Eight Years Of Fun, Fun, Fun :-)

I invited Homer to celebrate the EIGHTH anniversary of the Rotten Row / Dock Crocs site! Eight years - amazing. And a little hard to believe. Sure has been allot of changes in those eight years, and allot of laughs :-) Maybe YOU can help mark this milestone by perhaps leaving a comment of one of your 'Most Memorable Moments' of the past eight years? Sure would be nice to read what you have to say. And better for everyone too, because you know that if you leave this stuff all to me, we'll be here all night. Speaking of laughs, we had an opportunity to be part of the B Channel thanksgiving dinner over at the Peninsula Resort last night and join in on the fun. Let me just say . . Rick & Cathy - sorry about your luck. HA! Next time, us Keswickians gotta take our teeth - that will show John what class is all about ;-)

I also want to say thanks again for the whole crew coming out to help with 'Emergency Pump Out #2'. I'm just glad that I was able to get Tim to turn on the power before he left - and that we didn't have to drive all the way to Parry Sound for the job! Here's some video of the crew in action. That reminds me, I never saw Graham warsh his hands before we ate dinner last night . . .

Unfortunately I don't have any video of Lou-Lou chasing John & I around the fire last night. It's a good thing I didn't take my camera with me, as it probably would have ended up with wine - or what was left of the bottle - spilled all over it. And to think I was party to smuggling that BIG bottle out of the restaurant for her. Ohh, I'm gonna be a dead man this Friday . . . Finally, I just wanted to mention that with the boats coming out of the water over the next couple of weeks, we are hopefully going to be taking Boogaboo out for the traditional final run of the season next weekend. I know Debbie is really looking forward to it, and has already gotten prepared for the trip;

Boats Burn - Complete With Explosions!!

I'm sure everyone's heard about the big excitement at Crate's on Friday afternoon, with the boat blowing up. Perhaps, but have you seen the videos or heard the first hand accounts? Huh? Huh?

Let's start with a first hand account from someone who was actually there - ironically enough, to look at the (once was) boat in question! Non other than Paul of 'Indian Princess' sent me this insightful insight on the sights in question;

" . . . As you have heard by now, I'm sure, there was a fire at Crates yesterday. It turns out the boat we were considering is the boat that is no more. There was an offer on the boat (ironically enough) form one of my customers, pending Sea Trial. The boys at Crates moved the boat with the travel lift to the usual launch area beside the gas dock and were trying to start it. One of the employees was down in the engine room and another employee was at the helm. The engine backfired a couple of times and then all Hell broke loose. All the employees are OK and no one was hurt, but you can bet your sweet bippy the adrenaline was off the chart. I did not have my camera with me at the time of the fire, so I can not show you the amount of smoke and flames but the resin could be smelled from a good 200 feet away. And where was our Fire Chief (Sanja) when all this was going on??????? I am amazed at the speed of the fire, it literally devoured the boat in a matter of about 12 - 15 minutes. The Police Boat - the Wat??????? can pump water from its canon at an incredibly rate, it put the pumper trucks to shame. Never seen that before and I hope I never seen it again. The Hatteras is completely destroyed as is the 27 ft Thundercraft beside it. The travel lift - well - I don't know how much damage it sustained but all 4 tires blew, one at a time of course, but the rumors of the propane tank exploding are complete nonsense. If there had been a propane explosion, I probably would not be sending you this e-mail. As to the structural damage to the travel lift, I have no idea, are the hydraulic lines serviceable? I have no idea but I doubt it. . . ."

Thanks, Paul, for that great reporting. One more quick bit of insight on the whole story. We were at the boat Friday afternoon when I got a call from our daughter telling me what she had witnessed. She started the conversation by saying that she had been at home when she heard what she thought was an explosion coming from inside our house! My first reaction was 'Great, looks like we are going to be spending the weekend at home, cleaning up the mess!'. Thankfully it wasn't, but you can imagine how loud it must have been for her to hear it inside our place with the windows closed. . .

Now on to the juicy parts. Vern - you were moaning about my boring video of the Lake Simcoe Buoy, well here's something a little more exciting.

This first one is what I captured from the A Channel News. It's a little snowy because it was on the boat TV with only a cheap antennae & I filmed it with my digital camera. Cool thing is, after it only being on YouTube for 22 hours (up to now), it's already had 149 views! *******************************

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 . . . .

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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;

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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;