Dear Honorary Loopers,
Next stop after Cobourg was Toronto, in two separate stays (August 2-8 and August 19-21), before and after our planned trip to Florida. This log entry for Week 3 Part Two covers the first stay, which included time with old and new friends and more exploration of Toronto’s attractions. Those six days were jam-packed – how is it possible that each day was only 24 hours long?
We left Cobourg on Sunday, August 2, just after 8 am, in light rain and small seas (waves 1-2 feet off the port aft quarter). Not calm like a lake (oh, wait – it IS a lake!) but calm enough to get up on plane and still be able to spend the time enroute to Toronto discussing the mechanics of boat steering. Specifically, I needed a review of the difference between steering a boat with a rudder versus a steering wheel. I did not push toy trucks around as a child or pull a boat on a trailer (learning how to back up without jack-knifing the trailer – don’t ask!), and I struggle with some mechanical aspects of boating. Thank goodness for Jeff, whose years of boating experience and good instincts are bolstered by his constant research into boats.
By 11:30, as we neared Toronto Harbour (note the Canadian spelling), visibility had lessened to almost nil. We slowed down to just above idle speed to negotiate the entrance past the breakwater. There were no pleasure craft, but inside the harbour the ferries serving Toronto’s offshore islands crisscrossed the water. They have to go, regardless of the weather – there are no bridges to those islands.
Once through the harbor (changing to American spelling to avoid spellcheck), we passed Billy Bishop Airport, an executive airport on the island across the channel from the National Yacht Club. During our stay we were entertained watching planes take off and land practically “across the street.”
The first spot the dockmaster assigned to us wasn’t great – a sign saying “No Docking,” a power pedestal without power, and a boat in the space reserved for us. No Docking, no power, no way! The second slip assignment was much better, and had the potential for a great view, though at the moment we could see only fog and mist and the lower half of Toronto’s iconic CN Tower.
National Yacht Club (NYC) was incorporated in 1894, and is well-known for competitive sailing, including of skiffs and hydroplanes, and for Olympic-class racing sailors. It also has an interesting tradition of requiring diners ascending to the second-floor dining room to remove their hats. As we complied, we enjoyed viewing the stairway photographs, including a portrait of the current King of Canada.
Yacht clubs are usually more collegial and communal than regular marinas. They are ironically also less hospitable: many require transient boaters to be members of other yacht clubs. We’re grateful that our membership in the Hillsboro Island Sailing Club entitles us to reciprocity. We get access to unobstructed views of great cities like Toronto at prices more typical of marinas far from downtown, and often the yacht club offers a free night’s stay after one or two nights paid stay. NYC, with a maximum of 5 nights, gave us 2 of those nights free!
We were also able to visit with other boaters, namely our friends Pierre and Asa, who are also members of HISC, but are ironically currently between boats and enjoying traveling in their RV. Veteran Honorary Loopers will remember that Asa and Pierre started the Loop in 2024, met us in Toronto on a land trip later that summer, and tried to repeat the experience unsuccessfully last year. So glad that the stars aligned for us to enjoy two fun-filled days together in Toronto this summer while we were there on Affection.
On our first day together, they came to lunch at NYC (removing their hats with due respect), and then we walked the Toronto waterfront, which offers a plethora of scenes demonstrating the city’s lively community. Sights included:
- Two men lifting a tabletop made from a single thick-cut slab of tree trunk onto a small ferry for transport to the islands
- A fire boat with a CPR rubber dummy lying on the deck; either a lifesaving class had just ended or it’s getting harder to find good crewmembers 😊
- A waterfront bar named Shoeless Joe – a wonderful coincidence after just having watched Field of Dreams in Cobourg’s waterfront park
- A monument to physical fitness featuring a yoga mat – all the yogis happily demonstrated our best Warrier Two poses for the camera
- Stepping stones in a garden imprinted with the names of yearly winners of the Toronto Book Prize, given to books in which Toronto is featured
- A series of stone carvings that only forms a coherent whole (the outline of a man running) once you have walked past them all and turn to look back. The man is Terry Fox, who was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 18 and had a leg amputated. When he was 21, he started running west across Canada, covering 5373 kilometers in 153 days on one leg and a prosthesis, to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. The work is titled “We are Shaped By The Obstacles We Face”, and the separate pieces of granite remind us of the obstacles all of us may be facing
The next day, we biked along the waterfront (using Tangerines, the local rental bikes) to meet Pierre and Asa for lunch at the St Lawrence Market, an arcade of many stations offering prepared and raw food, clothing, candles, and other treasures. I rediscovered some favorites from our last visit, including tiny round salami offered in more than ten flavors and a most unusual snack food: dried garlic cloves.
