It's January Already....man time flies!!!!

The Terry Fox Walkathon was a great event at Appleby. The students and teachers ran a half marathon. It was amazing to see the students coming across the finish line so early. I was a volunteer at the Finish Line. I had to dress up too. This is a pic of two of the Math teachers cheering on the finishers. All of the students had to run and some of the teachers did too. Some staff spouses pushed their babies ahead of them and roller bladed.

THE LAST BLAST is a the last weekend race at LSYC. Barb and Larry Large joined us on the race. Sometimes sailing races are not FAST. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great sail. It was soooo nice being in the water and not in dry dock. The motor was working great and very quiet when leaving the dock and coming back in. We had some difficulties with the transmission and ended up having to back into the Visitor's Dock. What a panic. Members at the club thought we were just practicing backing into the dock. NOT. It did work out OK and we didn't hit anyone and we did get docked. Persisit, persist, persist and eventually everything will work.

One the greatest things about sailing is the bow wake, the sound of the water rushing past the hull, the sound of wind in the sails and the movement...all those things are so difficult to capture in a still picture. This is the best I could do. Looking at these pictures really makes me miss sailing and summer. Did you go to the Boat Show? I love the Boat Show in January.

On the way back in from The Last Blast someone needed a tow. I was fun to help and be on the side of the rope that was doing the towing. Slow and easy is the rule. Here we are towing a fellow member in. Anthony has a good towing yoke already made up so that the tow is straight.
These beautiful lilies were in the LSYC gardens. The gardens at LSYC are looked after by volunteer members and the gardens were absolutely fabulous. I think they are the best gardens of all the Yacht Clubs that I saw in the summer. I love walking around and taking pics of the flowers.

I was retired for 2 months.....and then I got a teaching job.

The picture below is Abby. I babysat Abby every Wednesday evening in the summer, while her parents raced and worked. She's a real sweety. She could be one of mine, blonde hair, blue eyed. She lives aboard her boat "Child's Play" beside us at LSYC. And the boat on the right is Water Doctor. I hung over the back of the boat to take a picture of the name. Anthony was asked to bless the boat and bless the name change. Jim the captain of the boat is also a liveaboard with us at LSYC this winter. It's great having a little community of liveaboards this year.

On one of the weekends in the fall we headed to Mom's in Napanee. The above picture is of the old Post Office. Mom lives right beside it. It is a very historical and beautiful building. The colours this fall lasted a long time and were spectacular.

After the motor was finally installed we had time to sail for two weekends. We sailed around the Toronto Islands with Bohden and friends and out to the Highland Yacht Club at Scarboro Bluffs with Barb and Larry.



We sailed and sailed.

The winds were high and the temperature cool but we sailed and sailed.

At the end of August and right up until the first week of September we thought we were still going. One day Anthony said to try this on for 24 hours, "We aren't going until next June." So I tried it on for 3 hours and then called Mom, Sarah and Kate and told them we would be staying until next June. Soooo, I answered an ad for a Vision Teacher at Appleby College and....they hired me. I absolutely love teaching at Appleby College. I have an office and a chair and a computer and another Vision person to help me with the work that we get for the two students we have.



This is a picture of the Chapel at Appleby College. The pews inside are on the sides of the chapel and they face each other. I have never been in a church like that before. The stained glass windows are beautiful. The students have Chapel three times a week, during school.

It was an absolutely fabulous fall weather-wise. I rode my Honda Rebel 250 every day until the first week in November. Somedays is was cool/cold and I would wear this great cat face warmer. Appleby is just slightly west of Oakville.

August, what a busy time....and I'm still behind on the blog

It was a great summer but it went way too fast. I spent a lot of time visiting friends and family. This is Arie, Sarah's cat, relaxing in the bathroom sink. This is his favourite bed. What a crazy cat!!

I went out for supper with Joe and Michael at Kelsey's. It was great seeing them. I taught them six years ago at Bramalea Secondary. Joe is in fourth year at U of T and Michael is in 4th year at Guelph. Way to go guys!!!!

Isn't this guy a cutie. This is Avery, Dawn and Mike's son. We went for a walk with his cousin Evan and Aunt Erin. Dawn and Mike are friends of Sarah and Kate's.

This is cousin Evan. Sarah used to babysit Evan for a half year or so. He just turned two.

