnipeg.
I remained very involved with the social committee in our building, as well as the crotchet and knitting group. I learned to knit on circular needles and made this.
Our group is now making poppies for a remembrance day display later in the year. And who says all poppies need to be red— I made the outlier which represents animal victims of war.
It is estimated that 8 million horses were killed during WW1. We also participate, in the Wednesday games night, and rarely miss the Thursday happy hour. Over the winter there was also Movies on Friday—so lots to do here, and we’ve met quite a few of the 60 apartment dwellers.
I am also a director on the St. Vital Agricultural society, and since I will rarely be around for the annual August fair, I took on the role of producing the fair book handout. I was guided through this process by Val Johnson, a former member of the board, who had done it for many years. I needed to contact and solicit advertisers, as well as update and replace information. Here’s what the finished product looks like.
I also became more involved with my Eastern Star group, and did a number of tasks at our Grand Session this week. Here’s a picture of my 2010-2012 grand rep counterpart from Missouri who came to Winnipeg for our session.
Also here our some of the Grand officers from 2015-2016 at one of the luncheons this week.
Glad the session is over for another year, so I can start packing.
Andy has been keeping busy as well, he has been designated the baker of our monthly birthday cakes for the building and has been busy as well. Here’s the cake he made for the April birthday people- which turned out to only be him.
His first priority was to keep his numerous doctor’s appointments. He also did some enhancements to the airflow issues in our apartment, by ordering deflectors—it took us 3 tries from Amazon, before the appropriate ones were found. Since setting up his Amazon account—you never know what might appear outside our door- a drone came last week. He also makes frequent trips to Princess Auto, to pick up his on-line orders from there.
He also toiled in our very small storage room, making this signage for the boat. Since our boat was never finished in the factory, 39 years ago, we wanted to indicate the marine architect that designed it along with our model. Thus Norek PT-35. The first sign, took almost 2 months, however he was able to re-fine his techniques, and the second one was produced in a couple weeks.
We didn’t make it up to Swan River over the winter, however my two sisters, did come to Winnipeg in early May for a visit, and it turned out to be the day of Maxine’s birthday.
So now that it is almost summer, and my commitments in Winnipeg are done– we are going to start the 22 hour trip to the boat, on Saturday June 1st – so that we can relax!
Our plan is to go as far as Marathon in the first night, and then to Midland on the second. We should arrive at the boat mid-afternoon on June 3rd. The boat should be in the water, and hopefully we can leave Buckhorn on Wednesday headed for Orillia. We’re booked into the Port of Orillia for a couple days, so David, from Hamilton, can come and do some electrical upgrades, including running wires for our new Starlink “Roam” internet service. Following our visit to Orillia, we will be headed out to Georgian Bay, and the North Channel with the our goal to be into Lake Superior by July 3rd. It is finally going to happen—we are going to take the Lake Superior Circle Tour on the water!
To prepare for this we did enroll in a 5 week webinar course put on by the Great Lakes Cruising club school, showing us what there is to see and do in Superior. We have been looking forward to returning, since our 2019, as we only saw a fraction of the Canadian side. So only 2 more sleeps until our 2024 summer adventures begin!
We ended up having to make 2 trips up to Camp Morton, as we had too much stuff to take to the reunion. First drive up, we arrived at 11:00, which was the check in time for the rec hall, but it was locked, so we drove over to what was suppose to be our cabin, and found it to be empty and the door was unlocked.
We filled up the fridge and freezer and dumped off our golf clubs and the other stuff that was in the trunk. We then went in search of Park staff to let them know what we had done, and then headed back to Winnipeg, to pack up for trip number two. We arrived the second time around 3:15 and took our stuff to our cabin, which had been cleaned since our first visit. This time I sat on the bed, and found out that it wasn’t much softer than sleeping on the floor, had I known this I could have brought a mattress topper. We then went to the Rec hall, and unpacked food items. Everyone was assembling there, and we were given our assignments for the week. Jack arrived around supper time, he will be staying with us for the reunion and sleeping on the futon in our cabin. My crew, was responsible for cleanup after dinner, which was Chili and buns. Our first dilemma was that the rec hall did not have a sink or running water. We were able to heat water in a huge pot over the propane burner, to use for washing dishes.
