CLAFC – Creativity, Learning, Adventure, Freedom & Cessation

Our hull was beginning to grow weeds in Picton so we thought it was time to leave. Besides, we had heard from our good friends Paul & Julie that they wanted to come and join us for a week of sailing the Thousand Islands, so we decided to haul up mooring lines and start moving on.

We motored our way out of Picton Harbour, and into the Adolphus Reach heading eastish past the Glenora ferry and Mom & Kathy’s cabin that they’ve rented many times.

     

Wind was at our head down the reach, so we were tacking our way all along. It was fun, but after 14 tacks with our big yankee sail that refused to slide through the slot so someone (ME!) had to run up to the foredeck each time and haul it through, then run back to the cockpit to manage all the other sheets as well as the flopping jib … lets just say it was exhausting. Especially since ONE person on this crew CLAIMS to have broken a rib, so she CAN’T do deck duty. Not naming names, but the lallygagger’s name starts with “A” and ends with nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 🙂 . Lots of fun

We sailed into Prinyer Cove as the sun was starting to wane and tied up to a mooring ball owned by our Stillwater friends, Chris and Deb. The cove is a real hurricane hole, with good protection all around and a small little marina deep in the bay. It’s also full of private mooring balls, such that anchoring is difficult. Luckily Chris had given us permission to use their ball, which made it very relaxing … which is what we do best. The next couple of days were spent swimming, reading, watching turtles and baking bread.

   

From Prinyer we headed out into Lake Ontario proper. It was great to finally be out in the open water again. Our plans were to sail to Main Duck Island, which is a bit offshore, but winds and seas were on our nose. So as usual, we went where the wind was blowing us, and headed over to Waupoos area instead. We found a nice anchorage west of the island and dropped the hook for a few days of swimming, reading, and pestering my Annnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeee:

  

Pulling out of Waupoos I hauled up the biggest clump of weeds I’ve ever seen. The entire 70 feet of chain was wrapped in the stalky, sticky growth. And once I got to the end the weed ball was so thick I couldn’t even see the anchor! I was fighting and cursing to clear all this junk when I looked up and see our neighbour waving something. He finally calls over: “This is what you need around here!”  Turns out he’s lashed a garden claw to his boat hook. I pick one up later, and he was so right!

We depart Waupoos once more heading for Main Duck, but this time the wind is nonexistent to light. We struggle to get enough speed to even keep steerage. I was just about to get our light airs gennaker when a light puff of wind fills our sails. OK … we wait. Within a few minutes we had 20 knots of wind blowin’ from exactly where we wanted to go, so we listen to Neptune and headed off towards a different anchorage instead. Remember, we always go where the wind blows us 😉

The sail turned into a rollicking rollercoaster ride. We blew past our first possible anchorages, and headed towards Kingston. We were planning to get there in a few days, but with winds reaching 28 knots and boat speeds at 7+ knots for over three hours, we just kept cruising all the way to the limestone city. We dropped anchor at a popular spot near Wolfe Island, and settled in for a couple days of rolly, but relaxing living.

 

After two days of watching the power boats build ever-larger rafts (one was nine boats long! … what is it about power boats and rafting anyway???) we upped-anchor and officially entered the Thousand Islands. Winds were favourable, so we sailed down the rather narrow, and very busy, Bateau Channel. Ann added a few more grey hairs as she helmed and navigated our way past narrow, shallow waters, large fast moving tour ships, and tons of zippy boats everywhere!

  

 

We arrived at our anchorage a short 1.5 nm away from Gananoque and spent the next few days getting the boat ready for our visitors, and generally relaxing.

Oh, and Ann did some boat yoga just for fun. I think this is called Laughing Quacka Redhead … 😉

We pick up Julie and Paul on the weekend. Then it’s off to explore the Islands with people who actually know how to sail. Yikes!

After over two weeks we’ve managed to travel a total distance of about 30 nautical miles. Yes, we’re living up to our unofficial slogan: “Why go fast, when you can go slow.”

After leaving Stillwater we spent many days just lazing around at a nearby anchorage called Sandy Cove. We had a few Stillwater friends drop in on us over those few days … I think they just wanted to see if we were still there.

