Day 324, Monday May 12th once more on to the ICW

Day 324, Monday May 12^th once more on to the ICW

We our underway by 9:30, and Julie does an excellent job of getting the boat turned around in narrow shallow Creek.  We have a 50 mile day ahead of us, part of it is in narrow creeks/cannels and some through sounds.  We are able to hoist the jib in some of the sounds.  We  keep our average speed around 8 mph.  We have flipped over to status miles since entering the ICW as all the mile markers are in Statue miles.

Funny how we had quickly adapted to land in Toronto, and quickly adapt back to water life.  Dawson did comment however he had looked at his “watch” while we were underway.  We don’t wear watches while on the boat, although we do have methods to gauge time.  After only 4 days in Toronto he had picked up the habit again of looking at his wrist.

Crab fisherman handing over some crabs

About 3:00 we see some crab fisherman waving their arms so we turn the engine down so we can hear them and Dawson yells across the channel to ask if they need assistance.  Of course they don’t have a radio which would have made life much easier.  Dawson hears the word “gas”, so we turn around and slowly weave our way into the crab pot infested shallow waters just off the canal.  The young men are paddling also to get closer to us.  One of them is paddling with what looks like a milk crate.  We pull up alongside with plenty of water under us, and Dawson hands over our gas can which has ony about 2 gallons in it, but enough to get them to safety hopefully.  They in turn hand over a burlap sack of soft shelled mud crabs.  The bag stinks and gushes dirty water on the deck.  The crew member was about 19, Dawson figured and captain closer to 30, had very strong back country accents.  They said the crab season was not so good this year.  “Not making any money”.

Dawson handing over our gas can

We head off slowly, creeping our way out of the crab pots.  Julie refused to put the boat in gear until the crab pot that had been beside us was found, but Dawson was impatient and took over the helm.  Hmmf!  The crab pots could potentially get caught in the propeller and fowl the engine.  Luckily we did not find any of the ropes attached to the crab pots and were soon back in the channel.  We were only about a mile or so from our anchorage for the night so it was no problem stopping to lend a hand, and a good trade for us.

We call our friend Beth on the satellite phone to get some advice on cooking the crabs.  There were about a dozen of them, and we had no internet to do research.  Next trip we will bring a few more cookbooks.  We own lots of cookbooks that we don’t use much back home as we use our favourite websites, but we don’t always have internet.

Beautiful sunset at anchor

Beth googled it for us as she had not cooked soft shelled crabs either and the advice was flour and spice them and pan fry in oil.  First Dawson had to stick a knife in their brains as they were still alive.  Then you cut the eyes and mouth off, lift the shell and clean out the gills and guts.  Well they were a bit of work and messy to clean, cook, and eat but the meat was very sweet.  A real treat and experience for us.  There were a few undercooked claws that went back into the pan but otherwise delicious.

Our anchorage was very quiet, although about 15 boats in here.  We knew we were going to get a good night sleep which was lovely.  We had our normal coffee and King’s cribbage game and hit the sack early so we could be up at 5:30 a.m. for a long day tomorrow.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 323, Sunday May 11th - a day of rest

Day 323, Sunday May 11^th 

Julie on the hunt for breakfast

Morning finds us back on the boat starting to research anchorages upstream.  We have decided to do some errands today and leave tomorrow, so first thing we head to town looking for a breakfast spot.  Sadly all the restaurants are closed on Sundays except for one and we don’t feel like walking to town.  It is about 80 degrees farenheit (~27 degrees Celcius) by 8:30 a.m., so it is going to be a scorcher today.  When we had left we had been hunting for sunshine to sit in as the shady spots were cool.  It is not going to be like that today.  We go straight for the grocers and buy breakfast food (we had emptied the fridge and turned it off while we were away so had absolutely no food available to eat).

One of the store cashiers offered her car up to the bag boy to give us a ride back to the marina which was very much appreciated. 

By 10:30 we are finally getting our first coffee and some sustenance in our tummies.  We had not eaten since about 3:30 the day before as the flight schedules and delays interfered with normal scheduling.  Julie was particularly famished.

