Just another one of those wonderful day, that you get when you live aboard your boat for the summer. This afternoon, was perfect, we cruised on out of the harbour and anchored just south of Tower Beach. 
Now, off of the boat has turned into a bit of a problem, as one of us always has to be on the swim platform to lift her back out of the water when she swims back. So to solve this problem and to let her go in and out of the water at her leisure, we devised a re-boarding ladder for her that attaches to the back of the swim platform. Now, this has developed into another problem. Being a typical Golden Retriever, she automatically has an aversion to anything new in her world. (If you bring a new cardboard box into the living room, they will avoid the living room for days until they are sure that something isn't going to jump out of there and scare them. ) 
So, the first time we put it in the water, she just barked at it and wouldn't go near it,the whole time she was swimming. The second time we put it in the water she avoided it again. We did manage to get her to walk up it, a couple of times with a lot of pulling and tugging and coaxing, cajoling and luring. We now know that the ladder does work and it holds her weight. And because we don't want to force her and make her hate the ladder we have decided on another tactic. So now, after water testing and a few adjustments to the styro foam etc. The ladder is ready for use, whenever we can convince her to use it. 
So, the last couple of days we have laid it down on the dock, and blocked the dock somewhat so that she has to walk on it, if she wants to come off of the boat with us. She also has to walk on it, if she wants to come back on board the boat with us. Hopefully, she will get so used to that thing, that she will not even think about it after a while. We will also keep taking it out with us when we go swimming and try to gently convince her to use it. 
I have just finished making Cucumber and Onion Salad, Glazed Carrots, Steamed Beet Tops, and cooked and sliced some Beets. I feel like I have been on K.P. all day and I haven't even tackled the corn yet. (That's going to be tomorrow.) Thanks to my friend Sharon, who keeps the whole Marina supplied with vegetables now that her garden is ready to harvest. I was planning on having Spinach Salad with our steaks tonight, but I guess that will have to keep for another night. 
Thank goodness I've got a nice big kitchen on my boat to be able to take advantage of all of this Plenty. 
We took time away from the Marina yesterday to attend a family Bar-B-Q in honour of our grandson Matthew's 16th Birthday We were only in town for a few hours, but it was all very nice. 
Even the dogs thought so. 
Our Matthew used to be the baby of the family, teased by his older brother for being so small. As I left I told him it's time to stop growing. I should have gotten a picture of him standing. He now towers over the entire family. 
We cruised out of the harbour and meandered over to the little point just south of the beach to get into the lee of that point for shelter from the very slight south east breeze. 
There is nothing as enjoyable as an evening swim, as Sea-Enna can attest. 
A glorious evening, and we found the perfect spot, in the shallows just south of the Winnipeg Beach Water Tower. We were in about 3-4 feet of water, lovely and calm and warm. 
Who could ask for anything more. Even better than walking over to the beach as we have done the last few nights. 
The summer is just flying by now. I can't believe it's almost the end of August. In another week we will stop living on the boat and go back to just 4 day weekend until pull out. 
We didn't do any cruising as Dan wasn't feeling up to it. (Those pesky nose bleeds again.) So we just hung out and did a lot of visiting and took the dogs swimming a number of times. Sea-Enna's always game for that, even when it was quite wavy yesterday. 
