Our August Weekends

We are having way too much fun with this new boating lifestyle and are so happy to be able to share it with our family and friends. If you can learn to deal with the spiders and flies being on the water is amazing … even if you are only sitting at the dock.

This goes out to my friend John … a true Parrothead!

Here are some highlights from the past month.

Our friend Melanie joined us for the August long weekend …

… and we enjoyed some fireworks put on by the town of Wiarton.

The Monday of that long weekend our St Jacob’s neighbours came up for the day. Tanya and Casey (yes … THE Casey who was instrumental in getting us back and forth from Wiarton to Lefroy) were finally able to join us for the day … and Tanya didn’t get seasick!

Life on the water is incredibly taxing!

After we were able to kick them off the boat Leanne and I took a walk and dipped our feet in the water. The water in Georgian Bay is known to be cold long into the summer. It isn’t until late July that swimming becomes bearable … at least for us.

Skip to the next weekend and we were joined by Jason, Kerrin, William and Gerry. We had a great time on the long trip back from Lefroy earlier in the summer so we decided to invite them back.

It was a perfect weekend for swimming.

Shawn and Sarah were anchored close by.

Like I said before … it’s a tough lifestyle.

William is definitely a tough Uno opponent.

Maddie and her friend Juls joined us for a day on the boat.

… and took the kayaks out.

I was lucky enough to be able to take my friend Grahame out for a ride in the dinghy and was very happy to be able to steer all by himself.

Luckily Grahame gets his looks from his mom.

With all this fun in the sun I still have to do work on the boat or else it will never get finished. We have been having some ongoing issues with the electrical systems but I am happy to say I think they have been solved. Without going into too much detail (mostly because I have no idea what I am talking about) our new electrician (Luc) once again paid us a visit to take care of some things that weren’t done properly. We now have our solar panels hooked up and are generating our own power.

I also made a cardboard template to finish off the corner of the galley. Once this piece is done I can make the bulkhead headliners.

We also have a working shower! No more nightly trips to the cramped marina showers. We have our own cramped shower now.

Please disregard that unfinished wall to the left. That is scheduled to be done sometime in the next 2 … 3 … maybe 4 years!

Leanne and I were able to anchor overnight on one of the most perfect nights for anchoring. The water was like glass and there was just enough breeze to keep the bugs away. The temperature was perfect.

If you have ever watched the show Community there was a scene where Troy is invited into THE Room Temperature Room by John Goodman. It is the room that “room temperature” is named after. Troy said he couldn’t feel where the air ended and his skin began (awesome show by the way). That night on anchor was like that. The air wasn’t warm or cool. It was … perfect.

… and it also happened to be a full moon.

We anchored no more than a 10 minute ride from the marina but it could have easily have been an hour. We felt like we on our own out there.

We were very happy to be joined by our friends Bridget, Jeff, and Lisa a few weeks ago. Once again … another perfect day on the water.

Of all the work we did on the boat this spot has to be one of my favourites.

This is the classic shot taken through the hatch from the salon below. This is where we serve refreshments to our guests.

I think you can guess that they really aren’t strong swimmers.

Here we are safely back on the dock after another successful day on the water. They passed the test and so will be invited back next year. They can even bring Jeff along.

Sadly summer is coming to an end but Leanne and I are planning on coming up to the boat until the last possible minute which means we probably have 5 more weekends left.

My father was able to come for the day on the water recently and I will post about that shortly.

Until then … stay safe and healthy.