August 18, 2012 - Best Wedding of the Century

We've flown out to Saskatoon to attend what turned out to be the best wedding we've ever been to. Sally and McKenzie outdid themselves in planning and executing the best day of their lives. The wedding was held in an old movie theatre, the Roxy, not a stuffy, pomp and circumstance affair - there was even popcorn and a'hottin' and a'hollerin'! The minister was serious and funny, the music was awesome, the brides beautiful and of course the kids were cute.

Check out the billboard

and of course there's a movie poster

Inside the Roxy

McKenzie's 93 year old Grandmother did a reading and brother Sam was the best man, hmm he seems to be the only man.

Ring bearer and Abby the flower girl

The reception was at Agar's farm just outside of town - the weather was perfect.

Head table

Cake pops seem to be the latest rage and they were yummy!

Dancing the night away.

The extremely happy couple!

'tis the season (for sailing)

June 16 - Race Day

First race of the season and we didn't do too well - must have been the unreliable wind, couldn't have been the captain or crew!

Maybe we should change the name of the boat from Blazing Matilda to Not-so-Blazing Matilda. Perhaps we should officially christen her, although the on-board party would be considerably smaller than on Dirty Girl.

Rounding the first buoy

 

Was a fairly good wind for a change

Captain Gerry

Why am I always hauling in the sheets and jumping from one side of the boat to the other?
At least I remembered to wear my gloves whichmade tacking easier and being ballast is something
I'm used to.

July in Wildwood

Once again didn't place in the Rum Runner race in July and missed the Wildwood Cup all together - went camping, what's that all about? Of course after a sweltering July (I spent more time than usual with the A/C) the one weekend we choose to sleep outside it's freezing and rainy. Sailing season has finally started.

Wildwood and Trailer - May 2012

Finally got the trailer all done up real pretty inside and outside, while Gerry sweated to death in the Bahamas.

a few special touches

dug in edging

power-washed deck

stained

temporary fix for awning leg

dug giant hole to plant this post for the awning

May 20 Back to Wildwood Lake

Step 1, clean the boat - yes, that is Gerry doing 98% of the work.

Step 2, launch said boat

Step 3, sail

Shenanigans have started again - no one admits to placing this on our dock.

What the H E double hockey sticks is with the weather?

I've been back in Ontario for a few weeks and of course the weather has been less than desirable. I think the good weather was used up this past winter with unseasonable warmness -  the water froze the other night out at Wildwood.  Speaking of Wildwood we're now the proud owners of a new trailer. Yes, back to a 5th wheel.

Was not an easy job getting the old one out of there - the tongue was practically buried, the trailer sat very close to the deck and there was the danger of taking the deck along and of course it started to rain.

She was firmly planted

Part of the railing had to go

Adios

Depressing but not for long

The new one is longer and with slide outs definitely wider. The old one and deck were not positioned properly - you're supposed to be 2 feet from the water and power lines so it had to be moved up. Fortunately the park is not making us move the deck - yet. Warning - if I invite a bunch of you out for the afternoon it might be to move the deck - but I will feed you and there could be beer and/or rum involved.

Pretty nice for an older trailer

Took a few tries but got her nice and close to the deck.

Just enough room

Almost perfect, deck needs tweaking.

There will be photos of the inside once I'm done fru fru'ing it up, (as Gerry likes to say).

Gerry has returned to the sunny south and it's been raining there for 3 days. I can't muster up any sympathy for him. He enjoys the hot sultry weather there in May, I don't so he's on his own patiently waiting for the mechanic to show up and fix both boats. Even more so than with cars, a good boat mechanic is hard to find and worth the wait. I'm really surprised that more boats aren't called "The Money Pit," Gerry would be up to "The Money Pit XIV" in larger boats and if you counted every boat of any size, shape and type it would be "The Money Pit XXII." The smart people are those who don't own any boats, but have a number of close friends that do. 

and life goes on......

March 11 More Projects

Time is flying by, and boat projects are slowing getting done, but they will never be finished. As soon as you get one or 2 done others pop up, a never-ending cycle, but such is boat life.

