USA, USA, USA (with fist pumps in the air)!!!! It’s great to be back. Canada was lovely, and the people there were lovely too….but  it was WAY too expensive and cold. In a moment of Canadian frustration, Derek anchored in a crowed popular anchorage in Georgian Bay, put out our very large American flag, and blared Bob Seger on the stereo. Yes…he was that obnoxious American that other countries hate!!!! It was torture to be in such beautiful clear water and not being able to jump in due to the 70-degree water temp and even colder air temps. Derek got in once to untangle yet another rope around one of our propellors and was shaking like a leaf. And speaking of propellors, the big rocks in the shallow water in the Trent-Severn Waterway and Georgian Bay put several dings in ours and we had to have them reshaped and tuned at Drummond Island Marina. Another $1000 (or as Derek calls it ‘one boat unit’) and now Donna Mae plows through the water like a hot knife through butter. We also got our bow thrusters fixed.

Going through customs was nerve racking. Our kitty had no vaccination records (she was only 8 weeks old) and we had heard that they could take her and put her in quarantine. We were so nervous that you’d think we were trying to smuggle in a kilo of cocaine! And of course we got ‘Mr. Grumpy, no nonsense, customs bad-ass’ when we pulled in. A Custom’s officer comes to your boat when you dock. As you all know, Derek and I ALWAYS pop a beer once we’re tied to the dock. We also have a smoke. Well this Custom’s dude comes walking up and wants to know why I’m so nervous that I have to light up. Then he asks me to put it out because some ash might get on his uniform (mind you I’m on my own freakin’ boat and he is on the dock). But I can’t be a smart-ass back because he might decide to board and find my cat!!!! BUT, he didn’t ask about pets so we didn’t have to worry after all. She was hidden in her crate in the second bedroom. Gypsea now has the honor of dual citizenship and received all her shots last week. She’s now being leash trained and we take her into towns when we walk around to see the sites.

The northern area of Georgia Bay is known as ’30,000 Islands’ and they aren’t kidding! Most are huge boulders left over from the glaciers who’s peaks stick out of the water everywhere. They are smooth and rounded and look like Colorado’s ‘Garden of the Gods’ but surrounded by water. It was sometimes over 100 feet deep right next to a rock island, and at other times we thought we were in deep water and the boulders would be just below the surface. It took precision boating as some winding  channels only had about 20 feet between the buoys to maneuver through!!!

We are currently in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The water is still cold, but very clear and deep. Lake Huron has big waves and we’re getting a taste of the rocking and rolling that we can expect on Lake Michigan. We were on the water during the eclipse. WEIRD DAY! It was sunny when we started, then hit fog a couple hours in. When I say fog….I mean we couldn’t see more than a couple hundred feet in front of us. All we had was radar and our horn. We avoided a collision with a sail boat that suddenly appeared right in front of us. We knew it was there…radar showed him right on us and we heard each others horns….but we were creeping along and so was he when we found ourselves within a stone’s throw of each other! Then the eclipse started, and the 2-foot waves became eerily calm. It didn’t get that dark, but the temp really dropped. We envied our son, Trev, who hopped in the car and drove 9 hours to see totality perfection in Nashville.​

We pulled into Charlevoix Harbor and Starla suddenly died (our starboard engine). At this point of our journey…we’ve been so indoctrinated to whatever can go wrong probably will…that our reaction wasn’t much more than ‘well, crap’!!! She was revived after a fuel filter change. That evening we gathered with about 10 other loopers and got buzzed on raisins soaked in gin (great medicine for arthritis according to the Mayo Clinic) and blackberry liquor! We made it through yet another day the Looper way :)

Our time on the Trent-Severn Waterway has come to its end today. We have enjoyed lots of new experiences, food and towns along the way! We will now be headed into Georgia Bay, which will be the cherry on top of the Canadian sundae.

