Interstitial 1 - Aug 21

Well, this isn’t really ‘boating’ per se, however I am on the boat and am trying to get some stuff done. Brooke is still in PEI with Trudeau Stories and I am here in Fenelon Falls with Mister Huxley.

I arrived here on Sunday during a heavy rain storm and the boat was bouncing at its berth at the end of the dock. Some ropes had loosened so she was about 3 feet from the dock and poor Mister Huxley, encased in her travel carrier, had to wait in the rain while I hauled her in. But later, the storm ended and we were treated to a wonderful sunset. 

Wonderful Sunset as mentioned above.

The weather has been decidedly windy since then with the wind from the west every day at about 20 knots. It sort of drives you mad after a while, the constant roar as the wind catches the various canvasses, lines and other boats on the dock. It makes working outside difficult too, so mostly I have been inside patching things up and working on securing the new battery boxes I bought.

This is purely for the technically minded, but we have replaced what used to be two massive 8D batteries that were being used primarily to start the engines, with two smaller, lighter truck batteries. Along with the loss of weight, there is now greater access to the areas of the engines that face the outside of the hull. Said batteries were just hanging freely on their mounts though until I installed two battery boxes with retaining straps to secure them. 

Newly installed and tethered Battery Box

 

Jimmy, the guy who was watching out for our boat while we were away, confessed to me the other day that he drinks way too much and is considering “getting over there to the church basement”. I’m relatively glad I didn’t know this while we were away. Apparently, he fell off the end of his boat last Saturday night during the weekly weekend boater binging and dropped his $600 glasses into the water. He doesn’t have the lung power to dive for them himself so tomorrow, if the wind dies down, I’m going to have a look for them. He has taken his boat for a couple of days over to the Falls lock to “hang out”. Hopefully, I can hook him up with his spectacles over there and have a fine fish and chip dinner at the Captain’s Table at the same time. (A great place for F & C, by the way, if you’re ever up here.)

It’s very quiet here with the other boats (about a dozen) empty for the most part. The lake is quiet but for the wind and boat traffic is at a minimum. Which is great...

The only other thing of note is that yesterday marked the passing of both Phyllis Diller and Tony Scott. I have always been fond of Diller and she has been a part of my comedic life ever since I was a kid and watched her on Ed Sullivan and the like. It was a difficult time for female comedians back then (as in most professions at the time) and with the exception of people like Lucille Ball who was really more a comedic actress and later, Carol Burnett, only a few seemed to be able to rise above being anything more than a female counterpart to Henny Youngman’s brand of performance. Later in life, she was still apt and able even at 95 as witnessed by Jian Ghomeshi in his interviews with her.

Tony Scott is another story. I didn’t realize that he was Ridley Scott’s brother until this incident and when I line up his body of work with Ridley’s it really is a schism. Other than “The Duellists” that I quite liked, I found his projects almost totally out of my like zone. Top Gun, for instance, vs. Alien by Ridley. Still it was sad to hear that he had taken his own life and it was only today that I read that the ‘inoperable brain cancer’ story explaining it was not true. I’m sure the story will out eventually. But to be in that position (a top-ranked LA director) and do that to yourself is difficult to understand. Of course, who knows what was actually going on in his life. 

Anyway, the news of their deaths came on the same day and made me blue for a bit. The wind has died down now but it always does in the early evening. Hopefully, there will be a break from it tomorrow.