Day 24 - Trenton, ON
22 June 2016
Day 24 - Tue 21 Jun 2016
Docked - Trenton, ON
[photo: two long-time friends, Bud and Suzanne, who we just met in person for the first time]
As happened very recently a few times, we went to bed with it still warm in the cabin from the day's excessive heat, and woke up with it near 50F outside in the morning. By then, it was comfortable in the cabin. A 40F swing in one day seems like a lot of me, but it is not unheard of, to be sure.
After awaking and getting that first cup of coffee, I had to Google 'butter tarts,' a very quintessential Canadian pastry. I had read good things about them from other cruisers' postings, but never cared enough to learn what they looked like or were composed of. Last evening, Tom and Julie from Next Adventure brought over a package for the group to try. Universally, we thought they were tasty, but in an incredibly sweet way. Just a little bite or two was all we needed, for sure.
With a little chill in the boat, it was a good time to make a fish chowder for supper. I have taken a liking to using the immersion blender to puree some of the extra potatoes I cook up to thicken the sauce without adding butter and flour. While Diane cleaned up, I got to work washing the exterior of the boat. It had gotten dirty going through all the locks on the Oswego. If the T-S is anything like the Rideau that we traversed last year, we should not see a lot of dirty water along the way. We do expect lots of weed that we will need to avoid, if possible, to keep the props and rudders clear.
I got on the folding bike and pedaled across the bridge about 3km away to The Source store to buy a SIM card for a Virgin Mobile account. That was only $6, but they could not activate it for me. I could do it over a phone line (if I had a phone working in Canada, I would not need the SIM card!), or on their website. I got fairly frustrated trying to do that because even though I was signing up for a pre-paid plan, they wanted a Canadian address. I did have one, but not mine. It turns out it was not my friend's anymore either as they had moved. Oh, well. The web server was satisfied.
While waiting for the activation to take effect, I biked over to the Metro store to buy enough pre-paid cards ($140) to last 2 full months, even though it will likely be 6 weeks in Canada. Staying connected is often not cheap. That will give us 2GB per month of data, which I suspect will be plenty. Before I got it all sorted out, however, it was time to go to the marina facility to use the hair/beard clippers and shower just before our local friends, Bud and Suzanne arrived for a visit.
Bud was very instrumental in helping the Catalina 36/375 Association through some difficult times with his computer/website expertise when I was Immediate Past Commodore and I owe him a lot of gratitude. They showed up with a beautiful bag that Suzanne made herself and even has the Diva Di name on it. Inside were 2 bottle of local wine from their private stock. What a delight!
After showing off the boat, we drove over to The Bistro and had a wonderful lunch. Diane got a burger and I got wings since that is food we haven't had so far and it was all highly recommended. They had a good selection of local craft beers, too, and we were all well sated. The conversations were all over the map, but part of it included recommendations for the North Channel of Lake Huron.
Back at Diva Di, we visited for another hour and then they took off. Diane and I both had some chores left to do, including me grilling up the sausages for a meal a few days from now. The wind was gusting strongly at times and it took the grill a while to heat up. Diane sat in the spacious and comfortable Boaters' Lounge watching TV, but there was not much new to see.
I was getting ready to relax on the flybridge in the nice breeze when another Looper boat came in. I won't give any details except to say that we have already seen more than a handful of Loopers who don't give a favorable impression of their skills in handling the boat or even tying her up to the dock. We surely hope they are learning fast and will be fine on this adventure, but it makes you wonder sometimes.
It was really quite a pleasant evening with Diane reading below, and me enjoying the audio book 'upstairs.' Tomorrow, and for the next few days, the locks are still on the 'shoulder season' schedule and operate from 1000 to about 1530. That means people like us who like to get going early and finish early get forced into a different timetable. We plan to move from the marina slip to the 'blue line' of the first lock about 0730 to tie up and wait. It will give me a chance to check out the lock and we'll hopefully be first in line to lock through.