We have passed through more than 60 locks. If I never see another lock for as long as I live, it will be fine with me! However….today we went through the ‘Big Chute’ lock and it was AWESOME. Instead of being in a ‘big bathtub’ that either fills up or drains out to equal the water level on the other side, this one picks the boat totally out of the water with straps and carries it over land to the water on the other side. We’re in the boat as it crosses over. It is a one-of-a-kind system so here is a link that shows more detail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZGB52oUGY  It was a good chance to inspect any damage to our props and shafts since there were several ‘bumps’ against the rocks along the way. There were some dings around the edges of both props that will eventually need to be smoothed out, but not before we get into soft-bottomed waters again. No sense fixing something that can be bent again on another rock up here in the north.

The scenery is spectacular. Narrow canals lined with maples, birches, aspens and arctic pines lead to open bays dotted with lots of tiny islands. Almost every island has a house on it no matter how small. They use boats as cars. I have no idea whether or not electric lines run under the water to them or not. The water is SO clear it makes Beaver Lake look like a mud pond. Huge water plants grow 6-8 feet tall from the bottom and you can see the fish swim around them. It’s like looking into a gigantic fish tank. Derek caught a bass off one dock and could spot his fish 30 feet away and cast right to it. He also caught a Northern Pike…something he hasn’t done since he was a kid in Minnesota. When we pull the plants off the anchor, they literally look and feel like the plastic aquarium plants for fish tanks. All the locals say that Georgia Bay will be even more clear and idyllic.

The water is almost as cold as our nights. We will be wearing long pants and long sleeves in the mornings, yet all along the waterway kids are swimming!!! The day-time highs, around 3:00, are about 72-78 degrees. When the sun goes down, we are definitely INSIDE the boat since the  temps go down and the mosquito population goes way up. The mosquitos are huge, but quite slow since they have to carry around their massive weight! But it’s worth getting bit every now and then to see the bright Milky Way in the sky at night and listen to the loons.

We are now in fish-n-chips country. Every town says they have the best. What’s caught in the morning is fried up that afternoon, whether it be haddock, halibut, walleye or whatever. The local bakeries are to die for as well. The pies and tarts are so flaky and buttery.  Derek and I were eating butter tarts on the side of the boat, and when crust crumbs fell in the water they gave off big rainbows of lardy goodness! If I stayed here for more than a month I would weigh 200 pounds!

Gypsea, our new kitten, is an awesome first mate and has adjusted to the waves and engine noises. We have discovered little rubber tips that you glue on her nails to save our furniture. She is also wearing her little harness and  leash when she’s not inside closed doors just in case she decides to take a ‘dip’ in the water. Every day we have our own ‘America’s Funniest Videos’ watching her antics. Her favorite past time is watching Derek cast his line as he fishes and attacking every button she sees.

Mallard ducks and Canadian geese are everywhere. So are Canadian flags! People drape their houses with them. Everything is expensive. Diesel is $5 a gallon. That’s $1500 for a full tank! Yes….we are really missing having paychecks! But the people are just as nice & agreeable as the stereotype suggests. Everyone is drinking beer all the time.​

We fall asleep to the rocking of the boat and a cool breeze blowing through the hatches. Derek wakes up before dawn and spends time with his two mistresses, Portia and Starla (the port and starboard engines) stroking their strainers and pulling on their dipsticks!!!!! He makes coffee and checks the weather. I wake up to sunlight coming through the hatch in the ceiling. It always takes me a while to remember where we are! No one is allowed to talk until I’ve had a smoke and some coffee. We plan where we’ll stop at the end of the day. I brush my teeth, throw on a hat, and secure everything in the boat that may slide around while underway. Derek warms up the engines, I bring in the lines, and we’re underway. Derek does 95% of the driving while I make meals, read books, take pictures, and secure us with lines to locks, walls and docks. We’re poetry in motion! As soon as we dock or anchor, we celebrate with a cold beer and give thanks to God for another safe day on the water. Evenings are spent either with Tom and Paula (our travel buddies) or watching movies or recorded shows on DishAnywhere from our DVR at home. We walk to get groceries, do laundry, or eat out. We’re exhausted every night! Life is good :)

