We had a lovely time with our respective families. We
travelled from Niagara Falls to St-Catherines, to Hamilton, to North Bay, to Sturgeon,
to Verner and then all in the reverse again. We slept in 5 different beds and
drove through 1 snow storm. When we first arrived it was quite mild at +1◦C or
33◦F for our American friends, but it got colder. New year's eve was -22◦C with
the wind chill and that's cold no matter which system you use! In a conversation that occured after an evening with the girls,(some alcohol involved) I volunteered to cook for 27 people on New years's eve. 50 people actually showed up, so there was a few anxious moments on my part!Despite the picture, I actually had an awful lot of help and truly Carole did most of the work, I just posed for the photo opp.
Driving back to Hamilton we hit a snow storm that slowed us
down to half speed and caused some white knuckles, but we survived it all very
well. Despite my obvious complaining I would not have missed it for all the
gold in the world. We got to visit with both our families, spend a little time
with our children and a few hours with some very dear friends. That is
priceless!
We landed at the Clearwater airport at 2:30pm yesterday and
were very grateful for Jan and Ron's ride back to the boat. Jan and Ron are the
harbor hosts in Dunedin and they are most generous and gracious. After picking
us up, they offered to stop by the grocery store to pick up any provision we
needed and then refused to take any money for gas despite the 1hr drive to the
airport and back to the boat. Thank you so much, both of you. Your generosity
is very appreciated. We refused the grocery store ride, much to my chagrin.
After unpacking the suitcases and getting everything going again, like water
and hydro etc... Jim set to installing his new back up camera (a gift from the
kids) and I took my bike to the grocery store for some fruits and veggies. "We
don't need much after all" I said. "I should be fine on my own with the
back pack." Ha! I loaded the back
pack with the apples, oranges, cheese and pears, and I still had 6 grocery bags
hanging from my handlebars. Granted the bread and chips don't weigh much, but
the other fruits and veggies did. Every time I took a corner the bags started
to sway and threatened to throw me off balance at every turn. When I finally
made it back to the Marina (2 whole blocks away lol), Jim was out by the office
chatting it up with Karen and her daughter. I saw them there, but I did not
want to slow my momentum, so I yelled out "please don't make me
stop". I made it to the boat without incident, but I guarantee next time I
get an offer to provision, I will take
it.
We were very eager to get going today but the water was so
low that there was not a hope in God's green earth that we could go anywhere
before mid to high tide. We were on
Terra firma.
The picture below is Jim loosening the line. They were so taught that I could have played
the guitar with them! Please note the location of the dock in relation to the exit on the boat. That is low!
Filling the water tanks, disconnecting all the cables for
power and TV, laundry etc.. took up our morning and we were ready to shove off
by noon. Angie, Dan, Karen and John all came to assist with our departure. We had
planned on stopping at Reddington Shores but drove right by it. While looking
for another anchorage we realized; we were practically at Cathie and Gary's
place so we called to see if they felt like meeting us for a drink tonight. We
had not yet anchored when we first called, but as soon as I got off the phone
with them, we got to be on Terra Firma for the second time today. The anchorage
we chose has a narrow channel about 8 feet deep leading to it. We hit the 3
foot shoals on either side of this channel. We hit it hard enough to hang the
boat up on it. So after a quick call to tow boat US (never leave home without
it) and a donation of 1 cleat (see picture below) we ended up tying to a dock
at the Hi and Dry marina (the name is quite appropriate for us tonight haha)
Fortunately Cathie and Gary live only
few minutes from here, so it all worked out alright. We had a lovely
evening with them and now it's beddy by time. Tomorrow we are off to more
adventures....stay tuned
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