Segue's Voyage on the Great Loop

Apalachicola to Panama City, FL

2011-03-20T17:05:00.006-04:00

Thursday, March 17 - Got to White City early, having gained an hour going back into Central time. One, long floating dock was our home for the night and it was pretty decent. (Fishing boats headed into or out of the nearby boat launching area were not much for reading the NO WAKE signs, but it was a free dock, after all.)

Just as several of us had settled down for a nap, a pack of dogs came along with one particularly loud one who looked like a pit bull. And he was crazy! He would bark at anything (waves coming in!) and attempted to "chase" fishing boats as they came by. Turns out he was pretty tame, or so it seemed. Lucy kept wanting to take him on and we held her back. :-) Next day we're off to Panama City....

Friday, March 18 - A day I'll not soon forget. We got to the marina around 2 in the afternoon. Last Dragon went to an anchorage but we decided the marina would be best for us since we're having some head issues. We both worked around at different projects all afternoon (Wayne removing one of the pumps in line with the head and I doing laundry.) We also identified what sounds like a real "find" in a marina: Alan's Little Marina in Niceville, FL, at $15/night.

I was carrying laundry back when I had an accident boarding the boat. My laundry container hit the boat railing and I lost my balance, falling off the boat and onto the dock, hitting my left ribcage on the side of the dock. ER visit confirmed a broken rib, and they eliminated a worry about damaged internal organs with a CT scan. We got to the ER around 7:30PM and didn't get back to the boat until 2AM. Spring break, weekend, full moon...what an experience the ER was!

Fortunately I only came out with a broken rib and a bunch of sore muscles. Wayne and I both thought I was headed into the water after the smack on the dock. Considering I had the wind knocked out of me, that would have been much worse. As it was, I had no scrapes or cuts, only bruises...since my hands were full and I just hit full force with the ribs. Scary, though. We are both usually so careful about moving around the boat because there are so many opportunities for something like this to happen. We both have a renewed commitment to mindfulness.

Sunday, March 20 -I'm taking meds for soreness/pain and it seems to be working well, so far. The plan is to leave here tomorrow morning for Alan's Little Marina with Sharon on board Segue to help with navigation in case I can't ride on the bridge. Ben is excited about handling Last Dragon on his own. We promised him a "medal" of honor made from a scrapped impeller if he is successful. :-)

On another topic, we saw some great wildlife coming into Panama City on Friday. Dolphins, eagles, and even an alligator. You know me and dolphins, if you've read the Loop blog. Well, this dolphin beat anything I've seen. It was romping in the water...then turned over on its back and sailed along with it's nose kicking up a spray:

More later....

Gulf Rim Route: Done!

2011-03-15T19:58:00.007-04:00

Tuesday, March 15- Well, we're "over" the Gulf! We left Dunedin on Saturday the 12th thinking we had a good shot at doing our three legs of the trip in three consecutive days. The first day out was great: smooth waters by the end of the day as we made our way into the Cross Florida Barge Canal to anchor. The Canal runs alongside a greenway now, and there were several people out fishing from the banks as we found our spots in the middle of the canal. We saw only a couple of fishing boats that evening and found it to be a very nice anchorage. The next morning we were treated to a gorgeous sunrise.

Day 2, Sunday, March 13, we left the canal and went 80+ miles to Steinhatchee and River Haven Marina. We left Yankeetown around 8 AM and got to Steinhatchee by 5:30PM. Again, good water for the day.

Day 3, Monday, March 14, saw us leaving Steinhatchee around 7:45 AM in the fog. Last Dragon led and it was a tense experience for all of us. The fog didn't lift until we were out of the channel that leads into Steinhatchee...about 5 miles. From then until noon the water was fine. We thought we were drawing the best 3 days in this spring for our passage. So much for thinking. Around noon the waves picked up and before we knew it we were being pushed on our beam, rocking us sideways. Not comfortable! We tried various alterations in our course to see if we could take the waves better...and some worked pretty well for a while. Nothing, though, was a solid winner. We ended up going back to our original course and pretty much gutting it out through the rest of the trip. This is the third time we've come through this section of water and every time the waves have been coming from all directions.

We anchored last night in the Shipping Cove at Dog Island. What a gorgeous anchorage on a night when winds were low and from the south. We took Lucy into shore and she romped up and down the beach. (She'd heard talk of dog island for a few days now and was surprised to be the only mutt there.) We took her sandy body back to the boat and gave her a quick shower afterwards. The evening was calm and clear and we woke up early to a spray of stars across the sky.

Today we came to Apalacicola and the Water Street Hotel and Marina. We have stayed at Scipio Creek Marina the other times passing through, but decided the paved parking lot here would keep Lucy cleaner than the powdery lot at Scipio. We had concerns about the depth of the slips, so did bow in (which is better for our view since we're looking at the marshy grassed area behind the boat).

Thursday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day

We're leaving Apalachicola today for a short 20+ mile run to White City and the free city dock there. Apalachicola is one of our favorite spots in Florida and the weather here these two days has been perfect...springtime in Apalachicola.

As I was looking through my last download of photos I spotted a few to add to the Dunedin experience. The first is of Jack, the troubadour.

According to a local, Jack (who seems to be of Italian heritage) lives in a retirement home right by the Dunedin Municipal Marina. Several times a day he would walk down to the pier and...when he found a pretty lady...break into song. He would end by blowing a kiss...and with a flourish, wish her godspeed. It was interesting to watch the reaction of the people being serenaded. One time he approached a car that was parked nearby and ended up singing to the couple inside.

The other photos are of a Great Egret that stayed on a pole by our boat during our stay at Dunedin. I read up a little on the bird and it seems that the feathery plumes and green lores (area between the beak and eye) mark it as a breeding bird.

1984 Californian 43 Cockpit Motor Yacht(CPMY) Trawler for sale!

2011-03-09T15:58:00.005-05:00

Oh, by the way...we're ready to sell Segue! We've been considering this move for sometime and both feel really good about the decision. We have a few ads out on the internet for the boat...and have a website with complete description and photos:

http://www.afrugalcruiser.com

Ft. Myers Beach to Dunedin (Florida, not New Zealand)

2011-03-03T06:15:00.010-05:00

Tuesday, March 1- Our lovely time in Fort Myers Beach is over for now...and we're ready to leave for the 2 month journey home. The weather here has been just gorgeous...dare I say a little too warm at times if there's no shade around.

We did rent a car and drive over to Miami Beach for the boat show. We left on Thursday, the 17th of Feb., and got there in time for Wayne to meet with a supplier for his business. We spent the night in an area of Miami called Miami Lakes and it took us a while to find it following the Google map we had. (As in...the map was mistaken.) The next morning we drove down to the convention center on South Beach and I dropped Wayne off at the show. He spent about three hours there while Lucy and I went back to Miami Beach and walked around the gorgeous neighborhoods and beach. (Miami Beach has wifi available to visitors at no charge so I was even able to check my email once we were back in the car! Ah...the little pleasures.)

Wayne didn't buy anything at the boat show...but came back to Ft. Myers and ordered an AIS system for the boat. This technology will allow us to "see" commercial vessels (tows) for miles out. Should come in real handy on the Tenn-Tom.

Wednesday, March 2 - When we left Ft. Myers yesterday we had thoughts of meeting Ben and Sharon at Cayo Costa for an anchor out before heading into Sarasota today. As it turned out, the winds were due to pick up Tuesday night...and we have another "issue" with our generator, so we opted for a marina a little further north. We stayed at Cape Haze Marina and fueled up there since their diesel was...well, I started to say reasonably priced. Let's just say diesel is, like all oil products, inching up in price daily and their price hadn't reached the extremes yet.

Cape Haze was a friendly little marina based around a community of townhouses.

We could see signs of their having started new construction and then, like many, cut it short because of the economy. Still...a nice feeling place.

So today we left Cape Haze at around 9AM and the Birdwells left Cayo Costa at 7AM. We were traveled within easy hearing distance most of the time and both came into Marina Jack's in Sarasota at around 2PM. After taking time to dock, register, and clean up some...we walked up to Patricks for drinks and dinner.

Thursday, March 3 - We met Bob at First Watch for breakfast and got back to the boat in time for Wayne and Ben to evaluate the generator problem. Looks like they've got it working.

We all set out for a walk then to St. Armand's Circle, across the John Ringling Causeway Bridge. It was a gorgeous day, even if a little windy!

We went to the Columbia restaurant for lunch and, after a brief spin around the circle, back to Marina Jack's. That evening Bob and Shirley came over for a visit. We had hoped to sit outside on the deck...but came inside because the winds were too high.

Friday, March 4 - We left Sarasota early knowing we'd have a long trek today to Caladesi Island. Fortunately, the trip across the Tampa Bay area was not bad and we ended up making pretty good time. Segue found one of the two wide slips open and hopped on it, while Last Dragon took a slip near the end of Dock D. (Last Dragon later had to move over to a narrower slip on "C" dock. The marina was by no means full...and we think there was a "regular" scheduled to come in that weekend who used the slip on "D" dock.)

Caladesi was just as beautiful the second time around...and Ben and Sharon seem to agree. Despite my resolve to leave shells where they lay...I came back with another baggy full! Oh, well. I just couldn't resist!

We were watching the weather daily, hoping for a 2-day window that would get us from Caladesi to Yankeetown...then Yankeetown to Steinhatchee. We were determined to anchor on the Cross Florida Barge Canal near Yankeetown instead of going into a "marina" (most would agree there are no REAL marinas in Yankeetown...least none that willingly take transients.) It looked like we had a chance to leave on Monday morning so we moved to Dunedin on Sunday afternoon. The low tide is just about sunrise when we'd want to leave...and the channel into Caladesi is pretty shallow for us at low tide.

Dunedin Municipal Marina had a slip for Last Dragon inside the sea wall...but Segue ended up tying up to the transient docks just out side the protected basin. It may have been the roughest conditions (high winds, tall poles, etc.) that we've done in a long time, but we made it in just fine. This is our view from the transient slip that afternoon. Uh, we were the only boat in the slips that evening. Wonder why?

After putting out every fender we own to buffer the side next to the dock, we went over to Last Dragon for a final check of the weather at 4PM.

Were we ever surprised to see the weather prediction for Tuesday had changed drastically...and there was no way any of us wanted to be traveling in the waves that were forecast. We stood the chance of getting "socked in" at the Yankeetown anchorage for maybe a week if we couldn't leave Tuesday morning. So...reluctantly...we decided we'd be in Dunedin for the week.

Monday, March 7 - Waking to a leisurely day plan, Wayne checked the weather, as usual. Suddenly Monday and Tuesday looked good for a run! We called Ben and Sharon and started the process of gearing up for a 75-80 mile day when we realized it was just going to be too rushed. There wasn't a way for us to get out before 8AM and we really needed all the daylight we could get. The other problem was, there wasn't a backup plan for us: no where to go if for some reason we were unable to anchor at Yankeetown.

OK. We're in Dunedin for the week.

Wednesday, March 9 - Lucky us!! We love Dunedin! The historic downtown is near the marina with all kinds of good restaurants and shops. There are several long walking/biking trails nearby. And we hear from a fellow boater who stays here a good part of the year that Dunedin loves to throw a party. The day we arrived they were wrapping up an art and antique festival and a "taste of Dunedin." Last night they celebrated Mardi Gras, complete with a parade! Ben, Sharon, and I decided to wait out the parade (Wayne headed back to the boat). Here we are decked out in our beads...most of which Ben caught!

Oh, wait. That's the wrong photo. Here we are.....

We're watching the weather and might get out on Saturday. No problem-o, though, for this bunch. Friday and Saturday the town has a great Green Market nearby...and on Friday night they will have the second Friday Wine and Art Walk. We'll be just fine, thank you!

Sarasota, FL, to Ft. Myers Beach, FL

2011-02-10T10:10:00.012-05:00

At last, we're ready to check in again on the blog! Here's they way we made our way from Sarasota to Ft. Myers Beach...

We totally enjoyed our time in Sarasota...and the visit home to see family in December. We got back to Sara Bay on January 2 and spent the rest of that week finishing up a few boat projects and visiting more with Bob. On Wayne's birthday, January 5, we went to St. Armand's Circle and had lunch at the Columbia restaurant, a long-time favorite. Here's the birthday boy enjoying the day out at their sidewalk cafe.

Interesting neighbor on the Sara Bay dock...the Chapel on the Bay, a floating chapel used for weddings, renewal of vows, funerals at sea...you get the picture. It was really weird to see this floating up to the fuel dock!

Talk about weird, how about this reindog we spotted on the streets of Sarasota before Christmas...

Sunday, January 9 - We waited on high tide to leave today since we need all the water we can get in this channel. Around 2PM we let loose the dock and headed across Sarasota Bay to Buttonwood Harbor, an anchorage near Longboat Key. We chose a spot just outside the channel in the harbor, a short dinghy ride from the Dock on the Bay where we paid a daily fee to land the dog. The area is beautiful...so peaceful. We were the only boat anchored there and very little traffic in and out.

This was another great location for a cruising boat to land. The bus stop was right in front of the Dock on the Bay and the beach was just across the street. We had some mail to collect from Sara Bay...and some other small business to care for before we took off down the coast... and this was a perfect spot from which to work.

It was a little breezy Monday night and into Tuesday, but we were comfortable with the way the anchor was holding. Until Tuesday night.

I woke up at midnight and Wayne was nowhere to be seen. I went up on the deck and there he was, huddled up on the fly bridge, watching the boat spin and turn in winds that were howling. He was going to sit up and make sure we didn't move. I entertained, for a minute, the idea of going back to bed...then got dressed and took my place up on the fly bridge with him. It was a night to remember. We ran through every possible "disaster plan" we could come up with...and sat up all the rest of the night, talking and watching.

We kept thinking the winds would die down a little with sunrise...but I'm not sure they did. I was concerned about Wayne being out on the bow trying to dislodge the anchor (heaven knows it was SET!), but that went smoothly. We gingerly picked our way out of the shallow channel and into Sarasota Bay. Fortunately, the winds died down enough that it was not an unpleasant ride from Sarasota Bay to Venice. We went into Marine Max for the night in Venice, right off the ICW. We ate lunch and went to sleep! A drowsy afternoon spent walking along the Venice waterway...then early to bed. A new resolution made: don't anchor out if the winds are going to be high. I think we underestimated how close we were to the Gulf in Buttonwood Harbor? The winds weren't supposed to be outrageously strong, according to the standard weather sources. The thing is...once it's dark and you're anchored, you just have to hang on for the ride!

Thursday, January 13 - Having recovered, somewhat, from our all-nighter, we went from Venice to Gasparilla Marina in Placida, Fl, on Charlotte Harbor. (Longest walk we've ever had from our slip to the marina office!)

Friday, January 14 - We decided to go into the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin for a night or two. Our generator had stopped on us that fateful night in Buttonwood Harbor and Wayne wanted to take some time and figure out what the problem was. In talking with our friends Ben and Sharon Birdwell we decided to go up to LaBelle where they keep their boat and let Ben, the mechanic, help out with the repairs. Ben and Sharon actually came down and helped us into our slip at Ft. Myers...then Wayne and Ben scoped out the generator problem. We finished off the night with dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and made plans to go up to Port LaBelle Marina the following day.

Saturday, January 15 - The trip from Ft. Myers to LaBelle was a beautiful one. I see why many boaters choose to cruise the rivers of Florida because from our limited experiences this year they are prime areas for lush vegetation, abundant and varied wildlife, and gorgeous views. Speaking of varied wildlife, this is one variety we hadn't expected on the Okeechobee...

Loved this sailboat all decked out in bright colors...

We spent the next week at Port LaBelle Marina, taking one of the TWO slips with power hook-ups. (There's a whole TV series worth of oddities here...lots of stories. So entertaining, was this week!)

LaBelle is a beautiful location, right on the Okeechobee Waterway. Here we are towards the end of this dock with Last Dragon.

Wayne and Ben fixed the generator in between side trips to Ft. Myers Beach, Clewiston (we saw Lake Okeechobee), Leigh High Acres...and, of course, LaBelle downtown and surrounds. I can see why Ben and Sharon like this place!

Friday, January 21 - With the generator fixed and all four of us ready to be "cruising" we all left LaBelle today for a night or two in Ft. Myers at Legacy Harbor. We had a little rain and fog going down, but it wasn't bad.

Saturday, January 22 - A really blustery day! We'd given thought to going to the Ft. Myers Beach mooring field for a night or two before heading down the coast a ways...but the wind predictions made us decide to stay close to the dock for another night. The wave action in the marina was so bad at times that we had a hard time being comfortable! Bonine to the rescue!

Sunday, January 23 - We moved on down to Ft. Myers Beach mooring field with Last Dragon. What an ordeal picking up a mooring ball! Half the balls in the field were missing their pendants so Ben actually had to use the dinghy to help us secure a line to the ball. Looks as though the mooring field isn't being cared for: missing mooring balls (or submerged) and few pendants still attached. We went ashore for lunch out at Nervous Nellie's. Good hamburgers!

Monday, January 24 - Off to an anchorage spot just down from Naples, FL, called Rookery Bay. It's on the Old ICW, so we were hoping for enough water to float Segue safely down. We ran up on some ground at one point because we'd strayed slightly out of the channel. Fortunately, we were able to get out of the problem with no signs of injury to the props.

Rookery Bay was well worth the trouble. Beautiful bay right next to a wildlife reserve area...and plenty of water to anchor in. The best part was the beach on Keewaydin Island, a short dinghy ride away... few people and lots of shells.

Ben and Sharon leading the way down to Rookery Bay...our depth finders!

Tuesday, January 25 - The winds were predicted to kick up again this week so we pulled up anchor and headed up to Naples City mooring field. We were anxious to see where/what/how of this field. As popular as mooring fields are to cruising boaters, this field never seems to be more than half full...and it only has about 10 mooring. Well, it didn't take us too long to see what the problem was. None of the mooring balls had pendants.

The winds had picked up, as predicted, just as we were ready to moor. Each boat had to go into the City Dock and get a pump out before going into the field. We finished first and headed out to tie up while Last Dragon registered and got pumped out.

We decided to try accessing the ball from the side of our boat, since the bow is so high. Wayne positioned himself on the port side and did actually get a hand on the ball for a few minutes. Trouble was, the wind was blowing against the boat and there was no amount of holding on that would have prevented us pulling away from the ball. When Last Dragon came onto the field they had the same problem. Ben finally got the dinghy out and secured their boat, then ours. Both boats ended up putting about 3 lines onto the ball to try and secure the boat against the winds.

Naples was a great place to be from our vantage. We were in the Old Naples section, being close to the City Dock, and within easy walk of shops and the beach. Most days were spent exploring the area by foot. The weather was sunny...and windy.

Saturday, January 29 - There is a four day limit to staying on the mooring field in Naples...and we were ready to move on when Saturday came. The waves were predicted to be 2 ft. and the winds were light. The ride up to Ft. Myers Beach was a little rocky-rolly because of the direction of the waves, but it was tolerable. We found our way to Snook Bight Marina on Estero Island and took our spot for the next month at the end of a T-dock with great views of Estero Bay.

We've been here for two weeks now and can honestly say this is the best place we could have chosen for the winter extended stay. The weather has been fantastic! Mostly 70's during the day and mostly mild nights.

Yesterday was a strange weather day with fog that was there in the morning and didn't lift until well up in the afternoon. We took the trolley to the head of the island and walked over the bridge to lunch at Doc Ford's. It was mild enough to enjoy eating outside...with views of the fog, even at 1PM.

We walked back over the bridge and had intended to walk about mid-way down the island before stopping for a trolley. The clouds finally congealed and started spurting rain, though, so we hustled to a trolley stop and only got slightly soaked before getting a ride.

Today has been the first really rainy day since we've been here...and it feels chilly (in the 60's). We've taken advantage of the rainy day by working on our computers and sipping hot tea. :-)

We have a couple more weeks here before beginning our trip back up the coast and home. Ben and Sharon have decided to take Last Dragon home this year, so we will have some company on the trip back. They will drive home this weekend and leave their car...flying back in late February to be ready around the first of March for the trip home.

Last Sunday Ben and Sharon drove down from LaBelle and picked us up to go with them to the Everglades City Seafood Festival. We'd never been to Everglades City before and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. What a crowd there was on that nice, warm day! The food was plentiful and good. All in all, a great trip.

I'd like to pick out a couple of possible rentals for this area for the years to come. We both really like the area here and can see coming down for a couple of months in the winter. There's a great art center here, the Ft. Myers Beach Art Assn. I attended an all day workshop last Friday and have since joined the association and participated in a couple of painting groups that meet regularly.

Next week we're renting a car and driving to Miami for a couple of days to check out the Miami Boat Show. We probably won't communicate by blog much until we start moving again in March. Ta ta for now...

Steinhatchee, FL, to Sarasota, FL!

2010-12-01T08:17:00.008-05:00

Tuesday, November 23 -

Finally, after 4 days in Steinhatchee waiting for a time when the tides would be right for our exit, we took off for Cedar Key anchorage. "We took off" is a little less descriptive than it should be: The tide was going out at Steinhatchee and Segue was docked alongside a dock that was perpendicular to the tide flow. It would have been OK if we could have just taken off the lines and floated (rapidly) away from the dock...but there was another dock and an abandoned crab pot in our path. Oh, and we were bow into the dockage (so our propellers would be in the deepest water). We have less power and maneuverability when trying to go in reverse.

It was 6:30 AM, but we found someone in the office to come out and help us get out safely. The dock hand had to hold the stern in towards the dock until we got in position to take off. Always something new in docking...or un-docking.

Crab pots were out, and we were running pretty close into shore so we saw a good number of them. The water today, though, was beautiful! Smooth riding! So smooth, in fact, that we just couldn't stand to make the most of it. Mid trip we decided to go on down a little further to Yankeetown, FL, and spend the night at Yankeetown Marina. While making for a longer day today, it would shorten tomorrow's run.

The river into Yankeetown, the Withlacoochee River, was stunning. We felt like we really were in "old Florida" now.

The marina...well, that's another story. Let's just say I've come to compare it to Bobby's Fishing Camp on the TennTom, minus the catfish. The fee was $40/night, including electric and water (OK, one of the reviews on Active Captain already warned that you would be really lucky to find either). We talked with the manager earlier in the day and she told us we'd be docking next to a shrimp boat named Anna Maria. When we got there we saw the Anna Maria, but questioned which side to take and called out to her on the shore. She pointed to the outer position (not quite a slip...more a half dock) and, when asked whether bow in or stern, she said, "whichever you want!"

We docked and worked with the ties to account for what locals at the dock said would be a nearly 4 ft. tide. The crew from Anna Maria was very helpful, as was everyone we encountered that evening. As I walked Lucy up to the office to settle up (we planned to leave early again), one of the shrimpers called out that the manager had already left. It was 4:30. I asked when she got in on the next day and he said around 6 AM. OK, we'd settle in the morning. Anna Maria pulled out of the marina around 6 PM for a night out shrimping.

Wednesday, November 24-

As the shrimp boats were coming in...we were leaving. The manager never showed up so we left a check stuck into the crack of the door. If you come to this marina, just know what you're getting ahead of time and you'll be OK. It's a safe feeling place, a neighborhood street right beside the marina, but it's pretty much a rickety dock with no power or water.

We were headed out as the shrimp boats were coming back. Again today we had smooth waters on the Gulf.

Some crab pots, but they were actually easier to spot today than yesterday because of the angle of the sun and our course. We were hoping to get into Caladesi Island State Park for a day or two, provided they had a slip to fit our boat. We knew we could tie up to a t-dock, but that would cost $2/ft/day...and we weren't interested in spending that much. (Slips were available for our sized boat on a first come, first served basis.) We called a couple of marinas as backup and settled on Dunedin Municipal Marina if we couldn't get into Caladesi. When I talked to the ranger at Caladesi he sounded willing to work with us to find dockage.

There were plenty of spaces available when we arrived. Two of our boating friends, Blue Angel and Sea Estate, were already at the marina and we docked next to them.

Caladesi Island is gorgeous and accessible only by boat. A ferry runs between Clearwater and the island several times a day. The beach was voted Florida's Best in 2008. White, powdery sand and lots and lots of shells.

Being used to the Carolina beaches, it was neat to find totally different shells...and sand dollars that were still all in one piece! We walked the beach daily.

We ended up staying five nights at Caladesi, partly because of tide issues and partly because we got sort of hemmed in with boats on the opposite side of our dock. The "runways" between docks are a little close and if you have a long boat across from your long boat...it can make getting out a little difficult. Thanksgiving Day saw a few boat visitors (the ferry didn't run)...and even more boats came for the weekend.

Monday, November 29-
We left on Monday morning when the marina was pretty empty and we still had to wiggle our way out due to little turn room. With help from friends on the dock, however, we came out without injuring our boat or any one else.

We traveled about 55 miles today, crossing Tampa Bay and ending up at Sara Bay Marina in Sarasota, our home for a month. The marina is right on a bus route so we figured it would be a nice (and less expensive) alternative this time to Marina Jack's in downtown Sarasota. We'll visit with our friend Bob, catch up on various chores, play, and travel back to Knoxville around the 20th for Christmas visiting.