 

    

While at Sandy Cove we watched the local Search and Rescue team practice their helicopter water recovery. Either that or they were trying to get rid of a body. If was fun to just laze around and do some reading and swimming. But by the fifth or sixth day we decide it was time to move on, so up came the anchor and off we went. But hauling up the anchor proved to be a bit of a challenge!

From Sandy Cove we sailed a whopping 10 nm to our next anchorage of Forester Island. This took us through some pretty narrow stretches where we had to share the channel with lots of motory boats, including a tourist vessel.

                   

We dropped the hook behind Forester Island and stayed for another near-week just relaxing, reading, swimming and doing odd jobs.

 

BTW, our boat is home, not just to us, but to many other critters of the buggy sort. For a few days we seemed to be mayfly porn central, with lots of these dragonfly-like bugs just “doin’ it” all over Pachina Mia. But mostly there’s the spiders … lots and lots of spiders.

 

 

From Forester’s we mostly motored down towards Picton. We anchored just north of Picton Harbour for two nights, and were going to spend more nights on the hook but we got news of two families in the area that we could connect with. The first was Dylan, Phil’s son. And the other was a friend of mine from a waaaay back: Dave Rogers and his family from Whitehorse. It was great to connect with Dylan, whom I don’t think I’ve seen since he was a tiny lad. It was great to meet his family. And it was amazing to reconnect with Dave and his wife Carole and sons Henri-Georges and Charlot.

    

Dylan and family

 

 

 

The Roger’s Clan*

* Pictures by Dave & Carole

We had planned to stay only a few days in Picton, but on the fourth night the yacht club manager mentioned that they had a week rate for the mooring balls. For the price of less that five nights we could stay the whole seven… so we did!

 

Life is easy here in Picton. We spend most of the daytime hanging out in the lovely PEYC club house/bar. They have decent wifi, which has allowed us to make some good headway on our Waterway Guide work (we are Cruising Editors for the Waterway Guide). By 4 pm we’re sipping a beer, and having a shower. By six we’re back to our floating home on the mooring, fixing dinner and sipping more beer/wine.

Yup, life is tough…

 

    

 

Whatever will be, will be… 

We may not be particularly skilled, or smart, or wise, but Ann and I do have one great talent: the ability to role with the punches.

Since what we’re doing is just life, and not some vacation where we have to get somewhere before time runs out, it doesn’t really matter where we are, or what we do. As long as we’re having fun, it’s all good.

And so it has been with our entire sailing season. Newfoundland/Lewisporte turning into Newfoundland/Corner Brook, turned into Lake Ontario/1000 Islands, turned into Canada Day on Main Duck Island. But persistent engine problems kept us tied to the dock. We had planned to sail with Stillwater friends to an island in Lake Ontario for Canada Day, but ended up celebrating from Stillwater instead. And this despite the valiant efforts of dock mates Chris and Fred.

So we settled into a couple more weeks of life at the dock, which really isn’t a bad life at all:

 

One of the great plusses though was that we had another great visit with Mom and Kathy who came down to Belleville to spend a few more days wineing and dining in The County. In the meantime Ann and I kept working on the engine, trying to stop the leaks. But after exhausting all our limited skills, and with Dave our stalwart mechanic being too busy with real customers, we finally called in another diesel whiz that had been recommended to us.

Gord Proud is simply amazing. After a couple of hours (for which he charged us not nearly enough), we were up and running with no more diesel dumping into the bilge. Awesome! A few more days of provisioning and cleaning up, and we were off!

So yes, we finally left Stillwater Marina  — in gale conditions no less! We sailed all of ~5 nm east to Sandy Cove and dropped the hook. It doesn’t matter where we are; it’s just great to be swinging from our own anchor!

 

For now we expect to wonder around the area, up over to the Thousand Islands and around the Lake. No plans, and no schedule. We just have to be back a couple of weeks before haul out (near the end of September). Feels great!

One thing we did do over the last few weeks is to get serious about what we’re doing over the winter. I had been reading and learning about house/animal sitting, so I signed us up at HouseCarers.com and began to investigate possible winter gigs. The perfect one came up in Penticton, BC so we sent off a note, got a quick response, did a FaceTime interview and were offered the job.