Week 18 & 19: July 11-25
We’re in Canada now, eh? I s’pose yous know we’re loading up on butter tarts and poutine. We’ll also be buying up the cheese curds, don’cha know!
It’s been a busy 2 weeks since the last blog. I’ll just hit the highlights since all the villages and towns are starting to run together and I can’t remember what we did where.
In Oswego, NY we said goodbye to the US and traversed Lake Ontario. The locals said it was a good day to cross since the lake looked ‘flat’. Either they have a different definition of flat, or they get their kicks sending tourists out for an extremely bumpy ride. Derek and I now know why the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ sank. By the way, I was singing that song the whole way! Good news is that I no longer get sea sick. Bad news is that the 2 cats traveling on our friend’s boat, Tango Papa, puked and peed all over their bed in protest to the waves. We were glad to be done with that day. NOT looking forward to Lake Michigan which tends to be even more unforgiving. When we finally crossed into Canada, the Marina had us set to dock right next to shore and Derek hit a stump or something and we decided to stay on a mooring ball instead. We now have a slight vibration so that is added to the “hope it don’t break” list.
The biggest difference on this part of the trip, besides the freakin cold temperatures, are the locks and tie-up walls. We’ve already passed through about 25 locks as the elevation increases. There is always a dam with huge amounts of released water flowing over and causing a wide and very strong current against us. We pull into the lock and grab the ropes hanging down from the walls and hang on. The massive door closes behind us and the lock fills with water. There’s lots of slime on the walls and little attached clams that spit water at us as the water rises! All the Canadian lock attendants are super nice, and apparently this is a coveted job for college students during the summer. Surprisingly, almost all of them have never been on a boat! The locks in the US were machine operated. In Canada, the attendants have to push a big wheel, like a playground merry-go-round, to open and close the doors. The town locals often come and sit by the locks to watch the boats and wave to the Loopers. You know you’re in the boonies when the boaters are the best show in town!
The second difference are the tie-up walls. Instead of marinas with docks, each town has a long concrete wall alongside of the waterway to pull over and tie the boat to. The city provides water and electrical hookups for a minimal fee. Usually there is a city park or downtown area to enjoy. In one village we went to an old fashioned amusement park. We laughed so hard on the Tilt-a-Wheel I almost peed my pants! In the village of Scotia,, NY we watched Pirates of the Caribbean in a theatre that only had one showing room. The towns are very quaint and the people very friendly. Each place we stop it’s like traveling back to the 50’s with privately owned grocers, restaurants and stores. It’s like Mayberry every day! Plus we are enthralled with the different kinds of food. Our fave so far is peameal bacon. It’s extremely hard to describe, so you’ll have to look it up!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peameal_bacon
The Trent-Severn Waterway is supposed to be the most beautiful part of our journey. We just started, so we are excited to see the sites along the way. We will go through 47 locks before we get to the end. The waterway is narrow and winding, like the canals in Holland, and goes through the center of each town. The pace is slow, and the number of boaters are few. Derek has reverted back to his Minnesota accent now that he is back in the nort’ and surrounded by people who say yous, dem, and yah.
Unfortunately, Canadian beer sucks! And they charge $42 per case!!!! Packs of cigarettes are $15. It’s almost enough to make me change my evil ways. Almost. US customs doesn’t have to worry that we will be bringing back too much of either.
Biggest news is a new addition to our family. I have missed our kids and pets so much lately since my ‘nurturing-mama mode’ had no outlet. I love Derek with all my heart, but needed something small and/or furry to cuddle and dote on. Derek is neither small nor furry! Sooo….we did what we said we would never do. We got a pet for the boat. We got a 7-week-old teeny fur ball kitten. Her name is Gypsea. We tried adopting from several SPCA centers in New York, but the myriad of rules and regulations literally made it impossible. You would think we were trying to adopt a child. Just when we were resigned to the fact that a kitty was not to be had, we met a waitress who had a litter ready for new homes. She brought her onboard the following morning, and it’s been true love ever since. She’s adapting well to life on the water, but still is less than happy with the engine noises. Our boat now looks like a pet store with all her little toys. She’s a wiz at the ‘catching fish’ kitty app on the laptop! I am a happy mama once again. Derek is actually smitten as well!
Our final note. In Canada you have to turn off your boat engines at each lock. On the last leg of the trip we went through 13 locks in one day. All that on and off combined with high usage of the bow thruster caused something electrical to fail in the thruster. This means that Derek has lost the ability to finesse the boat to the left or right as we enter the locks or dock at Marinas or walls. He is confident that he can handle everything without the bow thruster, but it will be missed until repaired at some point in the future.
Until the next update, Pass me a Molson or I’ll turf you out of here, hoser!