Steinhatchee to...

2010-11-20T19:48:00.008-05:00

Saturday, November 20...continued
So what, you might ask, does one do in Steinhatchee on a Saturday night when the no-seeums come out at 5PM? Did I mention we can't pick up one station on the TV? Most of the time in these out of the way places we can at least pick up a couple of educational channels and we catch up on episodes of Rick Steves. No NPR on the radio, either.

Tonight we resorted to our good old standby...National Lampoon's European Vacation. Oh, that's not all we have in the DVD genre, mind you. The reverse side has National Lampoon's Vacation! Holiday ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oad, holiday ro-o-o-o-o-o-oad. Love that Lindsey Buckingham. The good news is that we just discovered there's a "comments" version, too. We were tempted to watch it tonight but decided to pace ourselves. Something to look forward to tomorrow, honey!

All I want for Christmas is Monty Python's All Time Greatest Hits.

Sunday, November 21-
We were restless today. We'd checked out the diesel prices at Sea Hag yesterday and they are $3.95/gal. for diesel. We paid $2.79 in Carrabelle...and calling down to Clearwater we got prices in the low $3 range. Hmmm. We decided to look around at the other marinas here in Steinhatchee to see if someone else might have a better price. River Haven Marina is on the same side of the river as Sea Hag...just under the 25ft. fixed bridge.

We decided to take a walk this morning, then, up to River Haven and see what the price was...and see about whether we could get in there or not. What a fortuitous decision! We walked up and talked with Shari Powell, one of the owners, and found out that 1) price of diesel is $2.89, 2) dockage (including power and wifi) is $25/night and 3) there's enough water around for us to get in here. Guess where we are tonight???

After the marina visit we walked on up to Fiddlers, a local restaurant that has been recommended to us by several different people. Turns out they were having a Sunday lunch buffet that began at 11AM. We were there waiting on the doors to open...and we weren't disappointed. For $10.95/person we had fried chicken, brisket, black eyed peas and rice, a variety of side dishes, 3 soups, salad bar, and a delicious peach and cherry cobbler. We'll be back!

Then we walked over to the grocery store and bought a bag of dog food for Lucy. (BTW, Lucy got a little razor burn at her last grooming (not unusual) and developed what looked like an infection in that area. [I know, I know, TMI!] This morning I called our dear veterinarian, Denise Frazier at Northshore Animal Hospital, and talked with her about the situation. Denise had put together a great first aid kit for Lucy when we went out on the first trip and updated it for this round. I have an antibiotic in the kit that she suggested I begin giving Lucy. Thank you Dr. Frazier!! :-)

So...our new location is great. It's like being off the main drag and in a quiet, more intimate neighborhood. The marina is great, the owner dropping by the boat this evening to tell us about the proximity to Fiddlers Restaurant. We'll be here tomorrow, at least. Our aim was to move on down to Cedar Key asap...but there's a full moon this week and a phenomenon called the "negative tide."

Monday, November 22-
What is this negative tide, we wondered? Our charts show depths and those depths are expressed in feet to represent the mean low water. So when we go into a channel that's showing 6 ft. (with our 4.5ft. draft)...we're expecting that most of the time the water is at least that deep. With a negative tide the water will be below that charted amount. Notice a tide chart sometime and look at the days when there's a full moon. Often those days will indicate a negative tide expressed with a negative number like -0.6. The full moon is responsible. We know the full moon makes people crazy...now we know it makes the tides crazy, too.

This morning we spent several hours figuring out the tides for this location, Cedar Key, and Tarpon Springs...charting the course for each leg of the journey...consulting weather resources for information about wind and waves tomorrow and the next day. After a nice breakfast at Cackleberry's (adjacent to Fiddlers) we made the firm decision to go on Tuesday to Cedar Key and anchor out...then to Caladesi State Park (near Tarpon Springs) on Wednesday. Both days we'll need to be on the water by 6:30AM to avoid being around for a negative tide period. Tomorrow's trip will take around 7-7.5 hrs. and Wednesday's will take at least 9 hours. By Wednesday night, though, we will be back in the ICW and, therefore, in more protected waters.

A few pictures of Steinhatchee before we leave. First, Wayne sitting at the colorful bar at Sea Hag Marina..."it's five o'clock somewhere."

And a view from our dock looking up Steinhatchee River on the last evening here.

BTW, a little factual info on the town, the name (pronounced STEENhatchee) came from Native American words meaning river (hatchee) of man (esteen). A big improvement over the community's original name, Deadman's Bay.

Apalachicola to Steinhatchee, FL

2010-11-20T14:11:00.007-05:00

Thursday, November 18-
It was cold last night! We woke up at around 5:30 and turned on the heat to warm up the place before we crept from under the covers. It was in the 40's. We're going to go to Carrabelle today because the conditions are favorable (we'd still be in sort of protected waters) and it will get us a bit closer to either a "run" across the Gulf or a run around the rim.

You know, we came out on this trip thinking we would definitely do the rim route instead of the "all at once, 20-hour, up all night" crossing. Then we started looking at the details of the rim route and questioned whether there would be enough "water" in Steinhatchee...and whether we could have a good anchorage in Cedar Key. Well, this week we've checked all those issues out and have decided we can do the rim. And (unless a TOTALLY CALM day comes in the meantime) we really would like to do the rim route so we'll have a comparison for when we have to make the return trip in the spring.

Just a few more pictures of Apalachicola. I can't get enough of these shrimp boats against the marsh and water...

Lucy and I visited a botanical garden within walking distance of Scipio Creek Marina and watched (well, I watched) monarch butterflies milling around the flowers.

Cloudy weather coming up in Apalachicola...

Papa Joe's Oyster Bar, connected to the Scipio Creek Marina and right beside our dock...

Speaking of oysters, we went back to the Papa Joe's Tuesday night for another round of oysters (Wayne) and steamed shrimp (me and Wayne.) On the way out of Apalachicola this morning we saw oyster boats at work harvesting a bed. In case you're wondering what's involved in oyster harvesting, here's a piece from the website http://www.cityofapalachicola.com/ApalachicolaBaySeafood.cfm:

Apalachicola Bay, including the waters of St. George Sound and St. Vincent Sound, provides an ideal environment for oysters. The 210 square mile estuary is wide and shallow; depths in Apalachicola Bay average only six to nine feet at low tide. The estuary is dominated by the Apalachicola River which provides nutrient rich fresh waters vital to the Bay's natural productivity. Oysters grow rapidly (the fastest in the country) in these waters reaching marketable size in less than two years.
Oystermen harvest oysters in Franklin County from more than 7,000 acres of public oyster "bars" and about 600 acres of private leased bars in the Apalachicola Bay area. Public bars are divided into "winter" bars which can be harvested from Oct. 1 through June 30 each year and the "summer bars" which are harvested from July 1 through September 30.
There are more than 1,000 people employed by the oyster industry in Franklin County. And there are a variety of jobs associated with harvesting the mollusk. Tongers (traditionally called "oystermen") harvest the oysters from small boats using tongs which look somewhat like two rakes attached in a scissor style. Tongers generally use a small wooden boat, 20-23 feet long, equipped with a culling board near the bow and sometimes equipped with a "dog house" or small covered area to provide shelter from bad weathers. Tongers are accompanied usually by "cullers" who separate the oysters by size (oysters must be at least three inches in length to be considered legally harvestable). Out on the bay, oysters are stored in burlap sack and shaded until they reach the shore. On the shore, seafood houses employ "housemen" who sort the oysters and package them for sale either in bags or boxes or pass them onto shuckers where they will be shucked, washed and sold generally either in pints or gallons.

So here we have a tonger and a culler at work, with a mound of oysters on front of the boat.

The trip from Apalachicola to Carrabelle went far quicker than we thought it would because we had a nice boost to the speed from current. It was mostly an open water situation (though still somewhat protected).

We're at C-Quarters Marina in Carrabelle. The folks are really nice and we have ready access to grocery, bank, hardware...and library. We're considering a move to St. Marks tomorrow. We'll decide in the morning.

Friday, November 19-
This morning we talked and looked at weather sites until we decided today would be the day to go from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee, across the Apalachee Bay. It sounded like the winds might gust up a little above 10mph (9-13, in fact)...but waves looked like 1-2. By 8 AM we were on the water, headed for Steinhatchee. Carrabelle was beautiful this morning, all calm and clear....

Well, we got kicked around for the first 4 hours of this trip! The wind was from the east, which we thought might somehow be blocked by land. Not! We definitely had 1-2 and 2-3...on the nose and hard to block. We altered course several times trying to find an angle that would lessen impact, but it was like the waves were coming from an "easterly" direction and no matter where we turned they were there. We'd go through a spell of nearly smooth water then get slammed by a series of 2-3ft. waves. It was weird. I took a little snippet of video on my little camera during the very first part of the trip...when the waves were just a little rough. (Later on, we were rocking and rolling!) If and when I figure out how to post it on here, I will.

Meantime, this is how the water looked shortly after noon when it laid down to a bathtub slosh.

We got into Steinhatchee 9 hours later and are tied up to a dock at Sea Hag Marina.

Saturday, November 20-
We were in bed last night by 7:30 and slept until 6 this morning. Needless to say, it was a stressful day. We learned, again, that we don't like traveling in winds over 10mph...even if for a part of the trip. We're also thinking the guy from Tallahassee Marine Weather Station was right when he said "the east is the beast!" But at least we're over on this side and maybe our trips on down the coast to join the ICW will be easier.

We were really impressed with the look of Steinhatchee as we came in last night.

We were here by car in the fall of '07 and it definitely looks better from the river. Very pretty...and activity everywhere. This is a place that takes its fishing seriously! There are fishing boats everywhere. And here they fishers are weighing in the day's catch...

The only really bad thing about Steinhatchee is the no-seeums. Yep. And, in case you're wondering, those OFF personal insect repellent fans you can wear? They don't work on no-seeums. Nope. I just observed (from inside the boat, since it is the time of day when no-seeums roam) that the folks over at the marina are rubbing down their exposed body parts with some sort of repellent. I'll have to ask what they are using. :-)

Next move is to Cedar Key...but it looks like we might be here a few days before that can happen. We have 4 days worth of dog food left right now. Wayne suggests we let her fend for herself here after that...like the miniature schnauzers do in the "wild." Me, I'm thinking we'll go ahead and pay a king's ransom for a small bag of dog food at the local grocery, Maddie's.

Port St. Joe to Apalachicola, FL

2010-11-14T16:38:00.002-05:00

Saturday, November 13 -

We really did think we'd stay a few days at Port St. Joe. We liked the marina - brand new looking - and the area held potential for some good beaching. There's a Piggly Wiggly right next to the marina, too. What more could a cruiser ask for!

But, like I said yesterday, I think we are ready to start preparing for the Gulf crossing. This morning we looked at options and decided to move on over to Apalachicola...knowing we might be there for 5 or 6 days. If we were ready, tonight would be a perfect night for crossing. We talked yesterday to Blue Angel and they were headed to do the crossing tonight. We're not ready yet. We need an oil change and a few other maintenance chores done before we feel ready to go. Looking at the weather it will probably be next weekend before the waters calm down enough for us to go. So we left Port St. Joe after a trip to the hardware, auto supply, and grocery store.

The trip out of St. Joe down the County Canal on a Saturday (Veteran's Day weekend, at that) took an hour to cover about 5 miles of water. There were a lot of boats out fishing and enjoying the weather and we have to slow way down when approaching other boats because we throw off such a large wake.

We traveled across more interesting water, including Lake Wimico.

We keep commenting to each other that all of this looks new to us. I know it's been 3 years, but some of this waterway looks so different I'd swear we came a different way. It's really very pretty...and I don't remember being impressed with this area the last time. (Note to self: read the blog.)

We reached Apalachicola around 2:30PM and cruised down to look at the Municipal Marina (aka, town dock) before deciding to spend the first few days, at least, at Scipio Creek Marina. A walk around town showed a lively, prosperous looking community with LOTS of art, antiques, collectibles to ogle. Back at the marina we went to supper at Papa Joe's...shrimp and oysters.

Sunday, November 14 -
Another beautiful day! Wayne is changing the oil and I am catching up on some laundry. I plan to walk into town this afternoon and see if some of those shops are open... :-) Right now I'm sitting in the shade on the marina office back porch (best place for wifi reception) and enjoying the sunny day while laundry "does." We'll be in Apalachicola until we cross, which will likely be next weekend. Ta-ta for now.

Fairhope, AL, to Port St. Joe, FL

2010-11-09T12:43:00.020-05:00

Monday, November 8 -
Time changed yesterday and so we were up this morning at 5:30...and out of the marina by 6:30. Mobile Bay was gentle so the trip (18 miles) down to the ICW was easy. On the intercoastal waters we had dolphins playing in the boat wake.... This was what we'd see at first...

Then, ta-da!

Also spotted this set of buildings. Now, if you did a watercolor painting of this some might say it was just not realistic... WAY too colorful. :-)

We anchored in the Big Lagoon, just before the Pensacola area, at Red Fish Point. Our aim was to dinghy in to the Gulf Islands National Seashore and do some walking/exploring. Unfortunately we were anchored in a spot that held lots of shallow water and weeds between us and the shore. Our dinghy motor started coughing and we turned back. On the way BACK to Tennessee, we'll anchor in a bit different spot there and go ashore! Still, a beautiful place to be..

Tuesday, November 9-
Slept 'til 6 this morning...we're getting better. Left the anchorage around 8 and headed for Palafox Pier in Pensacola. The marina is only about 10 miles away. This is a strategy we learned the last trip: get close the night BEFORE going into a marina and take advantage of every part of the next day when you tie up. :-)

On the way over to Pensacola we were treated to the Blue Angels practicing their maneuvers over the water. It was an amazing show! We've seen them before in air shows, but felt like we actually got much closer today! Between the dolphins yesterday and the Blue Angels today I've probably taken over 100 photos!

We also saw some people involved in what we thought might just be the Gulf Oil Recovery Project.

Going to the National Naval Air Museum today. Catching a bus from downtown. Should be lots of fun! The area is so nice here I think we'll end up spending two days instead of the one we'd planned....

Wednesday, November 10 -

The Naval Air Museum was good, even if we did miss a large part of the collection due to renovations and their moving the era from Vietnam forward to another building. The new area opens in late November. A cute thing of interest was a sign defining a "navy shower," which is what we do when we're anchoring out for a series of nights and need to conserve water.

The bus trip to and from the museum was entertaining, too. We went onto two military bases, showing our ID's at check points, and got to see a lot of the Pensacola area.

This morning Lucy and I took a nice long walk through downtown before we left. (Yes, we decided to leave today. I finally came to understand today that we are probably not going to be content until we get across the Gulf to "the other part of Florida.") As we were walking in one of the parks downtown I noticed a man standing still with one arm outstretched in front of him and the other arm slightly held out from his body. His back was to us...and it occurred to me that this was probably someone taking advantage of the park setting and a beautiful morning to do some Tai Chi. Probably some pose named "plucking the bird from bush," you know. (Apologies to Dana and Joan. :-) As my perspective changed, I realized that he was texting on his cell phone.

So, anyways, we left beautiful Pensacola and headed out for Ft. Walton Beach town dock. We arrived at around 3:30 PM and there was room on the outside dock for us to stay. Here's a view from the park nearby of Segue tied up to the dock (far left, outside.)

Walked around town and saw this hotel. A picture really IS worth 1,000 words.

The sunset that evening brought a gorgeous sky...

Thursday, November 11 - Veteran's Day 2010
We're off to Panama City today. We're going to meet up with friends from a group that Wayne shares information with concerning trawlers and trawler-ing, Jill and Rudy Sechez. We went through an area dubbed "the canal"...but it was really pretty.

Rudy and Jill live aboard a boat they built, Briney Bug. They came over to the marina that evening in their boat (we got a tour and it's an amazing, comfortable home!) and we went to dine at an Italian restaurant nearby that makes great pizza.

Friday, November 12-
We were on the blue highway by 9 this morning...kinda took our time. Rudy and Jill came over to wish us a safe journey. We caught this shot of the Briney Bug.

Great trip to Port St. Joe along the Wetappo Creek (yeah, I know: Itchycoo Park comes to mind.)

Saw a couple of eagles and caught this one on "film"....

We're in Port St. Joe for a few days...then on to ready for the leap into Gulf waters. More later...

Fairhope, AL

2010-11-06T20:34:00.002-04:00

Saturday, November 6-

I painted all day today!

OK, we've gotten a lot done here while waiting on Mobile Bay to calm down. Today we put varnish on all the teak and will do a second coat tomorrow. We'd originally planned to leave for Florida tomorrow, but the weather report looks better for Monday.

When I walked Lucy to the "beach" area here at the marina this morning I saw that the beach was very exposed...water "out." Our boat has probably been sitting on the bottom of the bay today. We watched a sailboat across the way trying to get out. They finally gave up around 2:30 and left. A fellow here to pick up a chartered sailboat said he'd never seen the water this low in the area. But a power boat we talked to said the water in the channel coming in is just fine...6-8 feet.

We had breakfast in town today at a restaurant boasting to be Fairhope's oldest. Good omelets! I've found a great walking trail here that runs for miles along scenic Hwy. 98. Fairhope is a neat town. Some really pretty homes. Yesterday I went down and visited the library and several retail establishments. My favorite was the Page & Palette, a combination art supply, book store, and coffee shop..

Columbus, MS, to Fairhope, AL

2010-11-02T19:08:00.011-04:00

Wednesday, October 27 -

After six days at Columbus Marina, Columbus, MS, we've moved on down the Tenn-Tom to a lovely anchorage at Sumter Landing. (Some of you may remember our last experience at Sumter Landing in December '07. This was our way of "getting back on that horse.")

The weather was fickle today. We ran in and out of rain...sometimes MAJOR rain. Tomorrow morning we'll set our sights on Foscue Creek below Demopolis, with a stop at the Yacht Basin for fuel.

Thursday, October 28 -

Beautiful day on the water...no rain! The night was very peaceful and we were up and heading out into the main channel by 7:30...just as Bulldog Sally was passing by our anchorage. (They anchored a few miles up the river.) We had about an hour wait to get through the Heflin Lock. For the rest of the trip the scenery held our attention. Last time we passed this way it was dark, so we were really impressed with the cliffs along the water.

We were docked at Demopolis Yacht Basin fuel dock by 3 PM. Fueled, watered, and walked (Lucy), we left the dock at 3:45 and found our way down to the Foscue Creek anchorage right before the Demopolis Lock. Bulldog and Crossroads were already in the creek...and we were later joined by a fourth boat.

We anchored pretty much in front of the dock that belongs to a Coast Guard Cutter, "Wedge." That evening one of the employees at the Coast Guard station came out and said he thought we'd be fine there for the night...that the cutter wasn't due back until around noon the next day. He did say that if the boat came back, we'd have to move because it needed all that space to turn around and get docked. We'd stayed out that far because one of the boats in our group had touched ground not too far into the pocket of water beyond the dock. The night was calm, though, and the cutter didn't come home before we left.

Friday, October 29 - Up early and headed for the Demopolis Lock, we were in the lock by 7:25AM. We had four boats in the lock that morning and we were the last ones on the starboard wall. What a show!

Today we're headed to an anchorage at Bashi Creek, mile 145. No locks today after Demopolis, so it made for an easy trip. (BTW, there aren't any more marinas down the way, either. There's a place called Bobby's Fish Camp where you can tie up to a dock alongside the waterway, but we did that the last time and decided to do anchorages this time.)

We arrived at Bashi Creek by 3:30...and proceeded to take another hour and a half to get comfortable with the anchor placement. The wind was blowing straight into the creek, and there was a current running opposite that. We ended up setting a stern anchor and having Breaking Away, another boat anchoring there, help straighten the bow of the boat with their dinghy. I kinda liked the place...very "Heart of Darkness." Wayne, however, wasn't crazy about the place because of the difficulty in setting anchor and positioning a boat of our size in the channel.

There's a recreation area near the creek with boat ramp, small dock, picnic tables, trash can...what more could a cruiser (with dog) ask for?

Saturday, October 30 - Foggy morning! But so pretty....

It took a while for us to be able to pull up anchor and move.

As we left Bashi Creek we met Blue Angel and Sea Estate who had anchored a couple of miles up the river. We traveled with them to the last lock on the Tenn-Tom, Coffeeville Lock. Unfortunately, when we got to the lock we had a tow going down and one coming up. We were there by 12:15, but didn't get through the lock until 2:15. We only had about 20 miles to go to our anchorage for the evening, Old Lock 1 at mile 100. As we came through the lock at Coffeeville we saw that the water gauge was up by 3 feet. Good news for anchorages down the way that might, otherwise, not offer us enough water.

Another great anchorage at Old Lock 1. We joined our neighbors that evening for a sharing session...and learned how to make "little beers." Yummy!

Sunday, October 31 -

Shout out to all the goblins out there! Alex is going to be an astronaut and Ryan...an alien.

It looked awfully cloudy this morning when we got up. Blue Angel and Sea Estate were out way before us...we got a dog. :-) We'd originally planned to anchor at Bates Lake, but were hearing that the entrance was too shallow. Blue Angel called back later in the day and confirmed the shallow conditions. They were going to the Alabama River Cut-Off to anchor. We were thinking we'd try an anchorage we'd heard about on the way down: David Lake. See, we had visions of motoring through Mobile harbor on Monday and the further down we could get, the better.

[Here's where we're seeing that your days would be a lot different if you were living aboard a boat, as Blue Angel's crew, Jim and Sharon, do. For us it tends to be a push to the next destination. For them it's less urgent. They tended to travel fewer miles a day than we...and they ended up sitting out the weather in the Alabama River anchorage with Sea Estate. They planned to take their dinghy's back up the river to Bates Lake and explore by boat that way. We're trying to loosen up, but I think we both look forward to being in Florida so much, it hasn't happened yet. We'll see if it DOES happen.]

The sky cleared up and the ride was pretty good. We got down to David Lake and opted not to stay. The setting was, Kay, "soul crushing." Murky surroundings with a rusty old building and deserted industrial site. We went on down to the Tensas River anchorage, mile 39, and were pleased with the decision.

Monday, November 1 -

We thought we would take 21 days to get down to Mobile Bay...and today we made it! We had to wait until after 9:00AM to leave due to fog. The trip through Mobile Bay was quite different this time. Last time was Christmas Day 2007 and very cold and crisp. The Bay was deserted. This time, there was plenty of activity around.

Our aim was to get to Eastern Shore Marine in Fairhope, AL, for one night, then head on down to the intercoastal on Tuesday and wind up at Bear Point Marina. The trip across the Bay was so easy. There were no waves and no wind. We got into Eastern Shore around 3PM. I took the courtesy car to the local Publix and brought home steamed shrimp for supper. (Thanks to Sea Estate for that little tip!) Life is good!

Looking at the weather forecast, we decided to stay at Fairhope for a few days. Rain, wind, and waves were coming...and we were ready for another break. We'll be here probably until Sunday and will get back with you when something happens. :-)

Columbus, MS, October 25

2010-10-25T07:00:00.002-04:00

Storms moved in last night and it was quite a show! Thunder, lightning, wind! We woke up this morning wondering what we will find outside (did anything blow off the deck?) We're going to be here today and tomorrow, at least. Probably leave by Thursday morning.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Mother, Willie Smith, 82 today!

2010-11 Knoxville to Columbus, MS

2010-10-23T17:20:00.001-04:00

Friday, October 8

Well, we're off again! After a quick trip back home this morning in the marina van (pick up of athletic shoes, cruising charts) we were going through the Ft. Loudon Lock by 10:15. It was a beautiful day on the water.

54 miles later we pulled into the "Smith Marina" (home of friends Chuck and Vickie Smith).

After a quick tie-up of Segue and walk around the grounds for Lucy we congregated on the Smith's screened porch for refreshments. To our delight, Ben and Sharon Birdwell had come down to join us. We caught up with the Smith's latest adventure, a 3-week trip to Europe, and shared a delicious meal that was topped off with a lemon sorbet made by Chuck. Here we are, relaxed and full...

When I was putting lunch items back in the Norcold frig this afternoon I realized the refrigerator wasn't on. When Wayne checked it out he discovered that the appliance wouldn't work on battery power...only on AC. (If we're not plugged up to shore power somewhere then we have to be running the generator.) So...we've adjusted our plans to include a stop over somewhere down the line for repairs. Tomorrow we'll get down to just above the Chicamauga Lock and have a contact there that might prove helpful. More later on the frig!

Thursday, October 14 - We docked on Saturday at Chicamauga Marina just above the Chicamauga Lock. Sunday a repairman came out from Shelburne RV Refrigeration (Sid) and he did some checking on the frig...but needed to come back on Monday when Norcold offices were open to confirm his diagnosis. Monday morning he was back over and ended up placing a part on order...a DC power supply...to arrive on Wednesday, the 13th. Wednesday came...and the part didn't. The manufacturer agreed to ship in out "overnight" to Sid...and we decided to move on down to the Chattanooga waterfront area to make a little progress in the trip. Today Sid came over with the part and was finished by 1 PM. Sid was very reasonable with his charges: $75 for one service call and a 10% markup on the part.

