AN OVERNIGHTER IN THE CITY

We have to go and spend a night in our condo.  We have a Friday morning funeral to attend, so we will go into town on Thursday morning and spend the night.  That will give us a chance to do some errands on Thursday, then we can come straight back out here to the Marina on Friday afternoon. 

There are far to many of these sad occasions cropping up lately. 

CRUISING ON LAKE WINNIPEG

Saturday was another hot and humid day at the beach, but the forecast was for a cold front to move in later in the afternoon, with accompanying high winds.  So, we thought we had better take advantage of the nice day and go out for a cruise and a swim. 

It was the perfect day for it.  Sunny, warm and a very calm lake.  Who could ask for more. 

 

When we pulled up and stopped, Sea-enna could hardly contain her excitement, as Dan put on her "Bathing Suit".  (see July 17th blog "My Dogs Bathing Suit".) 



In no time at all she was out onto the swim platform and waiting for her throw to be thrown and impatient that Dan was taking so long to get his bathing suit on. 
 

 

 She loves to swim. 

There is nothing Sea-Enna loves more than playing fetch in the lake with her throw. As soon as she brings it back she is ready to go again.  In no time at all she wears herself and us out. 

 

 

 

 

We were planning on going swimming as well, but with the boat not moving the usual flies of August had found us and were starting to get annoying.  So we decided to keep the boat moving and just idled along. 

 

 

 

So, I threw together some snacks and we bubbled along down to the south end of the lake and back. 

We ate our lunch and had a few drinks and just putted along for the entire afternoon. 

 
"Hey, I gotta keep an eye on that food, in case some of it suddenly falls.  "

 

 

I found that as long as the boat was bubbling along the movement was keeping the flies away. 

 

 

 

So I was able to sit out front and enjoy my cruise.  It is always so peaceful out there, all you hear is the lapping of the water on the hull.  The motor noise seems so distant. 

 

 

 

What a difference a few hours can make though.  The winds had started to pick up a little by the time we were entering the harbour and by the time our Annual Boundary Creek Corn Roast was underway that night the temperature had dropped down drastically, the wind was howling and there was a misty rain.  Not nice at all.  And today it is really cool. 

 

 

 

 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY AND A COLD FRONT CAN MAKE.   

 

 

 

 

DIY: MORE CANVAS TO SEW

A couple of years ago I made a windshield cover of Levelor type Blind fabric.  It blocks a lot of the sun's rays and heat, but still allows us to see out.  It has served us quite well, but during the last couple of weeks it has been very very hot and humid.  With this very hot weather we need even more coverage on our front window. 

We put a piece of canvas, under the screen, across that area this week, and that really dropped the temperature in here, even more drastically.  It blocks our view out of our front window, which I don't like, but really makes it more comfortable in here in the this extreme heat. 

So, this fall, I am going to make another windshield cover exactly the same as our shade cover , but out of solid canvas.  We will only use it in the extreme heat, but that should really help. 

THE LIST OF WINTER PROJECTS IS STARTING

WE WENT "OUT" FOR DINNER

 

We had a very busy weekend.  What with our disastrous cruise on Friday, then Art's memorial on Saturday afternoon.  Then that night we were invited to our friends Gord and Ellie Gowie's Anniversary party.  While we were there we arranged to take them and their out of town guests for a cruise Sunday afternoon. 

 

Ellie had a lot of leftover salads etc. from her wonderful party, so she volunteered to bring the leftover food and we would make it a "Dinner Cruise". 

 

So, Sunday afternoon Ellie arrived, with Gord's sister Brenda and Brenda's husband John and a cooler full of food.  Gord is the Gimli harbour master and was working until late afternoon, so we cruised on up to Gimli to pick him up.   

 

 

 

 

I took pictures, while Dan and John chatted and the bathing beauties basked in the sun on our cruise north. 

 

 

 

 

After picking up Gord we cruised on out of Gimli Harbour and headed south towards the mouth of the Red River with Gord and Ellie on the bow this time.  

 

 

 

Then around 6:00pm we shut Thunderbird down and bobbed around out on the lake just off of Winnipeg Beach for dinner. 

