Wednesday June 24: Buffalo, NY

Where did my 10 day alone time go??? It seems as though I just took Steve to Toronto for his flight to Greece and on Monday he was back again!

The trip was "really fun" as he said. And truth be told I spent a good deal of the week streaming Netflix and watching the five seasons of Breaking Bad.

Always wanted to see it but we don't have HBO nor are we normally anyplace where we can stream Netflix.

Maybe not the best use of my time but still very enjoyable and the series lived up to my expectations.

So we are now at the Buffalo airport awaiting our 3 pm flight to Idaho. We'll be part of the cheering section for our son-in-law Matt as he runs (and swims and bikes) in the Coeur d'Alene Ironman. Should be a great family gathering including my brother Tom!

The return to Canada is scheduled for July 12th - in the meantime Guppy sits at the Peterborough marina awaiting our return. Several folks we know doing the loop will be passing through in our absence - which makes us sad. Oh well - that's the way it goes I guess.

Tuesday June 16: Murray's from Edisto

 Sunday afternoon, Jim and Linda aboard Symmetry II pulled into the marina here - in the rain of course. Not that it had been a very nice day but the rain seemed to follow them in.

They arrived on the Erie Canal about a week after we did but since they were headed up the Trent to Lake Superior, we knew we'd see them at some point.

And with us sitting in Peterborough we thought it likely this is where they would catch us. Sadly, Steve missed seeing them - perhaps we'll cross paths on Georgian Bay. Depends on where they'll go from Lake Superior.

What is amazing to me is that we first met Jim and Linda in Charlevoix, Michigan in 2010 as we traveled on the trawler - north through Ontario and then ultimately south on the river system. Prior to meeting them, we met Peter and Cheryl (Surona and DeJa Vu) in Spanish in the North Channel a few weeks earlier. Through Peter and Cheryl, then, we met Jim and Linda. The rest is history. We seem to manage to see them once a year - sometimes more if we happen to be driving north or south through S. Carolina.

Their plans include meeting up with Peter and Cheryl and traveling to Lake Superior. From there? Who knows :-)


It was a very nice day and a half spent with them. Dinner aboard Symmetry both nights (wine on Guppy the second night - had to show them my induction burner installation :-))

And what a wonderful dinner Monday night. It was such a beautiful plate I had to take a picture!

Linda has the same Sharp convection oven that we have on the trawler - makes a really nice roasted chicken.

Breakfast out yesterday and today. It was two great days!

So back by myself now until Steve returns on Monday. We know several other folks that are completing the Great Loop but sadly we will likely miss them as they pass by when we are on a trip back to the States. But we'll see them in Banana Bay next January.

I heard from the sailors today! It sounds as though they are having a good time on the 45' sailboat. The weather is wonderful (perhaps a bit too hot as they were pouring buckets of water on each other!) but all is good.

Friday June 12: Survived Day 1 ...

Enterprise came to the marina to pick us up right on time: 9 am.

By the time Steve did a last minute shopping trip at Walmart to pick up a few more grocery items (he was leaving for 10 days and wanted to make sure there was plenty of 'good' food in the boat) it was 11:30. That allowed 2 hours to drive to the Toronto airport and still get him there 3 hours ahead of his flight time.

In fairness, I guess I did make the statement that as soon as he left I was going to get a REAL pizza - none of this gluten free stuff - with TRIPLE cheese. All talk though .... seems as though good eating habits are hard to break :-)

I did have a project to work on - which definitely is a good thing. But I needed a jig saw. Where are Randy and Cindy on I Think I Can ...? They were our tool supplier at Banana Bay - along with Jenna Star (large crescent wrench) and Reflection (snap tool).

So a stop at Home Depot on the way back from the airport was in order.

I love tools that come with a bag! So easy to keep everything together and organized :-)



The stove redo is started. One burner is fitted - the other opening will be cut to fit the second induction burner tomorrow.

This is replacing the electric/alcohol stove that came in the boat originally. Our inverter will run one burner on low heat and then both of course if the generator is running.

The alcohol part of the old stove worked ok but having an open flame on a gas powered boat just didn't make a lot of sense to us.

And of course Steve loves his induction burners for cooking!

After a 10 hour direct flight for Steve and a much longer not direct flight for Becky (from LA to boot), the two of them managed to hook up! They said this was a toast to me .....

I might be getting jealous ....

But I survived Day 1. Seems I am able to cook if I want to - but, man, am I spoiled.

I'm thinking I'll really realize just how spoiled I am by the time Steve returns :-)

Wednesday June 10: Peterborough

Saturday was our last day in Campbellford - definitely time to move on ....

But first there was the farmer's market across the bridge as well as a - in theory - a huge garage sale sponsored by the Lion's Club.

So Steve checked out the market while I waited nearby.

The Lion's sale kind of turned out to be a bust but it was still a nice ride to a part of the town we hadn't seen before.

Finally Sunday we headed out for the first of six locks and 20 miles to Hastings.

It was again a very nice day - sunny and 70's. Plenty warm in the sun.

It was nice to be moving again!

There are very few boats actually moving though the lowerer end of the waterway system so for us it was great. Every lock was open and waiting for us.

As we were traveling by ourselves the locking went much faster - in, hang on to the cables, up and out. It's still always tiring when traveling through so many locks so by the time we made it to Hastings, we pretty much stayed put - except of course Steve had to walk around and check out the town to see if anything had changed :-)


Osprey are a welcome sight along the waterway - what a change from years past.