Ah! Now we can get going tomorrow morning and be down to Goose Pond Marina on Saturday by noon. This morning I walked over the pedestrian bridge to the Whole Foods store and Walgreens. It's a lovely day...in the 70's...with a brisk wind.

We met the nicest guy, Richard Walker, aboard Holiday VII, at Chicamauga. Richard has been up and down the TennTom over 20 times and had some great reviews of anchorages and marinas along the way. On Monday afternoon he let me go with him to the new Publix store in Ootlewah for a little provisioning. We're hoping to see him again on this trip since he's headed the same way we are.

Friday, October 15, 2010 - Today was a day of contrasts as we went from Chattanooga to our anchorage near Crow Creek. We had our heavy jackets on in the morning (I added gloves and hat). By 3 o'clock we were back in shorts and short sleeves, being beaten down by the sun as we made our way westward on the Tennessee. The winds were calm as we pulled out in the morning...but soon picked up to give us our first whitecaps of the trip (minor, but whitecaps!).

Leaving Chattanooga we came to one of my favorite spots on the journey...the section where I-24 parallels the Tennessee River for a while. When I come to this part I think about having been on that very stretch of I-24 many times...and now I'm seeing it from a different vantage. That's what a lot of this traveling by boat is for us: seeing places we've been before...but seeing them in a different way.

After about 3.5 hours of travel we reached Nickajack Lock and found a tug boat working to move a barge downstream. It would be 2.5-3 hrs., the lockmaster said, so we anchored there next to a park. Two other cruisers waited with us, Blue Yonder and Felix, the catamaran. We got there at 11:30 and were through the lock by about 2:45. The anchorage we had picked for this evening was still about 2.5-3 hours away...and we were now on Central Time, which meant that sunset comes at around 6:15. We had to pass the tow that had been ahead of us in the lock...and that took a little time. By 5:15 we were going into Crow Creek anchorage at about mile 401 on the Tennessee. Another cruiser had entered the creek about 5 minutes before we got there. To make a long story short, we didn't anchor in the creek area. The marked channel weaves all over the shallow area, in and out of the green growth. We just couldn't get comfortable with the depth or current. As the sun set we were weaving our way back out of Crow Creek. We anchored, instead, on the non-channel side of Crow Creek Island and it was a great place to be on a windless, moonlit night. This was the view out our window the next morning...

Saturday, October 16 - Gorgeous day traveling down from mile 401 to Goose Pond Marina at 378. We were docked early and in line for the courtesy car by noon. Our turn came up at 4PM and we took off for laundry and provisions. (Walmart on a Saturday night. Ask Mamaw Prichard!)

Sunday, October 17- Another beautiful day on the water. I woke up and looked at the alarm clock...6:30AM. I woke up fully and started coffee. At about 7 Wayne came up and said, "You know, my watch says it's 6..." Uh oh. I hadn't set back my alarm clock for Central Time. We left the marina by 7:45. :-)

Guntersville Lake is one of the prettiest areas on the Tennessee that we've traveled. I couldn't get over the feeling we we somewhere back up in Canada.... Camp-like settings and small, cozy looking homes peak through wooded banks.

We were docked today by 1 PM and had the afternoon to nap, work on odds and ends, and (of course) meet new people. We're at Ditto Landing near Huntsville (shout out to the Ledbetters!) Tomorrow we leave marinas and plan on anchoring out 4 or so nights before getting to Columbus Marina on the Tenn-Tom.

Monday, October 18 - Wayne was up at 4:45. It may take us a while to adjust to the time zone. We traveled today from Ditto Landing to an anchorage on the right descending bank just below the First Creek entrance. We had a little southerly wind at first, but just enough to be pleasant. We took Lucy to the bank (nice access to the land in this little cove) and rested for the evening.

Tuesday, October 19 - Headed out at 7:45 having done our morning "chores" and walked Lucy. We hailed the Joe Wheeler Lock and were told to come ahead. We locked through with Sunshine Lady and traveled most of the day with them in sight. They have AIS, which allows them to see where oncoming tows are located. When we got to Wilson Lock they spotted a tow in the chamber. We only had to wait 20-30 min. for the lock to take us down.

The closer we got to our anchorage tonight the more the wind blew. Pickwick Lake is so broad and long at this point that we were getting some pretty good sized waves, but it was not uncomfortable. We passed by Panther Creek anchorage and spied a couple of boats already at rest. We had decided to edge on down to Zippy Branch on Yellow Creek (thus putting us, technically, on the Tenn-Tom). Zippy Branch had 2 boats in it, but we found a nice spot close to the front on the western bank. It was so windy, though, that we opted not to take Lucy in this evening. We're trying out a new system (pad) for Lucy's elimination needs...and decided now was the time to try it out. Unfortunately, we're not so good at Schnauzer lingo (she's much better at telling US what SHE wants). Lucy refused to have anything to do with the mat. The wind died down as dark approached and we had a quiet night on the water.

Wednesday, October 20 - Up before 6 and out by 7:30. We're headed to Midway Marina to pick up some fuel and then on a couple of miles down to an anchorage at Cummings Creek, right before the Fulton Lock. We'll go through 3 locks today. Lucy's still maintaining her dignity.

As we headed down the "canal" portion we admired the neatly coiffed banks on either side (better on the right bank than left)...and we saw a coyote! I wanted a picture, but quickly lost sight of it as we moved on and a tree came between us. I saw it kind of walking along the canal with us...and wondered if it got a whiff of Lucy, the tasty little morsel.

The ride today was beautiful, for the most part. The trees are turning color. We both commented on how different everything looks now compared to how it looked when we last came down in December 2007. (I know the Bloomfields have made a similar comparison!)

We made it through all three locks, Whitten, Montgomery, and Rankin, with only a one hour delay at Rankin. We anchored near the channel for this wait. Out of Rankin we made our way into Midway Marina for diesel fuel at $2.79...a good price in these parts. As we pulled in I spotted a boat named Selah! with a home port of Edisto Island, SC (still one of our most favorite places in the world!) The Murrays live on Edisto and are doing the Loop. They plan to tour the inland rivers next year, including the Tennessee, and we exchanged cards in the hopes of meeting up again.

Anchorage for this evening was about 2 miles downstream from Midland Marina, close to Fulton Lock. It was a quiet, windless evening.

Oh. Just a note. That whole "new system" we had in mind for Lucy to use... it may not work out like we thought. As usual, the Schnauzer had a different idea for the pad.

Thursday, October 22 - Today we planned to anchor at Aberdeen Lock, Blue Bluff anchorage, but we have a new plan. As we came out of Midland Marina yesterday we started having a vibration in the props. A similar thing had happened a few days ago as we left a lock, and at that time we thought we'd solved the problem by doing a few reverse engine maneuvers to knock off anything we might have picked up on the props. (Common thing to happen in these locking situations.) Anyway...we called Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS, and found out they could dive in and check out the props, and even remove them and have them repaired. We decided to see if the locks would cooperate today to get all the way down to Columbus.

As we pulled up anchor a sailboat was passing us headed for the lock. We ended up traveling all day with the sailboat, though we pulled ahead some after getting out of the last lock. We went through Fulton, Wilkins, and Amory Locks. We left at 7:45 and were pulling into Columbus Marina at 5:15PM.

"T", the marina manager, was ready to hit the water for the dive when we got there. (He said he was glad to be doing it that evening because the temperature the next morning would be in the 40's.) He put on a mask and hit the water. A few minutes later he came up with a hunk of frayed rope. Down again, he went, and emerged with an even bigger piece. There were parts of the mass that actually fell off and sank before he could get them up, so it ended up being quite a lump of trouble. This is what he ended up retrieving...

(That's "T's" mask next to it for size comparison.)

What a relief! For the cost of a dive we were spared spending hundreds to pull the boat out for a look. Thank you, "T"!

Friday, October 23 -
After a leisurely morning we picked up the courtesy van and left for lunch out and provisions. Back at the boat that afternoon we met the folks on Sea Estate and Blue Angel. The evening brought a happy hour and more swapped boat cards. It was a good day.

Saturday, October 24 -
Borrowed the van this morning to have breakfast out and run a few more errands. We're thinking about leaving tomorrow (since we don't have to have props fixed) and spent the day taking care of some chores that need to be done in a marina. We're going to look at the weather this evening and see whether the incoming storms will keep us here a few days or not....

At home on land!

2009-05-19T07:14:00.003-04:00

Well, we've been home now for about 7 months...and we're still adjusting. Wayne and I are both still craving the adventure and change we had daily on the trip, but we're trying to make up for it with new ventures on land.

I'm working part time at a local community college library...and working on my art. From January to May of this year I took a drawing class at Pellissippi State Community College and loved it.

Wayne is starting a new web-based business called Cruiser Marine (http://www.cruisermarine.com). Since Wayne takes care of most of our boat maintenance and repair, he's interested in finding the best products at the best prices. He has gathered quite a few already and will be adding more as time goes on. Check out the site next time you need a boating product and see if "Stretch A Buck Wayne" can serve up a deal!

Lucy has had the hardest transition from cruising life to life on land. She was with us 24/7 on the boat...most evenings finding us with willing laps for her rest. Now we're busier and gone often in the day.

We all enjoy going down to the boat and spending time, so that's what we try to do often. 'Til we see you on the waters again....safe travels!

Segue comes home

2008-11-08T08:56:00.013-05:00

Thursday, October 16 - We had a pleasant cruise up through Watts Bar Lake to Caney Creek Marina. Our friends, Vicky and Chuck, were off cruising on their boat (a Californian, too!) and had offered their slip to us for the night. With the threat of showers that evening it was a welcome offer for Lucy's sake!

We had trouble this morning getting the dinghy back up on the boat and had towed it all day. The wench that pulls the dinghy up was slipping. Wayne worked with it after we docked that evening and slowly got it back up in its resting place.

Friday, October 17 - Today would be a short day. We left Caney Creek around 9 and arrived at Ft. Loudon Dam just as Bear Cat, a large towboat, had locked through with several barges.

We pulled into Ft. Loudon Marina and set about getting the boat cleaned up for homecoming!

Saturday, October 18 - We had invited about 10 couples to join us at Choto Marina for a celebration at 12 noon this day. As we paced our journey up the familiar Ft. Loudon Lake we were continually surprised at the changes/additions during our year's absence. More and more large homes are cropping up on both the Knox and Blount County sides.

As we rounded the bend nearing our home stretch we heard on the radio, "Detour, calling out to all Looper boats...Over." It was Pam and Jim from their boat, Detour...there to meet us and chronicle in pictures our trip back into Choto Marina! Pam and Jim will be doing the Loop in a year or so and we're dying to return the favor now!

Seeing our friends gathered at the dock as we came into Choto gave us an emotional experience equal to only a few other events on this trip (I'm thinking the entrance into NYC harbor and the Statue of Liberty comes close.) It was so nice to have the love and support from these people as we took this trip...and so nice for us to be able to share the experience with them. Some had visited us along the way and others had been regular contacts by phone or email. It meant a lot along the way, and it meant a lot to see them there today.

To all of them, and all of our friends and family who gave us well-wishes and offered prayers of safe keeping on our behalf...THANK YOU!

I had a camera ready to document the afternoon, but never took a picture. Fortunately, Jim and John were there and were kind enough to give us a photo chronicle of the day.

We're back on the Tennessee River, back home. I'll summarize, for our benefit, some of the stats of the trip in a later blog entry. For now, we have to say that coming back to the Tennessee River and its lakes makes us realize even more how lucky we are. These are some of the prettiest cruising areas we've seen on our travels so far.

I read a quote from T.S. Eliot and it rings so true for us.

"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

Metropolis, IL, to

2008-10-04T07:44:00.014-04:00

Saturday, October 4 -

A couple of things I've left out in previous blogs (at least I think I have.)

When we passed by Peoria, IL, we apparently also passed by a hotel called the Par-A-Dice Casino Hotel. How's that for a name?

We're pushing to get home at this point in the trip. Not that we don't have things to see in this area of the country...but this is our area of the country. Before this trip we had only traveled by boat as far as Chattanooga. We're already thinking about future (shorter) trips to areas on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

So this morning...we woke up to heavy fog. We'd planned to get out around 8, but had to wait for the fog to lift and that was more around 9:30 AM. Blue Max called Lock 52 to see when they could get us through and they said to gather up at the lock around 10 AM. We did...and proceeded to wait about an hour and a half before we could get in...and then it took about another hour to complete lockage. Bottom line: we left the lock at 12:30 PM and had about 50 miles to do before reaching Green Turtle Bay Marina. Oh, yeah, and that would be upstream, a-gin. And we had one more lock to go through. We figured we'd be lucky to get there before dark. We were lucky.

We turned off the Ohio onto the Cumberland and things began to look more like home. Hills, trees beginning to turn (though more brown than bright colors) and curving river bed. We quickly went through the last lock and, with Kismet in the lead because they'd been here before, we wove our way into Green Turtle Bay.

There were a number of looper boats already there. Some had been there for days and others just arrived and were planning to spend more time. We were there for one night.

Sunday, October 5 - We took our time this morning getting up and ready for the day. We had a loose idea of where we wanted to end up and thought we'd decide on the way how far to go. I took a nice walk into the town of Grand Rivers, KY. We visited with people we'd met along the way and hadn't seen for a while...then pulled the boat around to the fuel dock to take on some diesel. I walked over to the little restaurant at the marina and picked up a couple of sausage biscuits then we left at around 10:30 AM.

It was a beautiful day on the water...and we were feeling the pull of home. We'd never been on Kentucky Lake before, but it is beautiful...almost as pretty as our lakes nearer home. There were some very attractive coves and bays that would have made great anchorages, but we wanted to get some miles under our belt. We ended up picking out an anchorage called Leatherwood Creek at mile 73.6 on the Tennessee River. A marked channel took us in and we anchored in about 10 ft. of water with a very few homes in the vicinity. As the sun went down it got nice and cool and we enjoyed time on the back deck after taking Lucy to shore.

Monday, October 6 - We were up around 7 AM and leaving Leatherwood Creek around 9 AM. Oh...yeah...and when we took Lucy to shore this morning I nearly stepped on a snake weaving it's way from the water's edge towards the woods. Lucy was dallying around ahead of me and didn't even see it. I called to Wayne and he came over to help me herd Lucy back our way. She must have gotten a smell of the snake because she stopped and started smelling around. She was so mesmerized that she wouldn't "do" anything and we had to take her back to the boat with a promise of a walk by noon. I think I've identified the snake correctly now as a Northern water snake, a native of Tennessee. Harmless, so they say....

Well, with the adrenalin pumping we left Leatherwood Creek, bound upstream to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. It was a short trip of 23 miles and we were counting on borrowing the courtesy car that afternoon so we could take on provisions. We were there by noon and I took off immediately for the grocery store. With our cupboard restocked we took time to wash off some of the Mississippi mud we were carrying.

Around 4 PM about 6 other boats came in, including Our Turn. The marina restaurant was opening that evening for the crowd and most of us gathered there for a great meal and camaraderie.

Tuesday, October 7 - Pulled out of Pebble Isle Marina around 8AM with Our Turn. It looked like we were going to have rain most of the day. We were just hoping the "chance of thunderstorms" would hold off until we got to Clifton Marina, Clifton, TN...and they did.

I've heard of dock-o-miniums, but I hadn't seen RV-o-miniums before....

We were tied up by 3 PM and Ellen, Nat and I took the courtesy car into town for a look-see. (We would have walked but it looked really rainy.) After a brief stop at the Dollar General and grocery store we parked on Main St. and walked to the few open shops. The town is cute as it can be...a step back in time.

A short walk down the river took us to the Clifton Public Library which shares an historic home with the T.S. Stribling Museum.

Stribling won a Pulitzer Prize in 1933 for his novel THE STORE in. I was interested in reading more about the man and the book, and found this biography on a University of North Alabama Libary website: http://www2.una.edu/library/stribling/biography.html

He wrote a lot of short stories and had a very unique way of crafting a plot:

Stribling developed an elaborate method to help him produce his short stories. The system involved taking a white sheet of cardboard and dividing it into columns. The columns would consist of various settings, weather, sports, characters, locations, bad habits and good morals. He would shut his eyes and randomly run a wavy line across the columns. This approach insured originality and created some very interesting stories. During this time, he wrote as many as seven short stories a day.

(Isnt' there some sort of party game based on this idea???)

THE STORE received rave reviews when it was published in 1932...and it beat out MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY for the Pulitzer Prize. Sounds like a book worth reading...

The library was having a book sale that day, so of course we partook!

That evening we gathered for supper on the deck of Our Turn. Roy, Nat and Ellen brought out a bottle of champagne to toast our crossing our wake tomorrow. (They are stopping at Pickwick and we're anchoring further upstream.)

Wednesday, October 8 - Our Turn and Segue left Clifton Marina just before 8 AM. I was hoping the marina office/restaurant would be open before we left so I could seek out some leftover cornbread or chicken and dumplings from their dinner the night before. Ellen and Wayne had said it looked really good.

It was a beautiful day of travel. A little foggy at the first, from the night of rain, but that soon cleared up. This is a shot of Our Turn as we left that morning.

There was a most peculiar sighting today. A naked (at least he appeared to be) man was standing on the left descending bank with a pair of binoculars focused our way! Wayne, Roy, and Ellen all saw him. I was on the phone and missed it. I think I was the lucky one. Welcome to Tennessee??!!

We passed by some really neat signs for Mermaid Marina...

Pickwick Lock was a ten minute wait and at around 1:30PM we found ourselves on Lake Pickwick. What a lovely lake! Funny how coming through this way last December it didn't look so pretty!

Our Turn pulled off at Pickwick State Park for a night "on the hook" and a meal at the park restaurant that has a reputation for great food.

We were waving goodbye as we continued on up the lake to Bear Creek and a beautiful anchorage.

We're hoping to catch up with them again in Chattanooga.

When we passed mile 215 and the turn off to the Tenn Tom we officially "crossed our wake" and have completed the Great Loop. Now we just need to make our way on up to Knoxville.

A shower came up just before we set anchor and we had the most beautiful rainbow arching over the creek.

We've completed the Great Loop Route and are headed home with memories that will last us a lifetime...and friends that we hope to keep as long. It seems appropriate that there was a rainbow for the occasion.

We'd left Choto Marina on October 8, 2007...also auspicious that we're crossing our wake exactly one year later...

Thursday, October 9 - As we returned to the boat from our morning trip with Lucy we heard the anchor alarm sound. Yep! The boat was on the slow slide to the bank. We'd had a lot of wind action during the night and it must have loosened our anchor's hold.

Wayne quickly started the engines and I held the boat in place while he pulled up anchor and hoisted the dinghy.

Today we went through two locks, Wilson and Joe Wheeler. Wilson is a large (read: deep) lock and it took almost an hour to get into and through that one. Joe Wheeler was a bit faster and we were anchored in another cozy cove near Joe Wheeler State Park by 4:30PM. No phone or internet connection in this cove...but so nice otherwise!

Speaking of internet and thinking of blogging...I'm using ScribeFire to blog with on days when I have no connection. A Firefox add-on, it records the blogging on my computer and will transfer to Blogger when we're connected again. Another tool I'm trying on this trip, at the recommendation of a speaker at the Charleston AGLCA rendezvous, is BookSmart. A free download, BookSmart "slurps" my blog entries from Blogger to store on my computer. (I've worried about having my trip "archive" on a dot.com site...) At the end of the trip I can organize the text and pictures in BookSmart to create a memory book. I have every intention of doing that. Question is, how long will it take??? :-)

Friday, October 10 - Traveled from anchorage near Joe Wheeler to an anchorage at mile 351 behind Goat Island. We didn't get into the anchorage until around 5 PM. Fortunately, there's no competition for anchoring at this time of year...despite the fact that it's the perfect time of year to anchor out!

Passing through Decatur, AL, we requested the railway lift bridge to open for us. the guy there is the same one we talked to in December 2007...a real character. We told him we'd gone under the bridge in December and he said, "Pretty long vacation!" Yes, it was!

Saturday, October 11 - Another good day of travel. As usual, we started out with a couple of options for the evening. We'd considered going all the way to Hales Bar Marina (not that that was our first choice, but marinas are sparce in the area). Instead we decided to go to an anchorage just above Nickajack Lock at mile 425.

It was 5 PM when we got to the lock...and by the time we got through it, anchored and took Lucy to shore it was after 6 and getting dusky. This anchorage is near a recreation area so we have a dock to use when we take the dinghy in to shore. Again, we're the only boat anchored here.

The scenery on the trip today was refreshing...the mountains showing up more and more every day.

And we got back into Tennessee today after traveling down a ways into Alabama on the river. One of our friends from Florida commented that she hadn't realized how far south we had to go to get back home to Knoxville by river! Certainly not the most direct route!

Approaching Nickajack Lock the current picked up so that we thought we were back on the St. Lawrence River heading into Montreal! The rpm's were up to 2000...and we were just making 9 miles per hour!

Our home is at mile 612 on the Tennessee River so we're still almost 200 miles away. Tomorrow we'll get to Island Cove Marina at Chattanooga, TN, where we'll stay for a day or two while they tweak some fittings on the fuel tank. Then we're home to Knoxville, hopefully by Saturday, October 18!

Sunday, October 12- I could swear the colors changed in this cove over night. At any rate, it's a beautiful morning. We're up and at 'em by 8:30AM...headed for Island Cove Marina.

The sky this morning was streaked with clouds making it easier to see the change in color from the horizon up. At the horizon level it's more cerelean. Further up it becomes deeper in color and more like cobalt blue. Straight overhead it looks much darker...an ultramarine blue. Thank you, Mary Baumgartner! :-)

They call the area we're traveling throught today the area they call the "Grand Canyon of the Tennessee." Eagles were spotted several times as we went through some narrow sections of the river.

Going by Signal Mtn. we could easily see some of the gorgeous homes there...

Passing through downtown Chattanooga we admired the bustle on the water and recognized a lot of changes have been made to the waterfront over the past couple of years. Chattanooga is a worthy destination for loopers...

Chicamauga Lock was something else! They are rebuilding the lock so the entrance was like a maze through water-bound construction machines. When we finally got in, there were eight boats that wanted to lock up and only 4 bollards, 2 on each side. We rafted off the remaining four...and the lock suddenly looked like some of the locks we saw in Canada!

Island Cove was ready for us and we nestled in on Houseboat Row for the evening. Tomorrow we'll talk to Terry, the service manager, and see how long we'll need to be here.

Wednesday, October 15 - We got all our issues taken care of and the hull cleaned and waxed. The boat looks great! We stayed a couple of nights at the marina inn while the boat was "on the hard." And I took Tuesday off to go off with Ellen, Nat and Roy for a tour of Chattanooga's most popular sites: Ruby Falls, Rock City, and the Incline Railway. We had a great day, including a great late lunch at the Purple Daisy BBQ place in St. Elmo, TN.

We were back in the water today by 4 PM and made our way a couple of hours upstream to an anchorage just past Sale Marina on Sale Creek near Soddy Daisy, TN.

Havana, IL, to Metropolis, IL (Superman, where are you???)

2008-09-28T09:08:00.016-04:00

On Monday, September 29 they lifted the restrictions on the Illinois River from mile marker 101 to 80. It was afternoon that day when the announcement came so we decided to stay at Tall Timbers until the next morning to leave.

We'd had time over the past couple of days to check out the town. A cute place with some gorgeous homes. I walked most of Plum Avenue one day and took pictures of some of the houses. We breakfasted on Monday morning at the Lunch Box Cafe, then I visited the Havana Public Library for a quick pass through their book sale.

Tuesday, September 30 - Six boats left at O'dark:30 that morning (well, it was really more like 6:45 AM): Mistress, Grettatude, Marbles, Segue, Our Turn, and Blue Max. We set out for our 120 mile trip to Grafton Marina, mile marker zero on the upper Mississippi. We had one lock to be concerned with, but it was another wicket dam and we were able to move straight through.

The trip was long, but fairly uneventful. Well, let me think about that. Blue Max would beg to differ. They were the last of 5 boats going under a railway lift bridge when the bridge started lowering! What a feeling!! Fortunately, they had time to clear the bridge, but I'm sure they'll never forget THAT bridge!

Then there was the (n)ice pass Our Turn made to Danny's Fault. Danny's Fault, with Judy and Rob, had been anchored out a couple of nights waiting out the lifting of restrictions. During that time they'd run out of ice...and had suggested it might be nice if someone from Tall Timbers bring them some ice on the way down. Ellen and Roy on Our Turn fixed up a bag of ice when we saw Danny's Fault ahead of us that day and Ellen tossed the ice to them in this close pass.

There was less debris than on our trip to Tall Timbers on Saturday, but it was harder to spot. This is what the water looked like for much of the trip. Can you find the debris???

