For The Birds

What a great weekend at the boat! The summer weather has finally arrived and all the birdies are happy :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's nice to be surrounded by so much of nature when we are at our marina. I've noticed that the older I get (have gotten), the more I enjoy and appreciate nature. It has been our habit for the past three years to go to the boat on Thursday evenings to make a long weekend out of them all through the summer. Even if I have to run back to my work on Friday mornings, it's such a break to get to the boat & the sight and sounds of the birds are truly heartwarming.

 Makes me feel good and I wanted to share a few photos of these pretty birds with you :-)

 There are a large number of Ospreys in the area, with a nesting pair very close to the boat. I'm always fascinated by these majestic animals and stop to watch them in flight. Here's one circling overhead in search of a meal;

I was able to capture some video of this guy capturing his meal - a big fish;

We also have a few Great Blue Herons fishing and flying around. Interesting to watch these guys move along so   s l o w l e y   in search of their prey;

This one looks like the male, as he/it is larger than the one in the previous photo. Either that, or just older? Note the big goose in the distance. I think these guys have some sort of territory thing going on, with the Herons keeping to themselves;

Yet another batch of young gooses. Sure, they look cute when they're little, but grow up to be continuous poop machines :-(

 And they tend to show up in numbers, so their poop droppings can really 'pile' up ;-) Hey! That's not even funny. . .

Sea Ray Crashes Into Break Wall

Well, it's another weekend and another crash story to report on :-(

 This past Friday evening, a boater from our marina went out for an evening cruise and, according to witnesses, around 11:00 PM, he hit the stone break wall at the approach from the lake.  Let me re-phrase that - it was more like LAUNCHED onto the break wall!

Here is a shot of the salvage crew trying to free the boat from the bottom, after it was towed off the big rocks;

  At the spot where he hit, the depth of water is less than 2 feet, so the boat must have been moving at a high rate of speed to get through that before actually crashing into the wall. Probably a good thing, as the sandy bottom probably slowed the boat enough so that no fatalities resulted.

These guys had been working all night to patch the hull (they put plywood over a hole in the bow & filled it with expanding foam), finally freeing it around noon;

So, ask yourself how the heck someone could hit a BIG FRIGGEN WALL at high speed? Can you say 'Driving Under The Influence'?
In this shot, you can see how low it was riding in the water. It looked like they were running two big gas pumps + the bilge pumps to keep her afloat;

Here is the tow vessel tied up alongside of the stricken Sea Ray. It looked like she was only running on the starboard engine, plus the story is that the steering wheel broke off when the guy driving smashed into it upon impact. I hear it left a big impression on him ;-)
 I'm not going to refer to the driver as a 'captain', as he was clearly not in control of the boat, as a true captain would be;

 The saddest part of this story is that when we were walking back to shore, we discovered that a fellow boater who was also checking out the damage with his wife, fell between the rocks of the break wall & broke his leg. He is an older fellow and was unable to be helped out, so an ambulance was called and we (about five other boaters who were there) all carried him out on one of those flat stretcher boards.
 We are all hopeful for a speedy recovery there, Ron;

Here is a video clip from all the excitement;

 So, the lesson for today kids, is Be Careful!!!

Sailboat Crashed Into Overhead Power Lines :-(

A bit of excitement at our marina this past weekend with hydro lines tore down and the marina left without electrical power for a few hours.

 All this was thanks to an overexcited sail boater who was taking his boat from the storage compound over to the launch ramp. I'm guessing he was more concerned with trying to remember if the drain plug was in, or the batteries charged that he forgot to look up at the lines he was about to hit!

 With live wires draped across (what's left of) his boat, it's a good thing that he had the presence of mind to stay in his truck until the Hydro One crews showed up. Ya, he had that and a bit of whiplash too ;-)

The good news is that the boys from Hydro One were able to get a new pole installed and the power back in in just over two hours. Good thing too, as my beer was precariously close to start getting warm ;-)

 Here's an 'One Scene' video report ;

A Mother Of A Day ;-) Snow At The Marina!

Mother's Day at the boat (and probably everywhere else, too) was an interesting experience. After coming through our never ending winter this year, we had all thought that the newly discovered Spring-like conditions were here to stay. Well, no such luck. . .

 On Mother's Day, we woke up to cool, cloudy and windy conditions. No problem, as we were snugly tied to the dock at the marina, and snugly warm inside the boat, with the heat keeping is comfy & cozy. The interesting part came around 11:00 in the morning when the first bit of snow hit. By around 2:00, it was a full on snow storm! With the wind howling in from the west, there were times it was difficult to see many of the other boats in the marina!

 The snow was actually starting to accumulate on the side curtains.

 Thankfully, those conditions have passed and we went on to a beauty week, with the long term weather looking a lot more like, well - SPRING!

 Happy voyages!!

We're Floating Again! Boating Season Has Begun :-)

I am very pleased to say that at long last, Boogaboo IV is once again floating! Here's to another great season on the water! It couldn't have come at a better time, my friends. . . .

 Before it was time to float, it was time to polish. Here, Anchor Girl & I enjoy our first dinner of the year - a little dry, but just nice;

I couldn't have done it without Anchor Girl's hard work and help. So much so, that we were able to get more than I was hoping for polished in only a few days;

Thumbs up to the guys  for coming in on a Saturday morning to get us launched!