Each person was responsible for bringing their own dinnerware and cutlery, so we only had to clean up the electric roasters and utensils used for cooking the chilli. Somehow, I managed to get red stains all over the white shirt I was wearing—I had brought my McMorland apron, but had failed to bring it to the rec hall. Lots of visiting happened during the evening. We left by about 10, and went to our cabin. Around 3:30 a.m., most everyone was woken up by the passing thunderstorm, and a very large bang, that almost sounded like a gun shot, but was one of the transformers at the park struck by lightening. This was followed by a second bang and a second transformer being blown. The result of the storm, left us without power or water—so our flush toilets were inoperable. In the morning once it was light, Andy tried to call Manitoba Hydro to report the outage—this was a feat in itself, as the cell coverage at Camp Morton was very weak and spotty. When Andy finally got in touch with someone, they asked what the meter number or account number was—we didn’t have a clue and didn’t know where to find it. Shortly after 8:00, our power was restored to the cabins, however it would be another couple hours before the water was restored. Thankfully there were some outhouses at the park. For breakfast, the menu was pancakes and sausages, and these were cooked on the outdoor grill. During the morning, a crib tournament was held for those that were interested. Andy participated and made it to the quarter-finals, Wenda was crowned the winner.
After supper, there was the fun facts competition. Each person at the reunion had submitted a fun fact about themselves that wasn’t to be shared. Everyone was placed on a team, given the list of facts and were given 17 minutes, to try and figure out which fun fact belonged to which person. You had approach people and confirm a fun fact by asking and they had to be truthful. Our team was not the winners here. On Wednesday morning at 11:30, the golf tournament was being held at Marvellous meadows in Arnes, which was only about a 10 minute drive from Camp Morton. Andy was looking after this event- there were 24 participants, assigned to 5 teams. I was on a team with Doreen, my sister-in-law, Caitlin, my niece, and Jack , my 14 year old grandson. Jack drove our shared golf cart. Didn’t know the golf cart could go that fast, and stop on a dime. We played best ball, so the game went fairly quick. On several holes, there was rain drops, and on the 6th hole, we had a short shower.
It was a fun round, followed by lunch at the restaurant. Once again, we were not the winning team, in fact I think we were the worst at 7 over. My group was in charge of making supper this evening, which consisted of burgers, hot dogs and macaroni salad—so very easy.
When the golf prizes were handed out that evening—Jack won a prize for being the most honest as he thought he had the shortest drive on the first hole, when in fact it had gone out of bounds, under a tree. The trophies, were some of Andy’s which we re-purposed, with labels, as well as the addition of Manitoba tartan kilts on each of the golfers.
A bon-fire outside the rec-hall brought an end to the evening.
Highlights from Thursday, were the reunion picture, taken mid-morning, as some people had to leave to start driving home.
The McKendry clan:
In the afternoon, there was the hockey game, with new rules, Matt had put down strips of duct tape on the grass, and players had to stay with both feet planted on the tape. Both young and old participated in the game.
Dinner that night was lake Winnipeg caught Pickerel, which was very tasty.
The highlight of the night was the family auction, funds raised from the auction, go towards defraying the cost of the reunion.
Following the auction, some people said their goodbyes that evening, as they had plans to leave in the early morning. Jack left with Erin after the auction. Friday morning, we packed up most of the stuff in the cabin, and then went to the rec hall, for coffee, and to help with the cleanup. We were done by 10:00, and headed back to Winnipeg. Maureen was staying with us for one more night, as she didn’t fly out until Saturday afternoon. We took the rest of Saturday and Sunday off, but got into packing up the house on Monday morning. This continued for most of the week. On Wednesday, we got the keys to the apartment, and went to check it out.