One of the day's highlights was seeing a flock of white pelicans. Susan on Marbles had radioed back their location so I was ready with the camera... Can you believe what cute creatures these are??? And they have such attitude...

We arrived at Grafton Marina at around 5:30 PM...120 miles later. We all gathered up in the restaurant for supper and plans for the next day. This was our last night traveling with Marbles since Sue was going to a college reunion and Tom was staying at Grafton for a week until she came back to resume the trip. We'll sure miss their guiding of the "fleet" as we make our way down the Mississippi...and look forward to catching up with them at sometime in the future.

Wednesday, October 1- October 1st!!?? Gads, we're ready to be on the Tennessee River!

Today we made it down to Hoppies at mile 158. Our Turn, Grettatude, Mistress and Kismet left at around 7 AM, while Blue Max and Segue waited until around 8:15 AM. We all congregated at Hoppies that afternoon after a beautiful day on the water.

We passed by Alton, IL, birthplace of our friend Dana. They have a big riverboat casino on the waterfront.

We saw some of the biggest tow boats and loads that we've ever seen. These tows throw a wake that goes on forever and makes us think of Lake Michigan!

The clouds today were really neat...

Locking through the two locks was quick and painless. (Well, again Blue Max was the adventurous one in the group. When we got to the Chain of Rocks Lock we were instructed to enter the larger chamber. We entered first and went about half way in on the starboard side, aiming at what we assumed was a bollard. When we got to the opening we realized it was a ladder instead...and headed on up to the next spot. We radioed Blue Max but they had already passed the available bollards on our side of the lock so they ended up floating out free in the lock while we went down the 12 ft.! The lock master said it was OK...so another "first" for Blue Max!)

After the locks we went through the busy St. Louis, MO, waterfront area...

And saw the arch...

Hoppies is quite the place...Here are some of my favorite shots from there...

Barges strung along beside the Mississippi River...

and Fern, the legend, to meet with all the new folk and tell them how to manage as they go down the river. Here we are taking it all in...

We met the nicest guy at Hoppies. Jim has been a biking enthusiast for years and has recently decided to take up boating. He made this boat by buying a houseboat hull and topping it off on his own. He has a solar panel, head, galley...all the basics. He's come over 700 miles already from his home in South Dakota by way of the Missouri River and is headed down the Mississippi to New Orleans. What an adventure! Here's Jim's boat...

Thursday, October 2 - All six boats left out soon after 7:30 AM and headed downriver for the anchorage 110 miles down called Little River Diversion Channel. Another good day on the water. We pulled in around 4:30 PM. We let the dinghy down and took Lucy to a nearby shore...very loose rocks, but Lucy managed just fine. Tomorrow we'll look for a better spot. Looks like a lot of mud around here...

Today we passed by Chester, Missouri...home of Popeye the Sailorman, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, home of Rush Limbaugh. We saw neither. :-)

We also saw a lot more of the white pelicans....

Friday, October 3 - Mistress, Grettatude, Our Turn and Kismet left as soon as the fog lifted (around 8:45 AM) while Blue Max waited for us to take Lucy in and pull up the dinghy.

The trip to shore this morning wasn't pretty. Mississippi mud! I came back with my shoes caked in mud. I got that while "auditioning" a spot for the LuLu. As it turns out, we ended up dropping her off the boat at a likely spot, letting her do her thing, then pulling her back into the boat. The dinghy was filthy! I was filthy! Lucy had filthy feet!

Today we traveled 48 miles down the Mississippi to the intersection of the Ohio River, where we turned up and traveled almost 40 miles on it before we stopped across from the Fort Massac State Park, IL. (Actually only 5 of us went up the Ohio. Mistress headed on down the Mississippi for New Orleans.)

The current on the Mississippi was awesome, again. We were doing over 16 mph at what would normally have been a 10 mph speed. Turning onto the Ohio the mph dropped to 8.5 since now we were going UPSTREAM.

As we neared our destination we spotted a tow boat trolling for Asian carp. They had a net out and were catching the fish as they jumped out of the water. See the fish jumping off the back of the boat!?

Earlier in the day we saw an eagle soaring ...

Our anchorage is near the town of Metropolis, IL. Yes, it is the home of Superman!!! OK, I'm due a sighting. I'll let you know how it goes...

Peoria, IL, to Havana (IL)

2008-09-27T18:02:00.004-04:00

Saturday, September 27 - We left the IVY Club this morning at around 9 AM with Marbles, Our Turn, and Blue Max. The IVY Club is still dealing with flood waters, as you can see in these pictures, and there are large logs floating all through the marina area. It's a nice place, though, and we'd stop here again sometime.

Only one lock to contend with today just below Peoria...and due to high waters we actually went around the lock and over the dam!

It's a wicket dam that can be lowered when waters are high...like now. (http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/pao/wicket_dams.htm)

We saw more debris...more flooded buildings..

We passed a couple of tows going our way...

And we were wondering what exactly was submerged here...

All in all, it was another good day on the water. We're at Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, IL, and will stay here until the restrictions on the river are lifted...probably early next week. We walked into town today and located the grocery store. We're fine now. :-)

Moving on the Illinois!

2008-09-27T07:27:00.004-04:00

Saturday, September 27 - Yesterday morning we woke up thinking we were staying in Ottawa until Monday. We understood from contact with the Coast Guard that they were thinking of opening up a large portion of the river soon, but we were still concerned about having a good place to ride out a couple of days should the openings be delayed.

All that said, when boats started pulling out yesterday morning we decided we couldn't stand to stay still any longer! We talked with the folks there with us and several of us decided to just go on down to Peoria, knowing we'd have at least one more day of travel beyond that before we reached the "forbidden" zone of the flooded river. (Yesterday the Illinois was closed to recreational vehicles from around mile 80 to mile 101. We were at mile 242 at Heritage Harbor and decided to travel down to mile 168 at Peoria...then we could go down another day's travel to mile 120 and the Tall Timbers Marina.)

We went from a ho-hum morning to a zippity-do-dah morning!! As Segue and Our Turn pulled out of Heritage Harbor Ellen and I were literally dancing around on the deck! Thirteen days of forced immobility had us ready to go the 70+ miles to Peoria even if we were leaving at 9:45 AM and looking at an arrival time of after 6 PM.

We had talked a number of times to the Illinois Valley Yacht Club (IVY Club, it's called) about staying with them when we were able to travel to Peoria. Trouble was, we knew they were having their annual Lobster Fest (???) this weekend and were booked up Sat. and Sun. nights. As we were traveling down the river that morning, though, they called to say that they could take us, Our Turn and Marbles for one night. That was great news since our alternatives were either still flooded (read: dinghy to land) or a place described by those in the know as "very rustic."

We had only one lock to go through, Starved Rock Lock, just below Ottawa. After a short wait for a tow coming upstream through the lock we locked through with about 6 other pleasure craft and started the trip down to Peoria.

The river has just opened a few days ago to commercial traffic and we saw a LOT of tows during the first 2/3 of the trip. We were the lead boat and spent a lot of time arranging passes and spotting debris. And there was a good bit of debris around. Some of those duck blinds we'd been seeing are in deep water now...

The areas below Ottawa on the river are still flooded so there were a lot of areas where we had to travel at no-wake speed in order not to slosh water into someones home!

One of the day's highlights was seeing two eagles fly around and light it a dead tree...

I thought I was going to get a shot of the illusive (to us at least) flying Asian carp. What you see below is the flying carp entering the water with a splash! They apparently get all worked up over the propellers vibrating the water and jump out (and sometimes jump into boats!). Their skin is paper thin and we've been told if they land in your boat they will immediately begin bleeding up a storm and cause a real mess. Yuk!

We got into IVY Club, along with Marbles and Our Turn, at around 6:30PM. Already there were Kismet, Stargazer, and Blue Max. The people at the club were so helpful and friendly! We joined our friends for a short time in the club house then headed back to the boat for a light dinner.

And we have TV channels again!! We saw part of the Obama/McCain debate! The only channels we were able to get at Ottawa were cartoon or religious. :-)

Today we're heading out for Tall Timbers Marina. We'll see what the waterway openings look like for today before we plan out tomorrow's run. We may just keep on keepin' on 'til we're back on the Tennessee before taking a break!

It's so good to be on the move again. I'm not sure how we're going to do this winter in Knoxville.....Oh, well, we'll think of something.

Life on the flooded Illinois, continued...

2008-09-21T08:08:00.008-04:00

Sunday, September 21 -

Hooray! Yesterday morning we woke to find the water down enough that we can now walk to shore instead of boat to shore! No need to coordinate trips in the taxi boat. Now we need to clean that boat because we've seen a lotta mud over the past week and much of it has ended up on the taxi!

Things have changed a lot here at the marina over the past few days. Friday four more boats came in, then one yesterday, making a total of twelve transients now at Heritage Harbor. Then the weekend hit and (hey!) we're in a marina! Folks who keep their boats here came out for the beautiful weather yesterday and by 5 PM the place was jumping! We've practically had the marina to ourselves over the past week, but as Susan on Marbles said, we're learning to share.

We can't believe, either, how quickly this marina staff has controlled the mess involved with the flooding. They've been out every day spray washing the sidewalks, grass, you name it...They even scraped down the gravel driveway to even out the surface and clean up the look.

And, of course, Heritage Harbor continues to amaze us with their customer oriented service. If the courtesy van is in use it's not at all unusual to have one of the staff take a marina vehicle to shuttle someone to town. Thursday they gave a luncheon for marina staff, corporate officers, and the River Refugees, as we now call ourselves.

We keep threatening to do some work on the boat while we're stuck here, but the days pass by and we still haven't jumped into it. Friday several of us took the van to Starved Rock Lock to check out the conditions there. Starved Rock Lock is just south of Ottawa and will be our next lock to go through. They are still not open and were working with lots of heavy machinery around trying to clean up debris and get the lock back to functioning. They think they'll be able to open on Monday...but then they'll need to deal with debris for a few more days. We can't leave Ottawa until we can be assured of a place to land in Peoria, IL...and they are still about a week from being back to even somewhat near normal. (Places further down on the Illinois and Mississippi got more water than we did here.)

Yesterday a group of us went to the farmers' market and picked up some fresh produce. Here are Nat and Ellen loading up on veggies...

Wayne and I then walked back into town for lunch and a movie. Ottawa has some lovely park areas and a lot of beautiful old churches.

We have a jigsaw puzzle going in the boater's lounge boat...we've learned to make spring rolls, courtesy of Nat and Ellen...swapped books and read a lot...and, of course, socialized. :-) Some have gone home for the time and left their boats here. We're trying to just enjoy this time. We'll be home soon enough and back into old routines. More later....

Tuesday, September 23 - Sunday afternoon several of us borrowed Captain Moe's truck and went to the Illinois Wine Festival at a nearby park. There was quite a crowd out that afternoon and everyone had brought chairs so we could sit around and enjoy the mingling and music. Pictured below are Judy and Rob from Danny's Fault...and the rest (Nat, Roy and Ellen) sitting on the back row.

Last night we had a "community" supper with a ham we purchased yesterday. Tonight there's talk of a split pea soup from the ham bone and Mexican corn bread...We'd better do some more walking into town and back soon!!

It's still looking like this Friday might be the earliest day for travel to Peoria, IL. More later...

Oh, I almost forgot. We saw this birdhouse as we came down to Ottawa at one of the locks. The lockmaster gave me the blueprints if anyone out there wants to take on a little project...

Life on the flooded Illinois..., Ottawa, IL

2008-09-17T08:20:00.006-04:00

Just a short note to share this experience with you. We've lived on the Tennessee River for years and have never been in a flood situation before. Our hearts go out to these communities who are dealing with the record setting high waters. La Salle County, Ottawa's area, had 33.7 ft. of water on the Illinois River at its crest, according to the National Weather Service, and 20 ft. is flood stage. This county and several others here have been declared disaster areas.

Here are a few pictures of the flooding. Even if you haven't seen the area before you can tell by the scenes that this is a big flood...

The Illinois River (background) as seen from Heritage Harbor Marina's "party boaters' lounge" roof---

Looking from the marina grounds to our boats...and the "taxi" boat up on land---

Ellen from Our Turn looking at the area where the Ottawa town docks and wall were situated (in the middle of the photo, to right of the floating docks you'll see the globes on the street lamps that are positioned on the river walkway). Several of the boats in our group here at Heritage Harbor were originally tied up to the town wall and moved back upstream to the marina when the water started rising on Saturday--

Views of the Fox River in downtown Ottawa near the Illinois junction---

Part of the funds from disaster assistance goes to pay for sand and materials with which to build water barriers. This wall was put up almost overnight to protect the Ottawa High School and the neighborhood nearby---

This is my favorite picture, though, taken by Beth on the sailboat Grace. They were one of the boats that had been tied up to the Ottawa wall before the waters started rising---

As to how we're spending our time...about six of us went to the laundromat on Monday and took care of that chore. We've had a daily get together of some sort...from collaborating to take the dogs in (there are 3 on A Dock) to shuttling people back and forth to town, to drinks or dinner together. The roads are open to town so we're not really cut off from civilization...just inconvenienced by the fact that we can't walk to land from our boats.

Today Ellen, Nat, and I walked the Illinois Michigan Canal Trail into town, had lunch and walked most of the way back. Yesterday we spent about 4 hours down there looking around at the shops, library, visitor's center, etc.

We're thinking it might be the first of next week before we'd be able to leave, and then we need to kind of coordinate the move since those higher up on the Illinois will probably have safe waters before those down on the lower end. Might not be a problem on the Illinois, but could be a problem if we all enter the Mississippi at the same time there's a real shortage of dockage there already.

More to come....

Racine, WI, to Ottawa, IL

2008-09-11T19:18:00.015-04:00

Wednesday, September 10 - After a nice, long stay in Racine we were ready to hit the waters again. During our eleven days here we took care of a lot of "household" chores and Wayne changed the oil (major deal!). We rented a car and did some provisioning. Then Wayne drove me to O'Hare Airport in Chicago on Sept. 4 and I flew over to Raleigh to visit with Dave, Heather and Alex.

(One of the cute things Alex did while I was there: He has several "blankies" now that the pacifier is gone. Some are baby blanket size and some are really small, hand-held size. One day he picked up my eyeglasses case and found the little slick, microfiber cleaning cloth inside. "Grandma's blankie!" he beamed!)

Racine was a nice place to relax for a while. Reef Point is a large marina and attracts a lot of boaters from Illinois for the summer months. Things really died down after Labor Day weekend and we had the marina laundromat all to ourselves!

The downtown area is nicely done and seems to be making a go of it, unlike some. Nice public library, right near the water.

One day we took our dinghy out and down the Root River through town. It was one of the many beautiful weather days we had there and perfect for seeing the city from the water.

On another day we drove up to Milwaukee and took in the sights. Looks like a place we'd like to visit some day. Bob Kanuth had told us about the art museum there beside the lake that has a wing-like structure on the roof that shifts slowly around during the day to shade the building and collection.

As we left on Wednesday, September 10, the wind was blowing on the higher end of the forecasted 10-15 mph. We were hoping to go all the way down to Chicago today, about 57 miles from Racine harbor. If we needed to bail out we'd stop at a large park marina located mid-way.

Well, as has been the case with many of our days on Lake Michigan...this was an uncomfortable day on the water. Not threatening in any way, just long, low waves of about 2-3 ft. (during the first part of the trip) then 1-2 ft. later. They kept us wobbling side to side most all the way. We "wollered" down the lake today for our last outing on Lake Michigan!

We spotted the Chicago skyline 40 miles out...and as we got closer, this was the view...unaltered.

As we approached DuSable Harbor, where we'd be staying for the next couple of nights, the view was spectacular...

We've planned a short, 2 night stay in Chicago...long enough to see something we haven't seen here before and to visit with Jay and Carla's son, J.J., who lives here (at least for the next few weeks!) We've called J.J. and arranged to meet him for dinner tomorrow night and I've decided to take an architectural tour on the river tomorrow morning as was suggested by our friend Cheryl. As for this evening...we're water weary and in need of rest!

Thursday, September 11 - DuSable Harbor is a great location for visiting Chicago. This morning we walked over to Michigan Avenue at the river and I queued up for the tour. I'd selected the tour led by a docent from the Chicago Architectural Foundation and found a seat on the back of the upper open air deck. It was a perfect morning for the tour, weather wise. Since we'll be traveling down this river tomorrow morning as we leave Chicago, I wanted to get an idea of what we would see. It was time well spent!

My favorite building on the tour was the building at 333 W. Wacker Drive, an office building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. We caught the reflections from several angles on the trip and each time it was a little different...

Wayne, meantime, took off to find some of his old haunts up here from IBM days. We met back at Michigan Avenue after the tour and set off to find lunch. Wayne had spotted a few likely places, though most of the ones he'd remembered were no longer around. As we were walking along we passed by an interesting looking place serving Armenian food, Sayat-Nova. One look at the menu and we were hooked! When we got inside we were sure we'd made a good choice. The decor was cozy and exotic with walls that were rounded like a cave. I surreptitiously took a couple of photos...but their website has better pics, http://sayatnovachicago.com. Below is detail of the wall behind our little piece of the cave...

After a nice lunch and walk back along the river we relaxed on the back deck with the view of Chicago competing with our books.

Speaking of books...this is the first time we've visited Chicago since we read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Our friend Jeff loaned us his copy for the trip. For those who haven't read it, it's about the Chicago 1893 World's Fair (the World Columbian Exposition, as it was also called), Daniel Burnham (who directed the fair and worked on the plan for the city of Chicago) and the serial killer who was loose in the city during the time of the fair.

When I saw the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier as we pulled into DeSable...I thought of the book. The first Ferris wheel, engineered by George Ferris, a bridge builder, was built for the 1893 Chicago fair. Of course the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier now is about half the size of the wheel designed for the fair!

That evening J.J. biked over to the boat and we enjoyed catching up with his bustling life. J.J. has been promoted to a VP position with Bank of America and will be leaving Chicago around the first week in October to take up residence in Manhattan! He's been looking around at housing there and still hasn't decided on a choice...though he knows it will be more money and less "house" than here in Chicago.

J.J.'s friend, Jessica, joined us at the boat before we took off to see his Chicago apartment and have supper out. What a view he has from his apartment! He's located in the part of Chicago they call "old town" and has views both of the city and the lake. It was already dark by the time we got up to his place and even at night it was beautiful.

From there we strolled through the neighborhood (an area with stand-alone houses and pedestrian friendly streets) to an old Chicago restaurant called Twin Anchors. (J.J. thought the nautical reference appropriate...and he guessed, correctly, that we might be missing the taste of barbecued ribs.) A neat, neighborhood tavern atmosphere...and, to our surprise, a location that was used during the filming of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. (See the restaurant's website for a clip of the scene, http://www.twinanchorsribs.com/our_restaurant.php)

We said our goodbyes to J.J. and Jessica and wound up a perfect day in Chicago.

Tomorrow, we're back to the rivers...

Friday, September 12 - It was cloudy and threatening rain as we left DuSable Harbor this morning. We were going down 40-some miles to the city wall at Joliet, IL, for tonight. But first...a cruise down the Chicago River right through the city! Granted, the weather was a little rainy...but it was still exciting. Passing under low bridges with people walking to work...priceless! I tried to do a mini-architectural tour for Wayne as we went along, but his attention was a little diverted by the number of low, low bridges.

We had taken down the davit so we could fit under a 17 ft. fixed bridge along this route. But just when we were almost out of the city area we came upon a 10.5 ft. Amtrak bridge that is usually up when a train isn't passing...and the bridge was down.

We hovered a few minutes thinking a train must be coming...and a train did come. But the bridge still didn't raise. We hailed the bridge on the radio...no reply. We tried several different channels in case our information was wrong...no reply. We decided to tie up to the wall along the left descending bank at a nearby park while we decided what to do. Time passed. Nothing happened. We finally started making phone calls...and finally got the Coast Guard on the phone. They didn't know of a reason the bridge wouldn't be lifting, but said they would call the bridge to try and find out something. We were called back in just a few minutes. Apparently the bridge hadn't heard our calls. ???? The bridge lifted and we went through. One hour lost.

The landscape begins to change now. We're out of the bustling city and into the industrial area of the river...

We saw a new variety of tow boat, for us, today...one with an hydraulic lift for the pilot house so they can get down low enough to go under the low Chicago bridges....

Another interesting site along this waterway was the electronic fish barrier we passed through. In looking for information about it I came across an article by Deborah J. Siegelbaum from the Medill Report that explains the problem and the solution as of October 2007:

It’s not Jaws, but this dangerous fish could take a big bite of the Illinois economy. The Asian carp, a non-native species imported from China and
Siberia, is eating its way up the Mississippi River toward the Great Lakes, conquering water ecosystems in its path.

With an estimated $4 billion a year in commercial and sport fishing in the Great Lakes, it’s vital to both the environment and economy that the Asian
carp keep out. But it doesn’t just threaten the economy; this giant fish has also injured sport fishers and water skiers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has constructed an electronic fish barrier along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the only defense against
the invasive species that feeds on plankton and decimates the fish food chain. ......

Federal and state agencies joined to tackle the threat of invasive species in 1996, when representatives of the U.S. Army Corps, the EPA, Fish and
Wildlife Service, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and environmental academics met to discuss options for a barrier. Possible solutions
included chemical treatment, heat, sound, dense bubbles and de-oxygenation of the water.

It was vital that the barrier not interfere with the large flow of commercial barge traffic through the ship canal, or with the flow of wastewater away<br>from Lake Michigan. In the end, the electronic “barrier was selected because it was a proven technology and there was a practical way to
implement it,” Shea said. ...

A demonstration barrier was constructed in early 2002 at a cost of nearly $4 million in federal funding. Intended as a research tool rather than a
permanent solution, the barrier uses 12 electrodes strung 54 feet along the canal bottom through steel cables. One volt per inch is emitted into the
water, a level studies indicate deters the majority of fish.

Shea explains that the barrier “puts an electrical field into the water, strongest in the middle of the canal, so a fish coming in from either side starts
to get a shock. [The fish] realizes that if it continues moving forward, it will get an even bigger shock, so they turn away.”

Activated in April 2002, the barrier is continuously operated. It is the largest of its kind in the world, and the first of its type to be used on an open
waterway.

Unfortunately, materials used in the demonstration barrier were not long-lasting; the steel cables running the electrical charges have since
corroded.
(http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=67265)

The article goes on to explain that they have begun construction on a new electronic barrier just a short distance from the old one. Since the article is now a year old, it isn't clear to me whether they've completed the project by now or whether funding has been an issue. At any rate, it's an interesting problem... and solution.

So...we only had two locks to negotiate on this trip to Joliet. The first, the Chicago Lock, was at the beginning of the Chicago River right off Lake Michigan and the second was just a few miles north of Joliet, the Lockport Lock. When we arrived at the lock we could see they were in the process of moving down a tow and its load of barges. We hailed the lockmaster on channel 14 and asked about how long it would be before they could let us through and he said it would be about 2 hours. The tow captain came on and said we could go through with him on the last pass down (it was going to take a few loads to get all his barges down) and that way it would only be about 1.5 hours wait. We thanked them and tied up to the wall area offside.

As we waited, two other power boats (Charmed III and Our Turn, whom we'd met at Manistee) and one sailboat gathered for the next trip down. And, as we waited, debris of all manner began to collect around the boats on the wall. Large ropes, huge logs, trash, animal remains...YUK! As the time neared for us to position for the lock we decided we'd better try to get out of this stuff without hurting the propellers. We cleared as much as we could with the boat hook, then let the boat drift with the current a little to move out from the wall and into cleaner water.

The last load was ready to go down (turns out there were twelve barges, total, involved!) and the tow captain said we could tie to their barges, but he wouldn't take responsibility for any damage done to the boats on the trip down. The lockmaster, who had deferred to the captain on this decision, seemed to feel it would be best for us to tie to the barges rather than to the lock wall opposite them...so we tied up to the barges.

You know, here we are 5,500 miles or more into our trip and you'd think we might have experienced just about all you could on the water during that time. This was the first time, though that we've tied to a barge in a lock. Here's a picture of the tow, the Show Me State, as it entered the lock chamber...and a shot of our boats tied up to the barges.

With that little adventure under our belt we made our way down to the Joliet town dock and tied up with Our Turn and two other boats for the night. By this time...it was raining pretty hard.

Saturday, September 13 - Rain, rain... and more rain.

The bridge just below our tie up in Joliet didn't open until 8:30AM, so we had plenty of time to ready for the day. Overnight a good bit of rain had fallen and the current on the river...and the resulting debris...had picked up considerably. In fact, we had another log jam behind the boat this morning! We're learning all the time. Now we know to bow-in to the current, no matter what! We were going down to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, IL, today, about a 50 mile trip. Our Turn was going the same way so we decided to travel together since the locks would control our pace anyway. Our Turn had picked up something on their props during the Lockport Lock incident and was running a little slower than usual so we led the way.

Up at the bridge, which would have to be opened for us because the water levels were rising and we needed more clearance than was available, we hailed the bridge tender and asked for a pass through. He started the process...then called us back to say that one of the guard gates on the road to the bridge would not lower and he was going to have to call in a mechanic. He thought it might only be an hour's delay.