We visited with Richard and Mira for a BBQ and look how tall Paul has grown. He's 13 in October and already is six foot tall. We loved the back yard at Richard and Mira's place in Streetsville. They had a huge willow tree and trees with potential for having tree houses in all of them.

What a handsome young man. That's my grandson Paul, Richard's son.

This is Abby. On race nights, Wednesdays, I babysit Abby. She is a liveaboard at our club and both her parents race so I get to spend quality time with her. We have gone to outdoor music concerts with Liz and Bonnie, the water park, another play park and also have stayed at the club and played in the playground there. She's a cutie.

Since I retired in June, Kate has been using my car and I have been using my bicycle to get around as much as I can. My motorcycle was in the shop for most of July and August getting the exhaust fixed and a few other things.

Finally the boat went back in the water for the last time, we hope. We replaced the screws on the casing and are looking forward to many years of motoring and sailing with our new Yanmar motor.

We were still staying at Doris' while she was in Calgary ejudicating for piano and violin exams. My brother-in-law, Norm, had a 14 hour cancer operation and my sisters Joyce and Joan came to visit him in the hospital along with my nephew, Tom, and they all stayed at Doris' with us. We had a lot of fun. I took them down on the streetcar and then we took the subway back home. You should have seen Joan's eyes with the wooosh of the subway happened and then the train came. Norm is home now and doing, OK.

And this is Tom and Sarah, Joyce's boy and my girl, first cousins.

Later in August Michael came with his girls, Charlotte and Hazel.

With Michael and the girls in Toronto it was time to visit Richard and Paul. Paul and Hazel had a great time on the computer. Paul taught Hazel how to create her own characters to game with. They played for hours. It sure was fun to see.

We visited with Auntie Sarah while she was packing to move to her new one bedroom apartment in the same building. This is Sarah and Hazel.

We visited Uncle Richard in Streetsville. And there is more to come, I'm still behind but I have to go.

WELL, IT LOOKS LIKE WE AREN'T LEAVING UNTIL THE SPRING August 20, 2007

Continuing on from the blog before, we were still waiting for the engine to come in and Charles (E C Marine)the mechanic and Gunter (FastWater Yachts Inc.) the welder to come and do their magic. In the meantime we were still living at Doris', thanks to her generosity, while the boat is still on the hard at PCYC. I have been visiting friends, reading, painting, bicycling, babysitting, visiting family, motorcycling, practicing on the piano, playing guitar, and playing on the computer. I wanted to paint some small sailboats on two plastic wine glasses so I went to Sharon's to get help. She is a very good sketcher and water colour artist. This is a picture of one of her lillies in her garden. She also has a beautiful garden. She did the painting on the wooden chair.

This is the reflection of Sharon's ferns in her fish pond. You can see the orange streak indicating the gold fish in the water.

I went out for lunch with Joe and Michael. I taught Joe and Michael six years ago. I'm so proud of them being in fourth year at university. Each of them at a different university. Lining ourselves up to take a picture with me holding the camera was a hoot.

Sarah's cat Arie loves sleeping in her bathroom sink. He just fits. What a crazy cat!



Here comes the new Yanmar 75 motor. We hired a sign crane and raised it up from Charles' truck bed and set it down in the boat. This is Charles guiding the motor into the cock pit on the boat.

Here is Anthony in the engine room with the new motor. I took the picture from above looking down through the bottom of the cockpit. Yeahhhhhhh! the motor has arrived. Now we needed Gunter to come over to the boat to make the space in the engine room wider. The new motor is wider than the old one, shorter, lighter and thinner BUT wider so it wouldn't fit down on the motor mounts. Gunter (this is a picture of our handsome welder, Gunter) had to cut and grind the steel to make more space for the motor. This had to be done before Charles could come in and hook up the motor and the exhaust. Many thanks to Gunter for his work. He had a terrible summer cold and he still came out and worked on the boat until the motor fit into place on the motor mounts. Next it was Charles' turn to come out and hook the motor up but the exhaust system was back ordered so it took another week for it to come in and for Charles to start on the motor hook up. Thanks to Charles and his assistant David for their hard work. It was all hooked up in a couple days and by August 17th we were ready to launch after being in the boat yard for a month and two weeks. We were launched in the afternoon of a very, very windy day, 53km winds.

