THE WEEKEND, BOATING KAOS

BOUNDARY CREEK MARINA

If you look at the aerial view of our marina, you will see (in the upper right area of the photo) a large parking lot.  That lot is used by some of us, but mostly by casual boaters launching and pulling their boats on the weekends.  Our boat is quite close to that lot.  It's the second boat in, on the big elbow bend in the creek. 

So we have a very good view of the usually empty  and serene parking lot and boat launch.  But come the weekend it becomes very entertaining.  We get to watch the endless array of boating errors right outside our back door.  
We get to sit there, with our coffee in the morning, and watch boats launched with a bowline that is far too short and slips out of someones hands and the unmanned boat is now floating loose in the harbour.  Or all of the myriad of boats that wont start and the paddling, that must then ensue. That is, if they remembered to bring paddles.  

Which this one didn't and had to borrow a kayak paddle from Donna Hardy of JADIA  (just in the nick of time before it hit their boat).  Then of course there is always the forgotten boat plug and the inevitable panic and hilarity that follows that.  Then in the evening we get to sit on our back deck with a drink and watch the sunburned and exhausted boaters reverse the earlier processes.  Lining up to pull their boats. 

THE LONG WEEKENDS, OF COURSE, ARE THAT TIMES  TEN!

A DAY ON THE LAKE

We had a lovely day on the lake yesterday.  Sunny, warm and calm.  

 

We took off around 11:30, and we headed to Gimli.  Dan felt the old girl needed a bit of a run, having just sat in port quite a bit with all this unsettled weather.  

It was a lovely cruise, but we didn't stop in Gimli, just cruised on through.  

We settled in on the south side of Willow Island.  

I washed my hair and Sea-Enna had her swim.  

We had a few drinks, and Bar-B-Qed some Hot Dogs and enjoyed the day.  

 IT WAS A PERFECT DAY TO OWN A BOAT

COMPANY ON BOARD

Dan's Brother Dwight and Maggie Colvin were supposed to come for a visit yesterday along with Bonnie and Brad.
Well due to an eye infection, Maggie and Dwight couldn't make it, but Bonnie and Brad did show up.   

Dan has been working of late, prepping our roof for a leek seal treatment.  If it weren't for the fish flies and the rain he would have been done by now.  

 So, instead we had to contend with a few leaks during the constant rain.  

Although it rained all day we still had a nice visit. 




THIS WAS A VERY PLEASANT MID-WEEK SURPRISE.  

BOTH AN INTERESTING AND BORING WEEKEND

It was a very windy weekend here in BCYC.  Friday was not bad, but Saturday and Sunday, the winds were quite lively, so none of us were out there on the lake, which is a good thing because of the  tornadoes that touched down on lake Winnipeg, which I'm sure most of you saw on the news. 

Being stuck in port is no fun unless you can do some puttering around on your boat, which we did a little of.  

But with the rains that came with those winds, we were all often driven on board.   (or indoors as the land lubbers would call it.)  

Once on board, with the Internet down, and the satellite TV kaput.  I was so bored I ended up defrosting and cleaning my fridge.   

NOW THAT IS BORED! 

SORTING THROUGH OLD PHOTOS

This is a chore I have been putting off far to long. This summer I have brought two large containers of old pictures, out here to the lake, to work on sorting through them so that I can download them onto the computer and distribute, access to them, to all the relevant people, then hopefully ditch the hard copies.

What a job. I ended up with my mom's old albums and photos and slides and when going through them I realized that she had inherited a lot of her mothers photos as well.  There are a lot here that I don't think I will ever identify, but I'll give it a good try. 

The first chore is to sort them into decades, then hopefully down to a specific years.  If we can identify a few names and a year, I think that is as close as we are going to get with the oldest ones. 