Back to the Joliet wall we went (only minutes away) and tied up, bow to the current, to wait for word on the bridge. Within the hour he contacted us and said it was fixed. We called the Brandon Road Lock, just below the bridge, to make sure they could take us through before we left the wall and they assured us we would be able to lock right through.

The trip today was frought with debris and rain. We saw duck blinds set up along this area of the Illinois River and this guy was putting out some of the BIGGEST goose decoys we've ever seen! Wayne says, "No self respecting goose would dare approach these decoys!" Can geese see well??

After the Brandon Road Lock we had two more before we could get to Heritage Harbor. Fortunately, after a rough start this morning with the bridge, we were able to do great time through the locks. Just before the last lock we passed a tow with several barges and when we were within about 2 miles of the lock called to check on passage through. If we could get there in 15 minutes we could make it down with a few other pleasure craft (pc's, they call us). We did it and were pulling into Heritage Harbor around 3:30 PM.

As we made our way down the river Wayne talked with a marina further down that we'd planned to visit next, the Illinois Valley Yacht Club, or IVY Club, as it's called. The contact said they were expecting the water to go up 10 ft. over the next few days...cresting around Wed....and places south of them would receive even more. The IVY Club was having its fuel tanks pumped out as a safety precaution. We'd planned to top off there before hitting the Mississippi.

When we got to Heritage Harbor we asked about diesel and they said they could bring in a truck for us. Turns out the truck was coming in that afternoon anyway to pick up their fuel since the water was rising quickly. Three boats took on fuel that afternoon at $4.08/gallon.

Word has it we probably won't be able to leave here for several days. The waters are to continue to rise, even after the rain is supposed to stop tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

Sunday, September 14 - Rain, rain and MORE rain...

We woke up and got Lucy out for her walk. Whoops! The floating docks were up several more feet this morning and the ramp that normally would lead to land is stuck in the water. A couple of boaters waded through the water...up to their knees...to go ashore. Wayne called the marina and found out they have a little work boat on our dock so we used that this morning to take Lucy in (whew! she says...) and then Ellen, Nat and I went to the grocery store and transported the loot back to the boats in the work boat.

The work boat, now water taxi...

And our view from the dock, looking towards the marina office and land. Note they are moving the porta-john further up the hill, and they moved the fuel tank from the concrete pads in the water (now) to a spot on the hill.

Waters are continuing to rise. We could see when we were in town this morning that there are homes in jeaopardy. They are expecting the waters to rise close to a record high this week in many areas. We're all safe and (usually) dry...congregating haphazardly at the "boaters' lounge" on a houseboat at the end of our dock. Just when we think we've been through everything...something new, again. Gotta love it!

Manitowoc to Racine, WI

2008-08-26T18:19:00.023-04:00

Tuesday, August 26 - Checking the weather this morning we honed our plans for the day. There was a small craft warning out for the waters below Sheboygan so we decided to run only from Manitowoc to Sheboygan in winds of 5-10 knots and waves 1-3. Yeah, right.

Getting up early (due to the central time change) we had coffee and then I set out for the farmers market with the idea of coming back with something for breakfast, too. The air was crisp this morning, feeling a little fall-ish, actually. It was a nice walk to the market, though, and by the time I got there I was feeling very comfortable with the temperature. The marina is located next to a little beach and the local YMCA...

Most of the vendors were Asian at the farmers' market, which was different. The produce looked great and I came back with strawberries (yes, past the season, I know...but they smell delicious and are small...look like wild strawberries, actually), peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, yellow tomatoes and yellow cherry tomatoes. Since the market offered no breakfast choices I stopped at a nearby hotel cafe for a carry-out breakfast sandwich. While I waited on the order I talked with the hostess about the goings on in Chicago this time of year...

Back at the boat, we ate and set off for Sheboygan. Before we got out of the harbor we knew it was going to be a rough ride for a while. We were hoping it would mellow out when we got out a little way into deeper water. And it didn't. Then we had to decide whether to go forward or go back. Go forward, we decided, but at a faster pace so we could "get on top" of the waves. And so we did. I was thinking how nice it is to have the power to use when you need it in situations like this.

About 10 miles out of Sheboygan the starboard engine quit. Yep. Wouldn't start back up. OK...good thing, I'm thinking, that we have two engines and not just one! We rolled on into Sheboygan and the Harbor Centre Marina on one engine. To be prudent and safe, we called the Coast Guard station at Sheboygan and told then we were traveling on one engine and while we didn't expect any problems getting into Sheboygan we would appreciate their being aware of our location and course. They took down our coordinates and destination, then asked us to give them a call when we actually got into the Sheboygan Harbor.

We went slowly and just rode up and down a few 4-footers. It took us an hour to do what would have taken 15 or 20 minutes at our previous speed. Wayne did a great job harnessing the one engine to do our bidding! Once safely into the slip we called the Coast Guard and thanked them for their assistance.

So...what's wrong with the starboard engine??? Well, we needed to wait a while to let the engine room cool down so Wayne could go in and check on some obvious causes. Meanwhile, we took off for lunch.

As we walked on the waterfront we came across this almost derelict looking fishing boat...with a nice Furuno unit perched on top. I like that. Spend money on the important things.

There are several nice spots along the waterfront for dining in Sheboygan and we selected the Duke of Devon, an English pub type restaurant owned by the same group that has Trattoria Stefano, a local Italian restaurant that gets great reviews. (Stefano's is not open for lunch...so if we need to stay here a couple of days we'll try to make it over there for dinner one night.) The pub meal was just right. We split a plate with selections of Wisconsin cheeses and ham, served with curried greens, chutney, and a delicious locally made bread. The bread was so good we almost made a meal of that (with butter) and ordered more when the ham and cheese plate came. (I was telling David later how good the bread and butter were and he recalled a time when he was in Wisconsin for work and ordered a hamburger. They asked if he wanted butter on it, and he said yes. The hamburger was served with a slice of butter atop that looked like a slice of cheddar cheese in size. They don't call this the Dairy State for nothing!)

Wayne left after lunch to go back to the boat and see what he could tell about the engine issue and I struck off for the historic downtown area. The weather was perfect for walking around...low 70's, breezy and sunny. I found the Mead County Public Library and spent a little time there collecting some future reads from their book sale area, then visited the Boston Store downtown to browse the sales.

Back on the boat, Wayne had done his check on the engine and found nothing out of order...except that it wouldn't start. He had already scheduled a mechanic to come in tomorrow morning. We went to bed wondering what the next day would bring.

Wednesday, August, 27 - The mechanic was scheduled to come at 8:30AM, but Wayne predicted he'd be late. At 9:30 AM his boss called and said he'd be another hour getting there. Wayne was going to do some reading until he came...so I headed out to take a look at the local fine arts center.

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (family name, Kohler, of bathroom fixture fame) was within easy walking distance of the harbor. Known for its contemporary art, touring the Center was a morning well spent.

And its claim to fame? Well...remember the Kohler heritage.

The bathrooms in this art center have been designed by artists! This is the first time I've ever taken a picture of a toilet bowl...and I'm not sure I want to know about the others of you out there who have done the same! I checked out two of the women's bathrooms while there. The toilet bowls (at least one in each bathroom) were decorated...and the walls were done up in an elaborate fashion, too.

The exhibits were very unique. The Art Center highlights contemporary pieces done by people who are considered on the outside of regular art circles. Things the "Rhinestone Cowboy" home crafted by Loy Allen Bowlin (http://www.galenfrysinger.com/sheboygan_museum_rhinestone_cowboy.htm)

I especially liked the exhibit that dealt with hand crafted items. One artist had constructed a quilt from "found" pieces of cloth (used clothing, fabric samples, etc.) and documented the origin of the various fabric pieces in a little bound journal. I'm all inspired to do a quilt from some of my "treasured" aprons, t-shirts, clothing....well, you get the picture. At last I'll have a way to display my original, hand painted t-shirt of Tammy Faye Bakker (makeup smeared all over the face) that reads, "I ran into Tammy Faye at the mall!" I bought it back in the 80's when we were living in Charlotte, NC. And those rock concert t-shirts!

So, anyway, after the museum stroll I headed back to the boat to see what the mechanic had found. Turns out the engine was running fine now, and they weren't sure why. He had bled some of the lines from the fuel tank to the engine...and the engine wouldn't start. Then he took the air filter off the engine, and the engine started. He examined the air filter and declared it "good." They put it back on and the engine started just fine. Maybe an air bubble in there somewhere? Could have been all the jostling around yesterday???

With the engine back in working order we were ready to continue our journey down the Wisconsin coast to Port Washington. The weather report looked like this was a pretty good day to go, and the conditions were improving as the day went on. So we left at around noon.

Well...it was still a bit bumpy getting into Port Washington, but we fared just fine. But all this bumpiness brings up the point of how one navigates around the boat when it's rocking and rolling. Now, I'm not talking about taking a stroll 'round the deck. More like heeding a call of nature...or getting food.

Here's my strategy. Hang on to something all the time. And if you find yourself needing to stand in one place for a while (like fixing a tuna salad sandwich in the galley), brace your feet in a position so that you are steadied against something. I think this is why galleys are narrow. I can place one foot against the stove baseboard and one against the opposite cabinet baseboard and ride pretty comfortably, rocking side to side as the boat rocks front to back, with no hands required.

Have something prepared ahead of time, if at all possible, so the trip downstairs is a quick one! Or...on especially bad rides, we have been known to bring up the snack boxes (peanut butter crackers, dried fruit, nuts, etc.) and skip a meal. But you know that's gotta hurt. :-)

Just a little insight here on what we're learning...

We were staying at the Port Washington Marina this Wednesday night and stopped at the fuel dock as we entered to refuel and get a pump out. Diesel was a glorious $3.79/gallon! Can you believe that's cause for celebration now?! Here's a view of the light at the entrance of the harbor and the city of Port Washington as we came into the marina.

Once all tucked into our slip we took Lucy for a walk around downtown Port Washington. It's a cute little place. We have plans to stay here for several days...maybe until Monday, Labor Day, so we can visit with family in Grafton, a little south of Port Washington.

Thursday, August 28 - Andrea's birthday. Happy Birthday, Andrea!!!

A day off the water! (Well, you know what I mean.) We're so excited! We struck out after checking emails and having coffee with the idea of getting some breakfast in town. As we walked we spotted Beanies Mexican Restaurant and decided to hold out a little longer until they opened for lunch and have some spicy food. It was a good decision...lunch there was great.

We needed some large items...motor oil, paper products, bottled water...and decided to check out the local transportation options. Turns out Port Washington has a shared taxi service that would pick us up at the marina and take us to the Walmart and grocery store location for $3.75/person. We jumped on that! We were the only people in the little van as we went over to Walmart. It's the kind of vehicle that can accommodate wheelchairs, so there were really only about 5 regular seats in it besides the driver's seat. We shopped Walmart, then I went over to the grocery store for those items we hadn't found already (it wasn't a Super Walmart...just a simple Walmart.) As Wayne was waiting with our Walmart loot, the little van drove by and offered to pick him up. I wasn't quite ready at the grocery store, though, so the van took one person home, Wayne along for the ride, then came back and picked me up.

OK. There's no way we could have gotten all that stuff in a regular taxi...maybe not even in a regular car! 15 gallons of oil (all they had on the shelf), bottled water, large packages of paper towels and toilet paper...well, you get the picture. I don't know what we would have done if we'd encountered a wheelchair client on the ride back...there was no room! The driver was so nice. He took his gypsy clients back to the marina and even helped us unload the stuff. What value!

That afternoon I got in touch with my Aunt Joann, wife of Mother's deceased brother, Tom, and arranged to go to a family gathering tomorrow night at the home of Betty, one of her daughters. Then I strolled into a hair salon and got a haircut. We were off to a good start in Port Washington!

Friday, August 29 - After a breakfast of waffles and bacon, I headed out for the local veterinarian to pick up some Lucy supplies. My cousin Betty called as I was going back to the boat and said that she'd love to bring the kids by to see the boat. We arranged for them to come over that afternoon.

I hadn't seen Betty or the kids in a couple of years and was surprised to see how much Adam and Abby have grown! Adam, 10, is starting football this year and Abby, 8, is very active in gymnastics. We had a great time showing them around and answering all the questions they had about life on a boat. How does Lucy get to the bathroom? How do you know where to stay each night?

Here are Betty, Adam, Abby and Abby's friend.

That evening Betty and her sister Chris picked us up and we went to Betty's house for supper. What a great time! We had appetizers, brats, salads....and cheesecake for dessert. It was so nice to catch up with the family and see Aunt Joann again. We ate out on the back deck and took advantage of the great weather. Here are Wayne, Joann, Fred, Chris, Betty, and Mike.

Here we are, posing for a family picture with Sonny, the dog....

And Adam with his new football jerseys...

I even caught a shot of the illusive Abby sampling the cheesecake....

Saturday, August 30 - Another day off the water. How nice. We had breakfast and coffee while watching the latest political news and checking emails. Then we checked the weather to see if we could get a feel for what Monday might bring. Lo and behold the weather for today, Saturday, looked great! Waves 1 ft. or under. It took us no time to decide we needed to travel today to Racine, WI, about 40 some miles down the coast.

We were out of Port Washington by 9 AM...our only regret that we didn't get to do brunch on Sunday at the Port Hotel. The water was all it was cracked up to be...for the first 3 hours, at least. Then the 3-4 ft. high waves came on, along with a wind, and we bounced on into Racine taking big waves on our bow. I took a few pictures to give you an idea of the water...we had water splashing up onto the bridge windows.
And as we came into the harbor you could see the choppy water and the flag flying!

We got into Reefpoint Marina and settled in for the evening. Glad to be off Lake Michigan, a-gin, and glad to be staying put until Sept. 10. We were out on the back deck enjoying the evening air when Bob and Carol Kunath of San Souci stopped by to say hello. Bob writes the section on Lake Michigan for the Waterways Guide and we had followed his suggestion to come down the east side of Lake Michigan for a while...then switch over to the Wisconsin side. They invited us to a dock party in the marina on Sunday evening.

Sunday, August 31 - Last day in August. Amazing! This year has flown by.

We set out for....breakfast, of course. Found one restaurant serving that morning--Blueberries, a natural foods restaurant. I had biscuits and gravy (whole wheat biscuits with organic pork sausage gravy) and Wayne had French toast stuffed with blueberry cream cheese. Mine was way too filling...and Wayne's wasn't filling enough.

That afternoon I gave Lucy a haircut. She's a little overdue. I didn't hack her up too badly. When I walked her this evening she still got "cute dog" comments. :-)

We had supper at Spinnakers, the marina restaurant, then went over to Bob Kanuth's area for the dock party. We met a great group of people who referred to us as, alternately, Loopy Loopers and "real boaters." It was a fun evening.

We're here, like I said, for a while. I'm going to fly back to Raleigh on Thursday to hang out with Alex while Heather and Dave celebrate their anniversary. I'll be back on the 8th and we'll re-provision on the 9th and leave here on the 10th. 'Til then, email us or call...

Manistee, MI, to Manitowoc, WI

2008-08-25T19:40:00.004-04:00

Monday, August 25 - We had planned to leave Manistee Sunday, but the weather wasn't good for traveling so we stayed another day. It was like having a day given to us! We caught up on some record keeping, reading, and laundry. We walked up to Flavors Restaurant for lunch and topped it off by splitting an ice cream sunday. Yum, yum! After that I decided I needed even more of a walk and walked back up to the fishing pier at the harbor entrance.

Wayne and I had visited the pier on Friday and things were really hopping down there then! This young duo posed with their catch.

People were bringing in loads of salmon and a fish cleaning venture had been set up that charged $2/fish for cleaning. Believe me, at the speed with which those guys were cleaning fish they were making money! I've never seen anybody clean a fish so fast.

On Sunday evening there wasn't as much activity going on, though there were still a lot of people out enjoying the day. I walked over to the public beach to enjoy the view of water, sand and shoreline. You'll notice a few brave souls out there in the 70 degree waters...

We've had three full days to see the sights around here. Manistee has some gorgeous old buildings downtown. In fact, the downtown business district is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. Here's a parting shot of downtown Manistee on our rainy Saturday morning out for breakfast.

So, yesterday, Sunday evening, we checked the marine forecast to plan our travel for today. After a lot of studying and looking we decided that we had a shot at making the crossing from Michigan to Wisconsin. It seemed that Lake Michigan was going to have a good day for travel from Manistee north...and a rough day (at least out in the open lake part) for the south section. (Check out the marine forecasts for Lake Michigan on this website: http://www.weather.gov/os/marine/zone/gtlakes/lmopen.htm) We decided to stay in the upper part of Lake Michigan for the trip and go from Manistee to Kewaunee, WI.

I was up early this morning...checking the weather again. It can change so quickly! It still looked like a decent day: winds 10-15, waves 1-3. The direction of the wind was north or northeast, and that could prove to be a problem since the course to Kewaunee would have the wind and waves on our side, or "beam." That can cause the boat to rock from side to side and can result in a very uncomfortable ride. (See segment below where we crossed the Grand Traverse Bay...) We decided to go out and test the waters. If we felt uncomfortable with it, we'd head back into the Michigan shore and go to Pentwater for the evening.

We left at our usual...8:30AM. Golden Lily, Our Turn, and Blue Max all left out before us going to Pentwater. We wove our way through the maze of fishing boats out that morning and into the lake. The waves were rolling, far apart...and of the 1-3 variety. Fortunately they were slow and far enough apart to be tolerable. About 20 miles into the trip, though, we decided the waves might work with us if they were on our stern so we switched direction and headed in a more southerly path to the town of Manitowoc, WI. Then we surfed Lake Michigan! We ran the engines at around 1700 rpm's...a little faster than we normally go...and rode the waves. Our speed varied from 9.5 mph to well above 12 mph, depending on how we caught the waves.

It was a beautiful day and we didn't see one boat in the "big" waters. We did see depths of over 750 ft.! A personal best for us on the Segue.

We got into Manitowoc Marina at around 2:30...or, on their Central Time, 1:30. We were beat, though. Just the anticipation of crossing the lake, not knowing whether we'd end up turning back or not...and almost 7 hours of travel...we were drained. We checked in, plugged in, and took Lucy for a long walk through town. There's a farmer's market tomorrow morning beginning at 7 AM! Shouldn't be a problem getting up with this whole "central time thing" going on. Once we've loaded up on some fresh fruits and veggies we'll head out for Sheboygan or maybe even Port Washington. We'll see how the conditions are for travel.

We just polished off our first Papa Johns' Pizza since we got back to the States...and at 8:30PM OUR time, we're ready to crash. We'll be helping the farmers set up at 6 in the morning. :-)

Charlevoix, MI, to Manistee, MI

2008-08-20T20:17:00.008-04:00

Wednesday, August 20 - Time to leave Charlevoix...with reluctance. But there are port a-callin' out there...Just one more "fairy tale" house, though. Actually more like a fairy tale castle...and it's for sale!

This would be an easy day. Winds 5-10 and waves 1 ft. or less. Or so we thought.

Our course from Charlevoix to Leland took us across the Grand Traverse Bay. The winds were from the south/southeast and that hadn't been a problem until we got to the mouth of the bay. Then...well, we suffered. Rocking and rolling again. It only lasted for about 12 miles...but it was all we cared to have. Fortunately the water leveled out to a smooth-as-glass trip for the rest of the time.

As we were going down, we heard from radio conversations that the docking at Leland was sparse and might very well involve rafting up to another boat. With Lucy aboard, that would not be a good thing. She'd go crazy hearing anyone talk nearby, let alone having people walking across the boat! We had left Charlevoix at the same time as Golden Lily. We had started considering a run of 70 miles to Frankfort instead of Leland at about the time Golden Lily expressed the same thoughts. They have a dog, too. Within 30 minutes we had changed our course and set out to Frankfort with reservations at the Jacobson Marina. We knew it would be a long day, but we were glad to be traveling in calm seas.

Once in Frankfort we all checked the weather forecast and decided to run down to Manistee tomorrow for what would likely be a 3-4 day stay. I took a nice long walk to the local grocery store for a few things (still looking for Lucy's favorite chewies) and passed by the Frankfort Municipal Marina. Nearby, four artists had set up to paint for the evening. Darn! I wasn't ready for that tonight given our travel day. Frankfort is a nice looking little town, though, and would probably be worth a longer visit someday.

When I got back to the boat we made reservations for the next few nights at the Manistee Municipal Marina. That done, we settled into the evening.

Thursday, August 21 - Golden Lily and Segue headed out around 8:30AM and had smooth waters all the way. So smooth, in fact, that we both, independently, considered a run all the way to Ludington, MI., but decided to stick with our plans for Manistee.

The east coast of Lake Michigan is made up of lots of dunes and sandy beaches. We were traveling past the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on this segment of the trip and it was a very different landscape for us. I took a shot of some people on the dunes to give you an idea of the scale...

Manistee Municipal Marina is located right downtown Manistee with a Riverwalk that goes for miles. We're looking forward to having a few days here before we head over to the Wisconsin side.

Funny thing happened with Lucy tonight. You know we haven't had her usual chewies for her evening treat for a while now. I have these rawhide "chips" that I've substituted...until today when I bought a whole different kind of chewy and gave her one. After dinner she started doing her "chewy bark" and I relented and gave her one of the rawhide chips. She took it in her mouth, then dropped it and flipped it with her nose down onto the galley steps. When I offered it up again, she wouldn't take it in her mouth. I gave her another "new" chewy and she ran with it. What a picky dog!

Orillia, ON, to... well, all the way to Charlevoix, MI !!!

2008-08-18T14:18:00.022-04:00

Monday, August 4 - The boats were packed in so at Port of Orillia that we had to wait until about 10 AM to leave in order not to rush the boat parked behind us. It was a beautiful day for travel and at around 3:30 PM we got to the Big Chute lock.

We had anticipated a wait here, especially since we were the last to arrive of four boats. We took the vacant spot left at the front of the blue line, then got off and assured everyone else that we weren't trying to "break line." No problem, they said, because the lock master will call the boats up in the order he wants anyway. As we were standing there, ready to take our camera and walk up to see the rail car in operation, a car full of boats came up the lock our way.

At about the same time, the lock master announced the order for the next load: two runabouts in front on either side and Segue in the middle on the back. No picture taking today! We got ready to do the Big Chute!

This is something we've looked forward to since we started planning the trip, it's so unique. We drove the boat up onto the rail car that was by then submerged. Slings are placed under the boat and we were balanced and upright (!!!) the whole trip. The car runs on rails up out of the water and over a road to the other side...where it goes down the rails into the water and the boats float off. It was an amazingly fast trip, considering all that happened!

Segue entering the rail car...

View from the top....

And looking back...

We'd actually planned to stay the night above the Big Chute on the wall, but when we were called in so quickly we decided to just head on down to Port Severn. We had a slip reserved for Tuesday night at the Driftwood Cove Marina and were hoping they could fit us in a day early. As we neared the area we heard marina traffic on the radio channel 68 and realized there were a lot of boats out that evening vying for space. We hailed the marina and they were full for the evening. Our next choice was the Port Severn lock wall.

At first glance the wall looked full. Then we spotted a space...but weren't sure we'd have enough water for our 4.5 ft. draft. The lock attendant saw us looking around and came out to ask if we wanted to spend the night. He assured us there was enough water where we were looking and even went so far as to move a small boat to get us in. Again we found room at the locks!

As we docked we realized we were right next to Janet and Bob on Shoe Box. Turns out they were getting ready to pull their boat from the water the next day and put it in storage for the winter. They'll pick up their fifth wheel and take off for the western states to spend the winter. Next summer they'll pick up Shoe Box and tour around cool waters again. Not a bad life, eh? Janet said they figure they've averaged paying somewhere under $6/night for dock space this season on the boat. That includes the cost of the annual mooring pass, like we have, that allows you to stay on lock walls at no additional charge.

Also at the lock dock was a young couple we'd met that day traveling on a Sea-Doo. They have a small tent and sleeping bags in the vessel and camp at locks each night. I asked what they did for food and they said they just make sure they're staying somewhere close to a restaurant. They'd love to do the Loop someday and Wayne told them it's been done on a Sea-Doo. I could see the young guy's eyes sparkling...

Tuesday, August 5 - We were just getting ready to take a walk around the area of Port Severn when Rick and Sharon from Orillia dropped by. They knew we had planned to spend the night at Big Chute and had come out that morning with camera in hand to take pictures of Segue in the Chute. Well chute! We chatted for a while then they took off. What a nice couple!

We walked across the bridge to the local groceries for a few items and to the post office...then we walked to Driftwood Cove Marina and had a late breakfast at the cafe there. Wayne had eggs and sausage and I (who'd had boiled eggs for breakfast) had a piece of bumbleberry pie. I wanted it a la mode, but they were out of vanilla ice cream!!

Back at the boat I struck up a conversation with a woman docked there with her husband and four dogs. Lucy has had a time with fleas on this trip and we bonded on the subject. I left with a new flea collar and a hearty sampling of flea shampoo. I took her a book and some note cards as a token of appreciation. Fleas, be gone!