We will be spending November to early April in Penticton, staying at a lovely house and watching over after a great looking cat named Maxi. The owners seem great, and since they’re winter RVers, the timing works perfect for us. This should allow us to live inexpensively for the winter months, plus we’ll get to stop in on the family folk in Calgary on our way through.

For now we’re lovin’ the anchor life. Relaxing, and enjoying the views.

 

Dancing Wu Li Master Earthworm Jim teaches in lesson #42: “You’ve forced me to use the most powerful weapon of all! Strategic retreat!”  And so too do we find ourselves invoking the same wisdom as we shift gears from sailing Newfoundland to exploring Lake Ontario/1000 Islands this year. As with all our decisions, we’re just goin’ where the wind blows us.

So yes, continued problems with the engine have pushed us to delay our St. Lawrence journey. But truth be told, there are other factors as well. We’re still disengaging from land life, and still have too much stuff to deal with. And I think we’re both feeling a bit creaky when it comes to sailing and cruising skills. The Rock will still be there next year. In the meantime this opens up the whole Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario for leisurely exploration.

What wisdom, the wind. Keep a weather eye, and always be willing to change tack.

Despite the engine setbacks, and our general slow pace at accomplishing things, we did actually manage to get off the dock and go sailing. Our mechanic did solve our latest fuel leak problems, and Grampa Tractor, as we affectionally call the engine, sputtered, coughed and roared to life. The next day we took her for a spin; the first time we’d been off the dock in our boat in nearly two years!

The test went great, so we decided to follow our friends from Windover (Chris and Deb) up the Bay to Trenton so we could watch the air show, and then spend our first night at anchor. It was an amazing little trip. And what was even more amazing is that we remembered how to sail and anchor.

 

 

   

 

The boat worked great, and so did we. We had a wonderful time with Chris and Deb, rafted up for meals, and just getting to know each other. The only glitch was when we went to start the engine again in the morning and it wouldn’t fire. Ann quickly found another fuel leak, and Chris, who is not only a master sailor, but seems to be able to fix anything, leapt aboard to help us. He tightened things and bled the engine — and she fired! Off again, but this just confirms our decision to stay nearby. We must have a reliable engine for the St. Lawrence.

Meanwhile, life at Stillwater Marina (where we’ve decided to haul out again in the fall) continues to be mostly pleasant and peaceful . It’s also been Stinkin’ hot at times, with the occasional scary storm rolling through:

So now that we know we can still sail, and that the engine seems to be working most of the time, we’re prepping for our first real journey in two years. A group of us Stillwaterians (seven boats, apparently) are heading down the Bay of Quinte, out into the Open Lake. The plan is to sail to Main Duck Island for Canada Day, and spend a few days revelling in the company of new friends.

Today we’re installing new batteries after confirming our old ones had gone to battery heaven. No surprise really since they were going on seven years old, and I have tried to murder them at least twice over the years (froze them solid one year 😉 ). The install went beautifully so now we have three new Group 31 true deep cycle batteries installed (vs our previous “dual purpose” batteries), plus one true starter.

All this just to keep the beer cold 😉

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention, I had a birthday. Celebrations started in Ottawa with Mom and Kathy, and carried on at home on our boat. I am now the happy recipient of a new cordless drill, thanks to my love Annnneeeeeeeeee. And I also made great use of an LCBO gift card, which has kept our fridge full of excellent beer. I like this getting older thing 😉

As the old saying goes: Two steps forward… I hate engines. At least, I think that’s how it goes 😉

After over a month and a 1/2 at the dock we’re close to having everything ready to go … all except the freakin’ engine. We (and when I say “we” I mostly mean our mechanic, Dave) got the beast running smoothly. We thought we were all set, but on the day of the big sea trial we turned the key and… nuthin’. Wouldn’t start.

We dive in, and find a fuel leak, but can’t figure out where it’s coming from. Oh DAVE!!!!

Dave comes back. It takes him a while (which is nice to see … I guess we’re not total idiots), but he finally finds a nearly invisible crack in one of the high pressure fuel lines. He also notes that the valve cover’s gasket is leaking badly. What idiot put that on? (OK, that would be me 😉 ). So Ann is now taking over that job.

But it’s not all retrograde motion. We’ve made some great steps forward. Ann tightened the stuffing box, so now we’re sinking a lot slower than before. I got both the gas generator and the outboard engine running, including putting together our dingy and taking it for a spin. I finished wiring the new solar panels, so now we’re generating a lot more power. And Ann got the car into the shop for general service and to fix the odd wobble (it’s fine … they say). I got our composting head fully functional, while Ann set up our boarding ladder and ran some more cable for the radar.

And then the big one … the one I’ve been dreading, dreaming and stressing about for six months. I finally drilled a Big Freakin’ Hole in our deck!

I’d been whining and complaining and moping about this for months now (as many of you know). Finally a dock mate and new friend (Chris) came over, did some measures, and said: Drill Here! So I did.

   

The next steps will be to re-drill it, run the new wires down, and install the deck gasket. Then all I have to do is figure out how to actually wire the new radar and display/chartplotter. Easy peasy 😉 .

Life on the boat is not all sweat and stress though. Ann’s been giving Maddy the Marina Child swimming lessons, and we had another great visit with Mom and Sis.

We also went to The Music Man, put on by the Belleville Theatre Guild. It was a great show, and our former landlord and new friend Marvin played a great Charlie Cowell.

In Ottawa we got to see Colleen and Connor (Connor Michael James O’Reilly … I’m still shocked and honoured). Connor’s doing amazing. He’s a new person compared to the last time I saw him. We had lots of fun.

 

Back on the boat we’re continuing with preparation, and feeling a bit like we’re caught in a Samuel Beckett play: Waiting for Dave-ot.

Ann: Do you think he’s coming today?

Mike: Yes, he said today. But maybe not today.

Ann: But he said today … or was that tomorrow?

Mike: Yes, today. No, tomorrow … what day is it anyway?

Ann: He will come. We can wait.

Mike: Yes, we can wait. We have to wait. But do you think he’ll come today?

Ann: Yes, he said today. But maybe not today.

…

We’ve settled into a fairly comfortable routine here on the boat. Mostly lazy mornings, followed by a flurry of project work, followed by late cockpit dinners and drinkies. Despite our slow pace, we are actually getting closer to being able to cut the dock lines. I finished building the frame and structure of our new solar panel bimini. Since I didn’t really know what I was doing (as usual), the fact that it seems to have come together is, well, kinda neat. All that remains is to wire it into our electrical charging system. Piece of cake 😉

The other big piece was our engine. It now seems to be working thanks to Dave the Mechanic. He aligned the pressure pump and it immediately smoothed out and now purrs like a kitty — a really big, grumpy kitty. One more gasket to build and install and we should be ready to motor away.

Of course life hasn’t been all work. There’s been plenty of play as well. Mom and Kathy drove down for mom’s birthday celebrations. We spent a few days wining and dining with them, including visits to a few fantastic local wineries. Of course, we got to show off our floating home, which is slowly getting sorted and cleared of junk.

Speaking of clearing stuff, Ann’s been hard at it, beating down the piles of junk that still dominate our little floating home. She’s also been working on the water system, which with the installation of some new filters, is now “AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!!” to quote my Annnneeeeeeeeee.

And believe it or not but we’ve finally begun to try and sell some big items, including our two motorcycles. They’re both listed on Kijiji now as individuals, or someone can buy both at the same time for an added discount. So far no takers, but we’re getting lots of clicks. Hopefully…

We have had one offer to store the bikes on a new friend’s land, so perhaps we can keep them after all. As usual, we don’t know what the future will hold.

In the meantime it’s work, interspersed with lovely dinners with friends, cat sightings at the local chandler , and the occasional visit from Maddy the marina child.

 

 

 

 

We finally got moved into our floating home called Pachina Mia, and have been slowly bringing her back from ‘on-the-hard’ hell. Mast went up without too much drama, and then we scooted off (in the car … boo-hoo) to Ottawa to spend Mother’s Day with my mom and sis. A few good dinners out and we were back to Belleville to carry on the work.