Here we go again being picked up by the land lift and carried to the water. It always amazes me how easily it can pick up 22 tons of steel and carry it to the water. What a machine!!

The staff at Port Credit Yacht Club, Peter and Assistants, were very kind to us and very efficient when they worked with the boat pulling it out of the water and putting it back in. Thanks to them too for a job well done.

Our friends from LSYC, Jay and Elaine had their new boat Red Lion launched at PCYC on the same day just before us.

Sooooo off we went motoring, heading for Lakeshore Yacht Club. The motor was running beautifully, so quiet. We had an wonderful motor trip down to LSYC. As we were coming in to dock a clatter started up from below. We quickly docked at the visitors dock and turned the motor off. It didn't sound like the motor, more like the cupling bearing. We don't know for sure. We have to tow the boat back to PCYC sometime this week and have it pulled out again ....... to check the bolts on the outside of the crankshaft casing, hopefully tighten them and then get put back in the water. In the meantime Anthony and I discussed the date and the fact that the boat still wasn't ready to go. We wanted to sail/motor leisurely down the St. Lawrence to the Maritimes and now.....it's the end of the summer and the boat is still not running properly. We don't want to rush down the St. Lawrence. That defeats the whole purpose of going. Soooooo we decided to stay in Toronto for the winter and head out for the Maritimes next May. I want to keep the blog going because I enjoy writing it. We really hope the rattling is minor and that we can sail down to Amherst Island for a couple weeks in the month of September. This is the first summer in 15 years that we haven't sailed our own boat in the summertime and we really missed it. We're hoping we get some sailing in before the season is over. I'll keep you up to date.

August 3, 2007 Blog

I biked to Port Dover for Friday the 13th (July). It was awesome. Soooo many bikes and sooo many people. I stayed at Sue and Mike’s overnight and headed back to TO the next day.


This is me on my Honda Rebel on
Friday the 13th,








We went to a Country Blues Jam near Napanee. My brother-in-law Dan played stand-up Base in a band and he invited Anthony to sing a couple songs. Mom, Joan (sister) and I sat in the audience and enjoyed the great music.


We went to Kensington Market and the walked up to Dundas for Dim Sum in China Town. It’s like traveling …. but staying in Toronto. We saw people from all over the world and never took a plane.

The Purple Russian Sage and the small waterfalls is at the Humber Arboretum. Toronto is so beautiful. We spent an afternoon walking through this park and woods in the north part of Etobicoke by Humber College.


It feels really strange not to be at Lakeshore Yacht Club. This is the dock where our boat would usually be if it wasn’t in dry dock at Port Credit Yacht Club. Doris has been very, very kind to let us stay at her place while the boat has been on the hard. We’ll never be able to thank her enough.



This is Murray. He is Doris’ cat. The one-eyed Pirate Cat. Thank you Doris for inviting us into your home.

August 2, 2007 Blog

July 28, 2007
We’re Still In Toronto

NO MOTOR IN THE HOLE

*******Abrakadabra *****

A BRAND NEW YANMAR MOTOR IN THE HOLE

With much much thought, consternation, researching, asking people opinions, turmoil, worry, mind changing, phone calls, web surfing, motor looking, and then more thought, consternation, researching, etc. we are now the proud owners of a Brand New Yanmar Diesel Motor. Now the job is to get it to fit in the place where the old motor was when it is bigger than the old one. Anthony, Charles (mechanic) and Evan (mechanic’s helper) have been grinding the inside of the motor room to make more room for the new motor, also the propeller shaft has to be moved up and the shaft hole has to made higher on the hull.

This is Charles from EC Marine guiding our new motor into the cockpit of our boat.





The boat has been taking up a lot of our mind space but we have kept busy with other activities. On Friday nights at the Club (LSYC) we have been playing guitar and singing with other members and friends.

This is Boden playing his mandolin, and Anthony playing guitar and singing. It has been great fun jamming on Friday nights at the boat club (LSYC). Last night we had 10 people singing with us. It was Caribbean Night at the club, Larry and Barb Large made a fabulous meal for 66 people, jerk chicken, pork, ox tail, rice, bread, punch, rum cake, fruit salad.

We visited a friend’s cottage near Dorset on Otter Lake or Toch Lake, just 3 miles outside of Dorset.