On Thursday, Jack came back to help take loads of stuff to the apartment by car, as well he helped Andy to disassemble our bedroom suite. Jason stopped by on Friday, and took a few things that would otherwise have gone to the garbage. On Saturday afternoon, Erin came to get Jack, in total I think he helped take 7 carloads of stuff to the apartment. Sunday night, we gave a truckful of stuff to Ukrainian refugees, including a Queen sized bed with mattress, and box spring. We continued packing on Monday. Tuesday was moving day, the movers were to arrive at noon, they called at 12:05 and said they were running late at their morning move, and would be another hour or more before arriving at our place. When they hadn’t arrived by 1:30, I called the apartment building, as our booking for the elevator was between 2 and 5. The building manager, Linda, told me not to worry if we were late, as we were the only scheduled move in the afternoon. The moving team of 5, arrived around 2:30, and had everything wrapped and moved into the truck by 3:45.
Then we were off to the apartment, and they started moving in the stuff. One of the guys helped Andy to re-assemble the bedroom suite. The movers left shortly after 5:30 they really knew what they were doing and were very efficient. But we had boxes and stuff everywhere in the apartment to find a place for. We ordered take-out for supper, as we tried to relax amongst the boxes.
On Wednesday we went back to the house, to clean it, as well we had a dumpster delivered in order to throw out stuff that we weren’t taking and was junk. Dave our neighbor took out the shelfing that was in our garage to re-purpose it. My friend Joan and her daughter Becky stopped by for a visit and took a few items that needed a new home. On Thursday, we went back and I finished cleaning up the main floor and basement, and said goodbye to Sterling- where I had lived for 23 years.
By 2:00, I was on my bike and pedaled the 2 Km to our apartment. On Friday, our internet and TV was installed in the morning. In the afternoon, Erin dropped Jack off, to help with the final adjustments on our bedroom suite, as well as adjust the air vents in the ceiling, that only someone over 6 feet tall could do. He became our first overnight guest, and slept on one of the loveseats. On Saturday morning around 8:30, both our internet and TV stopped working. After numerous call, to Bell MTS, we finally got a person who could fix it, saying that the installer had missed a critical step the previous day. Our next issue was having our email addresses transferred to the new account, this needed escalation to a case manager and programmer in order for this to be done, and took most of the day. For a communications company- Bell MTS is not very efficient. Saturday afternoon, we went to our old neighborhood and dropped off some empty packing boxes for our neighbor, while I was visiting with another neighbor, Andy took our old MTS equipment to Canada Post to be returned. On Sunday and Monday, the unpacking continued, we both went to the gym located on our floor for a short workout, and went down and met the property manager. It is now Tuesday, and we have been here for a full week, most of our things have found a home, or are living in the 2nd bedroom.
We are both liking the apartment, I especially like the island in the kitchen. One downfall is the small parking spot, and adjacent pillar, however it is very near to the elevator- I’ve not tried parking yet, I’m thankful that are car is older and white—if I hit the pillar, it may not show up! Although we are fairly close to Bishop Grandin boulevard, we don’t get much traffic noise.
Andy’s brother Duncan and sister-in-law are coming through Winnipeg, the first week of September and we have booked the guest suite for them to try out, at $75/night, it is much cheaper than a hotel. It is also located on the 3rd floor, so just down the hall from our apartment. Likely my last blog for the year, unless something exciting happens to the apartment dwellers in Winnipeg.
A lot has happened since my last blog. We did spend Thanksgiving with my family in Swan River, the highlight on the Sunday was a drive up to Thunder Hill, where the nieces and nephews walked to the club house from the top of the ski hill—too steep for these senior citizens.
We got to meet our new doctor in mid October, and he agreed to take on the two of us as patients. Later in October, I transformed my grandmother’s china cabinet from a dark brown to a light green, with a couple coats of paint.
I had contemplated selling the china cabinet, but once I changed the colour, I decided it would be great in our new place.
