Day 318: Friday, July 19, 2013

Port to Port: Sainte Anne De Bellevue

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Lock Wall

First Things First: First Tim Horton’s (donut shops) – Canada is littered with them.

Mile to Mile: I guess hot and stormy is better than dark and stormy (unless it is the liquid kind). We decided to stay put today – the forecast is for gale force winds and storms this afternoon as a strong cold front pushes its way through – finally. Who knew it could get this hot in Canada. Every third person on the sidewalk is carrying an ice cream cone. Tomorrow the high is supposed to by in the 70’s and Sunday it might be in the 60’s. Should be good travel conditions as soon as the wind subsides.

With nothing better to do, I got up early and walked 2+ miles to the closest Walmart to get oil, a 12v fan and a few other items. I wish I had a bike since there was a marked bike trail the whole way. I was early even though I walked so I took a detour and stopped at our first Tim Horton’s. Okay but not really special – just easy to find in any medium size town with strip malls.

It was too hot to do anything strenuous today. We took showers at the community center pool and relaxed in air-conditioned comfort at the library. Cindy went back to the boat to close the windows before the clouds moved in. Hopefully this front will pass through and bring calmer and cooler conditions for next week. We are looking forward to exploring the Rideau Canal before following our Looper friends up the Trent Severn Canal System.

We had a little excitement in this quiet little town this afternoon. I was busy working on the blog when Cindy came back to the library out of breath saying the wind had shifted and the boats were getting pounded by the waves. So we ran/walked fast back to the boat and saw Carina and Aurora rocking up and down like bucking broncos. I guess I missed the worst of it when the gust front moved through. We agonized over moving into the lock to the other side or staying tied where we were. The dark clouds were moving in fast and it was very lumpy in the channel leading to the lock. To make a long story short, we decided to stay tied securely to the wall instead of getting caught in the big waves and coming downpour before we were securely tied again. We sat under Carina’s enclosure and watched the rain and wind roll in. It poured buckets but we stayed fairly dry. After the first storm rolled through and the lightening stopped, we moved into and through the lock to the protected side and parked along the wall under the road bridge so we were completely protected from the rain for the rest of the evening. There were probably 20 other boats doing the same thing for the night. The only “damage” was we lost our rug that had been on the lock wall and must have washed away with one of the breaking waves. That’s enough excitement for one day wouldn’t you say.