July 17 – Kemptville
45°4′8″ N 75°38′9″ W

What a difference a day makes…..

As the song goes, 24 little hours can significantly change your perspective….

Yesterday did not end well. I was really disappointed that we could not get an overnight dock with electricity & we ended up in a very pretty but bug infested space. And, on top of everything else, it was stinking hot & humid. Probably the worst heat day I had had on the entire trip so far. Somebody could have bought Santosha for a bargain price last night!

This morning was a new day. The sunrise was beautiful & there was a gentle cool breeze over the water.

While we were headed down the river towards Ottawa I called the Home Hardware store in Kemptville & managed to get them to reserve for me the last 20 inch box fan they had. We immediately altered our day’s objective destination to be Pirate Cove Marina, which is just on the outskirts of the town.

I was a happy guy, looking forward to hours of enjoyment in front of that fan! The fact that we ran aground for a minute while trying to enter the marina’s exceptionally narrow & shallow channel didn’t even phase me that much. Santosha’s propeller in full reverse made short work of that muddy bottom. Nothing was going to keep me from getting the last available box fan in Eastern Ontario!

Photo above: the channel to Pirate Cove Marina.

After getting diesel, a pump out & fresh water we moved Santosha over to a docking slip for the night & had a taxi take us into town to pick up the fan. While we were there we stopped at a local pub & had a great lunch with a big, cold draft beer. Then back to the marina to try out the new fan.

Ironically, the heat wave seems to have subsided a bit. There is a nice breeze coming off the river into the marina – dramatically different from last night.

I also managed to get the air conditioning working on the boat. It runs well on shore power but unfortunately it demands just a bit too much power for the Honda generator. Oh well, that box fan will do the job nicely, thank you very much. 🙂

With things going so well I decided that it would be a good time to defrost the fridge. It’s ability to make a sufficient supply of ice cubes each day was diminishing & that simply would not do! It was a hard job watching the fridge defrost but sitting in front of my new fan with a G&T in hand helped a lot.

After defrosting the fridge Catherine & I had a great supper & we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. If you are interested in buying Santosha, call me back in about 10 years!

What a difference a day makes: http://youtu.be/OmBxVfQTuvI

Cheers!