Wevvy took advantage of the weather on Sunday getting a super shine on Docked Wages

 

At last! Our beautiful floating home is welcoming us once more :-)

Our Sea Ray 400 Sedan Bridge

Relaunch 2013 Has Begun :-)

We took a drive up to the boat yesterday for the first time this year (!!) to discover that the marina has already put the first two boats in for the season. Despite the brutally cold weather we've had over the past couple of weeks, they were able to start bubbling the ice to get things moving along.

 The plan is for the staff to start dropping the boats from the covered slips on Pier Two this week and then moving on from there. With any luck, Boogaboo should be floating in two weeks :-)

 Here's a look down the channels, close to our slip. Although there is still about 50/50 ice coverage, things should be cleared out by weeks' end - if the warm weather that is promised materializes. Fingers crossed!

More Work - Georgian Bay to Lagoon City

I had to make an appointment to see a customer next Monday when it occurred to me that the date will be September 21st. That's right, the last day of summer. I warned you all it would come to this . . . . So, as we head into the final few weeks of the boating season '09, I looked through my pictures from this past summer to find a special one that really said 'Summertime'. Well, the winner for tonight is the one presented to you forthwith, taken - where else - gorgeous Georgian Bay. Chimney Bay, to be precise. What a beautiful scene! Four boats at anchor with the setting sun reflecting off our bows and faces. Great! It's probably because we all enjoyed so few days of sun this season that I'm going to particularly miss the the warm glow of it all. Sigh.

Too little, slipping through our fingers too fast :-(

OK, enough with the 'downer' stuff. On a lighter note, the day after this photo was taken, these very same boats broke loose of their anchorage, ending up very nearly colliding with three BIG boats that were (securely) anchored down wind of us. But I'll save the details (and lots of accompanying photos) of that unique event for another evening. Yes, I'll remember this spot . . . .

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Wevvy was good enough to send me some pics from the Labour Day weekend. So, here we go! The Commodore and A.G. returning with yet another bag of firewood. Or was that onions? This picture must have been taken on a different day than the last one, 'cause Anchor Girl has a different top on. As for me, I was still topless; The whole gang around the fire. Let's see, was this Friday's fire? Or Saturday's? Perhaps Sunday's? No wonder we kept running back to the store for more wood . . . Sure were lucky that our 'Lagoon Buddies' were nice enough to loan us their fire pit ALL weekend! Must have been a good one, because we are ALL laughing - even Anchor Girl;

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On a completely different note, we took a slow cruise up to Orillia last Saturday for a really loud evening. And early morning. Sure am gonna miss going to that place . . . While traveling up, it was so clear that I spotted the Lake Simcoe Buoy to our port side, so I took a side trip over to get some updated photos. This is the same one that we all hear about when listening to the weather reports on the VHF radio. Now you know what it looks like (again). If that's not enough for you, we even have a dramatic, albeit highly informative video of this very buoy!

Labour Of Love - Lagoon City Getaway

Well kids, we're 2 for 2 for the Labour Day long weekend. As with last year, we once again had fantastic weather for the WHOLE weekend! And we sure have deserved it this season, eh? With the sunny, warm & wind calm days we've been experiencing over the past four weeks it is just NOW starting to feel like the beginning of summer - and they start hauling the boats at our marina in less than four weeks :-(

The '2nd Annual Doc Crocs Corn Roast Pot Luck Dinner And Fireside Frivolity'

(I really have to come up with shorter names for these things) happens on the 19th of this month (2 weekends from now). For those of you that will be visiting from out of town ports, don't forget the folding chairs for the 'fireside frivolity' part of the evening . . . On with the photos and video portion of today's installment And remember to CLICK ON THE PICTURES to see them in all their glory Wevvy & Rich find their way into Lagoon City for the very first time. First time visiting by boat, that is - it's not like they were lost another time or anything like that; But the trip must have been pretty grueling for poor Wevvy - he cracked open a BEER as soon as he got there on Friday. Could it have been the ride across the lake? The faulty shore power cable? The fact that he had to dock only two boats from me? A nice shot of our slips - from dinghy height. I'll let you figure that one out; Robert & the 'Big Dick' share a laugh with Steven J.; Ok, so it was a little cloudy on Sunday - but everyone still was having a good time. Steve was smiling on the inside; Edith, Rick, Cathy & Robert made it through another weekend's invasion from the 'Keswick Krew'! It must have been Diane's soothing voice; Lookin' pretty comfy in the retirement there, David; The Parker Family Singers hit the road for their next sold out engagement; Finally, here's some words of enlightenment from Mr. Parker;

No Work At Lagoon City - Boating Holiday

Labour Day long weekend 2008 at Lagoon City - and we didn't even work! I did, however, take a number of memorable photographs of which there are a few that I would like to share with you at this time.

 Let us begin. Here's Getaway II getting away, all the way to Lagoon City. First time this far from Keswick for these folks all season, eh Parker?? And this is the first time we got together with TLC on the water this season, too! We got to spend some quality time, just chill-axing in the glorious sunshine! Without a doubt, this was the very best weather weekend of the year! Took the dinghies out for a cruise all through the channels of the City on the water. Went to the beach for a dip. What a beautiful day!!!!   In the evenings, we got to sit around the fire. I'd like to again mention thanks to our Scottish friends - Robert, Cathy, Edith and, of course, 'Big Dick' - for the sharing their portable fire pit and Sanja for transporting all that firewood from the cottage! Ya, all that effort for the honour of having Jim show us his better side. God Bless him ;-) Thanks for good times, my friends . . . .