WHAT'S A TICKLE?

To a Newfie, a tickle is a nice little cove or bay that you can only get into through an opening that is very narrow.  Where the sides of your boat seem like they are going to 'tickle" or rub against the rocks. 

You have to be very careful getting into these "Tickles" as they are called, but you are always glad you did, because of the views, the beach, the fishing or the adventure and privacy that make it all worth while.  

HOPE THAT ANSWERS THE QUESTION

GUNK HOLING

Gunk holing is stopping at little known or little used coves and docks that have no facilities to speak of.  Gunk holes are less visited because they're often not written about in your guides and are found through word of mouth, or are frequently  hard to enter, or are a pain to get to, or are near other, more-popular spots, or are a golden combination of all four of these crowd-deterring elements. You can find them almost everywhere, but, it can be a challenge.  When Gunk Holing it is always nice to find and venture into what a "Newfie" calls a tickle.  Anyone know what that is?   

 

This is a gunk hole we have visited, at the north east corner of Elk Island, not hard to get to at all, but little used and a nice day cruise, because of the lovely clean and private beach.   

This is the falls on the Manigotagon River After heavy rains.  Although not exactly a "tickle", it is a little tricky to get into.  The entrance to the river is blocked by a rock island and is a very rocky area and you have to follow exactly, down one range and wait for the other one to appear and come slowly into view then once lined up, you must change course and follow the second range until you're well into the river.   

An overnight in Well's Harbour is a must experience, but don't stay up to late, out on the spit, due to the mice and the odd snake, that comes out at night. 

This is an old picture near the entrance to the Rice River, where you also have to keep your eyes peeled as they say.   This would qualify as a "tickle", but very pretty and worth the trip, but don't try to travel up the river, you won't get far.  We found that out the hard way. 
 

 

Steeprock Bay?? or Creek?? I don't even remember anymore if that is really what this was called. 

Other than the Manigotagon River, and Elk Island shots, a lot of this Gunk holing was done years ago with Boyd and Gayle Halliwell when we had the LINDAN and they still owned TABU. 

This is what we came to call Turtle Bay, I think it's chart name is Black 6, but at the times we stopped there, there were always lots and lots of turtles all around the old abandoned ferry ramp that we used to tie up to. 
 

"Before it's your favorite place, It's a place you've never been."

 

I would love to go and re-discover some of these beautiful spots again, plus go and find some new ones. 

 

 

SO, WHAT'S A "TICKLE?"


 

  

WINDY WEEKEND

The forecast for rain on Friday and rain on Saturday, didn't really come to fruition, but I think it might have made a few people change their plans for a weekend at the lake, because we sure didn't have much of a turn out here. 

 

 

 

We had a bit of cloud cover off and on for those two days, but pleasant temperatures and no rain until overnight on Saturday. 

 

 

 

 

It was a bit windy though, on Sunday. So for the most part, those that were here did not venture too far. 

 

 

 

 Even the Pelicans were looking for shelter from the wind, in the inner harbour.

 

Those that stayed home for the weekend, don't know what they were missing.  We sure hope we get a better turn out next weekend for the August -long. 

 

 

 

 

ANOTHER PLEASANT WEEKEND IN BCYC

 

 

 

 

BOATING IS ABOUT ATTITUDE

 

Be Shore of Yourself

 

Come Out of Your Shell

 

Take Time to Coast

 

Avoid Pier Pressure

 

Sea Life's Beauty

 

Don't Get Tide down

 

Make Waves


 

 

HOME SWEET HOME PORT

We have finally arrived at our home port of "Boundary Creek  Marina".  

 

The bottom and top left corners of the attached photo is the lake .    

 The marina consists of what we call the outer harbour, the inner harbour and the back harbour. 

The grey toned area is where the creek runs from the back harbour through the marina and out into the lake. 

 

The wonderful thing that is so enjoyable about Boundary Creek Marina is the Park like setting and the wild life.  And the general pulse of nature that you become so aware of once you spend some time there.                                


 We have Grey Herons, White Pelicans, huge Carp, Bass, Pickerel, you name it. 

Occasionally we will see a beaver or two and the odd muskrat.  


Plus of course the easy access to all that Lake Winnipeg has to offer, whenever you want to enjoy it. 
 

 

This is a wonderful place to live, in the summer time and a wonderful port to cruise out of.  With lots of wonderful friends to socialize with. 

 

 

 

WE ARE FINALLY HOME FOR WHAT'S LEFT OF THE SUMMER OF 2014

 

 

 

 

 

OUR JOURNEY NORTH FROM RMYC

We departed RMYC at 7:30 am for our long journey north . 

 

 

Just after 8:00, we were approaching St. Andrews Lock and Dam.  We had heard from the Lock master that there was not much water in the navigation channel, but we were shocked to see how little the entrance to the channel had.  The Pelicans were a good indication of where the shallowest part was so we ran hard over to starboard and slipped safely into the channel with 2.8 ft of water under our depth sounder. 

 

 

We cruised on in nice and slow, but the rest of the channel ranged from 3 to 4 feet, so it was no problem.   

 

 

Once inside the lock, we could certainly tell water levels were low.  This is usually what it looks like when you are heading up river, not entering to be lowered down. 

 

 

You can tell by the wet mark inside the lock that they only had to drop us about 4 feet, from the so called high side to be down at the so called low side. 

 

 

Then of course the next challenge as they opened the lock gates, was to shoot the rapids created by the rush of flood waters that they are letting through.  Dan gave her full throttle and plowed through those rapids as quickly as we could.  It was quite a  RUSH!!

 

I was sooo excited I forgot to take a picture while we were right in the thick of it.  Just suddenly remembered as we were pulling away and I was starting to relax.  Dan wasn't the least bit worried about that part, like I was. 

 

 

The rest of the journey is just a long, long trip, with each bend in the river showing just another bend in the river.  it's very tedious.  By noon, we were approaching the delta, which can be a little confusing when the water is really high like this.  It all looks a little different with high water.  Some of the little grassy islands you're used to seeing, have suddenly disappeared. 

 

 

But, all the channel markers were there for us, even extras that weren't there last fall, which was quite helpful as the concrete channel markers are underwater with just the light standards sticking out of the water.  Within an hour Winnipeg Beach harbour was in sight.  All in all a long but good journey north. 

 

 

 

WITH ALL THE HOLD UPS WE HAVE HAD THIS YEAR, MY SUMMER CAN START NOW

WE ARE LAUNCHED

We got all ready to launch yesterday, but then we were cancelled. 

But we got there nice and early this morning and were soon enough backing on down the ramp. 

I've never been on Thunderbird when she has been launched.  That has always been Dan's duty, but this time he needed me as a deck hand to do lines when we came into the dock, and the only way to do that was to be on board when she launched.  

 Although the current in the river is still running very fast, we managed to get Thunderbird launched.  Now all I have to do is get a few groceries, stock the bar and we will be ready to cruise north. 

 Well, here we sit at the dock and ready to roll in the morning, but it turns out Bill wasn't able to solve the transmission problem he had yesterday, so he will not be travelling with us.   

 

IT WILL BE PARTY TIME FOR ME WHEN WE GET THERE