At Christmas, we hosted the McMorland family gathering on December 18th for the last time in our house, there were about 30 people in attendance. We spent Christmas in Fort Frances with Andy’s sister and brother-in-law, which was much better than being just the two of us. In the new year, Jack spent part of a week with us, while Erin and Jason took a trip to Vegas. We had a fair bit of snow over the winter, and I kept busy shoveling. We also had a couple really cold weeks in January and again in February.
In late January, Andy went into hospital for a hip replacement, we expected he would be in hospital for 2 or 3 days, but he liked it so much- he stayed there for 9 days. The extended stay was because his knees were swollen and couldn’t support him , so he didn’t get out of bed for 5 days.
He came home on February 3rd, and spent about a week in his easy chair, using a walker or cane to get around before climbing the stairs to our 2nd floor bedroom. He will need the other hip and knees replaced in the future.
As of December 31st, I became a member of the Facebook crowd. My real reason for taking the plunge was because I wanted to sell excess furniture and household items, and I had heard that Marketplace was better then Kijiji. Over the next few months, I sold a desk, coffee tables, tire rims, table saws, bed, rocker, dresser, couch, loveseat, paintings and many, many more tools. In mid-May I advertised a garage sale only on Marketplace, and had quite a few people stop buy.
We sold our patio set and dinghy as part of this sale. The first person arrived one hour before the start time, and he wanted to see the LP records we had for sale. I was shocked, by the end of the afternoon- all our records and CDs were gone. Some of our excess clothing, appliances and tools that didn’t sell were given to a woman working with Ukrainian refugees, and the items will be distributed amongst that community. One of my former work colleagues stopped by in late April and cleaned out my shed buying the lawn mower, snowblower, a band saw, bench, and rototiller, as well as some gardening tools. So, a lot of our excess belongings have been purged!
In early May I also met with some retired colleagues from the CGC, it was great catching up with them.
Finally on May 2nd we put our house up for sale.
An open house was scheduled for May 6th and 7th, so we decided to go up to Swan to visit with my family, so we wouldn’t be in the way. On our return we brought back 5- 5Kg boxes of breakfast sausages, locally made in Swan River. Why so many? Well one box for us, one for Andy’s sister, Elaine, and the other 3 for the upcoming family reunion.
The last family reunion had been held in 2018 in BC, and it was time for the McMorland clan to meet again in Manitoba. Andy had sent a letter to MB Parks in May of 2022, requesting the booking for Camp Morton (north of Gimli) for 4 days following the August long weekend. We found out in early March that we had the park from August 7-11th, but we needed to know how many cabins and yurts would be required before the end of March. The family responded and we had commitments for all 14 of the cabins ,the family camping area and one yurt. There will be about 65 people coming for the reunion. A highlight will be the family golf tournament on August 9th at Marvellous Meadows in Arnes, which Andy is taking care of. We had a planning meeting in late April at our place for the event, for menu planning and figuring out what would be needed to feed 65 people. One of the meals will be a fish fry, and we have already ordered 60 pounds of Lake Winnipeg pickerel for this dinner. I found these MB cookie cutters,
and have made about 8 dozen gingerbread cookies to share with family.
Back to the house, we had about 35 people go through the house during the open house weekend, and viewing seemed to be scheduled every day or two after that. It was really tough to live in a house and keep it clean for all these showings—I vacuumed more in the past month than I had in the past 10 years. We received one offer around May 15th, but countered, and didn’t end up accepting it. Our second offer came on May 23rd, and once financing was in place, and an appraisal was done, the sold sign went up on June 3rd.
I was busy the last week of May, with the Eastern Star Grand Session Tuesday May 30th as well as completing some yard work and getting stuff packed up for the boat. Knowing that there was nothing more for us to do except wait for the house to sell, we left Winnipeg on June 1st headed for Ontario and the boat. Our plan is to spend June and July on the boat, and explore more of Georgian Bay. The reunion in early August and our scheduled move to the apartment August 22nd, doesn’t gives us enough time to explore all of Lake Superior. That trip will have to wait until 2024. Here’s a view of what our apartment building should look like-our suite is in the left hand corner on the 3rd floor.
