Know Where You're Going

Thanks to my wife, 'Boogaboo' is equipped with a shiny new chart plotting GPS. The unit is a Standard Horizon 180i. The unit has a reasonable detailed world background map pre-installed, but also accepts C-Map chart chips. I am running the C-Map MAX chip "Erie, Ontario And The Trent-Severn" which pretty much covers most of Ontario waters and extends into the U.S. to the New York & Ohio sides plus Detroit.

The extra detail provided with this chip allows boaters to navigate through waters such as Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron /Georgian Bay, most of the Rideau Canal & the entire Trent Severn Waterway / Lake Simcoe. The charts are presented in vector format, which means they are 'layered', with more detail included the closer in one zooms. Unlike raster charts, which are basically just scanned paper charts, zooming out in a given area gives a broader perspective without the clutter found on raster charts.

Equipped with an internal antenna, the unit is completely self contained, requiring only the 12 volt power connection to get up and running. In fact, as it was a Christmas present last year, I was so eager to play with it that I went to Canadian Tire on Boxing Day and got a cigarette lighter adapter so that I could hook it up to the car in the garage & play with it inside the house! An I did, with the help of about 30 feet speaker wire for the connection, I was 'on line' and entered my first way point -our house :-) Cool.

As Boogaboo only has a canvas top over the helm, the reception is 100 %, as seen in the accompanying photo. This one was taken the other day, when we were heading from Young's Point to Peterborough. The picture shows our position within the lock (#27, Young's Point), about two-thirds of the way in, on the north side - right where we we actually were. So, big deal? Uh, YES! I've heard from other GPS users that there is still some deviation purposefully built into the system to throw the terrorists off by a few feet. Ya, that bit of news and $5,000 will get some choice swamp land in Florida.

From what I've seen so far is that any deviation one might experience on their chartplotter stems more from inaccurate maps than from incorrect placement therein. Like the warning says at the startup of any of these units, one shouldn't rely solely on ENCs (Electronic Navigation Charts). Yes having up to date paper charts for backup and reference should go without saying. You never know when you might have them pesky gremlins take out the power to that GPS or make you loose the satellite signal.

Finally, the most important backup is your EYES. Better yet, my eyes :-( The pretty picture included here is of St. Peter's On The Rock church, on Stony Lake. This structure (built in 1914) is located on a small island - barely larger than the church itself - and is only accessible by water. Lovely, isn't' it? The only problem with this shot is that we shouldn't have been this close to take it from a 30' boat! All of the charts and electronic navigation accessories in the world aren't going to help when you get overconfident and don't pay close enough attention to where your are supposed to going.

Yes, I was the overconfident skipper in this scenario. After having successfully transiting the down bound journey through this area of water know as 'Hells Gate', I was more concerned with getting in close for a really good picture of the church that I didn't make sure I was where I thought I was on the chart. My only defense is that this was a couple of years ago, prior to getting the chartplotter. I know, that's not much of a defense . . .

Fortunately I was able to catch the fact that I was off course and, because the water was dead calm, I figured that I could simply retrace my steps out of there and back into the 'safe' waters. The problem was that the current drifted our wake off to one side. Guess what happened next? Yup. Clunk. More like Crrrrrrruuuuunnnch!!!! What a gut wrenching sound. I the way that sounded and felt, I was certain that the bottom of the boat had ripped out and we were mere minutes from sinking. I'm serious.

The end result of my indiscretion was no more than a little bit of skeg shaved off the outdrives over a little patch of slightly submerged ground called Sherin Shoal. I guess I was able to trim the drives up quick enough and we just skirted the edge of the shoal. I'll always feel like I left a little bit of me behind in Stony Lake.

One last note on this article. While I write this, we are on the down side of that very spot and will be passing by there in a couple of days on our way back home. . . . I'm so excited about that. But hey, I do have a chartplotter now.

And a greater respect for the marked channels ;-)

Ten Foot-itis

So, you want to know what the Big Prize is that I'm reaching for? Well, it's about 44' long, 14' wide and weighs about 22,000 pounds (+ necessary liquids). Can you say 400 Sedan Bridge? Ya Baby!

Ok, take a deep breath and relax . . . . All right, I'm all better now. Where was I? Oh, the BIG Sea Ray. Two years ago, we went to a used boat show in the Port Of Orillia and went on one of those boats for the first time. Yes, it was love at first sight.

While I continue catch my breath, take a gander at this short, 15 second video of the boat on the water, which I found on the Sea Ray site (I know it looks like a big blank box - just hit the play bottom, a bit lower down):



These exterior pics shows some of the features that caught my eye. Apart from the fine lines of the sedan style, I found the flybridge area to be huge. Depending on how the boat was equipped and from the factory or the model year, the helm offered seating from 2 - 3.




