North Channel Great Adventure, Before Day One, Tuesday, July 10, 2012

North Channel Report – Before Day One

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Capt. SO and I arrived safely at our destination port of Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.  After tying up at the slip and checking in to pay our slip fee for one night, we hit the one main street of Gore Bay in search of two priorities.  Priority Number One:  Gore Bay Frozen Yogurt, which we swear is the best we’ve ever had and maybe the best on the planet?  (Would that statement be considered a superlative superlative?)  Our hopes were nearly dashed when we walked in to the little health food store that sells the frozen yogurt and saw a sign that read:  We are out of frozen yogurt until tomorrow afternoon.)  You would have thought the world was coming to an end.   When we told the clerk we’d come by boat all the way from northern Wisconsin, she said, “I have enough for one more yogurt.”  We said, in unison, “We’ll take it!”  And so, Capt. SO and I left the store with one peach yogurt and two spoons, happy as could be, on our way to locate Priority Number Two:  Obtain a Canadian fishing license for moi.  Luck was with us and the Provencial Office was open until 5:00 p.m., which gave us a cushion of fifteen minutes in which to do our business.  We left the Provencial Office with one fishing license for me, an empty yogurt container and two smiles.  

Dinner was an epicurean delight as we ate some pork ribs that Capt. SO had pre-prepared at home, just for our Grand Adventure.  We even had special barbeque sauce that he had pre-prepared.   The melt-in-your-mouth ribs, grilled Vidalia onion, and the last of my potato salad, combined to make a great meal.  We had the opportunity to talk with another boat’s owners who turned out to be from a neighboring marina back at “boat home”.  Small world, always.  Later we were visited by a gracious Canadian woman who came down to say “hello”, telling us that she saw our “pretty” boat come into the harbor earlier and remembered the boat from last year. 

Our dockmates were friendly Canadians and two boats across the main dock from us were also from a Door Co. marina.  It seems we find geographically close people wherever we take the Aqua RV. 

After a post-showers map perusal, it was lights off in preparation for the Actual Day One of our Grand Adventure. 

Ancora imparo

Finally, Amongst Wi-Fi That Works!

North Channel Adventure - Day 7, Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I see I missed a day yesterday.  We arrived in Little Current, Manitoulin Island, North Channel, Ontario, Canada, yesterday, Monday, July 16, 2012.  Little Current is famous for, guess what, its current which is either a non-event or catastrophic.  Docking for us yesterday fell under the former category - a non-event, which is the kind of docking experience you want every time.  You really want boat-docking to be a ho-hum thing - kind of like watching paint dry. 

We had been docked for several hours, when CSO - who was on the upper deck - opened the cabin door and said to me, "There's a boat out here having a dickens of a time docking.  Want to watch?"

Sadly, one of the great marina pastimes and sports is docking watching.  We all do it and anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth.  I went up on deck to watch the most painful docking procedure I've seen in recent years.  The current was wicked and the boat's first mate had nary a fender or line ready.  It was, as one might say, "a cluster".  The Grand Banks trawler trying to dock did hit the Grand Banks trawler in the same slip.  It took six people to finally get the boat tied up safely.  Today all of the surrounding boats stayed put so there were no docking olympics to observe.

Little Current is an old, established community dating back to the mid-1800's and its history is prominently displayed everywhere.  It has good shopping, good grocery stores, island-made Farquardts ice cream, outstanding fresh fish served in its restaurants, a strong wi-fi signal and an excellent butcher shop.  I've actually been able to catch up on emails and clear out my Google Reader.

Tomorrow will find CSO and I out on anchor again, hopefully for five nights running as we work our way westward, preparing to cross the big pond, perhaps one week from today. 

Until I can post again............

Ancora imparo

Beginning The Great Adventure, Monday, July 9, 2012

Our day got off to in inauspicious start.  Not quite how we planned it and, believe me, we plan.

We planned (and did) to get up early.  Me at 4:30 because I am high maintenance and Capt. SO at 4:45 (that's a.m.) because he is clinically efficient.  I am not.  Our plan was to leave the dock with the Aqua RV at 5:30.  About 5:20 Capt. SO stuck his head "down below" and said, "We have a problem, Houston."  Our windshield wipers were non-responsive.  Not a good thing when your windshield is covered with a heavy dew and there is visible fog out toward the Big Pond (otherwise known as Lake Michigan).  Capt. SO concluded that we would leave the dock and motor over to the marine business that does our maintenance and tie up at the gas dock until we discovered what the issue was.  We did just that and by 7:05, we were underway.  The fog had lifted off the Big Pond but the wind had not.  For our first three hours- maybe more - we banged around mightily.  Poor Aqua RV.  It is a testament to marine engineering that boats do not fall apart.  It wasn't unsafe but it was not fun.  However, the farther north we motored, the less the winds did blow and our final two-and-half hours were quite pleasant.