We spent our first night in Wawa, long day, we had left the house shortly after 5:00, and with the exception of stopping for gas, Andy drove 13 hours arriving at the motel just before 7:00 p.m. The next morning, we left around 7:30 and stopped in the Sault for breakfast and gas. Then it was on to Parry Sound for more gas, and then across country to Brian and Helen’s in Bancroft. Andy had heard from the marina on Thursday, and we knew our boat was in the water, however none of the upgrades ( Lithium batteries, more solar, and monitors ) was complete. We drove up to the boat on Saturday and saw that the canopy over the sundeck was done. It looked really good; this canopy will be the support system for our four solar panels. We unloaded the car, our one issue on Saturday was that the boat fridge didn’t seem to be working even though we were plugged in to shore power. We came back to Bancroft to spend another night. We returned to the boat, and by hooking up the batteries, the fridge would run on D/C power so that was great, as fixing the fridge would likely take weeks, and a replacement could be months.
On Monday morning, Andy went to the boat, to supervise the upgrades, it was determined that the new canopy was not going to be strong enough to hold up the solar panels, so the canvas was removed and additional support poles were added. Instead of going to the boat with Andy, Helen and I went in to Peterborough for lunch and to do some shopping, and pick out some perennials to plant in one of Helen’s shadier flowerbeds, we/she selected a couple daylillies, lamium and a cranesbill. Here we are planting them in the front flowerbed, the air was very smokey from the fires burning in Ontario and Quebec, thus the mask that Helen has on.
On Tuesday, Andy returned to the boat, but I stayed in Bancroft again as I would have just been in the way. In the afternoon, we did some shopping, and then went to visit our friend Muriel. The electrical engineer, Karl, from Ottawa arrived at the marina around 3 pm, he was overseeing and troubleshooting the installation of our new electrical system. Here’s a pic of the 3 Lithium batteries that will be our new “house” bank, powered by our alternators while running, as well as the 4 solar panels.
In the afternoon Cindy from the canvas shop, added more support braces on the canopy for the solar panels. Andy, Todd from the marina and Karl worked on the boat until after 9pm, had a few issues with fuses blowing but seemed to get the systems working and communicating. Karl installed software on Andy’s phone for monitoring the system. Next week, a monitor will be installed on the boat, for easy viewing by both of us. On Wednesday morning, after a little more grocery shopping in Bancroft, we departed for the boat with all our stuff. After unloading the car, I cleaned up after the last two days of renovations in the boat. I then washed the deck and flybridge. I then planted my garden, two tomatoes plants that I had started back in Winnipeg at the end of February. They both have flowers on them already, so hopefully we will have tomatoes before to long. I also planted some radish and cucumber seeds.
Our plan is to stay around the area for the few days , testing out the system, while we wait for the last piece to arrive and be added. Tonight will be the first night on the boat, tomorrow morning we will leave the marina and go to the Buckhorn lock wall or one of the other locks.
We survived a long cold winter with plenty of snow giving our snowblower a good workout. Here’s a picture of our front yard in March
and our backyard on April 14th,
we had one more dump of snow a few days later during the Easter weekend. To melt the huge piles of snow we had about 5 or 6 really nice days, but the weather has gone downhill from there. We’ve been in a cycle where we may have one nice day a week, followed by 4 or 5 days of rain. A great deal of the farm land in Manitoba is under water, or too wet to take any heavy equipment on it. Early in March I planted some tomatoes (about 50 of 7 different varieties) and peppers for my garden, but the half I didn’t give away are still residing in my living room.
I attempted to till my garden on one of the “nice” days a week ago, however I got the tiller stuck, and needed my neighbor to help me get it out. I tried tilling in another spot and got it stuck again, as well as myself—I was knee deep in mud and couldn’t move my feet, I had to take my shoes off and then use a shovel to find my shoes in the mud. Not a pretty sight!
