Summerland Island July 27, 2015

Today has been a great day. One of our favorites, and we really did not do anything special. Sometimes things just fall into place.

Kerry was up early today so we got to have our coffee and tea together. She made a nice little breakfast for us, which we enjoyed anchored on our top deck. The first time we ever saw a Nordic Tug we sat on the top deck and imagined having food/drinks while anchored near a beautiful island. And here we are, living the dream. I got up early and snapped a picture of the sunrise.

We pulled up anchor at 9:30 and headed for Alexandria Bay. There were only a few weeds on it which is a great start to the day. Kerry as always gets any weeds and mud off Annie. Here she is using the wash down pump to clean the decks.

The trip to Alexandria was very pleasant. We love our boat. It is so comfortable and well built. It has all the options we could ever want. I love piloting it through the islands. Many of you may have seen my auto pilot remote control. It worked great today. Its just a stick with a rubber end, but it does a great job. It also works the radio too, and takes no batteries!

If you look closely, you can see my bottle of Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure close at hand!

We got to Alex Bay at 10:45. We were not sure if we would stay the night. We learned we could stay for 4 hours for free, or spend $1.50 per foot for overnight. Since there is no power or water here we decided there would be no reason to pay to stay and we would anchor for the evening. There is one long boardwalk there. We tied up together. Its a real social place and we met lots of nice people, including some Buckeye fans. My Canadian courtesy flag is down and the OSU flag is up! While we were tidying up one guy came by and said we were real boaters - if we weren't running we were cleaning. 

The first order of business was to fold up the Debbie K. Then it was time for lunch. After that, we got out the bikes and visited the grocery and liquor store. We refreshed our supply of beer and Meyers Dark Rum. This is the first time we have had to buy booze. We did a great job of forecasting our needs, and did not have to purchase any alcohol in Canada, where it is really expensive - free health care, eh? We need another bottle or two of jug wine, but did not like the brands they carried. We are spoiled now, and miss the discount we got on our Canadian purchases!

After we walked to town looking for a bargain t-shirt we had 15 minutes left of our free 4 hours. We used it for a quick beer on Annie's upper deck. Since we had no dingy now, we would not be able to get together once we were anchored. 

We left Alexandria at 3:00 and headed to Summerland Islands. This is where we thought of staying last night, and it was recommended to us by a lady at the marine store. I had actually motored by there this morning on the way to Alexandria. 

Its beautiful here. Since it was very warm today, I decided to go for a swim, which turned into me washing the waterline of Annie. Kerry held a line  that I held on to and walked me around the boat while I washed. After that we both took showers off the back of the boat in the warm sun, which was fun. Being in a cleaning mood, I scrubbed my new big white fender and the felt fender covers for Annie's regular fenders. Then it was time for rum and tonics on the upper deck, followed by some reading. A cigar after dinner finished off the day.

Jim and I laughed about this, but both of us always stay in the marked channels, even when it is obvious we do not need to do so. Perhaps it is because we both owned deep draft sailboats in the past. In the picture below, you can see by the black course line that Annie is headed between the green and white buoys on the left of the screen, even though it would be shorter and safe to go to the right of the red buoys and straight down the channel. 

Today I noticed that my horns have stopped honking. At first the breaker would blow when I pushed the horn button. Now I just get a small peep when I let up on the horn button, but the breaker does not pop. I hope to open the horns up tomorrow and see if there are any "user serviceable parts."