Finally ready to be off for Driftwood Cove we untied from the Port Severn lock and stopped by Severn Boat Haven for a top-off on fuel before entering the Georgian Bay. In answer to your unspoken question...you don't want to know what fuel is running these days. You're going through the same thing, right?

We pulled into Driftwood after noon and met Sandra and Paul on the Sandra Ann next to us. They came over later that afternoon and gave us some advice on where to go and anchor in the Georgian Bay.

The weather got stormy and rainy that evening so it was nice to be inside and cozy. Tomorrow...The Georgian Bay!

But...we have so loved the locks of the Rideau and the Trent Severn. So easy to deal with...paid for docking...neat, landscaped areas. And the close encounters with people. On our last day in Port Severn we caught this typical scene on film. First...a dog and his peeps taking a dip.

Then...the morning bath in the 76 degree water.....the lady on the far left is shampooing.

Just love this area!

Wednesday, August 6 - The rains had cleared and we were out of Driftwood by around 9 AM and made our way quickly through the Port Severn Lock. The channel markers change here (red on the right and green on the left) so we watched our charts carefully as we left. We were already on "high alert" entering The Georgian Bay (rocks everywhere!) and the course out of Port Severn Lock was narrow and swift. A great introduction to the area!

Paul (of Sandra Ann) had suggested that we take the "outside route" today instead of the "small craft route" so that we could get on up to the really good parts of the Bay. Anxious to get on with it, we decided that's what we'd do.

Well. The winds picked up after about an hour out and we found ourselves in some of the deepest waves we've had on this trip. The boat was actually hitting once in front (as we dove down into the wave) then once in back (as we came out of the wave.) I was feeling a tad green around the gills. It had been so long since we'd been in "big" waters that I didn't even think about taking a Bonine that morning. We ended up running faster...tweaking the trim tabs...taking a different angle on the course...all to make it back into the small craft channel by around 2 PM.

I was steady enough to take a picture of one of the many lighthouses we've seen up here as we came into the channel...

We were exhausted...and glad to be out of the waves! We wanted to anchor in Echo Bay tonight so that's where we headed. We would dinghy back, then, to Henry's Fish Restaurant on Frying Pan Island for the fresh fish fried dinner (usually pickerel). If only our windlass had cooperated!

Echo Bay already had about six boats anchored, but we found a good spot and started the anchoring process. Wayne and David had worked on the windlass several weeks ago and it was working last we checked. Well...not this day. Nothing. We decided to just go back to Henry's and see if they had a spot available for the night. Once we got settled in at Henry's, Wayne started looking at the windlass problem. (We definitely needed an anchor up here!) It turns out that a wire had come unconnected...probably during the pitching and rolling we'd done that afternoon! Fortunately, it was an easy fix.

We were docked opposite a sailboat owned by Andrew and Christine. They are interested in doing the Loop...possibly next year...and we talked about where we'd been and where they'd been. They showed us a good anchorage for the following night.

Henry's is an official airport for seaplanes and helicopters. This is a picture with Henry's and the docks in the background and one of the many seaplanes we saw that day in the foreground.

As we mellowed that late afternoon out on the back deck we saw a familiar boat headed our way. Carry Forward, with David and Gracie, had been anchored nearby the night before and were coming in for the evening. They'd met that morning a couple (who also owned a Main Ship trawler) who lived nearby and used to run a fishing lodge. David and Gracie had spent the day running around the area waters in their dinghy, following the lead of Liz and Price Taylor. (That's right. We met Liz Taylor on the Great Loop.) Price and Liz were coming over to Henry's that evening for dinner and Gracie and David invited us to join them.

Liz and Price had raised a family in this area and had great stories to tell about their kids learning to ride Ski-Doo's at the age of 4 so they could each have their own transportation to the local school when they started kindergarten the next year. Price flew a seaplane for years up here and recalled one time when his son had taken the little boat out for a ride. Price had a feeling his son was holding down the speed until he got out of sight and then was flying on the water...so he followed him in the air and swooped down on him to give him the message that he was to slow down!

The pan fried pickerel dinner was delicious and the company was wonderful. We wound up the evening with coffee, more conversation, and a decadent chocolate torte (thanks to Gracie) on Carry Forward.

Thursday, August 7 - When I called Nadine this morning to check in on her for the week I found out that my Aunt Lill had died the day before. Lill is Mother's younger sister and had been ill and in assisted living for several months. Mother and Lill had lived next door to each other for years in Johnson City...and Lill had married Daddy's brother, John, years after her first husband had died. Thankfully her illness was short and she was spared a lot of discomfort.

After calls to the family we struck out for our day's travel. We were going about 35 miles to an anchorage (recommended by Andrew and Christine) called Hopewell Bay. The weather forecast was a little threatening that day: thunderstorms coming up that afternoon and winds of 15-20 mph. We had a great day of travel, though...our first real experience with the narrow, rocky channels of the Georgian Bay small craft route.

We were anchored by 2:30 PM and the anchor set in like it was rooted in the bay! Winds were picking up and we saw more pressure on the anchor bridle than ever before. But we felt secure enough to take naps. When we got up to take Lucy into shore for the afternoon "run" we discovered one of the ropes on our anchor bridle had frayed loose. Wayne replaced it and then we got the dinghy down for a dog stop and a tour of the locale.

We motored over to a plot of rocks and landed Lucy for a walk...then took her back to the boat and set out to explore. It looked like it might rain later, but we were interested in checking out some of the cottages on the bay. We had gone out far enough to be almost to the mouth of the bay....when the dinghy motor quit. We hadn't run the dinghy since Lake Champlain in June. And remember the trouble we'd had in Solomons, MD, earlier in the trip? Well...the motor quit again. We started rowing back, but the winds had picked up considerably (of course!) and we were doing good to be holding our position without being blown out into the main channel. Fortunately for us, another boat in the bay had a dinghy out and they came by and towed us back to Segue. Whew! But...now what? Here we were in THE AREA we needed a dinghy and ours was proving to be unreliable. The fellow who towed us in had a Yamaha motor, too, and he commented on how unusual it was to have a Yamaha that didn't work...

Friday, August 8 - The weather forecast for this day was blustery. Our next segment on the trip would take us from Point au Baril Inlet to Byng Inlet...and much of that trip would be in a very open area. It wasn't something to undertake on a blustery day. I got up early and started trying to figure out what we could do that day that would gain us some time or miles. We were thinking that Killarney would be the place to have the dinghy work done...but that was two days away, and we'd have to wait until Monday for a business to take it in, we were sure. I started looking through our travel guides for something closer...

Point au Baril, only about 6 miles from us, I read, had a marine facility with a Yamaha service center. Maybe we could get there today and have the motor repaired. Then we'd be free to anchor as planned tonight and tomorrow night. When Wayne got up we talked about it and decided to pull up anchor and go for Point au Baril.

We put Lucy's morning walk on hold until we got to the marina and towed the dinghy behind the boat. Being among some of the 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay as we went, the trip was a smooth one, in spite of the winds.

Payne Marine is about 1.5 miles before the Point au Baril Station docks. We pulled in around 11:30 AM and were greeted with a very friendly, young staff. Having talked to the shop manager about the problem, we left the dinghy and took off for a couple of hours while they worked on the motor.

Point au Baril Station, the town center, is very small, but has a couple of docks for day use and some overnight space.

We docked, with help from the town's staff, and got ready to have lunch in town and pick up a few supplies. Leaving the boat we met the couple already docked there for the night and talked with them about the area. They live on the Georgian Bay and frequent the Point au Baril waters. There is a large community of "cottagers" here and the local cottage association has even published a detailed map of the area showing cottage locations, private channel markers, services, and anchorages. The couple showed us the map and their favorite anchorages. We tucked that information away and bought the map later that day so we could explore some.

Several of the guidebooks touted a fish truck in town that was famous for fresh walleye on Fridays. We had our hearts set on that for lunch. Unfortunately, the truck, though still there, hasn't been open for several years. We dined, instead at the Chip Wagon along with a number of others. Then we hit the convenience store to beat all convenience stores, C. C. Kennedy Co.

C. C. Kennedy Co. is just across from the town docks and has groceries, Home Hardware supplies, books...well just about anything you want! We came out with milk, eggs, bacon, bananas, peppers...and a halogen bulb for our lamp that had burned out in the salon!

Having passed a couple of hours in town, we made our way back to Payne Marine to pick up our dinghy and its now functioning motor. Then we headed for a cove we'd spotted on the way up and set anchor for the night. Three other boats joined us before nightfall...and a party boat with young folks pulled in shortly thereafter and proceeded to have a great time! They finally left after midnight.

There are kids all over the place here driving boats solo. We've heard ads on the Moose Radio station about permits being required for operating boats. And in cottage country like this is, there are no roads to speak of...so the highway is the waterway. When we were in Point au Baril Station this afternoon there were any number of small boats docked to get supplies at Kennedy's. Talk about getting away from it all...this could be the place!

Saturday, August 9 - We woke up to a drenching rain this morning. We'd hoped to pull out early and make our way further up the way...but had to wait until around 11:30 AM.

From the weather reports we'd listened to we felt we had a good chance of "running outside" (yeah, I know...after the last experience on this open water, believe me... we considered it long and hard). We weren't quite as far out as we wanted to go when we started getting large, uncomfortable swells of water. We made our way back into the small craft channel thinking we'd just do that route. But then we looked up at the sky we were heading into. Kinda dark.

You know...we're just not in a hurry here. We had another anchorage in the Point au Baril area that had been recommended by the couple we met in "town" yesterday, so we went back and made ourselves comfortable for another night. This anchorage is way off the beaten path and at 5 PM on this Saturday night we're by ourselves...nice.

BTW, it's been a little chilly here today what with the rain and all. I've had on jeans and socks all day, items that were buried a little deep in the closet. When we were talking to the couple yesterday she said this had been a strange summer for them: cooler and wetter than normal. She said they normally wouldn't dress like "this." ("This" was cotton cropped pants and a 3/4 sleeve blouse.) I told them we hadn't seen a Canadian in the water yet that day, so figured it must be cool, even to them. The guy said, oh, no, they had a swim that morning! 76 degree water. They said, jokingly, that they've been known to throw in ice cubes if it isn't cold enough!

Sunday, August 10 - We woke up again to rain this morning, but decided the forecast looked good for us to do the small craft channel to Byng Inlet and the little town of Britt. The winds were predicted to be from the N or NW which would be blocked, then, by land.

Leaving Point au Baril we saw the site for the original barrel from which Point au Baril got it's name.

According to the Point au Baril Chamber of Commerce website, this is how the story goes:

In the mid 1800's when the first boats navigated the waters of Georgian Bay, very few of the channels were marked with anything more than a pile of stones. It was determined that a barrel be erected with a lantern placed on top to guide the boats into the channel after dark or in the event of a storm. This served as the first lighthouse for Pointe au Baril, hence the name which translates "Point of the Barrel". In 1889 the first lighthouse was erected to replace the barrel light. It stands to this day, over a hundred years old and still in use to guide fishing boats, sportsmen and residents to safe harbour and is open for viewing during the summer months.

The Point au Baril lighthouse...

Speaking of a "pile of stones" to mark a channel. I told you we bought a detailed map of the Point au Baril area done by the local residents. They use piles of rocks, painted white, to mark various channel entries. But we're also seeing a lot of stone creations like the one below.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Inukshuk (singular), meaning "likeness of a person" in Inuktitut (the Inuit language) is a stone figure made by the Inuit. The plural is inuksuit. The Inuit make inuksuit in different forms and for different purposes: to show directions to travellers, to warn of impending danger, to mark a place of respect, or to act as helpers in the hunting of caribou.

Back to the day's travel, though, we had no trouble at all doing the course. About 4 miles into it we heard from Melissa on Sonador (we met her in the Hopewell Bay anchorage). She and her friend Charlie were going the outside route that day to Britt and we told them we'd see them there at Wright's Marina.

We pulled in around noon and were delighted to find a courtesy car available. We needed a few fresh items and some propane. On the way back from the grocery run we got fresh fish and chips from the marina restaurant just north of us. We washed 3 loads of clothes and were set for the rest of our stay in the Georgian Bay!

Sonador came in after noon and we chatted with them for a spell. (We'd both been anchored out a couple of nights ago in Hopewell Bay so our chatting was done from dinghys.) Sonador is a really neat looking boat, unlike any I'd seen before. Turns out it's made in Spain...a fishing boat form. Very pretty. Melissa is doing the Loop solo...but with the help of friends who drop in for visits....and the companionship of her dog, "Chessie."

Monday, August 11 - We had an ambitious day planned for today. We'll leave Britt and take the inside route to around the Bustard Islands, then we'll run outside for the rest of the trip to Killarney. Over 50 miles, and some of it in the twisty, windy, rocky areas so we'd probably go slower than our ideal speed of 9 or 9.5 mph. Here's an example of the tight channels we're seeing up here. Look carefully and you'll see two sets of green and red markers between the rocks...

Fortunately is was a beautiful day for being on the water and we made it all the way.

We cruised the channel through Killarney...

then made our way up to the Covered Portage Cove. We ended up staying in the outer bay that night with about 5 other boats and took the dinghy into the inner cove to take Lucy for a walk.

"Walking" Lucy up here is a bit of a challenge. Forget the fact that she's a finicky dog when it comes to potty sites, and stones don't seem to meet her approval. Then there's the whole BEAR FACTOR. I am in the habit, in out of the way spots like we've been in recently, to let her off the leash and she finds a spot much quicker than she does with me in tow. Up here I've heard so much about black bears being sited that I feel I need to keep her on the lead. Trolling for bears, you ask? No...just trying to hold onto my investment in this pup! For a dog that will never go near the water, though she sure has taken a liking to the Georgian Bay and North Channel swill. It must be just the right temperature (65 degrees...cold!) to make her slurp up a bunch of water every time we get near shore.

We listen to the news channels on XM Radio almost every morning and night (alternating between CNN and Fox to be fair to all sides)...but I kinda like seeing the Olympics coverage and we have none, except for the radio news. We tried at Killarney to get TV. Nothing. We speculate that if one wanted to get totally lost (as in, hide from the law) this would be a good place to come. Better bring a boat, though!

Tuesday, August 12 - We toured the Baie Fine today, a fresh water fiord. We went all the way up to the channel that leads into the Pool. We thought about going on in...but knew we didn't want to anchor there. We came back down through the bay, trying out different anchorages, only to decide to leave the bay and get a few miles in on tomorrow's trip.

Baie Fine is gorgeous!

You don't see many cottages here (typical of the North Channel). Instead, we're looking at white rock cliffs and evergreens.

We're keeping an eye out for blueberries, but have only seen bushes that are void of berries. Bears or people or time of the year, I don't know. We probably need to do some climbing to get to bushes not picked over. We'll see how the rest of the trip plays out.

We anchored tonight at Strawberry Island, a nice, secure anchorage. Only a few boats in there when we arrived so we were able to have plenty of "swing room". (You know we like our "swing room.") The shore on which we landed the dinghy for Lucy's trip had lots of neat rocks...all kinds. I found one for my rock collection.

Storms came in that night, but we were able to hang in there...though we woke up a couple of times to check the location of the boat.

Wednesday, August 13 - Now, today was an interesting day. We left our anchorage at 9:15 AM hoping to make the Little Current Swing Bridge by 10 AM since they only open once an hour for 15 min. About half way into the trip we realized we were going to be really close to missing it...so we speeded up. We were in sight of the bridge, along side a sailboat, by 9:55 AM. Ten o'clock came, and no bridge opening. Then we see a dinghy coming our way. They interact with the sailboat and we hear "closed for the day" in the conversation. Sure enough, the swing bridge was closed for repairs for the entire day. Hmmmm.

Closed, Little Current Swing Bridge measures 18 ft. vertical clearance. Wayne decided that instead of "tredding water" for the day he would take down the dinghy davit and reduce our vertical clearance to 16 ft. 6 in. But wait. The waters are up this year. There are no depth gauges on bridges in Canada as there are in the U.S., so how could we find out the clearance? We hailed a local marina in Little Current and they said in was an increase of 8 inches. We could make it...we thought.

We floated around in the area while Wayne went up and took down the davit. Then he lowered the antennae and we were ready to slowly approach the bridge. I drove and Wayne stood up on the deck roof to see the height. The next highest piece of the boat is the radar dome, at 16' 6". I took the bow to the edge of the bridge and stopped. Then I inched forward to see if we'd clear the radar dome. If not...we'd back out and go somewhere to wait for the next day and hope they opened then. It cleared...and Wayne figured it was by about a foot! Whew! We're off to Kagawong!

Kagawong, a small community at the bottom of Mudge Bay, calls itself "Ontario's Prettiest Village." The word "Kagawong" comes from an Ojibwa word meaning "where mists rise from the falling waters." We were there to see the "falling waters," the Bridal Veil Falls. Oh, yeah, and the Anglican Church at the town dock with it's nautical decor. (I'm thinking of Lin and Ric with their beach house made from boat parts...and Connie and John who are using the transom of their first cruising boat, the Dreamer, in their lake home.)

We got into Kagawong around 12:30 PM and were assisted into a slip for the visit by the friendly dockhands at Northern Marina of Kagawong. We harnessed Lucy and left the boat to see the area. First was the farmers' market going on that afternoon. Ah! Tomatoes! We'll stop back here before we leave.

The trail to the falls was utmost in our mind...well, after lunch. We checked out the eating options (only a few in this small town) and selected a stand near the public beach that was fixing chicken wraps. They were delicious! We sat at a picnic table with Lucy tied up to a post :-) and enjoyed the eats.

Then we took Lucy for a walk to the Bridal Veil Falls, about 1/2 mile away. It really was pretty...and the spray from the falls was refreshing. The day was perfect for this outing: cool and sunny. There's a pool at the bottom of the falls where you can swim. Here's what we saw at the bottom of the falls. There's a droplet of water on the lens...

After walking back into town Wayne took Lucy back to the boat and I went in to see the little church. There were life bouys all around (very appropriate for a church, I guess) and the pulpit was made from the bow of a boat.

After stopping for milk at the little convenience store and getting our tomatoes from the farmers' market, we pulled out of Kagawong and made for tonight's anchorage at Clapperton Harbor.

We knew we'd picked out a good site for the night when we rounded the corner on Clapperton Harbor and saw about 5 sailboats anchored there. We've come to admire the way sailboaters can find the best anchorages!

Good thing this is a protected anchorage! We'd no sooner set the anchor than a strong "blow" came through. We looked for signs of a tornado nearby...but didn't see anything but black clouds. It was over in about 15 minutes and we cooked out on the grill with cloudy skies and occasional showers.

Thursday, August 14 – From Clapperton Harbor we headed for Blind River, a town on the upper side of the North Channel and a jumping off point for our crossing back into the U.S. on Friday. We had originally planned to run mostly in “open water” to get to Blind River, but decided that morning to take the small craft route instead and get more of the rocky terrain for entertainment on the way. We're not in cottage country anymore...

It was an easy day on the water, not much wind. We listened to boaters on the radio talk about where they were going next in the Channel and what luck they’d had fishing or blueberry picking.

We got to Blind River Marine around 4PM and saw several other Looper boats already there. Among them was Sunshine with Bud, Muriel and Shelley, whom we hadn’t seen since Chesapeake City, MD. We visited around a bit then took advantage of our first wifi in days to catch up on email and news.

Friday, August 15 -
The next morning all the Looper boats pulled out (in phases) to head for Drummond Island, MI, and our entry back into the U.S. We left around 8 AM and got into Drummond just after 1PM. Again…a calm day on the water.

Coming back into the U.S. we needed to be checked in by Customs. Drummond Island is the Customs location for this area of entry and the marina is set up to handle all the business that comes their way. We docked the boat, then waited for the Customs agent to come to the boat and clear us before we set foot on the island. It was a very easy procedure…much more so than we had expected.

We were spending the night at Drummond and wanted to pick up a few items at the grocery that afternoon so we rode our bikes 2 miles into “town.” There are a lot of cabin rentals in this area…and lots of pine trees. It was a pretty ride and it felt good to be our and moving on land.

That evening we joined the other Loopers (Southern Comfort, Carry Forward, Golden Lily, Blue Max, Ithaka and Sunshine) for a dinner out.

Our cruise of Canada was over, and we so enjoyed it. All through through the Georgian Bay and North Channel cruise I kept thinking about the Great Seven Canadian artists. I wouldn't have known about them except that I was talking with a man in Orillia who mentioned that I should take a look at their art. The group started out with seven mostly commercial artists who wanted to take these unique areas in Canada and start a new style of painting...a uniquely Canadian style. You can learn more about this movement at http://www.mcmichael.com/collection/seven/index.cfm. Having seen the area and looking at the art I can see how they were inspired. The colors of sky, water, rocks with their orange lichen growth...the rock crevasses, stretching pine trees, bent from the wind...it's all very distinct. As is their art. Take a look.

Saturday, August 16- We were off the next morning for Mackinaw City, MI, for a night. The trip was a little bumpy at times, but not really too rough. Mackinaw City is a bit touristy...but we made good use of the local grocery store to stock up on some items.

Sunday, August 17 - We had almost decided to just stay another day in Mackinaw City. The weather forecast...more specifically the marine forecast...called for winds of 10-15 from the south/southwest and waves of 1-3ft. Then we decided to just go on out and get in close to land if the winds were too bad.

The rough part came the closer we got into our port, Charlevoix, MI. The waves were coming from several different directions and we were rocking and rolling. Nothing spilled out of the cupboard, though, so we've seen worse!

Here's a shot of Segue approaching the Charlevoix bridge after our rocky rolly trip in.

Tuesday, August 19 - Charlevoix has won me over! The marina, city operated, is new and gorgeous. Nice park area right there and town is just beyond the park. The marina laundry is $1 per load and I'm finishing the blog using their free wifi in the boaters' lounge while waiting on a few loads to dry.

We've walked all over town. We searched out the "fairy tale" or "mushroom houses" built in the early 1900s by Earl Young....

This one is my favorite...

This is the other side of the little house shown above...

The weather has been gorgeous, in spite of the occasional rain. Here's Wayne catching up on news in the park between the docks and town.

The water in Lake Michigan is the clearest we've seen yet!

And the public library is gorgeous! 45,000 sq. ft. with a children's area, computer lab, two conference rooms, quiet study rooms and an auditorium that seats up to 150 people. For a county with a population of around 26,000, that's pretty good. I like a community that puts it's money to good use!!

We'll leave here tomorrow after our 3 night stay and head south for Leland, MI. We're watching the marine forecasts several times daily trying to assess the conditions out there. Everyone says Lake Michigan can throw out some of the roughest water of any body of water. We don't want to see that!

Nice to be back in the States. Maybe I'll be able to blog more often. I actually write daily. It's the pictures that take so long to upload. Oh, well. Who's in a hurry?

Belleville to Orillia

2008-08-03T09:35:00.012-04:00

Sunday, July 20 - We picked up David yesterday at the Toronto airport.

Interesting trip for us. We saw the highway dividing ahead as we
approached the city...one set of lanes marked "express" and the other
marked "collectors." I vaguely remembered something about a toll road
in the map I viewed on Google so I was ready to head for the
"collectors" area to shell out some coins. Wayne talked me into going
for the "express" lanes, though...and it was the better choice. Turns
out the "collectors" road was really more an access road running
parallel to the "express" lanes.

SO THEN...we see the road number I'd been watching for that would take
us to the airport: Hwy. 407. But wait! Looks like this is a toll
road. OK, we'll pay. As we get on the road (with oh, so few other
cars) we're reading signs that say "your license plate must be visible"
and "non-Ontario license plates will be billed." We went for a couple of miles, no toll booth in sight, until we started wondering whether this was really
the way to the airport. We decided to exit and ask the way. The new
directions took us a little further west by "normal" highway and then
south to the airport. Turns out if we'd stayed on Hwy. 401, the
highway that we caught in Belleville, it goes right by the airport.
Well, at least we know that for the return trip! We were in plenty of
time for Dave's flight, though, and were back in Belleville in time for
an early supper at the Boathouse and a walk around town. (Later in the trip...when we rented the car in Peterborough to take Dave back to Toronto...we found out that we will probably be billed through the car rental agency for the time we spent on the 407 toll road. Hey! We've been on North America's first automatic billing toll road, eh?)

Today we left Belle Harbor Marina at around 8:30 AM...in the rain. Our
new roof on the bridge is leaking some, but we were assured it would
quit once the thread swells and seals up the seams. Hmmm. But we look so much better with the red top...

As we went into Trenton from Lake Ontario we passed under the bridge marking the entrance to the Trent Severn Waterway.

We slogged through 6 locks to the upper side of the Frankford lock before we tied up for the night. Nice setting in a residential neighborhood with "hydro" (hydroelectric) hook-ups for $9.80/night. I was so wet when we got there that I had to put on dry clothes before I could get comfortable.

