Wednesday June 6: Fenelon Falls - COLD, COLD

It has been so warm (like mid 80's) - almost too hot ever since we arrived at Orillia.

But that was going to change. So now the challenge was to plan our travel so we would be able to plug into power (so as to run our little 110 heater) as it was going into the 40's at night.

And one thing boats are not known for is their insulation properties in the walls and windows!

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday as we left Orillia with a destination of one of the 5 locks on the east side of Lake Simcoe. Not sure where we'd stop as the really cold nights weren't due in until Tuesday.

Simcoe was very calm so we cruised the 16 miles across. Just one minor problem: the boat would not get up on plane and was backfiring!

Felt like water in the fuel (we had just added 60 gallons). Ran fine on the way to Orillia. No seaweed on the prop - what else could it be? Get out the seafoam (gets rid of water in the gas).

Let's see: boat ran great to Orillia and now can't get on plane. Mmmm..... messed around in the engine compartment replacing the water heater. Maybe better check if there was anything disturbed down by the engine while working. Oh! Perhaps it is the spark plug wire that is laying unattached to the spark plug! Sure enough - put it back on and good to go :-)

Once across the lake and in the canal portion it was a perfect day - even had to change from jeans to shorts it was so warm.

A muskrat joined us in one of the locks - guess it wanted to go to the higher level as well!

Even though the locks were open until 6:30 we stopped about 5 pm at top of the 5 locks that connect the Trent Canal with Lake Simcoe.

Nice spot, quiet, and we were the only boat there. The generator ran great (first time we had run it this year and you just never know :-) )

It was a nice sunset - good thing as it was the last time we'd see the sun for three days :-)

It was cool the next day - Steve has on his 'winter' coat as we approached the Kirkfield Lift Lock.

Looking back  from where we came

This one is identical to the one in Peterborough - just a bit shorter. And definitely not as popular as a tourist destination as it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. And of course we had to stay near the end of the 'tub' to have the view of the canal behind us. Never get tired of doing this ......

We debated about where to stay Monday but ended up just going to Coboconk as the really cold night temps were going to be Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The plan was to be in Fenelon Falls those two nights so we could plug in to run the heater.

Of course we could just use the generator to run the heater but the noise of it running gets kind of old - especially for those around us, I'm sure.

Before we could use our favorite public dock, Steve took to the goose dirt with a hose and brush. What a mess! Funny thing is we never saw one goose while we were there!



It was a pleasant day and night but the winds definitely were coming in.

By the time we left Tuesday morning I was bundled up in a sweatshirt (Veronica Mars - the warmest sweatshirt I have ever owned - thanks Becky!!), fleece and jacket.

Which was great until it started raining. Moved into the cabin to drive - definitely a good decision.

We made it to Fenelon Falls but it wasn't a fun trip. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph and gusting to 30.

The waves were rolling through the Fenelon harbor and we were bouncing at the dock!

But we were tied up, plugged in and the heater was running. Perfect :-)

Plus we had internet thanks to the Chamber of Commerce right next to our dock. Another chance to use our little wifi antenna!


Staying here at least until Wed and hopefully Thursday if the lockmaster will let us stay an extra night (there is a two day limit at most of the locks).

Steve fixed his bike as it was finally warm enough to ride on the path next to the lake here.

The city has added a splash park, new playground equipment and cute butterfly benches! Really nicely done.

Butterfly benches

The "cottages" along the path ranged from the crazy huge homes to the quaint old time cottages that have probably been here for many years.


Once back to the boat, Steve finally tackled washing the boat. It's only taken a week to get this done. Not sure where the time goes .....





Guppy is lookin' pretty spiffy now!

Tomorrow - Thursday - off to Bobcaygeon!

Saturday June 2: Leaving Orillia

It was a nice day Wednesday as we left Lagoon City.

This area is interesting. The project was built on swampland starting in the early '60's with miles of waterway dug to provide the fill for the 'land' created by the project. Quite interesting history. To read it, click here.

It was about a 10 minute ride until we were at the entrance to Lake Simcoe - with a 15 mile ride ahead of us to reach Orillia.

The lake was calm with almost no wind - a good way to start the summer travel for sure.