Boat systems have been coming back online, mostly without many hitches. Propane (stove/oven and BBQ) worked great right off. We have water (although Ann still won’t drink it yet), and the fridge/freezer is doing fine. Bilge pumps are pumping, and electrically everything is working well — all except the spreader lights which have a mysterious voltage drop in the line; probably due to them being nearly severed when the mast went up. Minor issue…

Sails are rigged, windvane is mostly installed, anchor and nav lights are functioning. The major remaining issues are finishing the radar and solar installation AND getting the engine running smoothly. Dave, our mechanic, was down and we got her running with a shot of ether. But she’s blowing blueish smoke, and is running rough. We did an oil change, and will probably reset the valves. Dave is investigating some other possibilities. Doesn’t seem to be a major problem.

When we hoisted the mast we chose to leave off our masthead wind instruments. They are delicate and would likely have been damaged by the crane’s cable. This meant one of us had to climb to the very top of our 45′ mast (which puts it about 50′ above the water) and somehow manage to install these things. Ann lost the fight, so I got to go up 😉

But Ann got her revenge the next day by climbing nearly as high to install the lazyjacks. Crazy woman!

Life at Stillwater Basin Marina is feeling quite comfortable. We’ve settled into a routine of lazy breakfasts, followed by a few hours of hard work, followed by yummy suppers cooked on board washed down with good beer or cheap wine. Ah the life…

One other major accomplishment was the installation of June’s/Mom’s space-church painting. It took Ann a few days to get up the gumption to drill holes in the frame and bulkhead, but she did it, and the painting looks great! Now there will be a little bit of Juney with us wherever we go.

The new owners of the marina are treating us well. They have an incredibly cute four-year-old daughter named Maddy who has been entertaining us with her questions, and her general joy of the world. She owns a cat Smokey has also adopted us, and is now so comfortable that he jumps on our boat uninvited, and sometimes even curls up on a settee to go to sleep.

 

 

If we can get the engine sorted, and finish a few more projects, AND declutter the boat, then we should be ready to get off the dock in a couple of weeks. Sheesh, this relaxing life is sure hard at times 😉

Addendum: As one of the few live-a-boards at the marina we get exposed to the full breadth of the joys of water life. A few nights ago I heard the SCCCRRRRRAPPE, BANG! CRASH!! SPLASH. I bolted upright in bed (while Ann keeps snoring away 😉 ) thinking something disastrous had happened to our boat, or someone nearby. But hearing no yelling or gurgling, I soon fell back asleep. The next morning I awoke to see the marina owner and others fishing something big out of the basin right next to our boat. I’ve been sworn to secrecy about what happened, but lets just say Ann and I and a few others spent the next couple hours fishing something out of the water that didn’t belong there.

And then just yesterday a neighbour boat owner knocks on our hull and asks me to come over to look at something. He points across the marina to a small boat and asks: “Should it be that low in the water?” I look closely, and quickly agree it looks low. So we go over and yes indeed, she’s sinking! No one knows who the owner is, it is locked, with no manual bilge pump visible. I go off and find some people. We cut the lock off, and see the cabin is 1/2 full of water. Find a pump. Boat saved!

Yup … always fun around here.

Where has the month gone… We moved into our rented room and began working on the boat. The first few days were spent hiding from winter weather, and mostly staring at our toes. There was so much to do to get our new home all ship-shape once again. Sure made me long for our days on the road, when the biggest problem we faced was where to pitch our tent next.

After a few days of dazed panic we finally got focused on getting the boat ready for launch. We cleared the deck, and got the winter cover off. Unlike the previous year when it tore in half, this year it suffered only a few small chafe holes. All in all the boat seems to have weathered well.

Sadly, the engine would not start on its own. Our mechanic, who is also an avid vinyl collector and is now the owner of Ann’s old turntable, managed to get it running with a shot of ether. His theory is it just needs to run in the water for a while to blow out any airlocks in the fuel. We’ll get to that soon… In the meantime, launch day came, and (mostly) successfully went:

 

Launch and haul are done using a crane here at Stillwater Marina. The Big Boats day was first, and we are definitely one of those. When it came our time we rigged the slings and got everyone lined up to help steady Pachina Mia as she was lifted. Just as she was coming off the cradle someone yells: “The crane is tipping! THE CRANE IS TIPPING!!!!”