Julie at the brand new Oriental Walmart Express

The rest of the day was spent blogging, and cleaning.  We scrubbed down the boat and Julie tackled some of the inside woodwork, and fibreglass.  It was very hot so the pace was not very fast.  We also went for a bit of a walk, but it was short-lived due to heat.  We did make it to the brand new Walmart Express where we got some fresh vegetables

We enjoy supper on the boat and a game of Kings Cribbage..

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 322, Saturday May 10th

Day 322, Saturday May 10^th

Our last day in Toronto is today.  There are not any new houses to look at so we relax getting our day going.  Dawson and Kevin head out for some exercise and Julie chats on the phone to friends and her mom, wishing everyone a happy mothers day.

By 11:00 we check out of the hotel and head toward the Eaton’s centre to purchase a few items we need.  Our ultimate destination is Marcene and Rick’s new house just NE of the Eaton Centre.  As we are walking along we realize we have not eaten yet so stop in at a Subway restaurant.  They are done serving breakfast, but we can still get a BLT sub.  We continue on and Dawson gets a new battery for his watch, Julie shops for graduation gift ideas, and Kevin picks up a few last minute items for his travels.

It is now 12:30 and we are scheduled to be at the Howse’s new place where Marcus will pick us up and shuttle us to the Toronto airport to catch our evening flight.  We have a lovely visit, but sadly forget a pair of sunglasses and Kevin’s new water bottle.  Marcene and Rick will keep them safe until our return.

At the airport we are happy to find out we can use the Air Canada lounge (although after will are admitted the attendant realizes Dawson’s points are expired).  She still lets us in though.  We have a couple hours to squander here as the customs lineups were non existent.  There is a new automated system that seems to be streamlining services.  Often you can take up to 2 hours to get through customs and security.  It is much nicer relaxing in the lounge instead of standing in line.

We head down to our gate and find out the flight is an hour delayed.  Bummer as we can’t get back into the lounge now, but worse, we are going to miss our connection.  We try to get some information, but can’t find an US airways desk.  We ask the Air Canada staff at the gate we are supposed to be at and she is most unhelpful.  As we leave there we see phones we can use and dial to US Airways.  You would think she could have told us that.... the phones had direct lines to all the airlines and were right across from the gate.  We each call the help line and are put on hold.  After about 40 minutes on hold we can see that there is a US airway sign at our gate with a US airways employee (who by the way was always at the gate and standing right beside the Air Canada employee we had asked about how to locate US airways assistance).  Julie takes the other phone line and Dawson proceeds over to the counter to chat up the US airways employee.  The US airways employee is confident we might make our connection so sees no need to book us onto a later flight.  He has assured us the existing flight to Charlotte will leave by 18:00 and they will put the pedal to the medal and recapture some lost time.  We hang up the help lines, never having been helped in almost an hour, and having to listen to advertisements the whole time while waiting.

Julie on hold with 2 phone lines

Our flight is boarded and we take off shortly after 18:00.  Our next flight is scheduled for 20:09, and it is supposed to be a 2 hour flight.  We are seated at the very back of the plane right beside the only toilet so Dawson becomes the toilet manager, advising people if the washroom is free, of in use, and assisting with how to operate the door.  What a nice guy!

We land shortly after 20:00 and it takes 15 minutes to get off the plane.  The stewardess has asked those without a connection to please let the others off first, but hardly anyone listens.  Julie dashes forward while Dawson grabs our skycheck, but there are no monitor screens announcing gates, and we don’t have boarding passes as Toronto only issued the first flights boarding passes, so Julie does not know where to go.  She approaches the service desk that we had used on the trip north (when our flight had been cancelled), but there were about 60 people in line so she heads back to find Dawson.  Together they go stand in the service line, but now there are about 80 people in it.  As we are standing there we see them announce that our flight that we thought we had missed is delayed until 21:45, so we realize we did not miss it.  We just need boarding passes now.  Hmmm.  Julie heads back to the gate that we had noticed had New Bern on it, and there is no line up and is able to get our boarding passes.  Wonderful, the 2^nd delay works in our favour.  We are only about 90 minutes behind our original schedule.  We no longer have a ride from New Bern back to our boat in Oriental, however we are confident it will all come together.

