Day 39
Travel Time: 3.5 hours
NM today: 22
NM total: 878
Locks today: 0
Locks total: 70
We targeted
an early start to get to Little Current by the 11:00 swing bridge opening as
the bridge only opens hourly for fifteen minutes. When we went out to raise the anchor, a real
mess greeted us. The anchor line had 60
feet of weeds tangled on it and the anchor itself was buried under a mass of
green weeds. The time it took us to
clean off all the weeds and get underway meant we missed the 11:00 opportunity.
We arrived at
the bridge at 11:40. Another boater at
The Pool told us the clearance is currently 14 feet, but Clark called the
bridge tender to ask. He responded that
the bridge clearance is 17 feet. At 14
we don’t fit and at 17 we have loads of head room. Hmmmmmm!
With the wind and the current against us, Clark felt that we could “go
for it” and if we couldn’t make it, at least we wouldn’t be swept into the
bridge by either wind or current. We
lowered our antennas (we have 2) and our radar tower making our clearance 15’3”
based on our crude measurements taken years ago.
We edged up
to the bridge with me driving and Clark standing on the bench seats of the fly
bridge to see over the Bimini top to get an eyeball on clearance. I kept saying, “I don’t think we can do
it. It’s certainly not 17’ of clearance.” As we got closer and closer, Clark finally
said, “Put it in gear, we’re good to go.”
We were in neutral while he decided what we should do, so I put us into
forward motion and took her through the opening amazed that we fit under. The
bridge tender must have been curious too because he came down to watch us try
it and I could him yelling, “You’re good to go.
You’re good!”
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| Swing Bridge at Little Current |
Luckily we
found space available at the Little Current Town Dock although at $1.75 a foot,
it cost more than we expected to pay. At
12:00 we had already tied up. If we had
waited for the bridge to open, we would have lost that 20 minutes just floating
around doing nothing. We love to shock
even ourselves with fitting under these low bridges. We passed a sailboat coming up to the swing
bridge and he scowled at us as we went by probably thinking we were cutting in
line to go through the bridge when it opened.
I would have liked to have seen his face when we went right on under.
As soon as
we came in to tie up to the dock, we saw our friends on Harmony whom we had seen previously on this trip. Once somewhat settled, i.e. at least tied to
the dock, we went over to say hello. I
got the low down on where to get a free pump out using the coupon we received
in Peterborough on the Trent Severn, how to locate the grocery stores, possible
locations for overnight anchorages, etc.
Eunice from Harmony said they planned on using bicycles to get around
because things were not close, i.e. the grocery stores are not close, so we
decided to follow suit. The town is
quaint and has interesting shops many of which were closed due to it being
Sunday.
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| quaint town of Little Current |
We needed
quite a few groceries, so we took two backpacks with us. Since the two stores are located across the
street from each other, we went to Foodland first and Valumart second. In other towns we found Foodland to be the
better of the two. Here Foodland did not
have the selection or the freshness of vegetables that Valumart had. The checkout person could not believe that I was
going to get all my groceries into the backpacks, so she said, “Tell me when
you want a bag.” Hah! I didn’t need one, but we were both
staggering under the weight. Canned
goods and jars of spaghetti sauce are not light!
When she saw
that we were ready to be on our way, she asked if we were going back to the
marina. We said yes, and she said, “There’s
a short cut. You can cut down a back
street and then through the park to the steps down to the docks.” “We’re biking”, we said. “Oh, then just do the same but instead of
cutting through the park, just take the street back. It’s downhill all the way.”
We followed
her great directions and enjoyed an expedited trip back to the boat. As we passed the park she told us about, we
stopped to look around, read the dedication to the stockade that used to occupy
that site, and took some photos of the harbor below us.
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| Little Current Harbor |
We came back
to the boat and stowed the perishables as quickly as possible so we could go
back out and explore more of the town.
We heard a street performer singing as we came back to the boat. Even though I hurried to get back out, she
was done and packing her car by the time we got back, so we didn’t get a chance
to hear her sing more than part of one Simon and Garfunkel as we flew by on our
bikes. Having missed her show, we rode our bikes through town
and checked out any stores we found that were open. We then decided to head back to the Valumart for
something I had forgotten to buy on the first go round, so back up the hill we went.
We got back
to the grocery store at 4:55 and the store closed at 5:00 but the clerk let us
zip in “As long as you promise to be fast”, she said as we entered. The
personnel must have been in a hurry to leave or something. The bill came to $8.35, and I had change but
was struggling to come up with the 35 cents as all I had were quarters and
toonies. The sales clerk said, “Here. I have 35 cents”, and reached into his own
pocket and pulled out the change. I was
so shocked I was speechless. However, I
had given him a $20 plus his 35 cents, and he almost forgot to give me the $12
change. Maybe he was as shocked that he had offered the money as I was.
With our
additional purchase in hand, we zipped back to the boat on our fun
shortcut. After that Clark spent a good part of the
rest of the day talking to fellow boaters, giving out his boat cards that I
made for him (us), and finding out tips and hints from boaters with local
knowledge. We met a person today with a
Mainship 400 (sister to our Mainship 350) who has made the Great Loop trip once
before, and enjoyed it so much, he is doing it again. He just started out from Midland, ON very
recently. He’s on a boat named Something Special and we expect to be
seeing him off and on as we make our way around this loop “together”.
I called my son Jeff and we talked for a while so I could catch up on his news. Keeping in touch while in Canada had been a challenge as phone service is expensive and as I mentioned in the prior blog entry - not always available. I had hoped to connect with my other son, Chris, who said he would call me today, but timing didn't seem to work out well to make that happen. Hopefully we can connect soon. Being away from and missing family is the most difficult part of this adventure.
We ended the
day with showers and ice cream – both needed treats. Although we both went swimming twice
yesterday, neither time involved any soap, so I was more than ready to try out
the showers at the marina. We just made
it to the ice cream shop before they closed.
Clark met me as I came out of the shower and said we had to hurry or we’d
miss our chance for the ice cream.
Heaven forbid! Our current favorite flavor is Pralines and Cream. Yum!
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