Then the four of us revisited the Distillery District, an historic collection of old buildings repurposed into restaurants, brewpubs, ice cream shops and boutiques. We were delighted that Old Flame brewery and bar, which we remembered from our last Toronto visit, still offered plush comfy couches for napping (which we did) and decks of cards (which we used to play Clear – anyone know it?)
The final leg of our informal “walking tour” took us to Eataly on Yonge Street, for a fabulous pasta dinner, and one last stop at City Hall.
After bidding farewell to Pierre and Asa, Jeff and I walked home to the yacht club, beneath the now-brilliantly lit CN tower, enjoying our traditional weekly video call with William while we walked.
The next day we had another guest for lunch at the Yacht Club. Two years ago, before meeting Pierre and Asa in Toronto, we had stopped at the Tourist Information Center in Union Train Station. Cinzia Worek, an incredibly helpful expert on all things Toronto, instantly became a friend. She even joined the Honorary Loopers receiving my emails, and we kept in touch during the remainder of that first Loop and the next year’s Champlain Cruise.
This year, after Pierre and Asa left we managed to squeeze in some time with Cinzia before leaving NYC, combining a tour of the Affection and lunch (sans hats, of course). It was wonderful to reconnect in person, catch up
with Cinzia’s life in retirement, and pick her brain about our next destination. Even after retiring, you’re still our go-to expert on Ontario, Cinzia – and your lemon zucchini bread is delicious! So glad our circles could cross again.
Our six days in Toronto before our trip home included other experiences aside from seeing friends:
- We scootered to dinner and a show, seeing the musical Mamma Mia. A first – during intermission ice cream bars were sold to audience members – like popcorn and beer at a baseball game!
- We took another bike trip, this one south along the waterfront beyond downtown.
- We did yoga on Zoom with Tammy, Asa and my college roommate Dot with three of us (Asa, Jeff and me) zooming in from Ontario (Asa from their RV, Jeff and me from the cozy salon in Affection).
- We dealt with a leaky toilet (fresh water from the flushing mechanism). It took a flashlight and a mirror to see where the leak was, and boat yoga to apply sealant to the spot, but it seems to be holding, at least temporarily.
- We packed for our trip to Florida for the MusicFor Americas Summer Strings music festival. We didn’t need to bring clothing home (coals to Newcastle!), but we did choose to bring home our laundry. 😊
After our allotted five days at NYC, we moved the boat to the Outer Harbour Marina, at the very northern end of Toronto. The marina shares a peninsula with the Tommy Thompson Nature Preserve and not much else. We figured the distance from downtown wouldn’t matter, as we would be away in Florida for most of the boat’s two-week stay. The marina did have nice facilities, a friendly dockhand (also named Tommy),
and a houseboat called the Dock Shoppe that carried many boating supplies (though not the plumbing kit Jeff wanted, so he asked them to order it for us).
It also had one other Looper boat, which we spotted on Nebo. Stories and Dreams responded to a Nebo text, and Jamie and Denise toured Affection and hung out for a while, agreeing to walk to dinner that evening. Tommy, the friendly dockhand, lives in the “nearby” (as he described it) neighborhood of Lesleyville. Based on his assurance that Main Street Lesleyville is just a short bike ride from the marina, we changed for dinner and the two Looper couples started walking to Main Street. After more than 20 hot, dusty minutes of walking, we were thrilled to see a Tangerine bike stand, even if we had another 15-minute ride and more time spent finding bike stands to return the bikes to near Main Street. Oh well, I guess distances are relative…
We laughed about the “short” trip once we were ensconced on Main Street, at a sidewalk table outside a brewery and restaurant. The people-watching was entertaining (what was that young woman thinking, strolling confidently down the center of the street ahead of the trolley? Was she proving that the driver wouldn’t run her over, or was she hoping he would?),
the conversation was interesting, and the food was delicious – the salad greens came from the restaurant’s rooftop garden. Afterward came the traditional ice cream…
We left Toronto as we had arrived, in the fog… but our memories of those six days are crystal clear; the only trouble I have is in believing that we could pack so much into those 24-hour days. It’s a wonder there was anything left to do when we returned to Affection August 19 – but that’s another story, coming soon in the Week Four log entry. Stay tuned…
Love Judy
