All She Wrote :-(

Well, the boat is out of the water, being hauled on October 29th. I spent this past Saturday afternoon winterizing the engines and removing the outdrives. These events mark the official end of the 2007 'in water' boating season.

I took the drives off so I could bring them home to change the water pumps and impellers, as well as the drive fluid. Also, when the boat came out of the water, I discovered that the drives had a major infestation of zebra mussels. So, I did a bit of research and found that Inturlux paints makes a drive paint that is supposed to repel the little buggers. Once I have chnges the pumps and put the lower units back together, I will clean, prep and paint them with this stuff. Hopefully, that will work.

Alll in all, I'd have to say that 2007 was one of the better seasons for boating we've had. Not only was the weather good - mainly sunny & hot - but we were also able to enjoy visits to a few new places. Plus, the biggest event was finding our new home port. That was far and away the biggest event of the year. The move has also been really inspirational, with my wife & I planning new adventures for next season.

One of the new things we are looking forward to is anchoring out over night! Believe it or not, but we've never done that (I'll have to qualify that statement by saying that I have spent the night at anchor once, when I was about 13 years old, with my family on the houseboat we had back in the day). In fact, we have only ever set the anchor once in the three seasons we've had our current boat. The extended Christmas wish list includes a new Delta anchor. And an inverter. And a DSC VHF radio.

Hey Santa - you listening???

End Of Season

The Trent Severn Waterway has now ended it's navigation season and will remain closed until May/08. I will try to post the numbers for the season as they are available, but preliminary reports state that user numbers were up for the 2007 season. This was thanks to the better weather conditions we enjoyed, as well as no extended disruptions, as has been the case in past seasons.

In 2004 the system stayed closed longer than scheduled, as there was considerable flooding in May of that year. Two years ago, the unionized staff had a small labour disruption. With happy staff and happy weather this past season, boaters - as well as land based visitors - took advantage of the system.

Let's hope for similar conditions in 2008!

A 'House Boat'?

I found this unusual picture while reviewing some boating blogs - or at least blogs with boating content. A house being transported onto a barge and across the water. A 'houseboat', perhaps? For the short term, any ways. . .

All the photos can be found Here. The original post is at This Blog.

Our New Home

We're there!

Ahhhhhhh . . . You know when something feels right, it feels really right? Well we are fortunate enough to have found a home for our boating fun that feels REALLY right. This is our first full weekend in Everglades Marina and it still seems almost unreal. The differences from our last marina to this one is that of night and day. In fact, given that we have a huge grass area behind our slip and a beautiful view on the water side, I've come to refer this as our Cottage. And what a great feeling that is.

These fist two pics are taken from the back of our boat, in the slip. The top one is a morning shot, with the lower one being taken at sunset (no kidding, eh?). Previously, we had only been able to look directly at the back of the other boats in the 'old place'. Now, we have a much more enjoyable view.




Up to now, we had simply been parking our boat in a slip. Now, we have a place to go and enjoy are selves, without being confined to a small strip of dock behind the boat. The only down side to this is that we're at the end of the season, with the boats being hauled out in a few weeks. So, I'm going to be anxiously anticipating the spring when I can get back here to do some neatening up & personalizing around our dock.

One of the larger projects is going to be building a deck along side of this one. Later today we are going to be joined by our former next door neighbors (from our last marina) who will be beside us once again, here. To help out with the funds, we're going to be splitting as much of the costs as possible, including the deck. We have already supplied the gas BBQ, and they will be donating a table for the deck.

I've already started the construction with a widening of our finger dock. Since the view is so nice from the water side, we've decided to park 'stern out', to take advantage of sights. The dock was a little narrow to be walking back & forth on, so I added about 8" for an overall width of two feet. Much more comfortable now - especially with a beer in one hand:-)

The owners of the marina allow ius to do pretty much anything we want - so long as we don't p-off the neighbors (or burn the place down).

Like I said, it's RIGHT :-))

Moving On

After nine years in our current marina, we have decided to move our boat to another spot. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I had a fateful meeting during our Labour Day Weekend adventure which ultimately led to our decision as to where we would be moving.