It is not long until we are once again boarding the plane, and again we are in the very back seats, but the toilet is behind us at least instead of beside us.  Once landed we easily find a shuttle and are back on our boat in an hour (after a slight detour for the cab driver due to a car accident).

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 321, Friday May 9th – Toronto house hunting day 3

Day 321, Friday May 9^th – Toronto house hunting day 3

Another early day.  We all get up and head to Cora’s for breakfast.  This is a bit of a tradition as whenever we would visit Ross in Guelph we would end up at Cora’s for breakfast and there is one located just down the street from us. After breakfast, Kevin and Ross give Julie her birthday present which is a lovely leather Roots bag.  This is a perfect gift as her current and only purse on the trip experienced technical difficulties on the way to Toronto and is being trashed.

Julie's fabulous new Roots bag

Once back to the hotel, both Kevin and Ross head off to do a workout and then head to Casey’s house where Ross will take Kevin’s truck to Guelph for storage.  

Dawson and Julie meet up with Susan our real estate agent to get a last look at a few neighbourhoods and look at a couple more houses.  We spend about 3 hours with Susan and then get her to drop us off in the Broadview/Danforth area so we can walk around and get a feel for the neighbourhood.  Dawson locates his new barber and takes the establishment for a test drive.  Price is right and haircut is satisfactory.  Tthis is his 1st professional cut in more then a 8 months as Julie has been doing the job since we cast the lines in June of last year.  This area is also called Greektown.  It is nice and clean and has good access to the bike trails and parks along the Don Valley ravine.  Again there are not many houses for sale here.  Soon enough it is 4:30, so we buy some wine and flowers and hop on the TTC subway to make our way over to the Mackenzie household where we will meet Casey’s parents as they have graciously invited us over for dinner.

No more cheesecake!

Once there, Julie and Suk Yin (Casey’s mom) get chauffeured by Kevin to pick up Casey and head to a salon to get a pedicure for mother’s day.  This is the first pedicure in a year and is greatly enjoyed.  Thanks Kevin and Casey.

Alan, Suk Yin, Casey, Kevin, Julie and Dawson

Back at the Mackenzie’s we have a lovely evening and feast on some amazing steaks, salads ....  The dinner is topped off by a belated cherry cheesecake birthday cake to acknowledge Julie’s 52nd birthday a couple weeks ago.  After dinner we partake in playing a game of Hearts.  As the evening draws to a close, Alan gives us a lift back to the hotel and we call it a night, well past boaters midnight.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 320, Thursday May 8th – Toronto house hunting day 2

Breakfast with Diana in Toronto

Day 320, Thursday May 8^th – Toronto house hunting day 2

We are all up early this morning as we are all going house hunting and are meeting our friend Diana for breakfast.   By 7:30 we are en route to the restaurant where we are meeting Diana and arrive just a few minutes before schedule.  Diana arrives just after us and we all enjoy an excellent omelet each.  It is good catching up with Diana as the last time we saw her was when Paul and her were on the boat up in the North Channel in July of 2013 for her birthday.

Ross in one of the many houses we looked at

Dawson heads off for a meeting at Torex while the boys and Julie visit some more with Diana.  All four of us will head out house hunting today.  At 10:30 we are back in Susan’s car heading out to look at some more houses.  This time we head up to Yonge and Eglinton, Bloor West and then back to the Beaches.  Again we see a number of houses all which would do, it is just a matter of finding one that meets the majority of our wants as our needs are small.

