Tuesday June 18: A Great Place to Be - Orillia!

We enjoy being in Orillia because you just never know what you'll see and what might be going on :-)

One of the dock guys here was walking around on the dock with his hawk. Best way to keep the seagulls from sitting on the wall around the marina! I've seen plastic one before but never a REAL one on patrol.

And of course there was the chocolate lab whose job was to keep the docks clear of sea gulls. One word from her master and off she went down the length of the docks to chase the birds away.

Sure beats washing the bird dirt off of all of the docks!

One of the best things about being here is the availability of whatever we need to complete our remaining projects (said like there is ever an end!). Steve decided to start working on the teak.

Someone decided to varnish it which just really does not work because of the oil which is naturally in the teak wood (hence it doesn't rot - which makes it perfect for boats). So first job is to remove the varnish using paint remover. Not a fun job - another one of those jobs which most certainly had Steve's name on it :-)

Meanwhile the cold, rainy weather of the past week or so reminded me that it was imperative to be able to move the chartplotter to the driving station down below. Sadly, unlike the trawler, when it is raining driving cannot be done from the flybridge - well, I guess it could but definitely isn't going to be me!

So I spent the time adding a 12-volt outlet to the flybridge dash (who said a wood drill bit can't cut through aluminum - just don't think it'll ever cut wood anymore :-)) and wiring the chartplotter plug to the appropriate 12 volt plug in. Success :-)

The day was complete with a nice sunset or at least some nicely colored clouds as we can't really see the sun set from the docks.

Today started with breakfast at the Rec Center. They are willing to prepare breakfast potatoes with no oil so we're totally in! This is the view from the restaurant - it's right across the street from the entrance to the Narrows off of Lake Simcoe.

The city has lots of fun sailboats sitting around. Much like the guitars in Cleveland, etc. Funny how many cities we've been to that have embraced this idea of local artists creating original work which is displayed around the city.


Just fun to look at!









Of course, more projects. Another one on the "must be done" list was to get the electronic ignition installed and working correctly. We tried this when we first put the boat in the water but then ended up having to just put points back into the distributor. It's time since we are not able to really "cruise" the way the boat is designed to.

So first Steve cleaned the inside of the distributor with the dremel to remove any rust that might be causing a bad ground connection. Put in the electronic ignition (nice little kit from Petronix), go for a test ride and ..... no improvement.

Back to the dock. Let's try retiming the engine.

Great plan!!

Back out to the lake to check and YES!!!! We now have a boat that cruises at 29 mph at full speed and at 21 mph at a reasonable speed (which means we're not burning fuel at a crazy, crazy rate with the 4-barrel carburetor in this thing). How great to have that issue resolved :-)



Odd things happen around here. I swore I heard bagpipes but decided it was my imagination. Not so - just the local legionnaires practicing! (You may want to turn your volume on to really enjoy the video :-))