Behind the helm, at the rear of the bridge deck, there is a U shaped settee that can convert to a sun pad. This extended bridge also provides some weather protection for the cockpit below.






The cockpit itself features a built in lounge and space for a couple of folding chairs. The ice maker is situated under the molded staircase that leads to the bridge. These boats came with an optional lower helm (designated as 'DS' models), but I would only want the upper helm. This makes for a better interior layout. Besides, the way I look at it, chances are that most traveling takes place when the weather isn't uncomfortable any ways.


Here's another look at the exterior. This boat is actually located fairly close to home, on Georgian Bay. I found it on a Sea Ray forum site.

I'll be sharing some interior shots in the future . . .

Over The Rainbow

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore:-)

Last night we were treated to this totally unexpected rainbow. Unexpected, as there was no rain or fog through the evening - it just showed up. A message from above? Why not. . .

Whatever it's incarnation, it was most welcome by everyone who was fortunate enough to witness it. Thanks.



Here's a couple more pictures of wonders of nature. These were taken beside the aforementioned Lockside Trading Company store.

The wildflowers caught my eye - and are a bit of a departure from my usual subjects of sunsets, etc..



The next one is a close up of the same vines, wrapping themselves around the 100 year old fence. Note the ancient, rusty maple leaf tops on the fence. Cool.

Just a quick note on the pics I'm uploading. I've sized them down to around 1100 pixels wide, so they show better on your browsers. Most of the originals re anywhere from 1600 to 2200 pixels wide. . . .

Another Day In Paradise

Right now, this moment, I am living a dream. Sitting aboard our boat, 'Boogaboo III', sipping an ice cold one overlooking the waters of Young's Point. Young's Point is one of our favorite stops along the Trent Severn Waterway. In particular, we are at Islandview Resort, a marina just at the top of the lock. That first picture is the view I am enjoying, right now, looking directly out the back of Boogaboo.

The dream I am referring to is more than just our summer holidays, but being able to do this while on board! Like I mention in m profile, the long term plan is to give up terra firma for a life on the water, where I can manage my internet empire ;-) Give me a few years, folks . . .


This is the down river side of the lock. Islandview is just beyond the extent of this shot, to the upper left. It's a bout a 1/2 mile from here to there :-)

There's a cool store called Lockside Trading Company, which is situated literally right beside the lock. They sell high quality leisurewear, books, neat little nic-naks and other misc items, including some furniture.

Well, as it happens, we were in there yesterday, picking up some of aforementioned clothing. As is custom for summertime (and any excuse I can think of in the winter) and I was wearing one of my many Hawaiian shirts. Wouldn't you know it - they had a couch that matched it perfectly! The staff & customers thought it was hilarious :-)

Here We Go . . .

Welcome. . . Welcome to a little project I've been thinking about launching for a little while. It's gonna include a little bit of this and a little bit of that - and whole lotta bits about Boats, Boating and the Boating lifestyle.

Anyone who knows me, knows the love I have for boats and the boating lifestyle. Not only that, but I do my best to capture the feeling and fun by taking thousands of photos each season. These photos are both on and off the water and I will be sharing as many as I can with you, so fair warning ;-)

Don't surprised to see the time line jump around a bit - forward, back and lots of sideways trips, so hold on to your seats & drinks. To ease us all in to the trip, I'm gonna start in the here and now, which has me & my lovely wife sitting aboard our boat (surprise, surprise) at a marina in Bobcaygeon, Ontario (Canada). The two of us are in the midst of our 3 week summer holidays which has, for the past five seasons, taken us through various regions of the Trent Severn Waterway.


Ok, here we go on one of those sideways trips I was talking about :-) Speaking of the Trent Seven Waterway, we have had such a great time during our trips through the system, I was compelled to build a whole web site dedicated to it! Enter TheWaterway.ca. Hope you can take a look at that work in progress. It's about a year old now and has been building a steadily increasing legion of visitors.

All right, back to now, again. Our current boat is a 30' 1987 Sea Ray 300 Sundancer. This is our third season with it and we spend every weekend on it from mid April to the end of October. Given that our home port is in Ontario, that's saying a lot.

This is our third Sea Ray & I'm looking forward to that 40 footer I have my sights on. Fear not, I'll be including all that Sea Ray stuff in future posts. Ya, ya, I've heard it all about Sea Rays already - I'm considering therapy - but we've been happy with them so far.

Besides traveling through the Waterway, we also do weekends away from home in different spots and I'll be sharing those fun times, as well.

Just one last picture for today's post, taken minutes ago. This is the veiw from the boat while I put this together. Now you know why I love this so much!

Looking forward to more! Chow for now . . .