 

We had a wonderful dinner and I didn't even have to cook.   

 

 

Then we putted on back into the harbour. 

 

 

When you hang around a marina "Out" means, "Out there on the water". 

 

ie. What's it like " out " there?  You taking your boat " out" ?  You been " out" yet?  Out means anywhere out of the harbour. 

 

So if we go for a cruise and have a Bar-B-Q, That's what Dan calls " Taking me out for dinner." 

 

 

HEY, IT WORKS FOR ME. 

 

 

 

 

 

ART'S FAREWELL CEREMONY

The ceremony for the sprinkling of Art's ashes was planned as a "Raft Up" at South Beach, which was one of his favourite spots on the lake.   

 

Art was a regular reader of my blog and would regularly comment to me about my posts and I really appreciated his input and Dan was one of the regulars at Art's Captain's table.  So, we certainly would not miss his send off for any reason. 

Now a raft-up is not a simple thing to accomplish.  Especially when there are so many boats that want to take part.  Art was a much loved man in our boating community, so there was a very large turn out.  It starts with two boats rafted (which means tied together, with fenders in between) that go ahead of where they want the raft to end up, drop their anchors, then back up until they are being held into position on their anchors. 

Then very carefully one by one you add boats to each side of the raft, tied together with fenders in between.  Every few boats must have an anchor.  So that means that, that boat must set it's anchor then back into position.  (A tricky manoeuvre) 

 

There were so many boats they had to start a second raft out front of the main one.  Those in that raft-up had a great view.   

 

Then it was our turn to pull in at the port end of the main raft.   

 

Once rafted, the swim platforms of all of the boats should line up, and everyone gets a chance to walk along the swim platforms and socialize with each other and share stories, condolences and memories.   

 

 

 

Then when all was ready everyone was summoned to the bows of their boats for the actual ceremony. 

 

 

Orange was one of Art's favourite colours to wear, so because of that the family all wore some orange, which was nice for us as we could pick them out from a distance. 

 

 

 

 

Art and Gay's three son's Ryan, Chris and Nick, escorted their mother to the bow of "Misprint" and she poured his ashes into the lake. 

 

 

 

 

Everyone said their farewell, and raised a glass in a toast. 

 

 

"TO ART"

 

 

 

What a lovely ceremony it was.  Very casual, just like Art would have liked, but also very poignant and moving. 

 

That's the way to do it. 

 

 

 

DESTINATION NORTH, HERE WE COME (CRUISE)

Dan and I and some marina friends have decided to take our boats on a destination cruise. Angela and Peter Narth are joining us on an overnight up north on the lake. Tentative plans are Hecla Village or Gull Harbour ???   

I have been champing at the bit to head north since June 1st so I guess this is it for this year.  It's a long way north just for overnight, but at least it's a trip somewhere.  So, we headed out of the harbour at 8:30am. 
 

It was a very pleasant and uneventful trip north.  We cruised up there at about 7 MPH and approached the harbour entrance about 3:30. pm

 

 

The new government dock at Gull Harbour is beautiful.   

 

 

Once docked,  Dan took Sea-Enna up to the end of the dock for a swim at the beach.   

 

 

Then Dan and Peter climbed the Lighthouse to take some pictures while Angela and I sat and relaxed and discussed our journey thus far. 

 

 

With that all done we were invited aboard Gifhorn III for Cocktails and Hors D' overs. 

 

 

Then we adjourned to the old Gull Harbour Hotel, up at the end of the dock for a wonderful dinner of good food and good conversation.  We had a great time. 

And it was such a lovely moonlit evening we linger on the dock talking late into the evening. 

 

 I would love to be able to say that, that was a lovely ending to a lovely cruise, but that was not to be the case.  We had started planning this trip a while back and things just kept cropping up that caused postponements. 

Our start got delayed, by a friends untimely death and funeral, then our return date was also moved due to Boat Ceremony planned for the Lake on Saturday that none of us would in anyway want to miss.  So, we were in a bit of a time crunch, but we decided "we wouldn't cancel, we would just make it an overnighter". 

