Monday August 6: Leaving Midland

Yesterday was a windy, cloudy, rainy day - one of the very few just not nice days we've had since coming up here. In between the rains it was actually a nice day to ride around as it was about 15 degrees cooler than Saturday. Let's hear it for the north winds :-)

It is soon to be official (tomorrow): Guppy will be a Canadian boat! Customs officials came to Midland to inspect the boat and papers - we are good to go. As soon as we pay the appropriate tax of course! But the tax (5% of the sale value) was less we expected because we aren't Canadian citizens. So that was a nice surprise. Why bother doing this? So Guppy can stay in Canada over the winter. Without importing the boat, it cannot be left up here. Which is better for us so we aren't making the trek across Lake Ontario twice a year. And we can still bring the boat back to NY if we decide to travel the Erie Canal some year.

We found a very nice bike path around the small lake which is very close to Midland. Great park as well. Again, a town that has really put some $$ into recreational areas for folks that live around here (and visit!)

I'm never sure where the days go but yesterday an inordinate amount of time was spent running a water line from the engine to the shower. Of course it involves running the water line behind and under bulkheads and thru cabinets to get it where we needed it to be. End result is always total destruction of the cabin between opening up the floor, emptying the cabinets and getting every tool we own out from under the v-bunk. But victory in the end! I now will have an endless supply of hot water to the shower!!! The water is drawn off of the hot water circulating around the engine (so it's lake water and not to drink). It's a trick we learned from the houseboats we rented many years ago and is something that you just say "I should have thought of that!". When I think of all those years with hot water only if Steve would haul it from the lock .... My mom and I would be doing the dishes on the picnic table using two dishpans - one to wash and one to rinse. Talk about no comforts of home. In hindsight, I'm surprised she tolerated being on the boat for so many years.

Yesterday there were white caps during part of the day on this little part of Midland Bay. Don't want to know what the main part of Georgian Bay looked like.

It is time to leave though - supposed to be nice until Thursday so we'll head north toward Perry Sound and maybe hang around there if the weather turns.

Bikes are back on the boat, water tank is full, cooler has ice and we're ready. Back online in a few days time. Hopefully we'll find Frying Pan Bay not totally filled with boats as the long holiday weekend ends today.