Dear Honorary Loopers,
When living aboard, we’re either on the boat or off, and both states can be restful or enlivening, routine or unpredictable- but they’re always an adventure.
When the boat is moving forward, immediate decisions take precedence. Sorry if I owed you a call or reply email – we were probably underway. Once we come to rest, we recover, catch up with work, and then go exploring. Every day is an adventure, because we step off the boat into places we’ve never been before.
Even going home to Florida, as we did in August, can feel like another adventure. During the ten-day Summer Strings festival presented by MusicFor Americas, I immersed myself in performances of sublime music by talented performers – exhausting, and wonderful.
On our return to Toronto on Wednesday, August 19, I anticipated the calm of the quiet marina surrounded by nature. Arriving at the boat, we were stunned to see overturned chairs on the aft deck. A home invasion? No – a very strong windstorm (we heard the winds topped 40 mph) during our absence.
Aside from the chairs, there was little damage: one fender popped from the pressure against the dock, and a section of the isinglass on the bridge tore out of the old rusty snaps. The lines were all intact, though very difficult to untie, so tight had the wind pulled the knots. I actually needed to wedge a screwdriver in between the strands to work them apart.
We had planned to get underway Friday morning, but after interviewing Jeff about marketing to Loopers, the marina staff gifted us a free night. Serendipitously, that dovetailed with the timing of our next destination, which had no space available until Saturday.
Given two more full days in Toronto, we packed them full. Thursday we scootered to a sculpture garden and playground, Biidnasige Park, which has some incredibly creative and whimsical sculptures. I loved the impressively tall owl “house.” Kids can look out at the park from inside the owl’s huge eye – truly a bird’s-eye view.
From the park we scootered into downtown, to dinner and a Second City improv comedy show (our second city seeing Second City!). The cast members have to be ready for anything; one audience member, asked what work he does, floored all of us – he sells traffic lights!
On Friday, Jeff fixed a few ever-present boat issues, including the LED light in the salon. He has incredible patience and perseverance, and I’m grateful for his skill, as I sit reading under the newly bright light.
In the afternoon, after buying provisions, we scootered again into downtown, to watch The Odyssey on an IMAX screen. I directed us to the wrong address, but an intrepid Uber driver got us to the right theater in time. After the show, we scootered to a Georgian restaurant – thanks to our friend Tammy, we now seek them out wherever we travel. Khachapuri (a gooey cheesy pizza-like dish) is really delicious – we recommend trying it out at a Georgian restaurant near you.
That night I took advantage of the peace and quiet of Outer Harbour Marina, and the cool overnight temperatures, to sleep in my hammock on the aft deck. It was magical to use the brightly lit Toronto skyline as my nightlight, and the calls of loons and geese as my alarm clock. These are priceless moments in our life onboard Affection.
The lake was pretty rough on our crossing south from Toronto to Niagara on the Lake (or NOTL, as we soon learned to call it). We take crossings seriously, and Jeff even called a friend to register our float plan: “If we don’t call you within 5 hours to let you know we’ve arrived, call the Coast Guard.”
We planed at 17 knots, because a slow speed would produce a rougher ride, for longer. Even so, the waves (from the stern, 2-4 ft, with frequent 5 and occasional 6-footers) gave us a rock-and-roll ride, the boat rising and plunging, turning unpredictably as the waves pushed us sideways.
When we arrived at the mouth of the Niagara River, after four hours of pounding, we were looking for sanctuary. Instead, we docked in the river’s current, at an unprotected wall belonging to the Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club. The fetch from the lake continually pushed us upriver, the current pushed us downstream, and the wind alternately pulled us away from and pushed us into the wall. One shove against the wall was so startlingly violent that we thought we might pop another fender!
In spite of the adventurous dockage, we appreciated the accommodating staff, who allowed us to stay an extra day for free (til August 26) when the lake looked really rough on our planned departure day. That easy-going generosity was typical of our experiences with Canadians. I was sad to realize that NOTL would be one of this year’s last Canadian marinas.
That sadness mixed with a sense of dissonance caused by the Niagara River’s geography. Even at its mouth, the river is not very wide. The buildings on the other bank (an old fort and an official-looking building housing customs and border patrol agencies) were clearly visible. It felt odd to recognize that all the buildings across the river were in another country. The view of my own country, instead of feeling welcoming and familiar, felt distant – oddly foreign – as a consequence of the ongoing political dissension between the two governments. It also seemed somehow significant that the Canadian side of the river’s mouth, opposite US military and bureaucratic buildings, is occupied by… a park.
On to more adventure: Jeff always checks the engine oil the morning after we arrive at a marina, to make sure the engine isn’t either losing or gaining oil, neither of which is a good sign.
When he checked the oil on the starboard engine, he was concerned to find the level had risen on the dipstick. That started a round of calls to our mechanics at home and the local AGLCA Harbor Host, seeking a diesel mechanic who could run tests to see if there was a leak in the system.
The calls led us to Bill Arthur, a Canadian mechanic willing to drive 2 ½ hours after work to NOTL and use his tools to look for a leak. He and his 14-year-old son worked for over four hours without finding anything. He theorized that the rough ride and the extreme battering against the seawall might have caused the apparent increase of oil. So we agreed to enjoy our stay in NOTL and then proceed cautiously, monitoring the oil pressure often.
Neither our worry about the oil pressure issue nor the consistently rainy weather prevented us from exploring Niagara on the Lake’s many attractions:
- Theater: The Shaw Festival, running every summer since 1962, produces plays by George Bernard Shaw as well as other playwrights. We saw the Shaw play Heartbreak House, set just before World War I, and the next night we saw Funny Girl, the musical about Fanny Brice, the Ziegfeld Follies star.
- Wineries, Breweries and Distilleries: The Wayne Gretsky Winery and Distillery is a short Uber ride out of town. In addition to enjoying a wine-tasting, we also learned how kind-hearted the hockey star was. For instance, Wayne’s close friend Joey Moss, who was born with Down’s Syndrome, loved hockey. Wayne persuaded the Edmonton Oilers manager to hire Joey as a locker room attendant, a position he held for over three decades.
- Food Firsts: I had my first scoopable cookies, melted warm chocolate chip cookies literally scooped out of a pan into a cup and topped with ice cream. Jeff had his first crepe served in a pie tin, with the outer inch of the circular pastry serving as a pie crust. Both were delicious – “firsts” but not “lasts!”
One final note: our battery-operated scooters not only enable our adventures, they also enrich them. Both in Toronto and in NOTL, the scooters took us wherever we wanted to go. In Toronto, on the way to the Second City show, we glided along a smooth bike path under fragrant trees and past fences overgrown with roses and wildflowers… and after the show, when we couldn’t find an Uber, we felt confident scootering home in the dark along the same bike path, breathing the fragrant night air and listening to the crickets and peepers.
In NOTL, our scooters took us everywhere in town, in rain or shine. The night we saw Funny Girl, I tucked a lightweight tarp into my bag and used it to protect the scooters from the rain. Going into the theater, we shucked our sodden raincoats and changed shoes in the theater lobby. Then we took our seats, looking as civilized as the patrons who had merely stepped from their cars into the theater. Only we knew our secret – our elegant veneer concealed intrepid hearts.
Adventurously,
Judy