Our boat weighs 15 tons

All’s well than ends well. The crane did not tip over, and our boat made it to the water with only a few extra dings in its hull. One of the crane’s stabilizing pads did lift four or five feet of the ground though. Oh, give me a travel lift any day.

With the boat in the water, and with confirmation she was only sinking slowly, we settled in to daily work life bringing Pachina back to life. My focus was mostly the mast while Ann spent her time trying to make the boat livable. I’m installing a radar antenna up the mast, which involves drilling big holes and running long lengths of cable through the centre of the stick.

As with most things in life, I really have no idea what I’m doing. So needless to say, the whole radar project has been quite nerve-wracking. But with much guidance, some luck, a bit of tenacity, and big power tools, I managed to drill the holes and run all the wires. The radar should be mounted soon. Next steps will be putting big holes in our boat … but that will come later.

Boat work has been stressful, but fun. But our new home life here in Belleville has been wonderful. Our host Marvin Tucker has been just great to us. We both feel right at home. Although we only rented a room (at an excellent price!), Marvin has basically given us the use of the entire house. This includes enjoying the house cat, PITA (Pain In The Ass). She’s well named, because she likes to steal your place in bed.

Marvin rents through AirBnB. If you’re in need of a room for a night or longer in Belleville, you can’t do better than staying here.

We also discovered we’re all complete Mac-heads. Morning breakfast often looked like an ad for Apple.

Along with working on the boat, Ann booked herself into a motorcycle course at the local college so she can get her full (M)motorcycle license. After driving nearly 20,000 km over the past seven months she figured she was ready. The fateful weekend came, and She Passed. Not only passed, but passed with the best score her instructor has ever given out in 12 years. That’s my Annnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! We went out and celebrated at a local pub:

                    

Today we move out of Marvin’s and into our floating home. The mast is scheduled for stepping this weekend. After that we’ll rig the boat, and hopefully get the engine working. Still aiming for Newfoundland, and still have no idea what to do with car, motorcycles or winter living. But we’ll figure it out … eventually.

The storm that kept us in Windsor for three days finally did let up, so we packed our bikes and bags, and began the journey to Ottawa. We had hoped to spend most of the holiday weekend with mom and sis, but as usual, the weather was uncooperative. The rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow had eased up, but the high winds and cold temperatures remained. It was not easy going, but go we did.

As the fearless leader for the day (we take turns leading) I navigated a course through some of the backroads of southwestern Ontario. We went through large areas of downed trees and flooded fields. At one point we passed a dozen Ontario Hydro service trucks all lined up on the road, no doubt trying to repair the damage from all the ice and fallen trees. We passed major intersections with no power to the traffic lights. Signs of the havoc caused by freezing rain were everywhere, but thankfully the roads were clear and mostly dry.

The route took us through some distantly familiar areas, including right past the place we used to live in London. It’s been decades since we’d been back, and like the growth of Ann’s grey hairs 😉 , so too has this place gone grey with buildings. Our big 12-story apartment was still there, but now dwarfed by numerous bigger ones. A massive Costco shopping mall now stands where the beautiful cornfield used to be.

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” … so true, and kinda sad.

We pressed on through London, heading toward the small town (pop: 38,000) of Woodstock. We had booked a cheap motel from our last stop at a Timmy’s (Canada’s main contribution to high culinary culture). It was cheap but had OK reviews. Did I mention it was cheap? No bed bugs though (as far we could see), so all good!

The next morning we woke to the heaviest frost we’ve yet had, along with fog so thick that we couldn’t even see the road next to the motel.

     

By the time we’d scraped the ice and frost off the bikes the fog had lifted enough for us to at least see the road. We drove a short distance to a nearby eatery, and settled into a warm, slow breakfast. During breky our waitress asked about what we were doing. Upon hearing some of our story began to regale us with her plans to get out of debt, get an RV, and go travelling “before it’s too late.” She was in her mid-30s, and figured she and her husband were on track to get away in their 40s. We heartily agreed with her plan.