The weather was predicted to be in the mid-80's. Quite unusual for this time of year. We had our choice of docks as the marina was for the most part empty as it was a weekday.

Our dock of choice was one where we knew we would have shade in the late afternoon. Turned out to be a really good decision!

The Canadian geese with their babies are out already. Good thing they have feathers because the water is only in the high sixties at this point.

No swimming for us yet!

The three days we have been here were mostly filled with getting the boat together. Banana Bay friends Randy and Cindy came over Thursday and other BB friends Karen and Gary stopped by on Friday on their way to Toronto.

Small world :-) It good to see all of them!

New hot water heater to be installed

The biggest project turned out to be replacing the hot water heater. Seems like it should have been a quick 2 hour job but it didn't turn out that way.

One battery had to be removed. One trip to the hardware store was required (which is actually a miracle as it seems to always be two or more trips to get what we needed!).

Good thing Gary and Karen came right around lunch time - the work reconvened after a nice Chinese lunch :-)

Installation completed.

Steve was doing all of the manual work while I read the directions. Seemed like a fair division of labor to me :-) Of course I was also the tool runner as it's a pain to be crawling in and out of the engine compartment every time a tool is needed.

It's been a very productive 3 days here - the most critical was finally being able to have a phone that will actually work - at least most of the time - for calls and texts to both the US and Canada. So much easier to stay in touch. Of course that took 2 days and numerous phone calls but in the end was well worth it.

And at the end of the day it's still always docktails. And Steve is still always funny ....

All I had asked was if there was more ice.

Glacier, anyone?

Tuesday May 29: In the Water :-)

 After a nice (as well as productive) week and a half in Ohio, we had the perfect plan!

Turn in our rental car in Cleveland Sunday and exchange it for a car that we could drive directly to Orillia (one of our favorite places on the Trent Canal in Ontario).

This was a first as in the past we had to pick up the car in Cleveland, drive to Toronto, pick up a second car, drive both to the Toronto airport to turn the first car in (it HAD to be dropped at the airport) then drive the second car to drop off at the local rental in Orillia.

This year? They let us pick up a car in Cleveland and drop it off at the local rental in Orillia!! I don't know why Enterprise changed their policy on this but it sure made life easier for us :-)

Still shrinkwapped for winter

The plan was perfect. The execution of the perfect plan was perfect.

And then we drove out to the marina on Monday.

And were greeted with what you see at left! Guppy still nicely tucked away in the winter shrinkwrap 😞 .....

Seems it was a long cold winter up here with an emphasis on long. Last year, the marina started launching boats on April 9. This year it was May 1 due to the ice still being in the marina area until then!

We had spoken with Connie at the marina a week ago and figured that it was going to be a long shot at having the boat in the water on Monday when we arrived but even so we didn't expect to see Guppy still wrapped for winter - and a boat blocking it in!

Guppy in the water and ready to go

So we went back to town and reclaimed our mom and pop motel room for another night. It was the cutest place! A four poster bed, nice real-wood furniture - right out of the fifties! Very clean and updated bathroom with a super bathtub. We were happy :-)

Returned today and after several hours of sitting around (during which Steve returned the rental car), Guppy was ready to be put in the water!!

Now the work starts :-)

It'll take a few days to get things put away, repair the few things that we knew needed done and in general get the boat ready to live on for the next three months.

It should be a great summer!

Tuesday May 22: Meeting London and Ironman Matt

San Diego - a wonderful city! What's helpful of course is having kids that live just 30 minutes north of the city :-)

Matt and Wendy left the day after we arrived. Their destination was northern California - to Santa Rosa. Matt was running in an Ironman competition so we had their home to ourselves.

Might as well be tourists, right? And having been off of the boat for almost 2 weeks now, we thought a tour of the San Diego harbor would be a great thing to do!

Two hours - kind of cool as the sun was not out very strong until the last half hour. Great tour though. This is the second-largest Naval base - with Norfolk being the largest. Excellent tour guide and I think he knew the name of every naval vessel! Submarines, aircraft carriers, destroyers and everything in between. I'm always glad to know that they are ours .....

Lunch after at the restaurant on the water by the fishing boats.

