July 4th: Orillia by myself, more work!

It's surprising how much work is involved in living on a 28 foot boat. There were still quite a few things I wanted to finish. People keep asking about the smoke from the forest fires. I was fortunate in Orillia. There was almost none. Once in a while I could smell a little smoke but not bad at all. In talking with Randy and Cindy I learned that there were some very heavy smoke days in Temagami. I hoped it would clear before I went to the Island Lake house. Temagami is about a four hour drive, (about 200 miles) straight north of Orillia.

Saturday afternoon I went back to Guppy while the Rahns were packing up. There was a singer/guitar player in the park right across from my boat. He was quite enjoyable. It was drizzling so I did a video through the screen. 

The Rahns left Sunday and I was scheduled to take a bus to Temagami Wednesday. That gave me time to continue working on Guppy. I needed to clean more black mold off of the ceilings. Sitting for three years it could have been worse. White vinegar is very effective for cleaning the mold off. I went through all the storage areas and cleaned out a lot of stuff that was outdated or no longer needed.

I also made 3 trips to the laundromat to clean all the bedding, towels, sleeping bags, etc. I was pleased to get it all done. Used a Turtle Wax upholstery cleaner on the cushions and it worked great. Guppy was looking much better inside.

The Gorilla Tape I put on the back deck to stop the leaks was the next order of business. It rained Sunday after the Rahns left and I learned that the tape was not keeping the water out. Bad news. Rain was forecast every day before I left for Temagami.

Using the bimini top and two umbrellas I was able to keep the aft deck from getting rained on. I walked to the hardware store to get some Marine Waterproof Epoxy. 

It works great and will cure even though the wood was damp. It cures in an hour, which was great because there was more rain coming. I scraped out most of the old caulking and replaced it with the Water Weld.

I finished the repair Monday morning knowing some serious rain was forecast for the next 48 hours. The forecast was correct. 

This is just one of the storms that passed through.

We got a tremendous amount of rain on and off Monday and Tuesday. The rain  drops were huge at times. 

The future plan was to spend two weeks at Lake Temagami with the Peterson families, then return to Guppy two days before heading to Ireland with the Toracks. I wanted Guppy to be ready to go when I returned from Ireland. My California boating friend, Fran, would meet me in Toronto and we would travel by shuttle to Orillia. We'll stay at a hotel a couple nights. We both will have had a long travel day. Plus, it is a holiday weekend and the travel would be very slow Friday or Saturday due to traffic. While in Toronto we made arrangements to see Hamilton at the Princess of Wales Theater. Our plan is to cruise through as much of the Trent Canal and Georgian Bay as time allows. Probably the end of August. I was pretty satisfied with Guppy's condition. I was ready to catch the Wednesday, 11:30 AM Northland bus to Temagami.