We've Been Robbed......Literally

I suppose if you travel long enough by boat, you are bound to run into some undesirables. We have somewhere near 5000 miles under our keel, and we've been to a few shady places, but we have never had a problem with anyone taking anything from our boat, until last week. We were tied up at Lovesick lock, a place we have come to really enjoy, hanging out with some wonderful new friends. One of the other boaters had a fire going, and had brought out his guitar. So we were sitting around the campfire, singing and carrying on all evening. When we returned to the boat around 11:00, the galley window screen had been pushed in, and the bandits had made off with a loaf of bread and a package of bagels. We were no more than a 100 feet from the boat all evening, but the sneaky little bastards still managed the theft right in plain sight. I apologized to the Lock Master the next day, as I had inadvertently now left two bread bags on the island. He gave me a short lecture on littering and the fines associated with it, but considering the circumstances, let me go this time with a warning.

So, if anyone is in the area of Lovesick Lock, and they see a raccoon with a bagel belly! You'll know the thief!

I also have to take a moment to talk about Serena's new found hobby. After spending so much time in the locks this summer, getting to know the people, the rules, and succumbing to the wonder of the canal system, she has taken it upon herself to start educating other less fortunate boaters in canal etiquette. At Lovesick she gave a rather ignorant boater a lesson in coming into the lock too fast, as he had waked all the boats tied up on the wall. When he claimed that there was no speed limit, she politely explained that it is only common sense to enter into a small area slowly. The boater behind her was not so nice and got into an argument with the guy after she left. Sometimes girls get away with telling you your an idiot, where another man cannot. Then later she caught a local cottager dropping his garbage off on the front step of the lock station after the staff had gone home. Lovesick is a remote island area, there are no roads, and because of that it is has a pack in - pack out rule. Serena picked up the garbage and waited near the peoples boat to give it back to them explaining that it couldn't be left there and why. It was pretty obvious that the cottagers knew, but they pleaded ignorance and took their garbage with them. I think maybe the Federal Government should give her a job, "Minister of Canal Education." Or Canal Cop....

In my last entry I talked about turning around and not continuing up Georgian Bay. At the time we were just disenchanted with the idea of travelling up there without the mast. Also the 175 mile trip up to Kilarney and back would have eaten up any time we would have had left of the summer. So we headed back into the canal system. We would spend the next 7 days dragging our heals while we waited for some friends that were sailing down the bay. We were going to meet them at their yacht club on Lake Simcoe. We took 7 days to travel what we had done in only 2 on the way up, and it was the best week of the entire trip. One of the little ironies in life is when you settle with or are forced to do something that you may not have chosen to do yourself, you end up better off and all the happier for it.

There are only 4 locks between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe, so we were really go slow, "the speed of snail." Nightly limits on the lock system is 2, for most places, but as long as your not trying to abuse the system, or there is a storm, or you ask politely, the lock staff will usually let you stay a third night, and maybe a fourth, but we never pushed it that far. Saying that, we had been at Swift Rapids for two nights, the first hanging out with a great group of people. The second recovering from the first, when one of our new found friends showed up and a wine and cheese party ensued. Which meant of course that we couldn't leave; for although we have done some questionable drinking and dinghying, we would never drive Vita under the influence.

And this encounter became the highlight of our trip. If you look at the picture above, the young girl on the left is Lola. She was an incessant chatterbox, but her bubbly personality was infectious. And the group of us spent hours reliving our childhoods, playing in the water, diving off the wall, and just forgetting for a short period of time that we were stiff collared adults. If you ever read this Lola, thank you so much for helping a bunch of old people to let their hair down, and I hope that life feeds you nothing but sunshine and lollipops.

She was a pretty incredible kid, far more cultured than her 11 years, and I could probably go on for hours about how much she impressed us. But the picture below was of her docking her Dad's boat. With one engine acting up I might add.

The third night at Lovesick found us surrounded by new people, one of which asked our permission to swim nude. Although perhaps odd in Canada, perfectly normal down south, far be it from us to interfere. But I made a bit of an ass of myself trying to light a fire using the bow-drill method. Basically rubbing two sticks together. 

After getting everything ready, making the bow-drill set, all I ended up getting for my efforts was smoke and black soot. I know my mistake now, but it didn't do me any good at the time. I ended up lighting the fire with a ferro-rod instead. Not as impressive, but cooler than a match. Next time!

On the seventh day back in the system we stopped at Orillia to do some provisioning and get some laundry done. Then we headed down to Hawkestone Yacht club on the west side of Lake Simcoe to meet up with some friends. 

We had a great time catching up with Gil and Diana, and Jorge and Kim, couples we had met while we traveled down the ICW and into the Bahamas. Jorge and Kim did a two year trip returning last year, and Gil and Diana are still our there doing it. They spend their winters down in the Caribbean, and their summers here in Ontario. Rough life huh?

Since then we have been slowly making our way home. We are in Peterborough now, and we are meeting with family so that we can play "lift-lock tour boat". Lets face it, the lift lock is pretty cool.

Then we will make the quick trip home. We will be back a little earlier than originally planned, but the new to-do list is already 3 pages long, so a little extra time couldn't hurt.

Vita back to one-six.

Vita in the railway. A fellow cruiser took this for us, along with some video. The sweetest gesture, one we are very grateful for.

The railway is big. Here we see our male Vanna posing for size relationship. Now give me a vowel!