By 4:00 we are done our tour so we are back to the hotel.  Kevin is off to visit with some friends for the night so the 3 of us decide to head up the Bloor West area via TTC to see what the neighbourhood is like.   We have a good walk around the neighbourhood and then enjoy a pint and a plate of Nachos at one of the local pubs.   We spend the dinner hour discussing our learnings on the Toronto housing market with Ross putting together his thoughts on how one could make money on it.  By 11 o’clock we are just walking up to the hotel when Kevin meets us.  We are back in the room for 11 after an excellent day.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 319, Wednesday May 7th – Toronto

Day 319, Wednesday May 7^th – Toronto

House hunting with Susan

Dawson is up early for his first meeting of the day.  He has about 5 meetings lined up with various people within the company which start at 7.  Julie joins in for the 9:00 meeting to meet with HR and discuss the relocation logistics etc.  Once the 9-10 meeting is over Julie dashes out to meet with Marcene for a coffee near Rick’s office.  Go, go, go schedule is underway.  Back to Dawson’s office for 11:15 where all of us including Kevin will meet Susan to go house hunting.  Everything is coordinated perfectly and soon we are underway.

We are not sure where we want to locate.  We love the Beaches but there are not many listings.  Susan will also educate and show us a few other neighbourhoods such as Bloor West, Broadview and Danforth, High Park and Yonge and Eglinton area.

Walking the streets of Toronto 

Most of the houses we look at are quite large, but none meet our needs exactly.  They are very vertical houses.  Part of this trip is for Susan our real estate agent to also learn what we want as even we are not sure.  We do know we want a turn key house.  No major renovations for us.  We are pleasantly surprised as most of the houses are very nice.  We know we won’t get many parking spots or a very big yard.

Dawson, Kevin, Casey, Ross at Toronto FC game

By 4:00 we are back at the hotel quite tired out.  Ross joins us from the Greyhound by 5:00 and we are happy to be together.  It has been a year since we have all been in the same room together.  Kevin’s girlfriend Casey also joins us shortly and we head off for dinner and a Toronto Football club game.  It is a cool evening but we have lots of clothes so we bundle up.  We walk the distance over to the BMO field which is about 2 miles away, so that we can wear off the big dinner we just ate.

Toronto wins the game so we are satisfied with our entertainment.  We start the walk back to the hotel, stopping for a refreshment along the way.  All in all a great evening.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 318, Tuesday May 6th, Airplane day

Day 318, Tuesday May 6^th, Airplane day

As most people know Dawson has accepted his old position back at Torex Gold, so we are heading north for our house hunting trip as we will do a permanent move to Toronto.  Sadly we are leaving Sudbury.  Today we board a plane in New Bern, North Carolina for Toronto to seek our new home.  This will be an interesting challenge as house prices are 3 to 4 times the prices in Sudbury.  Our current home is not much more than a good deposit.

We are up at 5:45 a.m. in anticipation.  Our ride does not come until 10:30, so we are up earlier than needed.  Dawson heads out for a run and Julie tackles cleaning out the fridge contents and making the fridge spick and span.  This is always a bit of a challenge as reaching the bottom of the fridge requires a step so that she can reach the bottom as it is a top loading fridge.  Julie is almost halfway into the fridge head first.  At the same time, the spring loaded lid would like to try to capture Julie’s upper half within the fridge and will often close.  At the very least the fridge’s spring that holds the lid open likes to capture a handful of hair within its grasp, making cleaning the fridge a less than happy chore.  All goes well however and Julie reigns victorious over the fridge filth.

Waiting for pickup to airport

We head up to the showers, and then use the marina internet for a few minutes while waiting for our ride.  We think the boat is well prepared for our departure.

Georgie gives us a ride to the airport.  Georgie is the daughter of the marina owner.  She is lovely and we have a nice chat on our ride.  Soon we are at the airport in New Bern and boarding our flight to Charlotte where we transfer onto our next flight.  We have only 40 minutes between flights so don’t check any of our bags so we can move quickly through the Charlotte airport.  We get to the next gate however to find out our flight to Toronto has been cancelled so we go wait in line to find out which alternate flight we have been put on.  Fortunately we get an Air Canada direct flight.  Unfortunately it leaves 4 hours later than our original flight so we start killing time.

Beers and food help pass the first hour, blogging the second hour, shopping the third hour, and nothing to do the fourth hour.

Finally they call our flight and we board in anticipation of getting to Canada even if it is supposed to rain and be cold all week.  We cleared out all our warm clothing (which was minimal) when packing.   The biggest challenge is warm footwear.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson