Toronto Island – 43.6245158,-79.3824478

I was looking forward to staying an extra day in Toronto. It was a good opportunity for me to rest up after our marathon trip through the Welland Canal and I also wanted to have a visit with my friend Basheer who is now living in Toronto. I called Basheer & arranged for him to meet me for a late afternoon dinner at a restaurant beside the marina.

I had never been at this particular marina before so I walked around for an hour to explore the area and to get some exercise. Toronto Island offers great views of the city’s skyline that you simply cannot get from the mainland.

Basheer arrived on one of the passenger ferries at 6:00pm & we went for supper at the restaurant beside the ferry dock.

I met Basheer in London while I was volunteering with London‘s Cross Cultural Learners Centre (CCLC). Basheer lived in Kuwait before coming to Canada so we immediately had something in common. His first language is Arabic & he helped me a great deal with the Syrian immigrant family that I am working with.

This was Basheer’s first time on Toronto Island & he had never seen my boat before so there was lots to talk about.

Basheer had to work the next day so he had to leave before the last ferry took passengers back to the mainland.

Before going to bed I went back to the small beach that we had found earlier & got some nice shots of the city skyline lit up at night.

It was a pretty relaxing day compared to the previous two days but I was still ready to turn in before it got too late. I wanted to get up at 5:00am so I could have an early start on my passage to Whitby.

I will visit with the folks who bought Ananda from us in 2016 and are sailing her out of the Whitby Marina and I can get settled in before the big World Cup soccer game between England & Columbia began.

Cheers!