Since we follow shipping lanes, we frequently see large vessels - huge even - that ply the Great Lakes.  Today was no exception and the Algoma Olympic out of Toronto followed us through the Straits of Mackinac.  These freighters are quite a sight to see from close up.  The wall of water that their bows push is significant.  Easily five to six feet of water is displaced continually as their mighty engines move them through the water.

Us?  We admire them but give them the distance they deserve and demand.  Playing chicken with a freighter is simply not recommended.

Our destination plans for today had to be modified due to the wiper issue and the fact that our speed had to be greatly reduced in order to accommodate the wave conditions this morning.  Capt. SO chose, instead, to slip about two hours to the west of where we wanted to slip for this night.  Thusly, tomorrow will be another early arisal in order to keep our final destination goal of Gore Bay on Tuesday.

Tonight we have slipped in a new Michigan state marina that is located in Mackinaw City, Michigan.  A touristy place with plenty of fudge, popcorn and ice cream.  We tried the vinegar and salt popcorn this afternoon and found it very tasty.  Our marina is heavily guarded by several gaggles of Canada geese and there are prolific piles of poo everywhere.  At least the floating docks are not frequented by geese, consequently the docks are very clean.  More than I can say for the soles of our shoes!

Tomorrow the adventure continues in our four-hundred-and-seventy-five square-foot Aqua RV.  Hey, it has AC, hot and cold running water, and a good bed.  Plus it goes fast.  I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow I become data-disabled.  I can text with people but I will be cut off from my other forms of communication.  Aaaach!  

Ancora imparo

Pre-Trip Trepidations

No matter that Capt. SO and I have prepared for a North Channel trip three other times, I still get butterflies in my belly.  He and I have both been preparing – each with our own task list.  It seems that even though we each make a list, and check it twice, some other little item comes to mind that either requires another car trip, another effort, another fix, or another rearranging of a storage area in order to accommodate one more thing.

I’ve just finished practicing knot tying for the fenders, which will have to be removed during our lake crossing.  I thought I would have remembered how to tie fenders from last season, but on a recent Aqua RV outing, I learned that I had remembered squat, hence, the crash renewal course.

I’m also quite certain that I’ve stocked up on way to many provisions.  Capt. SO would be giving birth to bovines if he could actually see all that I’ve stored here and there but, sometimes shopping in out-of-the-way places does not yield favored brands nor small sizes. 

I suspect that sleep will be elusive tonight.  Just getting started on the journey tomorrow will bring some closure to my “dis”ease.  Capt. SO is very cautious about lake conditions and when to cross.  It should be a very smooth journey tomorrow. 

At least we are taking our beds with us.  The only difference between us and a road RV is that our RV floats!

Ancora imparo

Thank You, Arnold!

In 1972, the second book in the Frog and Toad series, Frog and Toad Together, was published.  It won the prestigious Newbery Honor for 1973.  A delightful children's series about two friends, Frog and Toad, written by Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Together chronicles the escapades of the two friends, including a "scene" about eating too many cookies, which is a classic (to me) in children's literature.  Perhaps it is because I, too, have eaten too many cookies at one time, or because eating is a natural happenstance when friends get together. 

Think, for a moment, about the connection between friendship and eating.  Communing together almost always involving eating, or at the very least, consuming some type of beverage, be it alcoholic or non-alcoholic.  Friends share both themselves and their food. 

Somehow, Arnold Lobel fully understood the power of friendship......... and the true pleasure that can be derived from eating cookies!  The conversational interactions between Frog and Toad are so vested in reality that they make reality television look like the reality fraud it really is. 

Thursday night and last night, Capt. SO and I had the pleasure of eating with and being with friends.  This particular gathering of people has an casualness about it that immediately puts everyone at ease.  There are no primadonnas or people working on their doctoral theses in nothingness.  No one is trying to educate the others on every topic of conversation. Capt. SO and I are fortunate to have several circles of friends that are just like these.  Just normal people having normal conversations with everyone able to both talk or listen when appropriate.  