We were also finally able to meet London - Becky's new puppy (well, four months old at this point) - London. She's a mini goldendoodle. Part golden retriever and poodle. Great dog! Very loving as she just cuddles anytime Becky picks her up :-)

She has long legs but doesn't weigh more than 15 - 17 lbs. And VERY fast! I'm sure due to the long legs. She reminds us very much of Eli (on Stevedore in Banana Bay) who is off and running to the grills whenever he has the opportunity! I mean, really, there are ALWAYS some kind of treats to be found in the grill area!

One trip made of course was to the dog beach at Delray.

London had a great time - as did we of course. How can you not enjoy a trip to the beach!

We ended Becky's weekend trip down from LA with breakfast at our favorite place: the Encinitas Cafe! And of course London was able to join us - as long as we sat outside of course :-)

Craig and Karen from Rahn DeVous (we met them in Canada a couple of years ago) were able to drive an hour south from San Juan Capistrano to join us for the afternoon. It is always great to see them!

In the meantime, Matt and Wendy were doing GREAT at the Ironman competition in Santa Rosa, CA.

                 2.4 miles                                            112 miles                                            26.2 miles

So an Ironman competition consists of 3 legs: swim, bike and run with NO breaks other than the transition from one segment to another. It has been Matt's goal to qualify to run in the World Championship Ironman competion which is held every October. In Kona Hawaii. The Big Island.

It was a great race with Iron Matt using all of  his training to swim, bike and run a great race.

So great that he qualified (the only way to be able to run in the World Championship) for the World Championship Race in Kona in October.

With a masterful decision in mile 18 of the run, he decided he felt well enough to make a push to pull ahead of other men in his age group (45 to 49). He moved from 9th place to 6th place in those last 8.2 miles. A masterful feat.

Matt approaching the finish line.

Matt crossed the finish line at 9:57.00. That's not 9:57 at night or 9:57 in the morning. That's 9 hours, 57 minutes after starting the race at the swim. Continuous. No resting, no stopping.

Matt's acceptance for the race in Kona.

Personally, I think Ironman is a good description of anyone that can perform at the highest level possible for almost 10 continuous hours. I would most assuredly be dead :-) He proudly displayed his acceptance letter for the competition in Oct at left. Way to go Matt :-) !!!

There was a celebration waiting Matt and Wendy when they returned home on Monday.

We had just one more day to enjoy being with them before it was time on Wednesday to head to Ohio and then on to Canada.

Steve took advantage of the spring morel mushroom hunting season to scour the farm and found a lone white sponge. It was very good :-)

Thanks to my brother Warren for leaving a batch of mushrooms in the fridge that he found earlier in the week.

Once in Ohio, we headed off to Cleveland for visits to Steve's sisters (and respective husbands) and then to doctor/dentist visits.

Sunday, we'll head to Ontario and Guppy!

One last thought about the Ironman:




And of course you know we'll be in Kona Hawaii to cheer Matt on come October 13 :-)

Monday May 7: Work is Done - Headed to San Diego

Yesterday's Dream is packed away and ready to sit until November. This year we sincerely hope that when we return to Safe Cove the boat will be in the same exact spot we left it!

The flybridge cover worked well last year so I made another one. Just about everything fits under the cover - adding an extra layer to try and protect things that are typically stored outside (like the generator, fuel tanks - empty of course - kayaks etc).



The last of the recoating of the raptor bed liner on the port side was completed. Well, at least as far as we could get. Sadly there wasn't quite enough of the material (which is basically a very thick paint) to finish the aft deck.

Not really a problem but it takes days for it to be fully hardened so it will have to wait until we're back at Banana Bay in November to be finished.

It's hard to travel and not be able to walk on the aft deck :-)

After packing clothes, and cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator, one of the final jobs was to put the bikes inside the cabin.

Seemed like a good place for them to be - just in case another hurricane heads to this area again. It's funny how our thinking when leaving the boat is now "how will it do in a hurricane?"

Never thought that way before Irma!






So the boat is nicely tucked away and mostly out of the sun. The front and back of the storage 'shed' is open but opens to the north and south. Which means for the hottest part of the summer the sun will be more directly overhead and less coming in the front and back.

