Day 19
Travel Time:
~ 5 hours
NM today: 8
NM total: 508
Locks today:
7
Locks total:
54
Mornings on
departure days are always busy and today was no exception. Clark was out of his allergy medicine so we
had to find a pharmacy. He went out on
his bike once, couldn’t find the pharmacy, returned to get more directions from
the marina internet, and set out again. The
first pharmacy of course did not carry what he needed but told him the Canadian
equivalent brand which he found at a pharmacy a few blocks further on.
After he
came back he filled the water tank – a critical agenda item given our planned
next stop has no amenities – no water, electric, showers, or internet. We stopped over to say hello to the folks on Ariel who just arrived at the
marina. Next to them on their dock was
the 1929 wooden boat. We also talked
with them and learned that they were getting ready to pull up their lines and
move out for the day. Clark decided he
wanted to travel alongside this old boat, so we turned in our dock keys, hauled
in our lines and took off in record time.
I was
incorrect in yesterday’s blog. The
wooden boat itself is called High Tea
and the dinghy is named Tea for Two. We learned by talking to them that they are
not the owners but a hired captain and crew to move the vessel for the
captain. The captain explained to us
that they were taking it to a port further along in Canada and then the top
cabin of the boat would be removed so the boat could be shipped by truck to its
ultimate destination. Looking at the
condition of that lovely wood, it is hard to believe someone would be willing
to disassemble the boat, but I guess you do what you have to do. The boat was built in Canada and so the story
goes, it is being returned from whence it came – back to its home town or near
there.
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| Top of boat (teak) to be removed for transport |
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| Changing homes - RI to Canada |
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| Sitting in the "cake pan" of water, tied to the railing, waiting for the lift lock to take us up |
I have to
say that locking through with the historic boat was more of a pain than a
pleasure. All the lock attendants were
concerned for the “old lady” and filled the locks at slow speed. Grrrr.
Today the sun was out in full force.
Down in the locks there is not even the slightest breeze. On the bow there is no shade for me to hide
in. I melted all day long – or at least
5 hours of it. I truly thought I might
have heat stroke at one point if I wasn’t careful, so as soon as we pulled out
of the lock, I ran for the shade and a liter of water. In all of 5 hours we only traveled 8
nautical miles. That’s the equivalent of
9 statute miles. I'm pretty sure I could
have walked it faster!?
Clark got
chatty with the captain of the old boat as we went through 7 locks with
them. Through the course of
conversation, he discovered they have a battery problem on board. He volunteered to look at the battery to see
what he could diagnose in return for a tour of the boat. As soon as we tied off lines he took off
running with his voltage meter to see what he could learn. I, on the other hand, went and ran water over
my head to help me cool down. I also
exchanged one shirt for another to see if it would help with my
overheating. It did - quite nicely.
When Clark
returned from High Tea, he said, “they’re
all happy”, so I gathered he addressed their problem. It turned out that they have a bad
alternator, which didn’t sound like it would make me happy. Then Clark explained that he explained to
them how they can use their generator to charge the battery until the
alternator is fixed. Then I understood
why they were happy – they had a work around solution to their issue. Clark offered to take me over for a tour of
the old boat but I said I’d pass and look at his pictures later. I have as much interest in seeing the hot
insides of that boat right now as Clark has of exploring museums, which in case
you can’t tell is about none at all.
I told
Captain Clark that I would prefer to get an earlier start in the mornings. I hate leaving late and then getting into the
next town so late that everything has closed for the day by the time we come to
explore. Also, I can’t take this melting
heat; an earlier start would allow us to travel some of the time at a cooler
part of the day. Problem is that Clark
is a night owl and cannot easily change his life habits. I guess I’ll just have to start pulling him
out of bed earlier whether he likes it or not.
By the time
we got on our bikes to explore it was already 6:00, and guess what, all the
stores in town were closed. We found
several restaurants including a pub and an ice cream store. I checked the pub menu and found the steak
pie I’ve been longing for this whole trip.
Sadly, it was labeled “steak and mushroom pie” and I am allergic to
mushrooms. Sigh! I’ll keep looking. We finished our tour of the town and decided
to head home for supper before coming back for ice cream.
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| WWI, WWII, and Korean War Memorial in Lakefield |
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| Old Church in Lakefield |
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| Store in Lakefield offering Makeovers |
Since I have
been longing for pub food, I decided to be adventurous in my own kitchen and
made makeshift Cornish Pasty for dinner.
I didn’t feel like using the boat oven, so I took a chance on cooking
the pastry-wrapped meat / potatoes on the stove top using a skillet as my
oven. It worked as I expected it
might. The Cornish Pasty dinner was
surprisingly good. I wanted to keep
eating but knew there was ice cream in the near future so saved some pasty for
another meal.
We had one
mishap during the dinner-making timeslot.
Clark put the DC fan on for me to blow the heat out of the boat while I
cooked. Part way through the cooking I
heard a POP and the fan stopped. Of
course Clark was nowhere to be seen.
Where was he? Gabbing with the
folks on that old boat again. I yelled
down the dock and he came running (expecting dinner to be ready) and I told him
the news about the fan. He proceeded to
take it apart as he suspected it was the fuse that had popped. It was the fuse but the fan has bad bearings
and there is no hope for a repair. Now I
have to cook in the heat. We had one of
these fans that lasted for 15 years from one boat to the next but the plastic
housing finally dried out and collapsed.
We have had 2 since that didn’t even last 2 years each. Clark muttered something about Taiwanese
motors. Never one to through anything in
the garbage, the fan is now stored on the boat for future consideration –
perhaps sometime in 2016 when we are back home.
Gotta love it!
At 8:15 we
set off on our bikes to go to the ice cream store which was reasonably close. Clark said that if we used our bikes we could
outrun the bugs which sounded like a great idea. I just had to remember to bike with my mouth
closed as we went along! That’s one
thing I cannot understand. How can such
a northern country have so many bugs!? I
am so glad that we either purchased or made screens for every window and door
on the boat.
The ice
cream was a nice treat after a long hot day.
After the ice cream treat we biked to Foodland which is open 24 hours to
buy vegetables to replenish my stock. As
we waited at the corner for the light to change, the local town cop drove by
and slowed down to say something to us.
We both thought he was going to complain about something – probably our
lack of lights as it was already dusk. (We had lights in our backpacks but
weren’t using them yet.) Instead he
yelled, “Are you boaters?” We said yes
and then he said he could tell by our funny-looking bikes and kept on
going.
Zucchini is
a main food in our diet, and I am sad to report that it is nearly impossible to
buy in this country. I found it in one
store but it was beyond its expiration date before I got there, so I had to
pass. I found it in one store and
grabbed some up. I haven’t seen it
since. I bought broccoli which we haven’t
eaten since we left NJ and French-style green beans, and spinach. The first two aren’t great choices as it is
hard to cook broccoli on the boat – too much time to boil water and too much
steam, and Clark is not a great fan of green beans. I’ll sauté the beans in olive oil as he
enjoys them cooked that way. However, my
hunt for more zucchini is ongoing!
With no
showers, internet, or TV and after a long day of hard work and exercise, I went
to bed immediately after finishing the dirty-dishes-cleanup duty. Clark has been very good about helping with
the dishes, so the job goes pretty quickly.
With no hot water heater (we’re not great fans of generators) we had to
do the dishes while there was still hot water in the tank from the day’s
driving. (The water in the hot-water
tank heats naturally by virtue of being a metal tank in the engine room – so hot
in fact that it is near scalding.)
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