It was still raining 45 minutes later...but we were all hungry and ready to try out the Chinese buffet we'd heard so much about from lock tenders (and others) as we came up that day. So we took off walking in the pouring rain with our wet raincoats and the two umbrellas we had on the boat. By the time we reached the restaurant we were soaked for the second time that day! But the buffet hit the spot, including the hand dipped ice cream for dessert. And when we left the restaurant the rains had stopped for the day so we had a nice evening at the lock.

Monday, July 21 - Another day with about 20 miles and 6 locks as we made our way on to Campbellford. The rains held off until we got into the flight locks just before the town...and Dave and I, the rope crew, were soaked again by the time we finished the locking through.

Here's Dave, in a raincoat, tending lines....

But the blue skies came out and we had a beautiful afternoon in Campbellford. After lunching at the Riverview Restaurant, Wayne went back to the boat for a nap and Dave and I checked out the town. We found the bakery mentioned by Skipper Bob's book...and recommended by nearly every lock tender we'd seen that day. They were to open the next morning at around 7 AM so we planned to be back then for fresh donuts and the sourdough bread one fellow called "Bob" bread... "Good to toast and then rub with fresh cut garlic..." Yep. We'd get some of that.

Campbellford is a pretty little town...and friendly. We picked up some Empire cheese, a Campbellford product, at the grocery store with thoughts of a cheese and sourdough bread sandwich tomorrow for lunch. I'd intended to stop at the book store for a browse that afternoon, but it closed before I got there. In fact, most shops closed at 4 or 5. We saw lots of people out walking that evening, taking in the beautiful weather.

Tuesday, July 22 - Dave and I walked up to the bakery at around 7:15 AM. They were open and baking...but the donuts wouldn't be ready until about 8:30 AM. No problem! We'd come back. We were tied up to the canal wall in town on the side with "hydro" and water...and right next to Macmillans store and service station. They have a pump on the street side and on the water side so we pulled the boat back to top off the fuel, then filled up with water. By the time we'd finished that it was 8:30 so Dave and I went back up to the bakery. I guess we were hungry that morning. We came away with 6 cream filled donuts (highly recommended by the lock tenders) and 6 assorted others, 3 meat pies, 3 sausage rolls...and a loaf of thick-sliced sourdough bread. What with the caffeine and sugar that morning we were all flying for a couple of hours! But we did have great sandwiches for lunch of Empire cheddar cheese, turkey, and horseradish mustard on sourdough bread. We know already that we should have come away with more sourdough bread!

Wayne had his share of the cream filled donuts...

About 20 miles and 6 locks later that day (see a pattern here?) we were through the Hastings Lock and tied up on the upper side. For a small town, Hastings had about one of everything, all within an easy walk of the boat: grocery, post office, hardware, video/book store, beer store and liquor store.

We were situated right behind a house and we talked with the owner some about the town. He said it was a very safe spot now, but that wasn't always the case. He had moved in around 4 years prior and had been the "mean ole guy" who called the police if anything funny went on at night.

Dave has enjoyed some fishing on this trip. Here he is with one of his catches. It really wasn't quite big enough to "kiss."

Fortunately for Wayne, Dave is leaving his little fishing rod and a collection of accessories he put together for fishing... Now if I can just keep the authorities away! See the sign??

Wednesday, July 23 - We were out of Hastings at the usual time...around 8:30 AM. Today we would do around 40 miles to get to Peterborough...go across Rice Lake...and we would only go through three locks. Well, that's an understatement. We were spending the night at the Peterborough Marina, which falls between locks 19 and 20. We wanted David to see the Peterborough lift lock (Lock 21) so we planned to go past the marina to Lock 21...turn around and come back down to Peterborough. It was well worth the effort!

"The Peterborough lift lock," according to Skipper Bob's guide to the Trent Severn, "was completed in 1904 and was considered an engineering marvel at that time. Each of the two pans weights 1300 tons when filled. With one pan up and the other down the two balance each other. It does not matter how many boats are in either pan. A boat displaces its own weight in water. When it is time to lower one pan and raise the other, one extra foot of water (130 tons) is allowed to enter the upper pan. this extra weight allows the upper pan to push down and raise the lower pan to the top level. The two pans are locked in place and the extra water is let out of the lower pan. Boats enter and exit the upper and lower pans and the process is repeated."

When we got up to the Peterborough lift lock I jumped off and took pictures as Wayne and David entered the lock and rode to the top. They turned the boat around, then, and...after allowing me to jump on...we went down through the lock. What a ride! It's almost as good as an amusement park! We had no idea the lock would move as swiftly as it did.

Segue entering the lock...(taken by the lock assistant, nice guy!)

Segue up top and ready to come back down...

And here's the view from the top after I'd jumped back on the boat...

Peterborough has a Festival of Lights every Wed. and Sat. evening during the summer...but it was raining so hard that evening, the festival was cancelled. Just as well, I guess, because we were "toast." We ordered a pizza and crashed early.

Thursday, July 24 - We had a car reserved today so we could run Dave back to the Toronto airport. Dave and I walked the two miles to the Hertz location that morning and made it back to the boat in time for the three of us to walk into town and check out Peterborough. Wayne and I made mental notes of places for supper that evening.

We packed up Dave's goods and left at around 10:30 for the Toronto airport. We were there by noon....and reluctantly left our third crew member for his trip back to Raleigh, NC. We loved having Dave come with us...and look forward to the time when Alex and Heather can join us on an adventure!

After dropping Dave at the airport, Wayne and I decided to grab a snack in Toronto so we could lunch back in Peterborough. We exited the 401 and found a McDonalds for fries and yogurt (not in that order). We stumbled through some really neat looking neighborhoods on the way...looked sort of like the Queens area in NY where Tris and Charlie Sicignano lived. Beautiful homes, too.

Back in Peterborough we went to the Indian buffet we'd seen in town. Good...but we got there towards the end of their lunch hour and the selection on the buffet was a little slim.

A houseboat had pulled in next to us at the marina with the nicest family. They rented the boat in Bobcaygeon and were traveling two weeks...some houseboating, some camping. When we first met them they asked if we had a mask for snorkling. We did...and an underwater flashlight. Their daughter had dropped her wallet into the water...and it was wedged up against a pole. The father was able to retrieve it...in spite of a cut on his hand in the process.

Friday, July 25 - Alex Prichard is 2 today! Happy Birthday, Alex!!!

We'd thought about staying another day in Peterborough...but were ready for new territory. I took the car back and on the walk back picked up breakfast sandwiches at Harveys (so-so, for you food critics out there) and an external hard drive for my computer to hold the pictures we're taking on this trip! We ate the sandwiches...then decided we'd better try out the "local dairy" ice cream, Kawartha, at the marina office. Two cones later, we were totally stuffed and ready for the day!

We didn't leave until around 10:30 AM...and it took us an hour to go through Lock 20 and 21...a-gain. It was just as much fun the third time around, actually! We went through both locks with the tour boat out of Peterborough that does lock tours. Wayne and the captain of that boat had a great time talking about our Caterpillar engines...same engines the tour boat had. And we were introduced to the entire boatload of people as a couple from Tennessee who were doing the Great Loop.

We had a pretty long day planned, considering we left so late. We planned to do 30 miles and 10 locks to get to Buckhorn, Ontario, where we'd stay on the lock wall. The guide books described this area as one of the best cruising areas on the Trent Severn. We could see why. We went through an area called the Kawartha Lakes, a series of lakes connected by locks. Summer cottages everywhere...many on little islands all out alone in the lake.

Somewhere along in this area of the Trent Severn we passed Trent University, located right on the water and with a very distinctive architecture. We'll put this on our list of places to see in detail someday.

I know I've mentioned before how nicely tended the lock grounds are with clipped lawns and flowers everywhere. Here's a lock that went a little further with the idea and gave us a view of flowers from inside the lock, too.

Actually, they are probably trying to take your mind off the view of the lock walls. As Elaine would say, "Euwww!"

Along the way we met a couple in a SeaRay, Phoenix IV. They live in Orillia and were going to Bobcaygeon for the night. We were stopping short of that at Buckhorn. Since they ran faster than we, they kindly checked out the lock walls at Buckhorn and arranged to have people help us tie up on the wall below the lock. We'll try to catch up with them when we get to Orillia next week. They have plans to do the Loop, too.

It was around 6 PM by the time we got into Buckhorn so we saved our looking around town for the next morning.

Saturday, July 26 - Again we lingered this morning...looking around Buckhorn. Checked out the bakery located at the convenience store and bought some sandwich rolls and a Chelsey roll for breakfast. It was probably around 11 AM before we left, but we only had a couple of locks today and 16 miles to get to Bobcaygeon. The issue, on this pretty weekend, was whether we'd be able to find space on the lock wall at Bobcaygeon. Buckhorn Lock called ahead to see what the availablity was before we left...but a whole new fleet of rental houseboats would have gone out on Friday so our guarantee of a space was questionable. Bobcaygeon is a resort town who's claim to fame (from our sources) is Bigley's Shoe Store. Kind of like the shoe store in Asheville, NC. You want a particular shoe: it's there. And on this weekend everything was at least 10% off. (The REAL sale starts next weekend, though, a long weekend for Canadians.)

So...we passed through more pretty country. Cottages, rocks and evergreens. When we reached Bobcaygeon we could see the space for mooring below the lock was full. We paused on the blue line while Wayne went to talk to the Park personnel about space above the lock. Turns out, one of the boats below the lock was leaving in a short while so we were able to wait on the blue line until a space opened up. We've had great luck finding lock walls so far!!!

We no sooner got tied up than a thunderstorm came though. We napped during that time, then got up and walked through town. Wayne went back to the boat early while I checked out the shops, including Bigley's Shoe Store.

One of the art galleries in town (closed, unfortunately, when I walked by) had what looked to be an oil painting in the front window. I don't know whether this house actually exists somewhere up here or not...but having seen the cottages built on tiny stone islands so far, I'm going to watch out for it!

That evening we talked with a man who's biked across the US and Canada to raise money for autism. His oldest son, now 15, is autistic. He biked across the US in 2001 and was on the Today Show with Katie Courrick (and Rod Stewart was there for a concert!) It took him 90 days to do the US and he raised 1.3 million dollars. What an amazing story. He's a police detective and was given time off to do the biking. He isn't a "biker". He got help from an Olympic trainer who helped him prepare for the trip. The trainer told him to shave his legs so that if he fell, he wouldn't get an infection from the hair. He told of shaving at work because he didn't want his wife or family to know...and how there was so much blood around the bathroom afterwards that he had to wash the place down. Then he got in the shower and OUCH! the cuts were hit with water. All of that...and in the last week of his US trip he was lamenting the fact that he had shaved his legs all this time and hadn't had a fall. You guessed it. Next day he fell...went over the handlebars and cut his leg in the process.

He told us the Kawartha Dairy is just a little ways down the road. Guess what's for breakfast tomorrow??? :-)

That evening I finished up an Anita Shreve book, All He Ever Wanted, and started Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye in honor of being in Canada. Wayne read on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation Speaks. Oh, yeah...and we prepared ourselves for the noise we might get from the houseboat behind us with the "Bachlorette Party" banner. How convenient for them that a houseboat load of guys pulled in two boats back. Stay tuned....

Sunday, July 27 - Up early, as usual...in spite of the fact that we both heard a little activity during the night from the bachlorettes. :-) Apparently a good time was had by all.

We wanted to pick up a few groceries this morning and do some more walking in town. (Yes, we nixed the ice cream for breakfast thought, on consideration.) It was a beautiful morning...cool. We walked around the town area and wound up at the Subway for lunch sandwiches. I hit the local grocery for a few items, knowing we'd be at lock walls in remote areas for the next few nights. We locked through at Bobcaygeon around 11 AM and set off for a 20 mile ride to Rosedale Lock. As we got out on Sturgeon Lake the wind picked up giving us more a feeling of "open water" than we'd had in some time. It wasn't bad...just different. I made some coffee and we had our Subway sandwich...topped off by warm Chelsey bun from the day before. YUM!

We only went through two locks to get to Rosedale Lock...and we decided to stay below the lock, saving the locking through until tomorrow morning. The site is remote with cottages nearby. Very comfortable. We settled easily into the afternoon...a little painting for me, a little cleaning on the boat for Wayne. We grilled chicken out that evening and had a salad with it for supper.

Monday, July 28 - We were in the lock at about 9 AM this morning...when we noticed a pay phone at the lock office! Hey, we needed a pay phone! We pulled over to the mooring wall below the lock and I made arrangements for our stays in Orillia and Port Severn...and arranged for our mail to be delivered before we hit the Georgian Bay. We probably won't get mail again until we get back to the states.

Having all of that business taken care of...we left Rosedale Lock at around 10 AM. We crossed Balsam Lake, highest point on the Trent Severn Waterway, and made it to Lock 40 by around 2 PM. On the way we saw more beautiful cottages and some really narrow canal areas!

We moored on the upper wall at Lock 40 right in front of Shoebox from Florida. Janet and Bob have been cruising for 23 years and are now living partly on their boat (which is trailerable) and partly on their 5th wheel. We talked that afternoon with Janet and got some great advice on the upcoming trip to the Georgian Bay.

We got the bikes off and took a ride down to Lock 41, the last lock before we cross Lake Simcoe. The evening was wonderfully cool at the lock and we enjoyed sitting out on the back deck and watching boats come through.

Tomorrow we plan to cross Lake Simcoe to Orillia and stay there for a while before we head up to Port Severn and the Georgian Bay....

Tuesday, July 29 - Shoebox and Segue were ready to lock through at the earliest opportunity this morning. By about 9:30 AM we were out on Lake Simcoe...and it was completely calm. We took a picture of Shoebox on the water that morning...

You'd think I would have had my fill by now of water and cloud shots...but you'd be so wrong. They all look just a little different, and so beautiful.

We were in Port of Orillia Marina by 12:30 PM. There we met Lilo and Lou Wegner who were visiting Orillia that day by boat from their home port about an hour and a half away. We struck up a long conversation with the couple and ended up visiting with Lou later that day and ordering some wine from a Canadian winery with which he's affiliated.

Just as we've sought our the "best" burger on this trip, we've also been on the look out for the best fish and chips. We may have hit it in Orillia. Tor's Seafood fish and chips was wonderful for lunch...and the slaw was almost as good as the Vidalia onion slaw we had with Carla and Jay in Beaufort, SC. We took a walk around town and spotted places we'd visit later in the week. I took a nice, long walk along the boardwalk and the trail that runs along the Couchiching Lake up here by Orillia. There are some nice biking trails here that will take us for miles along the lake. We're going to enjoy our stay here!

While I was out for a pre-dinner walk, Wayne met a man on the dock who brings a hawk down to the marina twice a day to let it fly around and clear out the seagulls. "And, sir, what do you do for a living???"....

We were out on the deck that evening, enjoying the cool breezes, when Rick and Sharon from Phoenix IV came by for a visit. We'd met them in the locks above Buckhorn and knew they lived in Orillia. They'd spotted Segue that afternoon as they came in and came by to say "hi." Rick was a captain in the Toronto firefighting department in charge of hazardous materials containment. He and Sharon are ready to start the Loop so we spent a nice evening sharing experiences with them. They've invited us to their house for dinner on Friday evening.

Wednesday, July 30 - We woke up to rain and decided the laundromat might be our best stop this morning. We loaded up and walked up a couple of blocks to the site. By the time we'd finished (and made several phone calls) the sun was back out. That afternoon Lou stopped by with our wine sampling and we spent an enjoyable hour or two talking with Lilo and Lou and tasting one of the wines.

We talked later that evening with Ted from Interludes. Ted and Maricha have purchased a small farm in Panama and are leaving their boat in Wisconsin this winter to go down and live on their new place. This is the second time we've met someone who's moving to Panama. Jim, the harbormaster at Adventure Yacht Harbor in Daytona, was the first...and he believes Panama will be the next big retirement place for many Americans.

Thursday, July 31 - Another load of laundry this morning, and Wayne worked on cleaning the outside of the boat. Then we hopped on our bikes and went to the movies! We'd checked out the route and it looked very doable. When Wayne asked the young man at the marina if it was a reasonable route he was told it had two hills in it...but he allowed we looked healthy enough to do it. Hmmm. What he didn't say was that the two hills are consecutive...and there's not a lot of breathing room between. We made it just fine, but we walked those little one-speed beach cruisers up a couple of sections!

The weather for our stay in Orillia has really been very nice. It seems there's always the remote threat of rain...and if you're not in a breeze the sun can get very warm. But there's a cool breeze blowing most of the time that is very refreshing.

The marina, the Port of Orillia Marina, is owned by the city and has probably a couple of hundred spaces. This coming weekend being a holiday, almost every space has a "reserved" sign on it. Today we're seeing more boats come in by the hour. It will be interesting to see the goings on this weekend.

Friday, August 1 - August already!! The month of July has flown by!

This morning we took the bikes out to find a couple of hardware stores and check out the large marina at the Narrows to Couchiching Lake. Orillia has several biking trails that made this trip very easy and a pleasant ride. Having found the few things we needed, we went back for lunch at the Chinese buffet before I took off for a closer look at the shops in town and the local library.

At 4 PM Rick came by to pick us up. Rick and Sharon live in a beautifully renovated home on a canal just off the Narrows . Their new boat, Phoenix IV, is parked just off their back yard. They had lived nearer to Toronto for many years before finding this house and moving. Rick worked very long days as a firefighter (on four days, off 14) making his commute back to Toronto feasible. He has finally retired and they are planning to leave on the Loop in August of 2009. Like us, they can untie at their home and travel for thousands of miles by water.

We had such a good time visiting with the Chaykos and getting to know them better. They cooked a delicious meal on the "bar-bee"...and topped it off with Sharon's homemade Black Forest Cheesecake. Yummm! We're hoping we get to return the hospitality when they travel the Loop down our way.

Sunday, August 3 - Well, in spite of a threat of rain almost daily, the weather in Orillia has been wonderful. Today, as I sit outside the marina office to finish this blog segment, I am in shorts and a sweatshirt. The cool breeze can almost be too cool if you're in the shade or not moving around a lot.

The marina was packed last night. There's a carnival going on in a park nearby and people are out picnicking and walking/riding/skating. We've enjoyed having a few days to recollect and get some things done while positioning ourselves to pick up mail in Port Severn before we hit the Georgian Bay. We'll leave tomorrow morning for the Big Chute Lock and possibly go through (or at least stay there). Tuesday we're off to Port Severn, not far, where we'll receive the mail (hopefully) that day. As soon as we have that, we're ready to take off for big waters. We anticipate being in upper Lake Michigan in about 2 weeks time...and it may very well be that long before you see a new blog post. Don't worry...I'll be clicking away as we go....

Westport, Ontario, to Belleville, Ontario

2008-07-13T19:04:00.006-04:00

Thursday, July 10 - We went back into town this morning and picked up some supplies. Hit the bakery again for some treats...raspberry tarts, more sausage rolls, biscotti-like cookies , oh, my ! (we'd better get away from this place soon!)...And we left Westport around noon with Iceman...looking back over the town. I like Westport and would visit again. The marina is trying to make a difference for the town...and I hope they do!

This would be a short day on the water because we were only going as far as Chaffey's Lock. We were settled in at the upper side of the lock by 2 o'clock. The setting is beautiful! And the scenery we passed today was gorgeous. Lots of evergreens, lakes, rocky shorelines, little islands with cottages...and some really narrow passages!

Wayne (of Iceman) told us to get ready for a photo op as we rounded a corner. This ferry is self-operated and runs about 50 ft. across the gap to the other shore. Drive up on it and pull it across on a chain.

Pierre and Pierrette had told us about having dinner at the Opinicon Resort Hotel, which is within easy walking distance of the Chaffey's Lock. The Resort has been owned and operated by the same family since 1921 and all the food is prepared on the premises. (http://www.theopiniconresorthotel.com/index.html) Reservations can be made at the Opinicon General Store for the five course, fixed price evening meal. We scheduled a dinner for four at 6 and then walked around the area.

We walked to the Cedars Art Studio and talked with the artist, Eleanor Pinsonneault. She, her husband, and her dog live in the house that she was born in and she paints in a studio area attached to the back. It's a lovely little studio. Eleanor works in acrylic, oils, and pastels...and her work varies in style (www.eleanorpinsonneault.com). She had both originals and prints for sale, in addition to note cards. I was tempted to buy a print...but as is often the case, I decided, instead, to try and duplicate the style in a watercolor.

The water at Chaffey's was so clear you could see clearly the rocks, weeds, and fish. A family of three came and swam for a while that afternoon by the boat. The water temperature is 78 degrees, by our measure. Still a little chilly for me!

Dinner at the Opinicon that evening was a real treat. Soup (tomato, mushroom, barley), salad (various options at a salad cart), appetizer (fried pickerel), entree, dessert (many choices on both) and a variety of non-alcoholic beverages. Our table had entrees of prime rib, Cornish game hen, and omelet...and everyone praised the meal. The total per couple, without tip, was around $35. We waited outside on the porch before the meal...

Friday, July 8 - We left Chaffey's at 9 AM not really knowing where we'd end up that evening. To go all the way to Kingston would mean doing 35 miles and 13 locks.

We got to Jones Falls and had half an hour to wait before the lock could take us. That was fine because we got a chance to see the blacksmith shop. We picked out a bottle opener to purchase and Iceman's Wayne wanted one, too, so the blacksmith made him one while we watched. That was neat!

When we got to go into the locks they really packed us in. Four larger boats and one smaller one in the middle!

The landscapes today were beautiful, just like yesterday...

And lest you think we don't have road signs up here for the twists and turns in the channel...

Karen and Wayne on Iceman were going to Upper Brewers for the night, so we went that far with them and said our goodbyes.

We got down to Kingston Mills Lock at around 4 PM and saw four boats waiting to lock through. As it turned out, we were going to have a 2 hour wait, most likely, to get into the lock...and then the time it would take to go through 4 locks... 45 min. to an hour.

We decided to shut it down for the night and stay at the upper side of the lock. The weather was calm and (except for the occasional nearby train) it was a quiet site. We'll lock through in the morning.

Saturday, July 12 - Well...we locked through the 4 locks at Kingston Mills, waited 45 minutes for the bridge at Kingston to open, and traveled a total of 65 miles to get to Belleville. We entered the locks at 9 AM and got to our slip at 5:30 PM.

It was a pretty drowsy day on the water, actually. We weren't close enough to shore to look at houses...the weather was gorgeous so we weren't spending time worrying or wringing our hands...We've been known to turn on XM Radio up on the bridge and listening to rock as we go, but we didn't go that far today. We talked about our plans for the Trent-Severn and Georgian Bay. Read up on some places to see. Finally got Lucy up on the bridge to keep us entertained. (Lucy usually heads for our bedroom when we start the engines in the morning and she sleeps there until we settle in for the day.) Today she slept on my lap!

We're staying the week in Belleville, hopefully to have some canvas work done. On coming into our marina we were helped by Bill and Catherine on Seaero. They live in Belleville and Seaero is docked next to our boat while they have some engine work done. They came over for a visit after we got settled and we took several pages of notes on places they've enjoyed on the Trent-Severn. Monday we'll pick up a rental car for the week and set about getting our "house" in order!

Montreal to Westport, Ontario

2008-07-08T16:33:00.015-04:00

Monday, June 30 - Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is around 37 miles from Montreal, with two locks in between. We left the Montreal Yacht Club around 8:30 AM and had made it through both locks by 12:30PM. We were tied up on the south wall at St. Anne's by 3:30PM. We wondered if we'd be able to find room at the wall...but a lot of people were there for the day only and were leaving about the time we came. By 6 that evening there were several spots still open. This wall is one of the places covered by our annual mooring pass that we purchased for our stay in Canada. Without the pass the rate for the night would be 90 cents/ft. We plan to use the mooring pass often! Granted, there are often no provisions for electric or water...but it is convenient and paid for!

Today, being a holiday, was a little "crowded" towards the end of the trip. And this is what the locks looked like as we went through...

We spotted this cute dog out for a ride that evening...

Tuesday, July 1 - It's Canada Day! Another holiday. We had decided to stay at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue for one more night to let the traffic settle down on the water and to take the time to look around the town. We were told there would be a small parade around noon. But...around 7:30 AM the work crews began to take down a bridge between us and the lock. Guess they didn't get a holiday...OR they were being paid extra to work! At any rate, the atmosphere at the wall changed completely. It wasn't "feeding our souls" so we decided to continue traveling towards Ottawa.

We usually plan our course the evening before...so we pulled up the charts and started planning the day. Surprise, surprise...the electronic charts kinda dropped off the map at the Carillon Lock. Oh, we had a "blue line" to follow, but it didn't quite match up to the markers on the water...and there were no water depths indicated at all. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem because we usually have back up paper charts. As you recall, we changed our minds about taking this course (instead of taking the Erie Canal) so we hadn't purchased paper charts for the areas of Canada we were now cruising.

OK, we'll leave a little later this morning. In the meantime we went back to the marine store we'd visited yesterday on our quick walk around town to see if they had the paper charts we needed. They had one...but not the ones that would help us today and tomorrow. We picked up a few groceries (remember: never pass up the chance to get groceries) and headed back to the boat to prepare for going through the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Lock.

