Day 339: Friday, August 9, 2013

Port to Port: Midland, Ontario

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

First Things First: First time getting cash from a cash machine while on the trip.

Mile 5 to Mile 5: We have two sailboats again ready for fair winds and following seas. Carina got her mast stepped today. It was a longer and more involved process than it looked. But, except for a few minor hiccups, Carina can now have S/V (sailing vessel) in front of her name again – and so can we. Cindy puppy sat Squirt – Kent and Jane’s CSO (Chief Security Officer) while I watched and took pictures for a while. I soon decided I could be more productive getting yesterday’s blog loaded and finished…while sitting by the pool…on a perfect sunny late summer day. And people think we are roughing it.

Later in the day, Cindy and I got a ride from one of the crew here at Bayport Marina up to Walmart. Of course, they didn’t have the two most important things that I was looking for – propane canisters and gallon bottles of 2 cycle engine oil. We still spent money, though and are now ready for at least a week of beautiful anchorages in Georgian Bay.

After we got back, we walked into downtown Midland to browse and check out the waterfront park. Midland is hanging on and trying to keep their downtown vital and healthy but there were a fair number of empty stores waiting for some creative entrepreneurs. We did find a couple nice shops, a small grocery store and did some much needed banking.

Since power is included in the slip fee, we plugged in and charged a few devices like the portable drill, spotlight and camera batteries during the day. We also took advantage and made rice in the rice cooker for the first time in weeks. We added some rotisserie chicken and salads to make a quick and easy dinner.

By the way, have I mentioned how expensive some things seem here in Canada. Ontario is not as bad as Quebec but a couple of examples from today stand out. We split a chicken bacon wrap meal at McDonalds for lunch and the total was $9.06 – for one meal. We also bought a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and it was $10.95 compared to $5.99 to $6.99 at home. Expensive chickens I guess. Gas is almost $5 a gallon too making for a little higher fuel budget. It is what it is but we are beginning to appreciate how good we have back home.

We are excited to be moving on tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, we will get to do a little sailing on our way to our first stop.