Peameal bacon - Wikipedia
Peameal bacon (also known as cornmeal bacon) is a type of back bacon made from lean boneless pork loin, trimmed fine, wet cured, and rolled in cornmeal. Development is credited to a Toronto, Ontario, ham and bacon curer, William…
EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
​

Hey Friends & Fam! July 3rd found us in Point Pleasant, NJ next to the Manasquan Inlet. We docked in the shrimp boat marina to save a little money. This was very different because it was literally where the shrimpers docked. There were only pilings to tie up to….no cleats or finger piers that give easy access to going ashore. We only had a rickety ledge that looked like it couldn’t hold our weight that was primarily used as a scallop shelf (see pic). But we met some great locals and one shrimping crew is now following our blog! Still in NJ, so the pleasure boaters still have no concept of how to navigate the waterways!

The biting flies along the New Jersey ICW are FIERCE! Slathered with Deet spray, I had bug detail on the flybridge while Derek drove. Swarms of flies would descend on us and I would wack away with the fly swatter barely making a dent in their number. The floor looked like the killing fields. Our fellow looper friend, Paula, traveling right in front of us, was armed with a hand-held vacuum sucking them up as they flew in the air. She also had one of those electric fly swatters, so she had the satisfaction of hearing the ‘pop’ of their electrocution. The little bastards bit the only part of my body not covered in poison….the bottom of my feet. There just wasn’t enough cortisone cream in the world for the next couple of days!

July 4th we went out to sea again in order to come into NYC bay. We had awesome views of the skyline and Miss Liberty. The marina for the night was in Staton Island…just a little too far away to see the NYC fireworks on the East River :(  But Staton Island had 3 shows of its own that we saw from our dock. The tanks and barges are huge around here so we definitely were the small fish in a big pond.

The next couple of days would be spent headed north on the Hudson River. Just a few miles past metropolitan NYC the scenery became absolutely lovely. Granite-faced mountains covered with trees loomed up on either side, and every turn on the waterway opened up another spectacular view.  The bottoms of the clouds would obscure some of the mountain tops and tall bridges. The river was smooth and wide.

We stayed at Half Moon Bay for 2 nights in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. We are still traveling with Tom and Paula who are on a 36’ Monk named ‘Tango Papa’. We found a few gems in this little town. Our first night in we ate at an Indian food restaurant called Raga. Excellent! I know man cannot live on bread alone, but I am convinced that I could live on nothing else but their onion/garlic na’an. Then we found a REAL Italian deli and food market. They made their own cheeses and aged them in house for years and sliced the sopressata and other meats so thin you could see through them. They were hiring and I toyed with the idea of working there a week and get paid on deli goods alone.

I also was able to have an eye exam there. I’ve been having blurred vision and seeing giant floaters in my right eye for weeks. Apparently I have a detached vitreous (not retina, thank goodness). There is no treatment for it and it may gradually improve. It's just another sign of aging. I’ll just add it to the list consisting of hot flashes, memory loss, aching joints, facial hair (except eyebrows which have disappeared), weak bladder, age spots and sagging body parts!

