Monthly Archives: July 2010

Sunday, July 4

American Independence Day! All the best to my dear friends in the USA! Our two nations are blessed to share so much together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Cavanaugh’s sister Betty-Lou and her daughter Laura joined Emily and I for a sail. The wind was great and we had a lot of fun together. While we were sailing off shore the tall ships were staging a mock sea battle. The sounds of the cannons firing were way louder than the fireworks a few days ago in front of Ontario Place.

Saturday, July 3

Today is departure day for Catherine & Mary & Alice. Catherine has to get back to London to teach Yoga classes and Alice has to get ready to head off to summer camp the next day. Emily will stay with me for a few days longer and then take the train home. We haven’t had much time together so I am really looking forward to having Emily’s company for a little while on this adventure. Emily and Alice are just like sisters so I know that she will be missing Alice right away—but I’ll do my best to keep her entertained!

Friday, July 2

Hanlan’s Wall is still packed but we decide that it is time to go exploring. Mary has friends from China staying in Toronto so they came to join us for a sail. Mary’s friend Arthur has just graduated from the University of Western Ontario Law School and his mother came over from China for the graduation and to see some of Canada. The wind is up, the sun is shining and its time to take Ananda out for a run. We know that we will lose our mooring space on Hanlan’s Wall as soon as we pull away but we decide to take a chance and if we cannot find an open space when we come back we will anchor in the harbor or somewhere in the islands.
We had an awesome sail—I could not believe how many boats were out—all types and sizes—it was like traffic on the freeway until we got out of the harbor and out on the main waters of Lake Ontario. There were several tall ships in Toronto for Canada Day. We motored past a few of them in the harbor—magnificent vessels. It’s hard to imagine what life must have been like on those ships back in the day. I would love to get a chance to sail on one for a few days.

 

 

 

 

Arthur’s Mom did not speak much English but Mary and Alice helped keep her company. They spent a bit of the time in the pilothouse having snacks and “gamming” in Mandarin. A “gam” is when two or more sailors get together and tell stories to each other. Not sure what you call it in Mandarin. When we were finished sailing we dropped Arthur and his mother off on the mainland and headed for Toronto Islands and Hanlan’s Wall.

As we expected, all of the spaces were gone so we needed to head for the designated anchorage area in the harbor. We tried to anchor there but the wind was pretty strong and it was adjacent to a busy (boating) traffic area. I was concerned that we might drag our anchor and/or get hit by an inattentive boater passing by, so we decided to move on. We headed back in to Toronto Islands and found an anchorage area in Lighthouse Cove, just beyond Hanlan’s wall and outside of the traffic zone. Now it was time for Ananda to settle down to her first night at anchor on this journey and we had found the perfect spot to do this.

Thursday, July 1

Happy Canada Day! We started the day with a great breakfast at the picnic table on shore. Emily and Alice slept until close to noon—no surprise there—that is their normal modus operandi. Oh to be 15 again! When the girls got up I put them to work right away—blowing up the dingy! It’s time to go exploring and with mooring spaces all gone, the dingy is the ideal way to do some exploring by water.
Catherine and Mary and the girls set out on foot while I fiddled with the dingy, getting it ready to launch.

How hot is it? HOT,HOT, HOT! What a difference from last year when it rained every other day and was always cold. I am very fortunate that I have had such great weather for this journey.
I hope my luck continues. As the sun began to set, we headed towards the “clothing optional” beach to watch the Toronto fireworks show, which is staged from a freighter anchored in front of Ontario Place.

There are hoards of other boaters headed the same way and as soon as we all hit the beach the “nudies” split the scene. Oh well, it was too dark to see anything anyway.

The fireworks show was awesome! It lasted about 45 minutes and we had a perfect view of it from the beach.

 

Wednesday, June 30

I spent the day tidying up the boat and exploring the Toronto Islands on foot. I discovered that there is a “clothing optional” beach just a couple hundred yards away from where I was docked, on the other side of the island. Perhaps I’ll have to stroll over that way later on…… clothed of course! Stay focused now, Catherine and Emily and Alice (Emily’s best friend) and Mary (Alice’s mom) are due to arrive around supper time and they will be staying for the Canada Day celebrations, so I have to continue working on the boat and organizing it for my 5 new crew members. The new crew arrived around 6:30pm.
I took the City ferry over to the mainland, met them on the street and we made a trip to a nearby grocery store to get provisions. I can no longer move Ananda from her mooring space. All of the marinas in Toronto are now full for the Canada Day and holiday long weekend.  Along Hanlans’s Wall boats are beginning to “double park”, or what boaters call “rafting up”. Rafting up is when one boat ties up to another boat to share the same dock or mooring space. This practice is usually limited to friends helping one another out, because the people on the outer boat have to walk over the other boat in order to get on land.

Now that the wall is full, we have decided to stay put for at least another day, because mooring spaces are like parking meters—as soon as you leave a space someone else will make a beeline for it. It was kind of funny watching the same boats slowly motor by again and again, looking for a place to tie up. It reminded me of how we all “troll” for parking spaces at shopping centers during the Christmas shopping season. On top of that, this part of the islands is pretty busy with tourist boats. Toronto has several tourist boats that take people around the harbor and the Toronto Islands. These boats range from “bus-style” that carry 30 or 40 people to large dinner cruisers that hold 200 or more people. They go by very slowly and its kind of fun to see all the people waving and taking photos of all the pleasure craft. Hmmmm, I wonder if those tour boats go on the other side of the island—past the clothing optional beach—perhaps I can take the tour too!