Loons in their summer colors have also been spotted. They are so much prettier than when we see them in their gray/white winter colors in Florida.

And then on Monday, the rains began .....

There were only 40 miles and one lock between Hastings and Peterborough. It should be a really nice ride down the length of Rice Lake and then the final 20 miles on the winding Trent River.

Wait or go? Fortunately we went! The weather on Tuesday and Wednesday were even worse than the on/off rain on Monday.






So we're now firmly tied to the dock at the marina - with the view of the fountain from the aft deck - having arrived late afternoon Monday.

Storms have rolled through both yesterday and today. It's a good place to be!

Steve is packed and ready to travel to Greece. He's meeting Becky for a 10 day combined sightseeing and sailing trip (he'll earn his Royal Yacht Association Day Skipper Sailing Certification and Becky will earn her Competent Crew Member Certificaion!!), The sightseeing includes Athens and Santorini. The sightseeing sounds great but Sailing ....really? :>)

Someone needs to hold down the fort here - that's me! Mmmm ..... 10 days of alone time. Have I made the right decision? I'm thinking so ...

Friday June 5: Still in Campbellford

It's been mostly play the last few days. We decided to just stay in Campbellford for another 3 days - not only is it a nice place to be but we're also dragging our feet a bit.

For the time being, the plan is to not go beyond Peterborough until mid July when we return from Idaho (we'll be cheering for our son-in-law as he competes in an Ironman there).

Peterborough is only a two day trip from here - three if you work at it :-)

Wednesday is the planned arrival date. So we have time ....

The days have turned quite pleasant - sunny and not too hot. There is a nice park with an easy to ride path back toward the suspension bridge that we saw as we approached the last lock.

The local Rotary has created a very nice bike/walk path that runs in a loop around the canal - which connects to the suspension bridge.

There were even some turtles to boot!

And Canadian geese of course. The young ones are getting pretty big already even though it's pretty early in the season.


Even though they really make a mess, it's still nice to see the geese.

Steve spent part of yesterday buffing out the flybridge.

As was true for the sides, the boat looks so much nicer and the dirt just washes away instead of getting stuck on the sides.

Having shade is always a nice thing even though the temps are in the mid-70's, the sun still gets quite warm.

Laundry was also on the list for yesterday. It's always nice to have that done - another thing I miss: the washer/dryer on the trawler ......

Thunderstorms were due in today about 2 pm. The clouds rolled in right on schedule. The rain was short lived though and the sun actually made an appearance by early evening.

One small job today: install a battery monitor. This will allow us to monitor the state of the batteries when we're running on the inverter rather than shore power. Of course the main electrical panel had to come out again but the whole job only took about an hour!

Tomorrow: farmer's market across the bridge in the morning plus a large community garage sale put on by the Lion's Club. I think Steve is still hoping to find one or two more pots for his induction burner!!

Sunday: we'll finally move on .....

Tuesday June 2: Campbellford

It was still seriously cold yesterday when we left Frankford - and with a slow start it was breakfast on the road. No way we wanted to miss the first lock of the day as they are only open 10 - 4 on weekdays. Steve made a great egg sandwich and a hot cup of tea. Perfect :-)

Definitely another oven mitt day on the flybridge though. I surely do miss that enclosed flybridge on Yesterday's Dream .......

Traveling the southern end of the Trent River is pretty quiet. Maybe one or two fishing boats and a couple of cruisers moving but not much else.

It's got to be the weather! We made our way slowly through 4 locks and the winding waterways. Modest cottages line parts of the river - a few campgrounds as well.

The original homes which were occupied by the lockmaster and his family still stand at several of the locks along this stretch of the system.

Most locks are somewhat isolated - all are very quiet places to spend an evening.

But our destination was Campbellford - nice town where we could once again plug in our little heater. Low again in the low 40's.

At last we spotted the suspension bridge which is just a mile downstream from Campbellford - and then made our way into the last of the locks: the flight locks (2 locks in a row) at Ranney Falls.

We followed the houseboat through all of the locks - they had rejoined us the second night at Frankford. Nice couple from Ottawa.

We can't quite figure out why it is so tiring traveling on days that are cold and windy but both of us were happy to be in and tied up to the town dock wall yesterday!

The houseboat left early this morning - we have opted to take advantage of the "pay for two, stay three" deal at the marina here.

There is still some work that needs to be done and this is a great place to do it!

Breakfast first though - across the bridge - overlooking the water.

And a stop at the thrift store. Steve is still searching for stainless steel pots for his induction burner. And I needed some new books. Score on both counts!!

Then the work started. With the sun out and the temps in the low 70's, it was a perfect day to get the new flybridge cover fitted. Also made in Banana Bay - using the old one (which was pretty worn out due to a poor choice of material) as a pattern.

Overall? VERY happy with the outcome!!

Next, new white covers for shade and privacy. 80% of the heat is blocked, better visibility out. Also made in Banana Bay.

The old ones were fine - Steve thought we needed to make new ones so we could see out better (using a different material). He was right. Can't believe I actually admitted that ......

I'll leave it that the second side went a lot better than the first (4 snaps had to be drilled out and moved on the first side).

By the time we finished, the wind had picked up and it was chilly again.

But a great day. Tomorrow two small projects and then we should be done.

Sure - right. Boats are never done ......