But the best time in Croton-on-Hudson was a trip to the nail salon. Derek and Tom agreed to join me and Paula for a pedicure. It was the first time for both men. The girl took one look at Derek’s parrot feet and exclaimed he definitely needed the $80 treatment!!! She worked her ass off with the cheese grater and exfoliants for a full hour. To her credit she smiled the whole time and didn’t mumble to the other girls in her foreign language. Now my husband has sexy feet again. So sexy that he was propositioned by a 20-something gay guy in the CVS afterwards! I can’t leave that man alone for a minute. As for Tom….he decided to go all out and paint his toenails black and have his girl paint an anchor on one big toe and a jolly roger (skull and cross bones) on the other. The jolly roger ended up looking like a tick!  He quickly decided to remove the polish.

We continued up the Hudson and had some great overnight anchoring spots. There are tons of pics since this area is so beautiful. We nestled between islands and the fish were jumping all around us. Unfortunately, Derek’s lures don’t work here either. Thank goodness we are not dependent on his catching ability for our food. We’re very happy to be out of the salt water for another 2500 miles. We love upstate NY, but everything here is too expensive to make our ‘we could live here’ list.

We are now in Waterford, NY and docked for free on the city docks. We’ve made it through our first 2 locks without incident on the Erie Canal. Paula and I provisioned today at the grocery store a mile away. However, when we asked the locals where the store was they said ‘just over the bridge’. Next time I will ask ‘which bridge’. We headed over the nearest bridge and found ourselves on a secluded island. By the time we back-tracked and found the right bridge we were miles into our hike. We talked the grocery store into unlocking the cart’s wheels so we could push them back to the boat. We felt like homeless bag ladies walking back over the bridge. I guess in a way we are! After fighting potholes and crumbling sidewalks for several blocks, we found some shade, I popped a beer, and we called our husbands to come rescue us and push their own future meals home.

Knock on wood, our boat is running great. However, our washer/dryer is possessed by the devil and it no longer gets the job done. It fills with water but does not drain. I will not miss laundromats when this journey is done. ​

Love to all!
The captain and the admiral.

​Still in Deltaville! Ughhhhh. The fiberglass repair on the stern is done….however, the gelcoat color did not match, so they had to sand off the wrong color and are trying to get one that matches. I had a pity party for a day or two about being stuck here. Then I realized that even our worst day on this voyage is far better than 99% of peoples’ best day in the rest of the world. We continue to make great friends and have relaxed schedules every day. By relaxed I mean eat, nap, read book, nap, eat, run to grocery store or go to pool, nap, eat, etc.


A few days ago we went to a local bar (by dinghy) to watch our fiberglass repairman (Toby) do a gig there. He has a degree in trumpet, but he also plays the tuba. So of course, he’s a boat repairman!!! They had a great keyboardist, Michael, and an awesome guy (Roger) on the sax. It was a hoot!!! Better jazz/blues than we heard while in New Orleans. Roger also sings skat  and old Dixie. Everyone in these small bars gets to know everyone ‘new’ and people just move from table to table to get acquainted or catch up on life. The evening was topped off with our dinghy ride back to the boat in the dark and the rain. I was at the front with our massive spotlight, laughing and shining the light on all the boats with sleeping people inside, till Derek told me that wasn’t cool! Hey, I make my own fun.


Now we have tropical storm Cindy to contend with. It will be hitting the Chesapeake area on Saturday. So our delay is now related to weather. We decided since we have paid for our covered slip for the month of June to just stay in Deltaville. 


Derek and I have moments of ‘going crazy’ just sitting here. We should be in Canada right now. Loopers are still showing up here, so we’re not totally left behind. The boat is a great means to see the sights, but when it’s just our home sitting in a dock for weeks it can become real small. There’s only so many things you can clean. And the TV doesn’t get reception where we’re at. Hence the naps, reading, eating and various sex-capades. Haha. Just kidding (kinda), but wanted to give a little boost this boring blog and make sure you’re still paying attention!!!!


Derek’s birthday was yesterday! We dinghied back to the same bar, and in good Gamradt form, he imbibed a little much. But we had a blast with friends met there.


There’s not much else going on. Hopefully our next blog will include new places and faces and be much more interesting!


We miss our friends and family….and dog! Love you all.