We thought we had settled in on the Lift dock at Bay Port Marina, so we left the boat there and walked into town. It took about 25 mins to get to the Town Dock where we went looking for food. Talk about hungry! We could have eaten two horses and three ducks, I think. All that anxiety makes you hungry!
On the walk there, I took a couple of photos...of course:)
We ordered some calamari...couldn't think too well without food, and that looked like a good default starter. It was served with Tsatziki..and somehow didn't taste good. Could have done with some garlic aioli! ordered our mains and didn't have to wait too long for those either. Waz ordered ribs, which were pronounced fantastic, and I had a pork schnitzel with mushroom gravy and mashed and yummy stir fry veg. Fantastic good honest food. The best was yet to come!!! They had REAL home made Crème Brulee. This is the first REAL Crème Brulee I have had since being back in the USA(all the others have been made with a 'mix'). You can taste the egg in the custard! That's how you know. It was delicious. Wow! What a great way to finish a shitty day!:)
We walked back to the boat along the town bike path, which would have been a better way to get into town, but never mind....now we know!
We arrived to find the boat had been moved back, along the dock. There was another boat coming in that needed the travel lift NOW! Uh Oh!
As we had come out of Port Severn, we had heard a MAYDAY alert on the Coast Guard radio (channel 16) from the occupant of a vessel in the Potato Island channel (the preferred channel, apparently) that exits the Port, to say they had struck a rock and were taking on water. Well, we weren't the ONLY ones to hit a rock...and I would guess a whole lot of other people did too!
As we heard the call, we looked through the binoculars to see the boat, not far away, listing to port, and stationary. We could not aid them, so continued towards Midland.
This turned out to be that boat I told you to remember, at Lock #42, where we stayed for two nights. The Four Winns 43...remember??
Well, the tow boat arrived at the Marina with her in tow, about 9.20pm...it was almost dark, but there was enough light for them to get all their stuff off the boat etc, and for people to be able to see some of what was underneath, when she was lifted out of the water.
The towboat had four pumps on the stern of the boat, and they were spewing water faster than you can say knife...great gushes of it! The hoses snaked down into the bowels of the boat.
I wouldn't like to make any predictons at all, but they must have been going at speed to do the kind of damage they did, to their boat. They tore the Pod Drive off the starboard side. The pod is designed to let go, apparently, but not to hole the boat. This one had obviously failed!
By the way...this is NOT our prop!
By the time they got the boat loaded onto the travel lift, if was a bit too dark to take more pics, but I did manage a dark one of the pumps on the back of the boat. Might have to post it later, as there is limited internet right now.
Our hearts go out to the Family from Montreal who were a week into their family vacation.
We were up early for our haul out in the morning, having slept like logs! I took a sleeping tablet, just to insure the quality of sleep:)..it worked!
The boat above had been put on blocks, so we were ready to go around 8.45am.
I had readied the large load of laundry to do while our girl was out of the water...not sure how long for...and went off and did that.
The minute she was out in the sling, the pressure hose came out and the staff had her cleaned off in a flash. How nice to have that done for us. It obviously is all part of the 'cost' of hauling the boat.
It meant that when she dried off, we could see if there was any other damage to her hull, having hit rocks along our keel, but all we could see was a bit of paint off. We soon touched that up, along with a whole lot of other spots. I took on the task of removing the little barnacles from all the orifices, and then painting them, when dry.
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This zinc on the shaft needed to be replaced, having come undone...hmmmm...as did some of the others, so we did all the shaft zincs! The trim tab zincs and Rudder zincs also got changed out. We also got the chance to paint anti-foul on the props, struts, rudders and water intakes. We did spot painting on the hull and all the important things that we had time to do, before putting her back with a matched pair of Props. We now wait for the starb'd prop to be redone by Thursday, and we are on our way. No way for us to pick her up in another port, unfortunately.
She was out of the water until just after lunch, on Friday, which gave us time to check her belly. We are happy to see that everything looks pretty good. We will eventually need to give her bottom a paint, but that isn't urgent at this stage. A good winter project!:)
Damage!!! a pretty wee bend...enough to stop our engine, and make the other blades look like the rats had been gnawing!