Luckily for us, we were ready to cast off at around 11:15 AM and the lock had just opened for passage. We might have had to wait for hours! From there we went to the Carillon Lock, a deep lock, at 65 ft., with a door that lifted up for us to enter under. As we approached the lock we could see it was open, but wondered whether we could make it there in time, or whether it would have room for us. YES to both! Again...we were spared a wait and made it through smoothly. It was strange, though, seeing the lock door lower behind us...

We headed on down to Hawkesbury for the night. One guidebook said there is a public dock and another guidebook said it was an anchorage with complimentary daytime docking. There was a nice, long public dock with only one small boat docked so we decided to tie up there and check with the Chamber of Commerce office right on the site to see if overnight tie ups were OK...and it was OK.

We'd made it to Hawkesbury by about 4:30PM...pretty good time considering the locks and the current.

Hawkesbury was celebrating Canada Day! They had a carnival set up at a park just across the road from the dock and families were pouring in to enjoy the amusements. Several people stopped by to visit and comment on the boat. One man, a boater himself, offered to bring us some of his paper charts for the trip to Ottawa. We assured him we'd probably be able to find what we needed at a nearby marina, but he went home and came back with two of the four we needed! We'll mail them back to him when we've completed that portion of the trip.

A musician set up at a little venue very close to the dock and we wondered if we'd need to close up the windows on the boat early...but we really enjoyed his music. He had a synthesizer and an electric guitar and most of the songs he played, we knew. I went on to bed at my usual 9:30 and Wayne stayed up long enough to catch the fireworks that evening.

Wednesday, July 2 - First order of business this morning was to locate the missing paper charts. Wayne set out at 8 AM to find a phone and contact the local marina. When he had trouble completing the call, he just got directions and walked. Meanwhile, Michael, our friend from the night before who'd loaned us charts, came over to drive Wayne to the marina. When he realized Wayne had already gone, he sat with me and went over his favorite places in Ottawa and the Rideau. Wonderful information! Wayne returned with the needed charts and we set out for our day to Ottawa.

The distance from Hawkesbury to Ottawa was almost 60 miles. Ordinarily we could do 10 mph at 1500 rpm and be there in 6 hours. As it was, with the current against us, we left at 9:15 AM and got to the bottom of the Ottawa 8 locks at around 5 PM, 8 hours later. We stayed on the "blue line" that night, a section of dock just before the entrance to a lock, meaning we were ready to go through the locks when they opened next. This set of 8 locks has to be done in sequence.

Once you enter the first one, you have to go through number 8...no place to stop. The locks don't close until 7:30PM...but we really didn't want to go through the 90 minutes (minimum) trip this lock would require. We tied up and ask the lock assistant if we could "sit it out" for the night on the "blue line" and he said that would be fine. (Each lock has an area marked off in blue for those boats wishing to lock through on the next opening.) See the blue line?

Already we're impressed with the look of Ottawa. We passed by the Rideau Falls on our way...

Ottawa is the capitol of Canada. Tomorrow we'll go through the locks and hope to find a space on the canal wall right in the city. We're looking for wi-fi connections and a telephone, first. Then maybe a tour. We'll stay two nights, most likely.

Thursday, July 3 - We were ready to do the 8 locks! There were 3 boats ready to go through, including us, and the lock gates opened that morning at about 8:45AM. The largest boat was a houseboat...a true water cottage. Next was Segue and then a smaller boat.

It was pouring rain. We had on our rain suits, pants and jacket, and set out to climb the locks!

Oh, there were hairy moments. Like when the houseboat ladder got caught on the cables in the lock and held it down as the water was rising.

They had to lower the water in the lock to get it unhooked. By the time we got to the top of the locks the rain had stopped, but the wind was blowing a cool breeze and we were both chilled to the bone. We found a spot on the canal wall, tied up and headed out for some lunch. That afternoon we found a phone and a wi-fi spot so we could catch up on blogging and emails.

Friday, July 4 - Fourth of July...by the calendar. Needless to say, it wasn't much acknowledged up here. We woke up at 7 AM to the sounds of a drill on rock...a-gain. The nearby bridge was being worked on. We talked about leaving Ottawa, ready for some rural solitude...but decided to spend another night and make ourselves busy during the day so we wouldn't notice the noise. Poor Lucy, though, had to stay home with the racket.

We found a bus tour that morning and enjoyed the nice weather in the open air top of a double-decker. We saw the changing of the guard ceremony as we were waiting for the tour to begin. We stopped at the By Market, a large, outdoor market with all kinds of produce and products. After we lunched at a pub, Wayne went off to do more Internet work and I bought some fresh veggies and browsed the market. I topped off lunch with part of a "beaver tail," a local delicacy of fried pastry with sugar and cinnamon topping that the tour guide told us about (she probably owns part of the franchise). It's a lot like a funnel cake, for those in the South.

That evening we firmed up our plans for the next day's journey and caught up on some reading.

Saturday, July 5 - We left at around 8:30 AM, knowing that the bridge just down the "road" would have to be lifted for us and it didn't open until 8:30. The trip out of Ottawa was beautiful! The canal meanders through the city with bike and running trails on each side, beautiful landscaping and, occasionally, homes. We are so impressed with the access Canada provides to be outdoors. Walking and biking trails are everywhere. And, with this week being the beginning of their summer season, people were out all over the place taking advantage of the resources.

We had in mind going all the way to Burritts Rapids, 40 miles away. With a speed limit in the canal...and no wake zones...and the current against us (a-gain)...and 7 or 8 locks...and the desire to get water and fuel...well, we weren't sure we'd hold out for the full 40. We were leaving at the same time as Sandpiper with Bill and Ann Levine. One of our "life chores" for the day (gathering water) was made much easier when Bill arranged for us to follow his setup and get water at the Hogs Back Lock while we were in the lock! The lock attendant ran a hose from the lock house to the edge of the lock (we were headed up) and we handed him our hose by boat hook. Viola!! Check that one off!

I may have mentioned that there's an ice cream parlor on nearly every corner in Canada. Well, this ice cream boat is something we haven't seen before!

We stopped at Hurst Marina for fuel and a pump out...and left there around 4 PM knowing it was another 17 miles to Burritts. We'd decided to ask the lock if we could stay on the blue line that night if the other mooring spaces were full. Turns out the ones below the lock were full, but they had a spot for us on the upper side so we locked through and found ourselves in a lovely rural setting with about 5 other boats.

We've been so impressed with the helpful, friendly, competent staff of Parks Canada, the organization that handles the Rideau Canal, the Chambly Canal and the Trent-Severn Canal. They call ahead to let following locks know you're coming, for instance, and will assist you in finding a spot somewhere around the locks in the evening. Many of the full time employees work a 66 hour week during the summer season (6 eleven-hour days) and "bank" the extra time so that they get paid the same amount year-round, even when they're not working during the off-season.

We met an "off duty" employee of Parks Canada this evening who had come to pick up his daughter when she finished her day as lock helper. (They hire students during the summer to help in the locks.) He gave us some great advice for the rest of the week on the Rideau...and we assured him that Parks Canada has a winning formula for picking employees!

So...our first full day on the Rideau (not counting the entrance to Ottawa) was a long one, but we have a plan. The "juicy" part of the Rideau is ahead of us...the picturesque towns and lock houses...rural canals.... Today's trip was fascinating because it was new territory, but we're looking forward to seeing the images we've seen in guidebooks that describe the Rideau Canal. Tomorrow...we're off to Smith Falls.

Sunday, July 6 - Woke up this morning and it was a beautiful day again in Canada. So pretty...and our spot here at Burritts Rapids was so nice, picnic table and all, that we decided to take the day off and stay another night here. Sandpiper had spent the night across from us and were leaving that morning for Smith's Falls. Sandpiper, Double SS, Bella Luna and several other boats are forming a group that will travel together for a while. That's what's so nice about this trip: there's no set way to do it. Some like to go in groups, large or small...while others tend to do a solo trip, interacting along the way, but not committing to a daily schedule. We fall in the latter group! Part of what we enjoy about doing this trip is the challenge of figuring out where to visit and how to get there.

Wayne ended up working the bigger part of the day rebuilding a motor for one of the heads, so I'm not so sure he had a true "day off."

I walked into the little town of Burritts Rapids and visited the General Store. I talked with the clerk who told me all about the Rideau Canal having been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year. I'd heard the phrase before, but we certainly hadn't considered that designation when we decided to visit the Rideau. She's concerned there's not going to be enough resources (money) put into the area to make it work. Once a place is named a World Heritage Site, she said, it has certain obligations and standards to meet in order to stay a World Heritage Site. She said Parks Canada, the agency that runs the canal, has no money to invest in things like guides and signage for tourists. She's already seeing more people come to Burritts Rapids by boat and by bike...but often they come in asking questions about where the trails are, for instance. As I left the store I noticed it is for sale, as is the house immediately next to it. Across from our mooring spot there had been a restaurant and a laundromat...both now closed and the building is for sale.

When I got back we had an early lunch, then I spread out my painting supplies on the picnic table and painted all afternoon. It was SO-O-O nice! People were all over the lock site that afternoon picnicking, swimming, and fishing. Most of the people we talked with were from the area between Ottawa and Kingston. They bring their boats up to one of the locks and spend the weekend relaxing and cooking out. We didn't see any campers, but tent camping is allowed, too, at the lock areas.

We talked at length with a couple who live on Lake Erie and trailer a boat to a different area each summer for a couple of weeks. They've been to a lot of the places we've been already or will soon see.

We grilled some chicken for supper and finished off a good day.

Monday, July 7 - We were ready to leave when the lock attendants came in at 8:30AM. We'd already gone through the lock at Burritts Rapids to get to our spot, but there is a swing bridge about 5 minutes up the way that is operated by the same crew.

I'm not sure I've mentioned before that the Rideau Canal is 126 miles long from Ottawa on the Ottawa River to Kingston on Lake Ontario. There are 44 locks along the way to go through. Some are single locks and some are grouped together so that you leave one lock and go right into another, like the first 8 step locks we went through in Ottawa.

Today, we thought we'd end up at Smith Falls for the evening...but we were interested in stopping in at Merrickville, only about 6 miles (and 5 locks) up the way. We got there around noon and decided to find a place to tie up and see the town. We docked at the long wall in what's called the "pond" area by town and decided this would be a nice place to spend the night.

Walking into town we passed lots of antique stores (Connie, you would love it!) and settled on the Goose and Gridiron Pub for lunch. The weather was lovely that day, though a little warm. If you found a place in the shade, however, the breeze felt really nice. The pub had an outdoor patio by the side, in the shade, and we enjoyed a lunch of pizza and a reuben sandwich.

We stopped at the small grocery store and picked up a few things, and looked for a wi-fi source in town. Wayne was told the public library had Internet access so we took our groceries back home and walked back to visit the Merrickville Public Library and a public phone.

The library door was open when we arrived, but we found out soon that the library was only open at that time for a special children's program...and the normal hours that day were 6-8PM. A parent who was waiting on his son said the library does have Internet access, but he thought you had to have a password to access it. We sat down on the back porch and fired up one of the laptops to see if we could access the link, but couldn't. So...we'd come back later. Meanwhile, we walked a short walk back to the community center and a public telephone to catch up on some calls. While there, the parent biked by and said the librarian told him there was wifi access in the library and that if we sat on the front porch we might be able to use it outside. It worked! We checked our emails and went back to the boat to sit in the breeze and dangle our feet in the water!

Tuesday, July 8 - OK, today we would make it to Smiths Falls. We left Merrickville at around 7:30AM, timing it so we could be ready to lock through the Kilmarnock Lock, about 7 miles ahead. Four locks later and we were in Smiths Falls before noon. We'd talked to a lovely couple from Ottawa as we went through the locks, Pierre and Pierrette Parisien. They've been cruising the Rideau Canal for years and gave us lots of good advice on places they'd liked.

We were in need of a pump out today and needed water, so when we had gone through the first lock at Smiths Falls we stopped at Victoria Park and took care of those needs before we settled in along the mooring wall on the opposite bank. What a beautiful setting this was....

Pierre and Pierrette helped us tie up right behind them and then they started giving us the low-down on Smiths Falls. With directions to Walmart, a Chinese restaurant for lunch, and a laundromat...we were armed for the day!

First stop: lunch! We biked to Wong Chinese Restaurant for a lunch buffet, and it was delicious. On to Walmart for a few items and later to the public library (beautiful building, again) for wi-fi access. That evening we enjoyed sitting around and talking with Pierre and Pierrette and their friends.

We were even entertained with bagpipes...

Pierette is crazy about dogs and had Lucy "eating out of her hand" when she served up black coffee with a little sugar...Will we be up all night with the caffeine?

The weather forecast indicates a possible storm tonight. It's very windy and grey.

Wednesday, July 9 - We lingered around Smiths Falls until about 10:30 AM. There's a swing bridge at the far end of the town waterfront, just before Lock 31, that has timed openings during the morning hours and was due to open at 11 AM. As we were getting ready to pull out so were Karen and Wayne Franklin on the boat Iceman 46. They were going to Westport, as were we, so we decided to run along together that day.

Interesting story about the boat name: Wayne used to tend the ice ("Hey, Iceman!) for his curling club. According to the Brittanica Concise Encyclopedia on Answers.com, curling is a "game in which two teams of four players each slide a round stone by means of a gooseneck handle on the top over a 138-ft (42-m) stretch of ice toward a target circle. The object is to deliver the stone closest to the centre (called the house). Each player delivers two stones, which average 40 lbs (18.1 kg) apiece, often applying a curl to the stone's trajectory. The player's teammates use a broom to sweep the ice ahead of the oncoming stone in order to facilitate a longer slide or to adjust the arc of the curl. Blocking and knocking out an opponent's stones are important strategies of the sport. Curling originated in Scotland in the early 16th century. World championships have been held since 1959 and are usually dominated by Canadians and Scandinavians. In 1998 curling became a medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games." Now if I'd been keeping up with my Olympic winter sports I'd have known that!

So we traveled for a while with Iceman until he decided it would be a good idea to rush on up to Westport to see if there would be space at the little marina for our two boats. He radioed back when they got there and had a spot saved for us.

As we made our way through this section of the Rideau (Ree-dough, as I've learned to say) we passed through what begins to be the prettiest part of this canal. At one of the two locks we passed, the Poonamalie Lock, we spotted the prettiest house and grounds. Turns out it was the lockmaster's house. When I commented on how nice a house and setting this was he said he felt very privileged to live there.

There are two little towns in this section of the Rideau that seem to attract visitors, Westport and Portland. Both are a few miles off the route...but we wanted to see at least one. Westport had been a recommended stop by many people, and we weren't disappointed. A walk around town took us by two nice bakeries where we bought muffins and sausage rolls for breakfast. I loved the clothesline behind one of the bakeries...

There were art galleries and gift shops along with post office, grocery store, bank...and a library with the cutest door handle....

We grilled hamburgers out this evening and visited with the Franklins and their friends who live in Westport part of the year. Tomorrow we're thinking we'll leave around noon and go to Chaffeys Lock for the evening.

Burlington, VT, to Montreal, Quebec

2008-06-28T16:24:00.015-04:00

Monday, June 23 - It rained last night in Burlington. That's an understatement. The weather service issued a notice: "A record rainfall of 1.27 inches was set at Burlington Vermont
yesterday. This breaks the old record of 1.25 set in 1887." And this morning? More of the same. Well, not so much at once, but it was definitely rainy. We'd planned to leave around 8:30, but waited until 10 for the weather to break.

It was a good decision, though, because the trip to Rouses Point, NY, was rain free. We docked at the Lighthouse Marina and were fueling up when the skies opened up again. It's Bella Luna, Prime Time and Segue here this evening. Tomorrow we hit the Richelieu Canal and enter Canada!

We talked with Dave, Heather and Alex this evening on Pal Talk. It was good to see them...and hear Alex counting to 8!!

Tuesday, June 24 - Bonjour, bonjour!!

Segue, Bella Luna, and Prime Time left the Lighthouse Marina at around 8 AM. We all took turns checking in at the Canadian customs station and then headed up towards St. Jean and the beginning of the Chambly Canal. We were on the Richelieu River at this point and passing by lake cottages and lots of small fishing boats.

When we got to the first canal (actually Canal 9) at St. Jean Prime Time was in the lead. Prime Time hailed the canal attendant and told her we had 3 boats wishing to lock through. She took down our boat names and sizes, then called back to say that only one could go through at this time and the other two should wait at the tie up near the canal for the next opening. So Segue and Bella Luna tied up and took in the hustle and bustle going on around the canal. Diane took this picture of Wayne and I on our first day in Canada...

There were people everywhere! On one side of the canal was a biking and walking trail and on the other side a road. People were gathered at the canal to watch boats lock through. When we asked about a nearby bank so we could get some Canadian money we were told banks were closed that because it was a holiday in Quebec (not in all of Canada, just in Quebec) known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. The holiday started out as a religious holiday of the Catholic Church to honor the patron saint of French Canadians, St. John the Baptist, but now it has become more a political celebration. Blue and white Quebec flags were everywhere. That explained the number of people we were seeing out!

We waited only about 20-30 minutes before it was our turn to lock through to the canal. In these locks the attendants hand you a (clean!) line at the stern and at the bow. Except for the occasional wind, these locks were easily managed. And the trip in between...well, we felt like we were in a parade! People everywhere, festive attitudes, waving hellos...it was wonderful.

The locks are hand operated...

And they almost caught our flag on one of the openings!

Bella Luna and Segue spent the night on the wall at Chambly between Lock 3 and Lock 4 while Prime Time went through Locks 3-1 and stayed at the Chambly marina. That evening we gathered at 5:00 on Kaos, along with Bella Luna, Distant Shores, and Prime Time. A good time was had by all.

Chambly is a friendly, comfortable place to stay. Diane and I were glad to see a grocery nearby...'cause you're always "nearly out" of something. If Montreal weren't beckoning, we'd stay a day or so longer.

Wednesday, June 25 - The lock we were getting ready to go through is a flight lock so once you enter a lock you must complete the remaining two locks. We were going down a total of 35 ft. in this flight lock. The view from the top lock (No. 3) was great.

Once out of the lock we were headed up another 40 miles or so to Sorel. From Sorel we'll go to Montreal. The scenery along this stretch of the Richeleu was so nice...beautiful homes lining both shores. I took a few pictures. And...the steeples along the way looked so good against the blue sky and clouds.

We stayed at Parc Nautique Sorel (marina) in Sorel. Thank goodness Gary and Pat from Prime Time was there to help us navigate in...and help Wayne and I tuck the boat into a very tightly fitting slip. Oh, and did I mention, the wind was wailing??? Anyway, tomorrow could be a challenge getting out, depending on the weather.

Thursday, June 26 - The wind was calm this morning, but it was still a tight squeeze getting out of our slip. Fortunately the tip of our bow went over the boat docked next to us and gave us some more room in which to maneuver.

On leaving Sorel we entered the St. Lawrence River and began making our way, upstream, to Montreal. The current running against us cut our normal 10 mph speed to something more like 7.5 mph. And we saw some rather large, sea-going vessels on the way....

We left Sorel at around 8:45 AM and got into Montreal at around 4:00PM...~44 miles. As we made our way to the Montreal Yacht Club , the current increased and we were slowed to 4.5 mph for 2 miles or so. Looking at this channel marker you can see what we were working against!

The Montreal Yacht Club has some of the nicest docks we've seen. They have a rubberized layer on top which makes walking around on wet surfaces much easier. They also have cleats running in a channel alongside the slip so the cleats can be moved to accomodate different boats. The location is great...right at the Old Port area. Many people seem to use their boat as a summer cottage. The weekend we were in Montreal the marina was hopping with people who were entertaining on their boats. (This was actually a holiday weekend, too. Monday and Tuesday are both holidays ...Tuesday is Canada Day.)

We walked Lucy,then took off for a look-see in the area. We ended up at an outdoor restaurant on the local pedestrian mall, Place Jacques-Cartier, and enjoyed a beverage while watching a flame-throwing entertainer "wow" a crowd. We'd had a day, by then, and headed back to the boat for a light supper and planning for tomorrow's exploration of the city.

Friday, June 27 - We left the boat at 8:30 and walked up to the tourist information site and location of bus tours for Montreal. We signed up for a 3-hour tour beginning at 10...and had time for a second cup of coffee and a cheese sandwich at a local deli. The tour covered the main parts of Montreal...the Mont-Royal Park (normally the best view of the city, but it was really cloudy that day) , McGill University, University of Montreal (53,000 students and totally French-speaking university), the Olympic village site...and numerous cathedrals, government buildings, etc.

Montreal has a large "indoor city" underground linked to the Metro system. AND...their Metro, according to a native, has rubber wheels instead of metal (like NYC has) so the Metro is much quieter.

When we finished the tour we visited the tourist information center again and got advice and directions for several restaurants we'd read about. Our friend, Bob Sicignano, had recommended Schwartz's Deli for smoked meat sandwiches and we struck out on the Metro to find it. It was around 2 PM by the time we got to the deli and we thought maybe the lunch crunch would be over. Not so!

We waited outside for probably 20-30 minutes before being escorted into the small restaurant and seated at a table for 6. There were already two other couples at the table...and this is how it is. It was really a cozy place and we talked with a series of couples as the meals were served and finished. We both had a smoked meat sandwich with fries...and a side order of pickles. It really was good! The bread was even good...nice and firm to be able to hold the 4 inches of meat they piled on. We couldn't finish the sandwich,but that didn't keep us from stopping in for gelato at a nearby ice cream shop. We made it home around 4:30 and snacked on veggies for supper, we were so full.

Saturday, June 28 - We decided to indulge our individual interests. Wayne found a marine chart store and shopped (though unsucessfully) for some Canadian charts we're lacking.) He wanted pasta for lunch, but ended up settling for a sandwich on the boat because it was too early in the day to find pasta. The impeller on one engine needed looking at because he'd spotted a water leak from it...and he ended up working all the rest of the day on boat projects.

I headed for the Montreal Museum of Fine Art to see the exhibit of Yves Saint Laurent couture. I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit. It was much larger than I had expected...and very well done. I especially liked the pieces that had been made for individuals...and his pieces made in honor of Proust and Picasso. I had lunch at the museum bistro (where they were playing Johnny Cash albums on the "Ipod" and the waiter had tickets that evening to see Al Green at the Jazz Festival.)

Did I mention the Jazz Festival? It started the night we arrived and would be going on the whole time we were there.

We had a couple of restaurants picked out for supper...but the rains came in that evening and we decided to eat in and watch a movie. Around 9:30 we went outside for the fireworks display. Pretty impressive! According to a local boater, the firework display companies compete for "best" over the summer and then can charge "even more" for their services.

Sunday, June 29 - We hung around that morning working on the blog and catching up on emails...then headed out for a Portugese restaurant that had been recommended to us. We both had tourist passes for the Metro which meant we had 3 days of unlimited travel on the buses or subway, so we took a Subway up to the restaurant. It was closed! Granted, it was only 11:30...but we were hungry! We left out for the second choice, a French bistro on Rue St. Denis. On the way we passed a couple of good looking eateries...but decided to press on. When we got to L'Express and looked at the menu we decided to head back to one of the appealing places we'd passed. It was a good decision.

Wayne had seafood pasta and I had veal scallopini...and, much to the waiter's surprise, we ordered a side of poutine. We'd read about poutine being a true Montreal "comfort food" and didn't want to leave without tasting it. According to montrealpoutine.com, poutine is "a heap of crispy french fries topped by a handful of cheddar curds, and a chicken (or, sometimes, veal) based sauce. While great fries are important, it is the combination of sauce and curds which makes a poutine a trascendent [sic] culinary experience." Well...it was a "transcendent culinary experience!" Darn yummy. We asked the waiter later whether it's usually served as a side or an entre. He said he usually eats it at around 2 AM when he's been out drinking for a while. Poutine = chili cheese fries!

We were enamored with the neighborhood, too. We'd walked through it on Friday...then today. A Montreal resident from one of the neighboring tables in the restaurant, the Universel Restaurant Cafe, came over to ask how we liked the poutine and we asked about the area. It's part of the Latin Quarter...and we really liked the feeling there.

We finished up, reluctantly, ...well, we'd had all we could hold...and walked out to see the Jazz Festival venue. We caught a couple of bands...one New Orleans jazz style and one our favorite, Latin jazz. Topping the event off with a soft serve cone at Dairy Queen, we parted ways. Wayne headed back to the boat and I went on to find a grocery store and some fresh fruits and veggies. I also picked up a couple of croissants for Wayne and some St. Viateur bagels for me. (Montreal bagels are different from NYC bagels, for instance. They are sweeter and have more a preztel "finish" but with seeds.)

We've had a wonderful time in Montreal and would definitely come back. It rained our last night there and I took a picture of the Clock Tower right by the marina.

And a scene of Montreal from our marina..

This ends the blog for now. I'm not really checking for errors because I'm on a timed internet connection. Send me emails with complaints! :-)