From Woodstock, Ottawa was still around 600 km away, which for us is around ten hours of driving. Too long for a normal day, but the forecast called for rain and possibly snow the following day, so we decided to push hard to make Ottawa. We arrived by about 9 pm in the cold and dark. It  was a hard day, but it was all worth it b/c the next day it rained hard.

It was great to see Mom. Even nice to see baby sister Kathy 😉 We chatted for a few hours, then went to bed. The next day we babbled some more, got reacquainted with the cats, including our little Hammi, and ended up at their favourite pub for supper.

Sadly, Kathy had to go to Toronto for a few days to help organize and schlep boxes of donated material to the National Art Gallery Library. So Ann and I and Mom just hung around, relaxing, talking, cooking, eating and drinking. Oh, and Ann got my Mom addicted to the game GeoGuessr. She’s such a bad influence…

In addition to all the yakin’ and drinking and computering and relaxing, I also managed to replace some rotted baseboard in Kathy’s bathroom. Sadly though, the day came when we had to say goodbye and head for Belleville.

 

We arrived in Belleville and moved into our new temporary digs. We’ve rented a room in a house from a really nice fellow who normally rents through AirBnB. He very kindly gave us a good monthly deal, so we’re now here in a warm, cosy room with full access to a great kitchen, living area. Best of all, the place comes with good wifi and a really friendly cat.

 

The day after moving into our room we visited the marina and our boat. Pachina Mia weathered the winter just fine this year, as did our car. We went over not really knowing what we were going to do this first day. We have so much stuff to sort out. The car is packed, the boat is packed, and we even have extra stuff in a storage shed. Stuff everywhere…

Anyway, much to my surprise, the car started up without a hiccup, so now we’ve swapped our two two-wheelers for one red four-wheeler. Feels very strange being without the bikes after all these months, but the car is far more practical right now, especially since winter is still hanging around down here in southern Ontario; snow today with highs not predicted to go above freezing for the next few days. Brrrrrr.

 

We left Jeff Busby campsite with the intention of tenting at the last site on the Trace, but weather started cold and damp, and only got worse. Low temperatures were combined with icy cold, and very strong winds. Soon one of us was shivering, whimpering, pathetic, and somewhat hypothermic (OK, it was me 😉 ). Luckily Ann recalled Santa Steve mentioning there was a motel in the tiny village of Collinwood, so we steered our way off the Trace in search of a warm, dry bed.

We first stopped at the village’s Welcome Centre, and were greeted with a warm building, and nice hot coffee. The manager confirmed there was a motel in town, and even called the owners to see if one of the two rooms (yes, the motel has two rooms) was open. Luckily they had an opening, so we arranged to meet the owner.

The motel is owned by the people who run the village hardware store. They live upstairs, and had converted a lower storefront into two motel rooms. We were warmly greeted by Linda, the owner, and were invited in to what looked more like a basement guest-room than a standard motel. It was also adorned with various religious images, including a stack of Christian magazines. But she was sweet, and the room was warm and inviting. We happily moved in for the night.

Unfortunately the village’s only restaurant was closed for the night, so we wondered down to the gas station/convenience store for supper. It was then that my worst fears were confirmed: We were in a DRY town. Booze, which can normally be bought everywhere, was no where to be seen. Damn… At least the pizza was good.

The rain and wind stopped overnight and we woke to a cool but fairly nice day. Overnight we had spent much time looking at weather maps and forecasts. A massive late winter storm was heading our way, promising to deliver high winds, cold temperatures, and lots of rain, freezing rain and snow. Our preferred route back to Canada up through the Thousand Islands/Cornwall was now closed off. Even Niagara looked bad, so we decided to head to Windsor via Detroit.

In addition to this huge weather system, which was expected to pummel the whole region for days, we also had a looming deadline in the form of our travel healthcare insurance. It was due to expire on the 25th — just days away. So with only one route open to us, and time ticking away, we had no choice but to plan for some long riding days.

Yuck …

We pulled out early and headed north. We had to say goodbye to the Trace, but we still managed to find some fun secondary highways on our way to our next stop at Vincennes, Indiana. We found a cheap motel, talked with Donna (always great), ate some leftover pizza, and headed to bed. The next day we were up early and hit the road once again.