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We hadn't had time for breakfast before taking her out of the water, so we were pretty hungry by 1pm. Once she was on a dock, I set out to make Saimin noodles...something very filling!!
Waz tying up on the dock opposite the fuel dock. I guess I would call it the Jump Seat...this is where they put the big boats ready to go out the channel opposite. It is not an ideal settling place, coz we are in the main channel out, on a corner that all the boats seem to want to accelerate around. We also get the wake of those coming in off the bay...they come down off the plane and their wake follows them into the channel:( We have a bumpy ride most of the day, but the nights are quiet.!
Saimin noodles with carrots, cabbage, broccoli and Italian sausage..yum!:)
We watched the light diminishing, enjoying the cloud formations, above the marina.
This fella with his 7 month old Golden/Poodle mix, 'Chester', who loves the boat:) He is gorgeous, but a handful...the dog that is! Dad talks the hind leg off a donkey, but gave us some interesting 'tips'.
And as the sun went down some more, I had to take this photo of the liquid gold. Reflected sunset on water. I never get tired of reflections of boats.
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Saturday:
We did a little bit of a tidy up on board, took trash out, went to visit Helen and Bob for some chart information, and spent an hour or so with them, getting the .50c tour of their 50 ft Motor Yacht at the same time:) They have lived aboard for 10 years!!! Both of them are retired Electrical Engineers. Helen is the Captain and Bob is the First Mate. She is a highly competent Captain too! He has vision impairment, so is a little challenged for some tasks, but they manage very well, the two of them.
We ate fruit salad for lunch, to finish up all the berries that needed eating, and then got the bikes off the boat and went exploring ...well, kind of.
After a large brunch, around ten am, we decided to go and find another bearing (the marina could only furnish us with one and we needed two), and a pop riveter...something has come loose, and needs riveting.
Our travels took us up a looooong hill away from the waterfront. We walked/biked all the way up, and got onto a main highway...not a great place for a bike, nor is a parking lot at a mall...we used our bells/horns a lot. They rather took people by surprise, I think, but it sure got their attention. Parking lots are certain death to bikers...people pull out without looking!!! aieeee!
Eventually we started our way back down the hill...looking primarily for a coffee shop, but it was now 4.30pm! We did happen upon a DQ (Dairy Queen) and decided we had already burned all our brunch calories off, so a Blizzard would definitely refill the calorie bank. We opted for Mini's of the new flavor (much too sweet) of Peanut butter Rolo. Wont be doing THAT again! Yuk!
We finished our bike ride all the way back to the main drag, and along the bike path to home.
I think we travelled at least 5 miles...at least! and were glad to get out of the saddle.
I made a cole slaw and Katsu Chicken ( Boneless chicken thighs coated in Dijon mustard and Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs and shallow fried in veg. oil) for dinner with an avocado on the side. Pretty simple, but yummy.
I have to admit to not taking any photos..sorry! Too busy, and sometimes I just need to attend to the task at hand...so Im told:)
Thunder and lightening preceded the Rain, and Waz had gone the 200 feet up the dock to the Showers, without a raincoat...hmm....He was stuck there in the shelter for a good 45 mins before the rain stopped enough for him to come back to the boat, in the dark, without having TWO showers.
I have been trying to finish these blogs for few days now, but the internet is slow and photos take a long time to upload...I think this is now caught up.
Sunday:
We got all the charts out and found which portions of our next part of the journey we are missing, and purchased those from the Marina store. We are making decisions as to which route to take, with minimum stress both for the boat and for us, while letting us enjoy Georgian Bay.
More on that at a later date. We will again be without internet for a few days, once we leave the marina, but I will write the blog on Word, if I can. Lots to remember always!
We had a long chat with one of our dock neighbors, a Lawyer from Toronto, who travels the 1 1/2 hrs to this marina, on weekends, all summer. He has sailed this Bay for 30 something years, so it was good to hear his stories and opinions. At the end of the day we have to make our own informed choices though.
Well, that's it for now. I need to go fill a bucket with soapy water, get the scrubber out and go clean the baby. Ciao for now
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