Launching Things Off - 2023

 Well, I knew this would happen. I swore I would keep the blog up to date and here we are nearly a week in and this is the first. Oh, well. 

As a quick catch-up, last Tuesday we abandoned Toronto for the water and headed up to Penetanguishene where the Mary Mary stood anxiously awaiting our permanent arrival. Even dusty from a winter on the hard, she looked yar. 

We had left with the two Volvos (I would say Volvi but that sounds a little orgiastic) packed to the gills with the sometimes necessary, often unnecessary stuff that we trot out every year. One sad thing this year... no cats. We lost our last ship's cat Mister Hattie during the winter and now we have just ourselves. We're keeping our eyes open though...

The Volvi after unloading (there I said it anyway)

The first day is always about loading and unloading so after we'd had enough of that we went into town to have wings at The Wing House. I gotta say, they are some of the best I've had so if you're in the neighbourhood and you like that kind of thing... yum.

Wednesday and Thursday were about the hull, attaching a new strainer basked, re-attaching the newly oiled windshield supports and hooking up the solar panels. I probably have the order wrong as it is all a bit of a blur now, as these times seem to be. There are a lot of little things that have to be done every year. We found low coolant levels in the engines so set that right. We're going to keep some puppy pads under the motor to see if its a leak. We fired them up and, just like the reliable old Ford Lehman's that they are, they started right away. We had to boost the port engine a bit using the starboard starter battery but that was okay.

Drilling into the hull. Wait! What??

The new Perko strainer basket in place. (fascinating stuff, huh?)

 On Thursday we launched the boat and spent the night at the marina while we did more system work. 

Launching

Launched

Brooke is doing most of the work in the engine room as parts of my body rebel when applied. She's a marvel down there, squirrelling in and out of the motors to do what needs to be done. Including re-bolting the alternator armature. I guess eventually we will have to get a monkey or something. Basically, at this time, I'm around to do the heavy lifting.

Like when we installed the new inverter/charger on Friday. First we had to get the old one out from where it lived, in the v-berth, and believe me they weigh as much as a Trump indictment file. Then we had to install the new one, a marvellous device (the Multi-Plus 2) created by the Victron company. We are changing them out because the old inverter couldn't handle our equally marvellous solar panel array. Now we have a system that is cohesive and does what we want, which is to power the boat at anchor and underway. 

Out with the old...

... in with the new

Having installed the equipment we launched our tin boat dinghy/jolly boat, Tintin, and rowed her over to the mother-ship. (The 1971 Evinrude Sportwin wouldn't start right off but it did the next day after Brooke purchased some hard-to-find J4C spark plugs.) Then we motored over to Discovery Harbour, a favourite Penetang anchorage of ours and spent the next three days checking and re-checking the systems and also having some R&R. A welcomed respite from the previous days of lifting and carrying and climbing up and down ladders on the hard. Except a strong wind blew up and made it a bit noisy.

At anchor in Discovery Harbour, Penetang

 

Now it is Monday. Brooke has gone off to drive the dinghy trailer back to her folks place in Port Hope. The next part of our mission is to start the ferrying of the cars so that we can have transport if necessary from the various ports we will be at as we proceed on our scheduled voyage down the Trent-Severn Waterway. Ultimate destination... Trenton. That's 43 locks if you're curious. A lot of locking.

Where we're headed (from top left corner to lower right)

 She will drive one of the Volvi from Port Hope to Sopher's Landing where our good friend Jeff Knight has kindly agreed to set up a temporary parking spot for one of the cars. His cottage is on the Trent and will afford us a place to anchor if we have need to get back to the city or elsewhere. The one car will live there and after we arrive by boat at that location we will drive it back to Penetang to retrieve the other car and hop-scotch it to the next location, probably Beaverton. And so on.

Jeff Knight, famous Canadian actor and personal friend of ours (Taken when he was 14)

 It sounds crazy but we still live in hope that one of us will actually get some acting work. Tough for all these days, but particularly if you're an oldster like me. I do have one gig going, the animated show, Millie Magnificent, in which I have a recurring character. I have set up a recording studio on the boat and hopefully will be able to record from here. If the technology is insufficient though I will have to drive back to record. Tricky timing.

So that's pretty much it for now. After we get back from Sopher's Landing, we will begin the BIG voyage. Word has reached us that the current from the dam at Lock 45 is pretty tricky, pushing boats off to port as you approach from Georgian Bay. Could be a challenge. Here's a video of us coming the other way many years ago. Lost sleep over it prior to trying it. 

Lock 45

After that, The Big Chute, a lock that is in fact a railway car that you drive your boat into and it lifts you up a big hill and into the water on the other side. Fun times. 

Big Chute