Much to our chagrin, as we were heading north on the lake we were all monitoring our radios and hearing the increasingly gloomy forecast for our Friday return trip.  What started out as a forecast of strong south winds, was at the end of the day being forecast as "Wind Warnings for the South Basin on Friday", by the time we were docked. 

So, Friday morning ,with none of us wanting to miss Art's Memorial Ceremony on the Lake, we decided to head back to Boundary Creek Marina.  It did not seem too bad as we headed out of the harbour and into the channel that takes us back to the main part of the south basin.  It was a little rolley, but nothing we couldn't handle.  We were able to keep our speed up at the 7mph that had brought us up here yesterday, but that didn't last long.  As we got further south and lost the slight wind protection of Black Island the wind got a lot worse and we had to slow down, but we were still  able to maintain 5-6 mph.  That is until we also lost the wind protection of the bottom of Hecla Island.  Now we were right out there in the widest openest part of the south basin and those so called south winds, though mostly from the south seemed to be coming from every direction. 

IT WAS HELL!

 

I really am no expert at estimating the size of waves, but the distance up and then back down that our bow pulpit travelled  as it rose high in the air climbing one wave, to suddenly crash down on the next wave rising up to meet it, had to be over 8 feet.  It was starting to do damage to our boat.  (Smashed some fibre glass off of the bow)  At that point we had to slow down and at some points were were down to about 2 1/2 to 3 mph.  It was a real grind.  We have a ceremonial ships bell in our galley and I have only heard it ring once when we were hit by a huge wave trying to round Grindstone point.  That bell chiming out was enough to scare me and we decided to turn around that day.  Well, that bell must have rang 50 times during this trip, I got to the point I didn't even pay any attention anymore.  Needless to say we didn't have any time or any free hands to take any pictures of this disastrous trip. 

Now when two boats decide to go on a cruise together, that does not necessarily mean that they must stay together.  When rough water enters into the picture decisions have to be made.  Each boat handles rough water differently and you have to know your own boat.  Dan knows what is best for Thunderbird and will adjust his speed and angle of attack according to that.  GifhornIII on the other hand rides better at a different speed and her Captain has to make that decision.  Peter was able to slow GifhornIII down a little, to try to accommodate our slower pace, but could not maintain the slow speed that we needed.  We maintained radio contact over those next long 5 hrs, checking on each others progress as we watched GifhornIII disappear over the horizon.  

It took us about 9 hrs to get back to our home port.  We knew our boat could handle it, but could we?  It was hard work standing there fighting that wheel.  Normally when we cruise we spare each other off ,Dan does an hour then I take over and do an hour and so on.  But this time, I couldn't handle a whole hour and Dan of course was much better at reading the waves and anticipating which ones to slow down for.  So, for about 5 solid hours he stood fighting that steering wheel across the worst of the open lake, with no land marks in sight, just the compass and GPS. 

 

We were never so happy to see anything as we were when the Seagram's Distillery plant came into view.  It is so much easier to navigate to a known landmark than it is to maintain a compass or GPS course when you are being bounced around by huge waves. 

 

As we continued toward it wave by wave we were slowly making headway, picking up a little more shelter from those rogue waves with each mile we slogged through and they were becoming more and more consistently from one direction.  They were still quite large, but now we could set a consistent course and speed.  Within an hour or so of spotting our land mark, we were able to pick it up to 5 mph without having to slow for the odd bad wave.  We were now also able to angle across them, which makes it a little more comfortable.  By the time we got near to the distillery we were able to pick it up to 9 mph.  It was rough, but what a relief.  When we were just outside Gimli harbour we pulled up to a stop and took a break.  We breathed a sigh of relief and poured ourselves a drink and relaxed before we started up again and rounded that last point towards home.  We were quite surprised as we rounded Willow Island that the lake had calmed substantially in the last few hours.  We were home free.  In another 45 minutes we were heading into our home port. 

 

 

 

HOME SWEET HOME PORT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#@%? COMPUTER

I have been trying for the last few days to get my #@%&?  Computer working.  Right now it is limping along for me.  I have tons of pictures and info to post and can't get it done.  Stay tuned I'll keep working on it.