Today was very helpful, as I had a visit from my cousin Jill and my Uncle Harold.   We were all hurled down memory lane as we started looking at some old pictures and Uncle Harold was able to put some names to some of the people that I could not identify.  And Jill was thrilled to see a photo I have of her Grandmother's Wedding that I happen to have among my Grandmother's (her sister's) photos.  

 

It was a wonderful visit and we will have to do this again soon, with the focus being on the photos, and not just as an after thought.  

Well this has certainly given me some incentive to GET ON WITH IT.  I guess it's not just something to do on a cool or rainy day.  

THE SUMMER IS FLYING BY AND I HAVE NOT MADE MUCH HEADWAY ON THIS PROJECT.  

 

THEY'RE BACK........ THE FISH FLIES HAVE ARRIVED

Yuck!! not my favourite thing about living at the lake. 

 

Yes, it's fish fly season again.  

They are everywhere.  And on everything.  

Thank goodness they are not here for too long.   Each Mayfly of Fish Fly as we call them, only live for up to 24 hours, and the whole season of them usually doesn't last much more than a week to 10 days or so.  And the fish smell is not to pleasant either.  

OH WELL, THIS TOO, WILL PASS

THIS WEEK AT BCYC

This week has been full of gorgeous weather and chores, chores, chores.  Which is nice after the past weekend being filled with smoke, stormy weather, and then cool breezes.  
  

Then this week has returned to our beautiful sunshine and warm serene evenings. 

 

But we have not been out cruising much, as there were  chores to do.  

I've been finally working on my blog and tending my new little shrubbery bed. 
  

 

My little rescues, that had been mowed down so often, are slowly coming back to life.   

 

And Dan is working on the little outboard for our dinghy and of course there is always the regular, cleaning, laundry, and shopping.  

And now it sounds like the weekend might be back to some rain so we took the opportunity to go out for a cruise and a swim on Friday.  We all enjoyed it, especially Sea-Enna. 

That forecast is such a shame for those that only get to come out here on the weekends. I hope it's wrong. 

THAT IS ONE OF THE GREAT BENEFITS OF RETIREMENT

WE HAVE NEW BABIES IN THE HARBOUR

This past week a new pair of geese arrived in the harbour with babies. 

These two must have been late finding each other and mating, because they are way behind the others, by at least a month.  

The ones that I call "eating and pooping machines" are so big now that you can hardly tell the difference between the adults and the babies, of a month ago. 

We'll never know, if they lost some eggs, or maybe even some babies to predators, or maybe only managed to lay two, but they only have two little hatchlings.  All yellow and fluffy and adorable, as usual

 

These little guys have a lot of catching up to do, to gain the reserves and strength they need to make the long flight south in the fall. 

I'M SURE EVERYONE WILL KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THEM

THE WEATHER WAS REALLY CO-OPERATING

The weather was really co-operating, a little hazy, but quite hot and humid.  That is until last evening.  

That haze has been coming from the forest fires in Saskatchewan.  Even though we couldn't really see much of the sun, it was still heating things up,

But last evening just as my daughter arrived for a visit.  All hell broke loose.  We had a torrential downpour.  That went on for quite some time.  

But no real damage done, today it's back to a little hazy again, but it has certainly cooled things down a bit.  

CANADA DAY HAS COME AND GONE

 Lots of boaters came out on Tuesday evening and stayed through Wednesday for Canada Day.  

We decorated out boats and went out for our traditional Boat Parade along the beach front.  

Then we paused for Sea-Enna to have a swim as she was so excited to be out on the lake.  

Then, when it was time, we cruised on out further on the lake and rafted together for a final farewell to a fellow boater and friend from our marina. 

It was a lovely ceremony, as the ships bell tolled and we raised a final glass, "To Jim". 

And last but not least, the fireworks at 11:00pm, were not to be missed. Except by us, who were in bed sound asleep when the noise woke us up. 

Well our mini weekend in the middle of the week is over. And the real weekend is coming up fast.  


THE FUN NEVER ENDS AROUND HERE