Here’s what my garden and the newly formed lake in the back of my yard looks like…
There is a bright side, the fish in our pond appear to love the rain.
I will have a meal or two of asparagus in the next few days, as it doesn’t seem to be affected by all the rain. This spring has been very different from the drought we had a year ago, the grass is very green and long, as it is too wet to cut with the lawn mower.
Andy has had a number of doctors appointments in the past couple months, and a hip replacement followed by both knees are in the near future– likely later this fall. We made the decision to sell our house and move into a single level living space. We have put down a deposit on an apartment in a 50+ building that is under construction located on the corner of Bishop Grandin and River Road called The Pearl.
Occupancy is expected sometime in late April 2023. We are moving from a 1700 sq ft house with a basement to an 1100 sq ft apartment, so I have started to seriously purge some of our possessions over the past couple of months. It was give-away weekend in Winnipeg recently and a lot of stuff was left on the curb.
On May 20th, we both got our second Covid booster shots, Andy had an appt scheduled for that day as the eligibility was for 70 plus and the shot had to be 6 months after your last shot. It was announced the morning of the 20th, that eligibility was being changed to 50 plus and the shot could be given 4 months after the last shot. I called the same pharmacy that Andy was going to and whined a little and was able to get a shot as well. This made me extremely happy, I had checked into booking an appointment in Ontario, and it seemed pretty flawless, but now will not be necessary.
So, with our vaccines taken care of we plan to leave for Ontario early next week, as we would rather be ON the water than IN the water here in Manitoba. We have neighbors checking our house and watering the garden- should it get planted and need water. Andy was in touch with Buckhorn Marina and the boat will be launched on May 27th. The marina has a few jobs to complete including upgrade to the propane system for the stove, rebuild the hydraulic steering seal and the mounting of the 2 solar panels that I got for my birthday. We have also booked someone to take another look at our electronics installation from 2019, as some of the equipment still doesn’t work as expected.
As for where we are going this summer- who knows… We tentatively would like to take our time going down the Trent and then explore the Rideau canal to Ottawa. We can either come back the same way, as we did in 2016 or go down the Ottawa River to Montreal and then come back via the St. Lawrence. We are in no hurry and don’t plan to come back to Winnipeg until late September or early October. Alternatively Georgian Bay and the North Channel could be another boating option. With the borders fully open this year, I would expect that we will see a lot more American boaters on the Loop.
and password is still: T&A2019. I will attempt to blog on a weekly basis or whenever something exciting happens. My blog site name has changed slightly as I finally ran out of free space on the WordPress site, which I’ve used since 2015. My site is now https://cruisingonbusiness.ca
We left the Campbellford town docks just before 10:00 and headed for the Campbellford lock. We weren’t looking forward to it, as it is a mandatory PORT tie when locking up, which is not our side of choice. Andy drives on the starboard side, as well our dinghy sticks out on the back on the port side. It was windy, and we were blown towards the starboard wall, but Andy was able to bring us back to the Port side to tie off. Following Campbellford lock, we next went through Crowe Bay and then on the Healey #15- which was also a Port tie, we went through it with no issues. It was then on to the flight lock of 16 and 17. When we got out of 17, it was starting to rain and was quite windy, so we decided to tie up at 1:00. So, 5 locks and 5.5 miles.
In late afternoon, my sister Maxine called to let me know that Mom had been admitted to hospital and likely wouldn’t be coming out. We decided that we would try to get back to Buckhorn as quickly as we could- but it was 13 locks away. Luckily it was the weekend, and lock hours are 9 to 4:30. When we got up Saturday morning, we were quite fogged in at Lock 17, within 30 minutes, it was starting to lift, so we fired up and left shortly after 7:00.
Prior to reaching Trent River, I could see something fairly big swimming in the water- I didn’t think it was people, it was in fact 2 deer.