This day was another windy and cold driving day. After many hours (too many) we arrived at Huntington, Indiana. It was difficult, but we were now within a hard day’s drive to Windsor. We deserved a just reward:

Our final day in the USA would turn out to be the hardest of our entire trip. Getting up and off early once again, we headed towards Detroit and Windsor. As usual, we were avoiding the bigger cities, so Ann (her lead day) charted a route around Fort Wayne and Toledo. We left in relatively benign conditions, but by early afternoon the approaching storm was really starting to be felt.

Temperatures dropped from 15ºC to 11, then 9 and finally 6ºC. The wind whipped up to a frenzy, and rain was threatening. But we had to get across the border today. We knew we’d have to hunker down for days to let the full storm pass, and if we didn’t reach Canada today we’d be in the US past our healthcare deadline. So press on we did.

Ann managed to navigate us all the way through to downtown Detroit, with only one small tumble of her bike to add a bit of excitement to the day. But here’s where the best laid plans fell apart.

There are two ways to cross from Detroit over to Windsor. The most common route is the massive, and very busy Ambassador Bridge. This toll bridge is the busiest international border crossing in North America. It climbs 150 feet above the Detroit River, and is thick with speeding cars and hundreds of transport trucks. Needless to say, we did not want to go this way.

The second crossing option is the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which actually goes under the Detroit River. I had taken this crossing some years ago when driving a rental car back from looking at a potential boat. I knew it was much smaller and friendlier than the Bridge, so this was the crossing for us. The only hard part was finding the access point, which is right in the middle of downtown Detroit. But with Ann’s impeccable navigation, we made it.

Getting to the tunnel was a relief — which quickly turned to horror. Coming up to the toll gate we found a big ugly sign that said MOTORCYCLES PROHIBITED. What the F&@%@!!! We were turned around and sent back into the now drizzling streets of downtown Detroit.

Our only way across was now the Bridge … but we didn’t even know how to get there. And the temperatures were falling fast. And the rain was starting. And we were both kinda frazzled…

Well, as you can guess. We found our way back onto the highway (again, thanks to Ann’s navigational skills), found the bridge entrance, paid our toll (which was cut in 1/2 by a friendly toll operator who only charged us for one vehicle), and drove across this crazy bridge. We were hemmed in by massive transports and whizzing cars who obviously crossed the bridge all the time. But we finally got to Canada Customs, and prepared for the ordeal.

We’d been gone since November, with a brief return over X-mas. In that time we’d accumulated exactly one sleeping pad (to replace Ann’s dead one) and a roadrunner trinket from Mexico. Normally people would be bringing back piles of crap after such an extended trip. This was going to be interesting…

Ann went first. She stopped, turned off her bike, started talking to the guard, rolled the bike back and forth, talked some more… at this point I thought she was going to be dragged off to the back room. But then she started up her bike, smiled back at me, and drove off. I moved up.

“Hi there,” says I. “I’m with her.”

“Yes, I know,” says the obviously bored guard. “Anything to declare? Did you buy anything?”

“Hmm, me? No. Well, I did buy a lot of booze along the way, but I drank it all,” says I, trying to be funny.

“So, do you have any alcohol with you or not?” he says.

“Errrr, no sir.”

“OK, then go on.”

What? Wait?!? I had my whole story rehersed. I was ready to tell him about our grand journey, about all the neat places we’d been. About how beautiful the USA is.

…nuthin’.

I found Ann waiting on the other side. We did a quick map check to find our hotel, then headed off for a much needed dinner:

 

That night and the following day the storm hit as predicted, with cold temperatures and rain that was on the verge of freezing.

    

Fortunately for us, this most southerly corner of Ontario only got heavy rain, but slightly further north and east (exactly where we want to go) the rain turned to heavy freezing rain. Reports of over 100,000 homes losing power in the Toronto area have come in. Roads are impassible, especially for our little bikes. But the storm is moving east, so hopefully things will dry out enough so we can carry on tomorrow.

In the meantime, the hotel has a nice small pub with local IPA on tap, so I’m happy!