Day 337: Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Port to Port: Bridge Port Marina to Swift Rapids Lock (No. 43)

Underway: 6:51 am      Motor Off: 12:03 pm      Miles Traveled: 26      Stayed At: Lock Wall

First Things First: First time making coffee cake in camping oven (Cindy’s birthday cake)

Mile 198 to Mile 224: With a forecast for storms this afternoon, we considered staying at the marina but the skies looked good in the morning so we headed out to try to get to Big Chute Marine Railway about 32 miles away. We had good weather and a favorable current so we made really good time and got to Swift Rapids Lock by noon. It started to rain a little so we decided to stop on the low side (50+ feet down from the top) for the day. Then the sun came out and confused us. Should we stay or should we go. In the end, we just decided to stay and enjoy a beautiful, secluded lock and celebrate Cindy’s birthday with Carina.

I didn’t have a recipe for a simple white cake mix so I made a Bisquick Coffee Cake – hey, it’s still cake. Jane even had a candle for me to use. We decided to have pizza on the grill so Carina contributed the crust, onions, cheese and pepperoni and we added leftover spagegthi sauce with hamburger, more cheese, fruit and cake and we had a wonderful birthday party with friends. Cindy even got a long quiet nap after lunch.

Dark clouds moved by on and off all afternoon but we never got any significant rain and, by late afternoon, the skies cleared and we had a beautiful sunset. We were sitting on the boat after the lock had closed and heard someone yelling “Aurora” from the top of the lock and discovered that our friends on Irish Attitude, Journey and Harmony finally caught up with us again – almost. They are on the top side of the lock so we will still be in front for at least one more day. We joined them and chatted for over an hour – the only thing missing was our docktail drinks – poor planning (it’s 9 flights of stairs back down to the boat so we just suffered).

After catching up with our friends, it still took us over an hour to get back to the boat since we ended up chatting with three groups of people on our section of dock – two power boats and some canoeists who were camping. What a great way to end an awesome birthday.

Oh, but wait, it wasn’t over yet. Jess and Sarah made a conference call using Google Hangout and we sacrificed some expensive Canadian cell phone minutes so they could wish Cindy a Happy Birthday. Now that was a great way to end a special day. Tomorrow we get to be sailboats again because we will be done with bridges and locks until Chicago. Time to put the masts back up. We can’t wait.