Tuesday August 8: Leaving Orillia - After a Week!!

Last Wednesday as we neared Chief Island, we passed the home of hundreds of cormorants - the island has been decimated by the very acidic droppings they produce.

Eventually the island will come back but in the meantime, it is definitely a place to be avoided!


The anchorage at this island is sand from shore out to about 5 feeet of water making it a great place to spend the day and/or night - as long as there isn't a strong wind from the NW.

Many of the boats took off as a storm approached in the late afternoon - we moved closer to shore but still intended to spend the night.

It was an ideal opportunity for Steve to clean off the outdrive and wash off the waterline around the boat.

A nice kayak around the area completed the day and after the storm rolled through, the sun returned.

By 9 am Wednesday, we were on our way for the short 3 miles to Orillia.





As we approached from the north, the familiar sights of the Champlain Monument and the pavilion were a reassuring sight!

Some things never change - even from 40 years ago :-)

We always look forward to our time here and the new marina building was finally finished. A very nice job done - the showers and restrooms are really very nice. Guess we may as well stay a week ....

Margaritaville has arrived!

It wasn't too long after we arrived that Randy and Cindy and crew (Cricket and Giget) in their new northern boat Margaritaville arrived!

They are boat neighbors at Banana Bay in Marathon but live near here for the part of the year when Florida is too hot.




Plus their daughter and son-in-law are right in the area as well so the grandkids would be arriving in a few days to travel along with us.

Saturday, Deja Vu arrived with Peter and Cheryl! What a reunion! We hadn't see them for over a year as they weren't able to make the trip to Florida. So if they wouldn't come to Florida, we just had to catch up with them on the Trent :-)







They live near Midland at the south end of Georgian Bay so the meetup was inevitable. As we keep telling Peter, you can run but you can't hide :-)

Breakfast at the Community Center was as good as ever. We ended up there two mornings during the past week.

The Chinese place? 3 lunches and one dinner :-) It's ALMOST as good at the Fenelon Falls! I mean after all, it won't be until Perry Sound - numerous days away) that we'll have an opportunity again ....  Sadly, the Chinese place my dad loved has been gone for many years but I can't help but remember the blinking sign on the hill beckoning him to come up for dinner! Too many memories of this place for sure.

A couple of 'job well done' for Steve. The engine has been leaking oil and Steve found that the gasket on the distributor shaft looks like it might be the culprit so he pulled the distributor, took it to the auto parts store to find a replacement and then put everything back together.

It started nicely and with an adjustment to the timing, we expect the oil leak to be fixed. Time will tell ....

He also put a coat of cetol on the wood trim. Looks good but still needs another coat. Lots of rainy days in the 6 we were here so hopefully the sun today will stay around a while as we head on north toward the end of the Trent and the beginning of Georgian Bay.


There was also some fishing time with Liam and Mia (the grandkids) and Randy off the fishing pier at the marina.

No keepers but fun for all!

As a part of last minute provisioning this morning, he went to the grocery store to pick a few things - including some dill so he could make salmon with dill sauce.


No dill is a small tube like he usually uses - instead the produce manager came back with a couple of dozen stalks of fresh dill - would these do?

Steve laughed and said yes but noted that he really didn't need that much - a couple of stalks would be fine. Free. Talk about a weirdly good deal :-)

Off soon - not sure where but that's the beauty ...