For some time, my wife & I had been considering the possibility of moving to a new marina, with that plan being more acute over the past couple of months. As we travel to quite a few different marinas every summer, it's become clear that there are better options available. The only thing that had been keeping us in our current spot was the close proximity to home. That 'benefit' was no longer a deciding factor, as we figured that having to drive a bit by car to get to the boat and back was better than putting up with what could be described as as a rapidly deteriorating parking spot. And that goes for the whole picture - putting it mildly. Any ways, no point in being bitter about it - nobody had a gun to our heads. . . Let's get back to the 'fun' part of the story :-)

The fateful meeting I spoke of came about while we were down bound in the Swift Rapids Lock (#43). It was a full load of boats and one had to raft off of our starboard side. Just so happens the boat in question was a Sea Ray & the skipper & I quickly struck up a conversation about our boats (he was interested in ours, as he had his eye on buying a 30' Sundancer). That led to where we were boating to and from, when I told him that we were in the market for a new slip to call home.

Telling me about his home port in Pefferlaw, on the south west side of Lake Simcoe, I recalled driving there by car once a few years back and not being too impressed. I must have been in a hurry, or blind, or just too dumb to drive through the whole joint, as it turned out to be much larger than I had initially seen. At the end of the long weekend, when we got back to our marina, we talked about it with another couple there. Most of our fellow boaters knew how frustrated we were with the accommodations (or lack thereof) there and that we were looking to move, so it was suggested we take a trip to this new location the following weekend and spend the Saturday night to scout it out. So we did. I took this picture when we arrived there.

Guess what? We were sold. It only took my wife about an hour to say 'Let's do it - let's take a slip here'. I needed about another hour to come to the same conclusion. That night, we joined in with a bunch of 'locals' to sit around the fire, have a couple of drinks and find out a bit more about the place. Before too long, an Elvis tune came on the radio and before you could say 'Thank you very much', I was leading about 5 of us to a hearty version of I Can't Help Falling In Love. Yes, I think we'll fit in nicely!

So it's on to Everglades Marina . . . . . And I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

There And Back (Part Two)

Labour Day weekend took us to The Big Chute. On the Friday night, we stayed in Ojibway Bay Marina (marinas.com/view/marina/409). This was our first time there (by boat) and both my wife and I were immediately struck by what a nice, neat , clean and welcoming place this is!




Unfortunately, we had been becoming more and more put off by our own 'home port' marina and this was the complete opposite in every way. Not only was it impeccably manicured, the transient slip we had for the night backed onto a park like strip of land roughly 200' deep that itself backed onto the inviting waters of Lake Couchiching. As one of the year around boaters there said, it was like having a water front cottage.



View Larger Map

These folks offer both open and covered slips, but by the looks of things, they seemed to be pretty much fully booked. That was more than likely the case, as one of the larger marinas on Lake Simcoe - Big Bay Pint Marina - had completely shut down at the end of the 2006 season and the boaters there were forced to seek other accommodations. As a result, most marinas are operating at capacity.

For sure, Ojibway Bay Marina is going to added to our list of 'must visit' locations for next year's boating season. As it's only about a mile or so from Casino Rama, we might try to time one of our future visits to one of the many concerts at the casino . . .

There And Back (Part One)

What a fantastic weekend! Not only did we get to the Big Chute marine railway & back, but had great weather all four days. We were also fortunate enough to meet up with some friends that we hadn't seen in a while. As well, I got to talk to a boater who was rafting along side us while dropping down the Swift Rapids lock who told me about his marina in Pefferlaw - but more on that fateful meeting in an upcoming post.



Now the boats start the climb up the 58 foot (17.7m) high lift. Although it may look somewhat intimidating, this is the easiest 'lock' in the system, as you simply hand your dock lines to the operators and they position your boat for you.

The aft portions of the boats are hoisted up to clear any running gear from resting on the deck.




Once over the top, the whole railway car drives right back into the water where the boats are re floated. From there, they simply drive away.