Land lubbers once again

The days out at Woods Island continued on for the next couple of weeks. We enjoyed the space, the simplicity, the solitude. But mostly we enjoyed being with each other. It was grand.

      

Our days were filled with kayaking, reading, baking, hiking, and generally just living the good life.

 

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. And with the days getting shorter, and the nights becoming chillier, it was soon time for us to get serious about hauling up anchor and moving back to Corner Brook. Given that our anchor had been in the same spot for over six weeks by then, and had held us through gale-force wind and waves, we knew it was well and deeply buried. So we decided to haul up a day before the Labour Day weekend gathering out at Woods … and a good thing we did, for what did we discover? BARNACLES!

The first 20 feet of our chain was absolutely caked in barnacles. As Great Lakes sailors we’re used to dealing with weeds and slime and mud, but certainly not barnacles!

These buggers were thick, and firmly attached to every part of the chain. And they were hard! And sharp!! I needed tough work gloves, a hard bristle brush, and a steel file to remove them. It took what seemed like hours of back-breaking work to get most of them off. And what a mess on the deck! But at least the baby star fish (on our nylon snubber) was kinda cute.

Luckily we did manage to get the anchor up without too many more problems. The following days were filled with dock parties and getting our boat ready to make the short journey back to our yacht club in Corner Brook. It was sad to say goodbye, but the end-of-season dock party was a great way to finish our time there.

  

A couple of days after the festivities we hauled up anchor (for only the second time), said our fond farewells to Woods, and pointed our bow down Humber Arm, heading back to our dock in Corner Brook. We arrived, and spent the next few days getting reacquainted with the luxuries of land life; showering with endless hot water, and doing laundry in a machine!

The days that followed were a mix of working to get the boat ready for haul out, and of course plenty of good food, good company, and relaxing times. There was cleaning to do , and work on the deck and engine area . I also “fixed” the alternator problem that I had thought we’d had the whole season. Turns out I’m just not as smart as I thought I was, which I know comes as no surprise to anyone 😉 . The alternator was working just fine all along 🙁 . Nice to know we don’t really need it though.

The days passed by. We slowly but surely worked through the long task list. Oil change, prepare outboard for storage, clean, sort and climb the mast (my turn this year!). As usual, we move slowly. But eventually we are ready for haul out.

It all goes fairly well this time, and only took us about two hours to get all sorted. This is apparently an hour less than last year (but still an hour and a 1/2 more than most boats). We then spend the next couple of hours pressure-washing the hull to remove all the growth and slime and barnacles, especially on the propeller (no antifoul there). We even had some tiny mussels starting to grow. Maybe next year we should try and harvest them 🙂 .

Work progressed well. We got the frame up one day, and the canvas cover the next. We cleaned and sorted our boat life. Winterized the engine, sorted the car out, and organized all our personal effects for the next six months. There are a thousand different tasks, both big and small, shifting from sea to land life. But we (think) we got them all done.

It wasn’t all work those last couple of weeks. We got invited out to dinner three times (Thanks Gord/Leonna, Jaimie/Nick, Andy/Wendy/Aurora & Roger!). And we took our bestest Newfoundland buddies Paula & Byron out for a thank you dinner at a local restaurant. We spent over five hours eating and drinking and yarnin’. Gonna miss you two! But we’ll be back.

Oh, and the yacht club threw us another ‘going away’ party. OK, maybe it was “technically” a 65th birthday party for the ex-commodore. But we were invited 😉 .

  

Departure day finally came. We planned to take the overnight ferry again, so we hit the road around 3 pm (after dealing with a last second tarp rip), and made it there in plenty of time. We were first one’s on the ferry, which meant we were last one’s off. But the crossing was fine, and we both managed to get some sleep.

The drive through the Maritimes was uneventful, but quite pretty with Fall colours in full bloom (or death, really). We spent one night in Edmunston, at the Happy Motel. Then we pulled into Ottawa and were warmly greeted by Orion and Hammi … oh, and Mom and Kathy where there too 😉 .

After a pub night and a couple of days with our Ottawa family the two of them abandoned us to spend a week in Prince Edward County . We’re putting our expertise as house/cat sitters to work looking after the kitties. We expect to hit the road, heading first to Thunder Bay and then to Calgary, with a brief stop in Rossport. Unfortunately our trip out west has to be fast this time since our Maxi cat needs us soon. But that’s OK. We’ll be passing back this way again next Spring.