Gerry installed solar panels which run all the 12 volt stuff in the boat. Earlier he took a gazebo canopy, attached snaps to it and the boat, installed tent poles and voila a perfectly fitting sun cover to protect the flybridge seats.

A good idea - but needs work. We bought Loran antennas and put "horns" on them, from which to hang dock lines so we can dock the boat easier. The weight of the PVC piping bends them over - back to the drawing board!

After 6 weeks of hooking I finished the 3 x 5 rug which incorporates the boats name.

and speaking of names, we finally got her name on the stern (and sides)

I hope they can fix bridges better than they can hang signs. We found this floating in our bay. They were very grateful when we returned it.

Scraping Ramblynn's old letters off. A much harder job than Dirty Girl as they've been roasting in the hot Bahamian sun for years.










Besides day-to-day living and boat projects we've been:

Driving on the beach at low tide.

Lobster hunting with Bill and Sylvan (a failed mission).

Snorkelling with Joseph. Also a failure since we couldn't find a mask that fit him.

and found they've taken a bulldozer to some of the Old Freetown Road which means more people will have access to "our" beaches. Horrors!

A road much much less traveled

We've been exploring the island, looking for new beaches, new roads. We found a great beach and here's the road, and I use the word road, loosely, that we traveled down.

and here's the beach

January 2012

January 25 The Glam Side of Yachting

Try kneeling in a confined space (the bilge), lean to your left and rest your ribcage on a spare anchor, reach your arms up and forward and try to fasten bolts to the underside of the floor, bearing in mind that the holes are just big enough. Remain in this position for an hour as your leg falls asleep. Gerry's knee was acting up and he claimed he couldn't do it so he remained in the bathroom issuing orders as I sweated in the bilge trying to line bolts up and ratchet them into place. A good time was had and we managed to cross another item off the list of 32 - raise the toilet.

My view of the toilet when I was allowed to finally
sit up in the bilge.

4 out of the 6 bolts, the other 2 are under the pipes etc,
really handy to get to - not.

 January 10 Dinghy Time

I got to paint the bottom of yet another boat – check it out – great job if I do say so myself. Gerry installed a fin to stop the porpoising, Richard came along to help launch the dinghy (and drive jeep back). Of course nothing goes smoothly, despite having worked to raise the motor up, when we tried to put it back down it was dead. Richard discovered the battery cable was hanging on by a thread (literally) and needed a knife to cut the plastic back. We didn't have one, so now what? Gerry believes that whatever you need will eventually come along and would you believe Richard found a knife on the sea wall just a few feet away!

fin

knife

 Motor fixed, we were on our way for some beach time.

 It is official – I am not a fan of motorboats, I much prefer the serenity of sailing. I hate bouncing along, the water was not as calm as it appears in this photo. I have a video to prove it.

On the way back we tried to find where the ship had scraped up the sea floor but couldn't find it.

We did find that the sea buoy had been moved out to deeper water and one of the markers was being repaired. Talk about closing the barn door...........   That's the way we do it in the Bahamas.







January 9   Oops

So how does one run a cruise ship aground? Blame is being thrown around but we still don't know for sure. Part of the problem may have been the outer marker that was moved to shallower water a while back.  There was a local pilot on board so this sort of thing shouldn't happen. She ran aground around 7 a.m., close to high tide so they had to wait till evening to try to get her off. This was Poesia's inaugural voyage to Port Lucaya. Not a good first impression. Cruise ships usually dock at Freeport and tourists get bussed over to Port Lucaya etc.  Anchoring right outside Port Lucaya was supposed to make things easier, just ferry the tourists in, something that used to be done years ago.

We decided to take Dirty Girl out and check it out ourselves (dinghy was still on the trailer).  Was my first ride, pretty nice but I could just envision $$$$$ as we moved through the water.

Tugs waiting for the tide to rise.

Bill and Gerry at the helm

Gisela and Rudiger enjoying the view.

Betty, Gerry, Bill, Richard, Jonie

Thanks to Johanne for this great shot.

Later at Coral Beach hotel waiting, waiting...

We left the beach, well past high tide thinking she's stuck till morning. Right after we left they did wriggle her off by having tugs pushing near the front starboard, tugs pulling on the back and her engines running full out in reverse.