Still Don't Want to Talk About It!

Comin' out again...

Into the shed...rain on the way...

Off with the...old?

On with the new...uh...the refurbished...

Care killing time in the boat yard...literally...

Frank killing time in town...

Meanwhile, a bit of "minor" keel repair...

Robbie, we found you one...

Watchin' my ship roll in...

Watch it roll away again...

And I still don't want to talk about it...





The Bilge Bitch

First, I should clean up the definition of "Bilge" I gave you in our glossary of boating terms back in March.  I inadvertently said it was the engine room of the boat.  In fact, the bilge is not limited to the engine room, but consists of many compartments under the floor, down in the depths of the hull, throughout the boat.

Second, the term "Bilge Bitch" is yet another persona of my lovely bride.  And, dear readers, I am NOT the one who came up with that name for her (I like the idea of remaining alive), she, herself did. 

Now, water in your bilge is NEVER a good thing.  At worst, it could mean you are sinking.  At best, it means something is leaking.  This could be anything from a water line, a drain line, a pump, a shaft seal, a waste line (everyone’s favorite!) or rain water from above deck.  If left unchecked, even the tiniest drip of water into the bilge becomes scummy and can create an odor problem.  And, my bride has a very sensitive sense of smell.  When we were buying a boat for the loop, she immediately nixed a few boats because of the odor only she could smell.  Most women get on a boat and look at the galley and the accommodations.  Not the Bilge Bitch; she starts removing floorboards and hatches to see where that smell is coming from.  Ya gotta love her!

It’s interesting how in any relationship certain responsibilities are assumed by one or the other of you.  As you get a little older, you realize, “That’s nice, if she (or he) is going to worry that to death, then I don’t have to”.  So sure, I look for any major water when I’m down there, but, I don’t sweat the small stuff, because I know, sooner or later, she’ll be on it.  And, today she was.

In verifying we had not punched a hole in our hull on our second encounter with the rocks of the bay (I’m still not ready to talk about it), the Admiral discovered a small amount of scummy water in our center bilge.  The Bilge Bitch went into action, climbing down today to investigate. 

The Bilge Bitch...smiling...this is fun for her!

There is not enough room in that particular spot for both of us, so I lay on the floor above with my head stuck down the hatch, explaining what hoses were what as she hunted around for the leaky culprit.  Once she had it narrowed down, I donned my knee pads and took her place.  The water seemed to be slowly dripping through a vent connection at the engine room exhaust blower…weird.  Turned out there must not be a drip loop in the line where it exhausts through a vent on our side deck stairs, so any wash down of the stairs dumps a little water into the fan, which had burned up and which dumped about a half of gallon of water on me when I disconnected and removed it.

Collateral damage...a burned up engine room exhaust fan

So we had a productive morning here in Little Current.  The Admiral is happy again that we have found the source of the water, although she won’t be completely content until the vent is redone, the fan is replaced and she can totally wipe that bilge dry. 

Yes, boating, and marriage, is fun…

Little Current...Are You Kidding?

Whoever named this town had one warped Canadian sense of humor.  It sits on a channel which more or less connnects Georgian Bay and the North Channel.  The book says the current can be up to 4 mph in either direction at the bridge.  It felt like twice that in town at the docks where we found Jolly Tolly and Moonstruck.  In fact, Jolly Tolly had been attacked by a sailboat (for the second time on the loop) that lost it in the swift current while trying to dock.  It collided with their stern, ripping off their dinghy davits, demolishing their “like-new” dinghy and sending their outboard motor to the bottom of the channel!  Thankfully, we found a slip for Once Around in a more protected harbor a short walk from town.

It is a three day Provincial holiday here in Ontario, and the normally quiet town of Little Current is holding its “Haweater Festival” which lasts through Monday.  I guess Hawberry is a specialty of Manitoulin Island.  We purchased a jar of the jelly, but haven’t yet tasted it…full report to follow.  Yesterday (Sunday) was the big parade…well…the parade.  It would have only lasted about 20 minutes but something (an illegally parked pickup?) stalled it in place midway for another 15 minutes or so.  During the stall, the Shriner’s Kazoo and drum band shown below played, “When the Saints Go Marching In” about 5 times before they finally gave up.  I’m tellin’ ya, I couldn’t make this stuff up!

The Shriner's Kazoo and Drum Band...

The Red Hat Ladies...

a local contractor...

...and a cabinet maker

Carrie and I walked up the street during the stalled parade, and I remarked that it was the first time I had viewed a parade by walking past it!  The parade route has a sharp bend, so when the last of the parade passed we noticed many of the locals walking quickly in one direction, so we naturally followed.  What that was all about was viewing about the last half the parade a second time!  Not much action here in Little Current…

The main street in town was closed down to traffic and lined with tents full of jewelry, tee-shirts, local foods (including hawberry jelly) and the like.  For some reason we stopped at a Jamaican lady’s tent (Jamaican Haweater?) and had a Jamaican meat filled pasty.  It was pretty tasty…then she asked us if we would like some of her homemade hot sauce on top, which of course, we did.   Then we ran to the ice cream shop to try and cool our burning lips!  I love spicy stuff, but this was liquid fire!

We ate dinner on board Sunday evening and then rode in our dinghy back to Jolly Tolly for the big fireworks show.  Jolly Tolly was on the end dock, straight across the narrow channel from where the fireworks would be shot off.  Now, maybe the parade wasn’t much, but this fireworks display was really awesome.  It was probably the best one any of us had ever seen and we all couldn’t believe this small town had footed the bill for it.  Ron said he had heard it was sponsored by the Shriners, who are very active up here (when they’re not playing the kazoo).  In any case, it was really spectacular!

It is now Monday morning.  I expect to see Jolly Tolly and Moonstruck heading past any time now, headed for the Benjamin Islands in the North Channel.   I can’t bear to watch.  It might have already occurred to you that Little Current is not exactly the “wilds” of Canada that I had mentioned heading for in our last post.  Well, you are right.  I’m not ready to talk about it yet…but…let’s just say:

Georgian Bay Rocks-2     Once Around-0

I’ll let you know the extent of the damage after the haul out, which won’t happen until Tuesday…it’s the Haweater Festival this weekend , eh???