Port Dalhousie June 28, 2015

I popped out of bed hoping to see a better weather day ahead. Instead I saw the same gray skies, the flags standing at attention and a fine mist hitting the windows. The mist now has been replaced by a hard, steady rain. What a miserable weather pattern. Certainly not what I had in mind when I planned this trip. We are supposed to get a brief bit of sunny weather tomorrow afternoon. The winds are forecast to be moderate so we should be able to make a break from here. We really hope we can go out today, as it would be a shame to not even get to town while we have been here 3 nights.

Liberty and Annie at Port Dalhousie

Jim and I decided to take turns making reservations so we split the Canadian minutes used on our plans. He will call Bronte and I will call Port Credit. We are both excited about visiting the huge marine store at Port Credit. I want to get a dingy patch kit to put over my bicycle patches, which so far are holding. But if the kit is expensive I will have to think about just replacing the bumper instead.

It's a bit later in the afternoon now. The rain has stopped, finally. We are so fortunate we moved our trip down the Welland to Friday. I really don't think we would have made it Saturday. With the rain and cold and and the 10 hour day we would have been so fatigued. Hypothermia could have been an issue, not to mention the wet decks being dangerous. We made a good decision!

The wind is really strong. Jim was sitting on Annie and saw how much pressure his Canadian courtesy flag was putting on his wifi antenna, so he climbed up on the cabin top in the rain to remove it. Photo Op!

We did get a nice walk downtown. Kerry found a tea shop that was going out of business. They had a few tea pots left but nothing she liked. She did buy napkins for .20 and some fancy napkin rings. She justifies her purchases with the thought that everything is 20% off!  Have I created a monster?

There was a cute little tug in the harbor parking lot. We didn't tell Annie because the tug was made of steel, and you know how they can rust . . .

We met a fellow walking his dog who commented on my Ohio State coat. He had watched the playoffs and remarked about the amazing Cardale Jones story. We taught him the OH-IO cheer.

We were not able to get confirmed dockage at Bronte, so we made change #45 to our schedule and will stay in Port Credit for the next two nights. That's a great place so spending two nights there will be no problem. This marina, however, has seen better days. The main dock is closed, a victim of ice damage it appears. The office is not open today, the wifi is suspect, and maintenance appears to be lacking. The bathrooms and showers are neat and clean though, so it could be worse.

The marina is home to a pair of swans who came by to beg food. They were very successful.

Jola invited us over to share their last bottle of Liberty wine. Debbie, their daughter had given them a case of wine that had their boat transom logo "Liberty" as the label. She had some nice appetizers for us. Later they came to Annie and we had pasta and Waldorf salad, with jug wine, of course! We watched a bit of television that proved the New Caldonia Crow is smarter than a French Poodle dog. I was cheering for the dog, the the bird really kicked butt.