As we approached their location, in the channel, they got disoriented and started swimming back to where they had come from. Not sure if they made it back to shore, but I hope so. When we went for dinner with the Sharpes, they told us that their property had a large light house near their dock. I think this is likely it.
We arrived in Hasting after 9:00, and were through the lock and swing bridge by 9:40, we then had to go across Rice Lake and down the Otonabee river towards Peterborough, we went through Scotts Mill shortly after 2:00, followed by Ashburnham at 2:30 and the lift lock at 2:50, we continued on to Nassau Mills, which we had planned to stay at. We were told at the lock that we had to continue on to the top of Otonabee Lock 23, as they were going to be dropping the water between 23 and 24 overnight. It was a windy day, and there was a strong current, due partly to the excessive rain earlier in the week. We were tied up at Otonabee by 4:30.
We had gone through 6 locks for the day and 54.5 miles, a long day for us!
On Sunday we left Otonabee and 8:30, so that we would be at Douro when it opened at 9:00. We were though by 9:40. When we got to the next lock Sawer Creek, we were told by the locking staff, that after Monday some of the locks would be shutting down from Tuesday to Friday, so that the excess water could be circulated throughout the system. Thankfully we were on the move, so this wouldn’t affect us. Here’s a picture of the effect of the current on the markers.
We were through Sawer by 10:00, followed by Lakefield at 10:30, I left my boat tomato which still had about 30 green tomatoes and flowers, with the lockmaster there, as she has a garden at the lock, and shares the produce with boaters. We made it through Young’s Point at 11:30, and I saw these lovely flowers in a yard near the lock.
We were through Burleigh Falls at 12:40 and Lovesick by 1:05. It was still very windy, and there were some dark clouds over Lower Buckhorn Lake.
Saw this wind surfer there.
It was on to Buckhorn – our last lock for the year
and were through by 2:00 and tied up on the wall with power by 2:10. Two very long days of wind and currents.
On Monday morning, we woke up to rain, which started shortly after 4 a.m., once it stopped, we moved the boat from the Lock to Buckhorn Yacht harbour marina, and tied up at the ramp. Andy spoke to Peter, and set up a meeting for Tuesday morning. We decided to drive to Bobcaygeon, so that I could do some laundry. While at the laundromat, I received a text from my sister that my mother had peacefully passed away. Once we got back to the boat, we started packing and cleaning up. For dinner we ordered pizza, and then started loading up the car. By 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, we were ready to pull out. Andy drove 685 KM going via Orillia, Parry Sound, Sudbury, and we arrived in Sault Ste. Marie by 6:30. We encountered several areas where there was road construction and only one lane of traffic so we had to wait. I did hear from my sisters and Mom’s service is tentatively set for October 8th, so we don’t have to rush up to Swan River once we get back to Winnipeg. A tough few days!
We woke up early and were on the road before 7:00, skirting around Lake Superior. Here’s a shot of the lake from Katherine Cove.
We did see a black bear later beside the road, but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera. We stopped in Thunder Bay for gas and then continued on to Fort Frances, to spend the night with Andy’s sister Elaine and her husband Dave.
After breakfast on Thursday, it was back in the car for the last segment of the trip, we arrived home by 2:30. It was nice to be home. After unpacking the car, I went out to my garden and started to pull some weeds. We then went through 2 ½ months of mail. I visited with the neighbors, and asked about the strange boxes in our front yard.
The holes were all dug, in order to run fibre optic cable through the neighborhood and into individual houses. Interesting!
We travelled up to Swan River for Mom’s graveside service which was held on October 8th, with Covid restrictions we limited it to family only. I think that ,were 28 people in attendance. I was given the honour of giving the Eulogy.
Following the service, my nephew Chris hosted family members for a BBQ and gathering in his machine shop at his farm. At table was set up with memorabilia about Mom. ( Some pictures from this celebration of Mom’s life will appear in my blog book)
Since it was Thanksgiving weekend, we stayed for a couple more days and celebrated with the family.
Cruising ON BUSINESS 