Author Archives: Wally

Tuesday, July 13

We entered the Murray Canal around 9:00am. The canal is about 10 miles long and has two swing bridges. The eastern (2nd) bridge collects a $5.00 toll for the full canal passage. The operator collects the toll by passing you a can on a long stick. Exact change is always appreciated. If you do not have exact change you can stop on the canal wall walk up to the bridge operator to pay the toll and get change made.

We entered the Bay of Quinte around noon. We motored past Trenton and then stopped the engine to have lunch in the middle of the bay just front of Canadian Forces Base Trenton. There was no wind so we just drifted lazily while we cooked hamburgers on the BBQ.
After lunch we started up the engine and continued motoring on towards Belleville. En route we were surrounded by hundreds of dragonflys that were in the process of mating. They were attracted to Ananda’s rigging and many landed and proceeded to procreate.
We were making pretty good time so we continued on and ended the day near Glenora, Ontario. We anchored in Canachan Bay, a beautiful little bay a couple of miles from Glenora. It was pretty hot so as soon as we were satisfied that the anchor was properly set we donned our swimming trunks and jumped overboard.

After cooling down, I started to cook supper while Steve did some fishing. He tossed in a line and caught a big one just a few minutes later. We would have eaten it but supper was already well underway so Steve mercifully tossed his catch back into the bay so it could have a 2nd chance.

Monday, July 12

Steve and I left Cobourg around noon and headed towards Presque Isle Bay and the entrance of the Murray Canal. This canal is for pleasure craft only and links the west end of the Bay of Quinte to Lake Ontario. Once again, there was no wind so we had to motor the entire distance. When we arrived in Presque Isle Bay we were too late to enter the canal because the two swing bridges in the canal stop for the day at 7:30pm, so we tied up on the wall at the canal entrance to spend the night. We were near a marsh area that was also a mosquito haven. As a result we got eaten alive that night. We shut the boat up before dark but the mosquitoes still managed to find a way in to the cabin. Steve and I spent the evening looking at photos on the laptop and swatting bugs. By bedtime Steve had a pretty big pile of mosquito carcasses. Hopefully the sight of all those dead bodies deterred their comrades from entering our sleeping quarters!

Sunday, July 11

Sadly, Bo had to head home today. I cannot believe how fast our time together flew by. We covered a fair bit of ground and Bo was awesome in helping me install the new heads. No, change that thought, Bo didn’t help me, he pretty much did it all himself while I hobbled around the boat like a 90 year old, not much good for anything except to pass him parts and tools. I hope that I get the chance to return the favour, my friend. By the way, I’ll be sailing to the Chesapeake next summer, wanna join me for a week? I was also thinking about upgrading Ananda’s plumbing about that time (just kidding). Next year, it’s all serious sailing—I promise!

 

After Bo left Steve and I worked on installing the new dingy davits. My back was still pretty sore but codeine is a wonderful drug! Steve cooked supper and texted his boss back in British Columbia that he was working pretty hard on his “supposed-to-be” vacation. Steve lives in Golden, BC which is about 3 hours’ drive west of Calgary. Steve is a top notch automotive and diesel mechanic and an absolutely awesome Dad to his 4 year old daughter Zoe. Steve is on vacation so I wouldn’t dream of asking him to do any work on the boat ;-). After supper Steve walked over to the local beach where a fellow was working on some incredible sand sculptures.

Saturday, July 10

This morning my back was incredibly sore. I could hardly move. The night before I had picked up the strongest (over-the-counter) pain pills that I could find at the local pharmacy but they did not seem to be helping much. This pain was really odd because it would come in waves (no pun intended) that would last 15-30 minutes each. Once the pain spell had passed I could function reasonably well but when the pain came back it was so intense I was hardly able to stand up. Around 11:30am I could not stand it any longer so Bo took me to the local hospital Emergency Room. My son Steve was due to arrive on the train at 1:00pm. I was hoping to get in and out of the ER quickly be at the train station in time to meet him but the ER was pretty busy and there was only 1 doctor on duty. As it turned out, I spent 4 hours in the ER and Bo ended up going to the train station to meet Steve. Luckily Coburg has a small station and they didn’t have any trouble connecting up with each other—even though they had never met before & Steve was expecting to see me, not Bo. I finally got out of the ER with prescriptions for muscle relaxants, pain killers and inflammation reduction.

Bo and Steve continued working on the installation of the toilets and got the project wrapped up around supper time. At Bob & Jackie’s suggestion we donated the old toilets to the local Habitat For Humanity Re-Store. The people there were very happy to get them and they will be a bargain for someone renovating an old boat or a rustic cottage with no pressure water. The bowls were in perfect shape & Royal Doulton to boot, so they might even be suitable for serving punch in, but I won’t be the one to take the first drink from them! Our dock neighbours (husband & wife) are avid fishermen. We had talked with them a few times and they were telling us about what can be caught in the lake. Last week they caught a 23lb salmon. When Bo and I arrived back from the hospital, my son Steve presented us with a beautiful filet of lake trout caught (and cleaned) earlier that day by our neighbours. We cooked that beauty up for dinner on the BBQ and it was absolutely delicious.

Friday, July 9

Today we began installing the new heads. We started the day by walking to the downtown area to Jackie Munro’s restaurant “Munro’s” and introducing ourselves to her.  Bob was due to arrive home from Atlanta later in the afternoon. Jackie was kind enough to loan us her car so we could go on a trek for plumbing supplies—and what a trek it turned out to be! A few pieces at Canadian Tire, some more at Home Depot, then WalMart, some more at the local marine supply store and finally at a local plumbing supply store. Wow, almost 5 hours of running around for a handful of parts.

After we were done Jackie fed us awesome (late) lunch at her restaurant.
Armed with plumbing supplies and full tummies we started our new project. Bo really did not have a lot of interest in helping me with this project. He told me that he had trouble sleeping the night before so he was up at 3:00am measuring the dimensions in the head and making a list of the supplies we would need to accomplish the task. What a great guy!

The old toilets came our pretty easily and I lined them up on the foredeck so that all passers-by in the marina could have a chuckle. We started installing new toilets and I blew out my back trying to put a water fitting inside a piece of plastic pipe. Wow, did that hurt! I was simply sitting down and trying to press the two fittings together—and pow!!!—it felt like someone had stuck a knife in my back.
By this time Bob Munro had arrived home from his trip. Bob and Jackie live in a condo right at the marina so Bob kindly went home and got some pain lineament for me. That seemed to help a bit. It was getting on to early evening & I did not want to push my back any further so we quit for the day and went out for dinner with Bob and Jackie at a local English pub. Awesome fish & chips!