Of course there was a last minute stop by this morning to return a few things back to the boat and check everything over again.

Car viewpoint of the bridge

Then we left for Tampa. Our flight leaves tomorrow at a leisurely 11:30 so being at a hotel nearby the airport makes for a non-rushed morning - my favorite :-)

It took us an hour and 15 minutes to reach the beautiful bridge over the  western end of Tampa Bay. Over it today but under it on the water last week.

Then it took us 3 days to go from the bridge to Safe Cove!

Boat viewpoint of the bridge

We'll hopefully be in San Diego for a full 10 days but most likely we'll cut the trip short to return to Ohio if my uncle's health continues to fail. I think there are lots of prayers headed his way ......

Friday May 4: Getting Work Done

We arrived Saturday about eleven in the morning at the self-serve lock that will lift us a foot or so into the fresh-water canal that leads to Safe Cove. Even the name makes me feel good :-)

Running the boat in fresh water instead of salt water means we don't have to flush the engine or the air conditioner to rinse the salt out of the water cooling systems.

The self serve lock is interesting. Second time we've been through it so we knew what to do this time! Push the button to open the doors. Once in the lock, push the second button to open the front gates to let the water in. Once the lock is filled the doors open automatically. Only another hour and we'll be at the marina in plenty of time for our scheduled 2 pm haul out.

We remembered to lower the antennas this time so no more "oops"!

It wasn't too long before the bottom had been power washed and Yesterday's Dream was being backed into her summer home.


Having the boat stored in a covered area really helps when trying to work on the boat. We have power, water and shade. It's still in the high 80's and getting warmer here so the cooler working conditions make it nice.

The downside is we had to go to extremes in order to have the satellite dish be able to see the SW skies but we found if the dish sat on the edge of the dingy the satellite needed was visible :-)

Love You More

We spent 2 nights on the boat (Sat and Sun) before we were able to move into the condo we had rented for the next week. I'm definitely hooked on American Idol again so Sunday TV is imperative :-)

We did spot Love You More, Randy and Cindy's boat, stored just a unit away from us. They had left a few weeks ago while we were in Punta Gorda.

And so the work began. Our thought was that if we could complete the work now that we could return to the boat in the fall and not have too much to do in order to start traveling south to Banana Bay again.

Painting the flybridge was one of the biggest to be done. Steve had painted both sides of the boat while in Banana Bay but didn't have time for the upper flybridge.

It needed: sanded, wiped down, primed, sanded, wiped down, three coats of paint with wipe down in between each coat. So that's four days of work. It's looking REALLY good though! Well worth it as it was beaten up pretty badly by Irma. Stuff blown by the hurricane we assume.

Second major job was to recoat all of the decks with Raptor bedliner. This stuff works great and holds up well but it's definitely time.












This takes a couple of days to harden enough to walk on so it was also a priority. Note the use of the breathing mask in deference to Safety Matt :-)

The boom (of the mast) also needed primer and two coats of paint so that was an ongoing project as well.



The underside of the flybridge was a mess and although it wasn't on the list, it just really had to be done. It looks GREAT!!!


Today we finally started on part of the main walkaround deck. What a difference the new coat of raptor makes!

Not sure both the front and aft cabin decks will get finished being recoated but then there's always time in the fall if need be.

Some small jobs have been accomplished as well. I mean, really. How many of these bags do we need on the boat? I counted 11. Definitely too many!







In the meantime, we been staying in a nice condo we found on airbnb. It's so much easier and nicer to not have to stay on the boat when trying to work on it. We come back to comfortable couches, a bathtub (yeah!!) and a nice screened in porch with a view of the Myakka River. Only about 10 minutes from Safe Cove.




It has a fully equipped kitchen which makes Steve happy.

Including a stove that heats to 500 degrees that lets him make bread!






It has been a very productive week for us but also a very sad one. We are again and again reminded of how fortunate we are.

Last week we received word that my cousin's daughter, a 17-year old high school junior, was killed in a car accident. Shortly after was the news that my uncle was not doing well and was not expected to live much longer. The topper was news of one of our Banana Bay friends who had a heart attack and died on his boat - a one hour travel from their home in Virginia. He was in his 50's. Prayers for all.