Edmund Fitzgerald Anniversary

Just a quick note that today (November 10) marks the 35th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald - an event made infamous by the song by Gordon Lightfoot. The song somehow always reminds me of Georgian Bay. . .  Wonder why that is?

 Here's a cool compilation video I found of the event, with Gordon providing the haunting musical accompaniment;

Speaking of shipwrecks and Georgian Bay, there is another upcoming anniversary - that of the loss of 'The Waubuno'. In the next couple of weeks I'll be putting up some cool underwater video I took when Anchor Girl & I visited the resting place of the ship, back on our summer holidays. 

 
In the meantime, here's a couple of still shots that I grabbed from said video;

2011 Boat Haul Out :-(

Yes, it's that sad time of the year again, with Boogaboo IV being hauled a few short weeks ago.

The positive side is that I am content in the knowledge that the boat is somewhere that the the staff actually care about it and will keep tabs on things during the off season. That, and I have access to both shore power AND warm, clean washroom facilities all winter :-) And, the office is open all year, so if I need some parts, etc., in a hurry, it's available. Plus, Steve, the service manager, was good enough to place the boat close to the road and office, as well as a working shore power outlet. That's a good thing.

It was WAY less stressful having the boat come out of the water and set in place by way of travel lift, as opposed to the tight launch ramp and precarious truck/trailer system used in the last marina;

Boogaboo resting at it's off season location (right next to that beautiful Challenger, which will not be spending the season there);

Some uneventful video of the haul out event;

Gettin' Better All The Time!

 As I compose this posting on the last day of Summer 2011, I find myself not so much looking back, but forward. Yes, we had great weather this summer - no complaints here - but I'm happy for a couple of reasons that we are in the 'here and now'.

 This past Spring brought really close to home one more reminder of how short this plane of existence is, with a difficult loss that made me reevaluate a lot of things, including our short time of Summer and the thing we enjoy the most - our boating time. To that end, both Anchor Girl and I have taken pretty much every Friday off of work with most weekends starting Thursday evening aboard Boogaboo. Hey, we even spent a few Sunday nights on board & I don't regret the 4:45 am Monday morning alarm clock wake ups. And you know what? Despite the reduced hours at work and having to compress my business in to 4 days, you'd think it would be a bit of a struggle, but it's surprisingly easy. As easy as an attitude adjustment.

 And things are only getting better :-)

 Better in the fact that we are now enjoying a marina where we feel truly relaxed and welcome. As you read in my last post, I was forced to leave our last marina and the weeks and months leading up to that were far from relaxing. It's sad that we went from feeling 'at home' with the previous marina owners to feeling like, well, disrespected (to say the least) by the new so called 'management' of the facility. It sucked and I was actively looking for at least winter storage for the boat, as I didn't want to be held hostage once our boat came out of the water.

 So, here we are, content to be in our new home. Too bad it didn't happen earlier.

 A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Anchor Girl's 50th birthday at the boat with a last minute dinner at one of the local restaurants. Here's AG & Sylvie getting ready to head on over to the Harbour Inn, located right in Lagoon City;

A quick look across the water from our slip. Sure was a beautiful evening;

Jim & Marg, as well as Wevvy, Sylvie and Jason joined us for the evening.
(The dinner was Sylvie's idea. Seemed I was a little preoccupied with Anchor Girl's surprise present and didn't have anything else set up for the Big 5-0);

Awe, the happy couple;

The singing of 'Happy Birthday' indicated to her that something special - CAKE - was on it's way;

Save a big piece for me!

To help celebrate, the owner of the restaurant sent us over a tray of flaming Zambuka - on the house;

Being in the spirit, a usually abstaining Wevvy helped himself to a couple of shots of the spirits;

The next day, me & Wevvy concocted a cover story to head out for a few hours while we dropped off her old car and picked up her birthday surprise. Look at that, it even matches the Boogaboo boat ;-)

Anchor Girl toasts her new ride;

The Big City - New Marina

After a long break from the Blog, I wanted to give you all a quick update on what's recently happened with the Boogaboo Crew. In case you missed it (or was looking for us), I was 'asked to leave' - along with Boogaboo IV - our former dockage at the 'Pefferlaw' Marina by the management :-(

Too bad, so sad.

But that's not all, folks. I'm not even allowed to step back on the E******s Marina property. Geez, you'd think I did something really horrible, or was behind with my account, or pissed off the neighbours, or abused the facilities, or threatened someone, or broke something, or played my stereo too loud, or sped the boat through the marina, or made too much dust in the car, or used too much water, or flushed the toilets too much. . .  Nope, non of the above. Huh.

Best of luck to those of you who are still there.

 I don't have time to bore you with all the details right now, other than to say we are VERY HAPPY to finally be in Lagoon City Marina :-)

 Boogaboo in the new slip;