Within twenty-four hours, we friends will be separated for about thirty days, with each couple going on a path of differing direction from the others.  As we toasted our meal together, with a combination of diet sodas, iced teas, ice water, water with no ice, and wine, we recognized it was the last time, for a while, that we could talk, laugh and eat with one another.  Sort of a bittersweet time, rather like the season's end of Aqua RV-ing. 

I went to sleep, with a smile on my face, thinking of Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad.  The only thing missing was cookie crumbs in the bedsheets.

Ancora imparo

Builder-Uppers

I have a friend who has serious self-doubt issues.  There are no blatant, concrete reasons why she (Yes, it is a female.) should be so consistently down on herself, but it is a state she often finds herself in and will then confide to a few, trusted confidants, of whom I am one.

Some self-doubt is probably common to all humans.  I suspect it is the rare person who never feels inadequate in some area at some time.  To be sure, there are those who hide it very well.  Indeed, some individuals seem to work at proclaiming their superiority to anyone, everyone, and at all times.  We all know people like that.  Pompous, arrogant individuals who come across with such brazen (and often ill-founded) confidence it makes you want to regurgitate your last meal.

However, I digress.

Back to those with self-doubt tendencies.

These people need those whom I call "builder-uppers".  Not the building-up that comes from fake, insincere, and empty praise, but the building up that comes from empathy and a sincere caring nature. Lately, in my prehistoric Franklin planner's Leadership-series pages, there has been an entire string of quotes, from famous and/or notable people, that deal with confidence. 

One recent quote was simply listed as being from "Seth".
"You must begin to trust yourself sometime.  I suggest you do it now.  If you do not, then you will forever be looking to others to prove your own merit to you, and you will never be satisfied.  Trust the miracle of your own being."

Another quote is attributed to Harry S. Truman.
"All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it, and go to work on something else.......You've got to keep going because there's always a decision just ahead of you that you've got to make.....If you make a mistake in one of these decisions, correct it by another decision, and go ahead."

Building another up does not need to be a time-consuming, all-consuming process, but rather moments of true praise - moments of recognition that another has, perhaps, bested you in some way, shape, form, skill, or knowledge.  It is OK to let others be better than ourselves.  One of those "others" just may be the person to build you up one day, when YOU need it most.

Ancora imparo

Earth To Mother Nature: Cool It!

Everybody's talking about the heat - at least where I live - and, according to the national weather map, plenty of other areas have it worse then where Capt. SO and I are.  True, it is miserably hot.  The air-conditioning units on Das Boot are keeping up to the best of their abilities, but we are babying them, just to insure that they don't overload and fail.  Even the refrigerators are struggling to keep their contents chilled.  Capt. SO is creating some type of cover for the cabin door, in order to prevent so much sunlight and subsequent heat from radiating into the cabin.  Last night we didn't even bother to crawl into the bedcovers, instead sleeping on top of them, covered only with a spare sheet.  At times, even the sheet was too much.

This morning, however, there was a lessening of heat, by a few degrees, and I was able to slip out with my I-Pod and go for my morning walk, accompanied by lots of loud, back-beat-pounding, heart-thumping tunes from my playlist.  Even though I was soaked by the time my walk was concluded, I returned to Das Boot happy and upbeat.  I do love my playlist!

I also discovered that God had my "six" on a matter that, as of yesterday morning, had given me pause for consternation.  My matter involved a lost email to a music company (they lost it) that had contained sixteen titles, composers, publisher numbers and names.  The email order had been sent about four weeks ago and, foolishly, I had not kept the email, thinking that because customer service had always been so favorable from this company in the past that there would be no issues with the email order. 

Wrong, wrong, wrong!  But, thanks to a competent customer-service representative who responded immediately to my less-than-favorable email yesterday, AND the fact that, somehow, I had kept the hand-written notes from my online search four weeks ago, AND, actually had the list in my computer bag, I was able to phone the company and give my order over the phone.  Once that order was officially placed with a live person and I received a confirmation email about the order, a HUGE weight was lifted from my brain.  After that, I was able to charge into my to-do list, which included composing a posting for Ancora Imparo.

I had threatened to drive back home today and find my order list.  Now I can stay put, stay out of the heat, and try to stay cool.  May you do the same!

Ancora imparo