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.

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!

Dan (on Pineapple) and I left Port Credit Marina around 9:30am. Dan sailed and I motored. I was still pretty tired from the trip to this date. This was a very cool segment of my journey. The Toronto skyline and CN Tower were visible as soon as we got out on the lake. The wind was blowing about 10-12 knots and Pineapple was clipping along at 6-7 knots the entire way. I had no trouble keeping up and took multiple photos of Pineapple and the Toronto skyline.  We entered Toronto Harbor through the eastern passage.

This was very exciting for me to see the city from this perspective, plus the wind was blowing a good clip and there were dozens of sail and power boats zipping around. Dan led the way to enter the Toronto Islands at Hanlan’s Point. He showed me where the mooring wall was and then led me to the Centre Island Marina where I could get the holding tanks pumped out and the fuel tanks filled. After the tanks were taken care of I moved over to the Hanlan’s Point Wall, picked out a great spot with a view of the city and tied up for the night.  

By the time I had my supper completed it was dark. The Toronto skyline and CN Tower looked magnificent and I spent at least an hour enjoying the view. About 10:00pm the boat was boarded by an intruder. This startled me and I was not sure what to do. I could hear movement on the back deck so I thought I would shine a bright light through the window to scare him off. When I turned the light on I found the intruder staring right back at me, daring me to come outside. I’ll never forget that face—whiskers about 3 inches long, black nose and black eye mask. Height about 18 inches (on all 4 paws) and weight about 25-30 pounds. You guessed it, a raccoon! Anyway, we stared at each other for a minute then he got bored and moved on. Hopefully he will be the only uninvited guest who ever comes aboard.

I spent Monday in Port Credit. Continued cleaning up and organizing the boat—does this ever end? Marinas are great places to meet people and make new friends. Dan, my dock neighbor is from Toronto. He keeps his Aloha 29, “Pineapple” at a marina in Toronto Islands and Dan graciously offered to show me around the Toronto Islands the next day.

I spent the day in Port Credit Marina. First item on list, go shopping at boat store to get a dozen new flares. One fine is enough for this sailor! This area is in the midst of a heat wave. Temperatures are 30 degrees C or higher and the humidity is very high. You perspire just standing still, so we spent a lot of time in & looking for shade or air conditioning. The boat does not have any air conditioning but it is reasonably comfortable if you can have a small fan running close by. The Port Credit Marina is right downtown so lots of restaurants and services are just a 5 minute walk away. Chris and I went to a local pub for a late morning breakfast and his sister Betty Lou joined us. She lives in Port Credit just a few minutes away. We watched part of the England-Germany soccer game in the pub. Chris headed home to London on the 5:00pm train.