Happy Thanksgiving

I guess I should open this segment by asking; "What did you expect?"

After the cold, rainy, windy 'summer', it should have come as no surprise that this last long weekend of the year would be the same. Despite the weather conditions, us boating die-hards were able to make the most of it :-) Friday evening was a washout - with lots of rain and wind, but Saturday the sun was shining and I was able to get the dinghy out of the water and wash it for the off-season storage, all snugly at home;
On Saturday evening we had a nice fire, as I had brought a bunch of fast burning, heat generating wood from home. The only problem was that with dark descending on us earlier and earlier, when it seemed like 10:00 or later - it was only 8:00! It was actually a good thing that Debbie & Graham got back from their family visit later that night, otherwise we would have been back on the boats by 8:30! But wait - that's what happened on Sunday night:-( One by one, the cold took hold of everyone . . . It was actually ONLY 8:30 on Sunday when the last two of us went back to the boats. Too bad, because despite the frigid air temps, for this guy, it was soooooooo nice being there at the fire & realizing that it would one of the last times this season I really didn't want to leave. . . .

Here's a picture I took on Sunday evening, with the passing clouds dropping the first SNOW of the season! That's right, we saw a few flakes falling just after dinner. And no, the flakes I'm referring to were the fluffy, white, frozen precipitation type - not me or Graham;


We kept moving Monday with us all joining in for three boat trips to the gas dock for the final pump outs of the season;


With any luck, the weather will cooperate with us next weekend, as I'm really hoping to be able to take 'Boogaboo' out for one last run of the season. We kinda got a bit of a tradition started with that over the past couple of years and I'm looking forward to being able to do it again this year. So keep your fingers crossed. . .
Over the past eight years of this site and the 11 seasons we've been part of all of what makes Rotten Row & the Dock Crocs special is that fun comes in many forms ;-) And it's absolutely amazing how all those special memories come to be. With that thought in mind, I'm gonna share this with you. The dictionary defines the word 'Summer' as the following;

1. The usually warmest season of the year, occurring between spring and autumn and constituting June, July, and August in the Northern Hemisphere, or, as calculated astronomically, extending from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox.

2. A period of fruition, fulfillment, happiness, or beauty.

I hope we can head into the off season with a positive sense of fulfillment, happiness and beauty of the year - despite the weather. Don't know about you guys, but again I really had a wonderful summer. Sure it wasn't near close to a hot and sunny one, but I really enjoyed all that season brought. To quote one Mr. Von A; "the best boating plan is no plans . . ." I guess that, because of the weather, we were forced to adapt that approach to our boating - and I can say that I like the way it all worked out :-) New places, new experiences, new memories. And sometimes we didn't even have to leave the marina.

Yes. Thank you.

I'm gonna do my best to share some of our most recent memories - those being the ones from 2009. I've already got a whole bunch of pictures ready to go and quite a few video clips that I hope will bring smiles to your faces & a warm glow to your hearts :-)

Sorry if you're not a big fan of Georgian Bay, but I'm going to be doing a lot of reminiscing on that subject. For those of you who are fans, wonderful! Our time up there this year was again (. . . he said with a long pause while he searches his mind for the most descriptive term . . .) - GREAT! I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I hope we can all hear from each other from time to time right here on this site! I enjoy putting these things together and always look forward to your feedback! If you perhaps have some pictures or stories of your own - and your camera isn't at the bottom of Lake Simcoe - please feel free to post them here or pass them along to me. I'd be happy to share them on your behalf . . . Otherwise, please keep a lookout for all the fun to be posted here over the next few months!

What did you expect?

:-)

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!