Company

We finished the last of our big chores which were the teak toe rails.  We stripped and sanded the old varnish and re-coated with Penofin (just like the swim platform mentioned in one of my previous blogs).

My brother Yves and his wife Christel came for a visit and stayed with us over the weekend.  We hiked the Bruce trail, in particular, the Dunks Bay trail.  This trail is medium difficulty and we managed to do a whole 6.7K.  Part of the trail was flooded so it was quite challenging and we needed to find our own way several times. Thankfully the trail is well marked and we were able to find the blue blaze marks easily. It was a perfect day, not too hot or cold.  We also climbed the Lookout Tower and saw how beautiful Bruce County is.  On our guests last full day, we walked to Big Tub and visited the Lighthouse.

This week my parents will be visiting and we hope they will enjoy their stay on the sailboat as this will be their first time staying overnight.

We continue to really appreciate the community of Tobermory and will miss the many friends we have made when we will set sail for Covered Portage at the end of the week.  Our next blogs will be intermittent as we will have little access to the internet.

Stay toon...

We got boarded

Tobermory is getting warmer and the crowds are getting bigger.  We have noticed a huge increase in traffic around our boat. Typically, these crowds are from larger cities and come in by school buses or caravans.  The waterfall next to our boat draws a lot of attention and people are taking many selfies.  

People have tried ordering "double-double" coffees once they have noticed our boat name...Timmies-run.

People love taking photos of our boat and I believe I have been photobombing in them wearing my pyjamas.  One evening, Brian and I was watching a movie and I felt the boat move and thought to myself since it was a calm evening, came to the conclusion, that someone had boarded our boat.  I came out to the cockpit to find a young female adult mid-ship posing on the cabin top.  She was surprised that someone was on the boat and was immediately embarrassed and apologized profusely.  I told her that she should always ask permission before boarding someone's boat.

Our friends Hugh and Marian invited us for lunch and had a wonderful meal and a game of "KanJam".  The game is basically tossing a frisbee and scoring points similar to horseshoes.

Brian thinks I was pretty intense

Marian and I won!

Brian and I joined the community and participated in the "I Scrubbed the Tub" to clean up garbage that the tourists leave behind.  We were teamed up with Neda who owns a local bed and breakfast.  She was very nice and knowledgeable.  After the clean up they had a pizza party at the legion.  There we also met Bonkey and Geoff who are locals and also the ambassadors for the local yacht club.  They invited us for dinner this week and had a lovely vegan meal.  Geoff is also building a wooden trimaran.  

Neda

The rain does not prevent us from taking our walks and here's proof.

The ducks are friendly here in Tobermory.  With there exposer to all the tourists, they have become fairly bold.  This duck came up to me looking for hand outs and followed us up and down the dock.

We had a ripped screen in one of our enclosure doors, so Brian took out the Baracuda sewing machine and repaired it.  I didn't know my man was domesticated.  He is a keeper!

Brian has been helping a fellow boater who recently purchased a Bayfield 32.  He launched the boat and because of work commitments had to leave immediately afterwards.  So Brian offered to rig the boat and get it ready for them to take it to their home port.  

Chores and Chi-Cheemaun Festival

Tobermory is getting warmer and the crowds are getting bigger.  We have noticed a huge increase in traffic around our boat. Typically, these crowds are from larger cities and come in by school buses or caravans.  The waterfall next to our boat draws a lot of attention and people are taking many selfies.  

People have tried ordering "double-double" coffees once they have noticed our boat name...Timmies-run.

People love taking photos of our boat and I believe I have been photobombing in them wearing my pyjamas.  One evening, Brian and I was watching a movie and I felt the boat move and thought to myself since it was a calm evening, came to the conclusion, that someone had boarded our boat.  I came out to the cockpit to find a young female adult mid-ship posing on the cabin top.  She was surprised that someone was on the boat and was immediately embarrassed and apologized profusely.  I told her that she should always ask permission before boarding someone's boat.

Our friends Hugh and Marian invited us for lunch and had a wonderful meal and a game of "KanJam".  The game is basically tossing a frisbee and scoring points similar to horseshoes.

Brian thinks I was pretty intense

Marian and I won!

Brian and I joined the community and participated in the "I Scrubbed the Tub" to clean up garbage that the tourists leave behind.  We were teamed up with Neda who owns a local bed and breakfast.  She was very nice and knowledgeable.  After the clean up they had a pizza party at the legion.  There we also met Bonkey and Geoff who are locals and also the ambassadors for the local yacht club.  They invited us for dinner this week and had a lovely vegan meal.  Geoff is also building a wooden trimaran.  

Neda

The rain does not prevent us from taking our walks and here's proof.

The ducks are friendly here in Tobermory.  With there exposer to all the tourists, they have become fairly bold.  This duck came up to me looking for handouts and followed us up and down the dock.

We had a ripped screen in one of our enclosure doors, so Brian took out the Baracuda sewing machine and repaired it.  I didn't know my man was domesticated.  He is a keeper!

Brian has been helping a fellow boater who recently purchased a Bayfield 32.  He launched the boat and because of work commitments had to leave immediately afterwards.  So Brian offered to rig the boat and get it ready for them to take it to their home port.  

We have adopted a new pet

We have adopted a new pet.  His name is Gus Gus.  He greats us every morning and says goodnight most nights.  Gus Gus is a muskrat. The muskrat is the largest species in the subfamily Arvicolinae, which includes 142 other species of rodents, mostly voles and lemmings. Muskrats are referred to as "rats" in a general sense because they are medium-sized rodents with an adaptable lifestyle and an omnivorous diet.

Q: Why don’t muskrats wear perfume or cologne?

A: It would hinder their natural musk.

We have made new friends since our arrival. We first met Kevin and Lynn.  They own Craigie’s Harbourview Restaurant.  They work all summer long and winter in the Grenadines.  They have insisted that we look them up once we are there to hang out.  We have also met Hugh.  He has a Jeanneau 36.7 (I think) that is docked behind us.  Hugh and his wife just purchased this boat.  Hugh was not sure on how to rig the boat, so Brian helped him out.  Hugh has also offered us rides in town if needed.  It is so nice to meet new people this quick.  Got to love the boating community.

The Tobermory Chamber of Commerce is reviving it’s “I Scrubbed the Tub” on June 11th at the Tobermory Legion.  The town gets together to clean up the community.  Volunteers are welcome,  so Brian and I signed up.  Stay tuned for the turnout.

We splurged and went out of Fish and Chips restaurant for dinner and had the best Cesar salads and calamari strips.  We also shared a pitcher of beer.

Saturdays are the Legion nights.  They had a DJ and reasonably priced cold beer.  We met bartender Kandice….she was nice and happy to see us.  We had a beer each and watch the hockey game.  We left at 10:30pm and tried watching Sahara for the 2nd time.  We didn’t make it to the end again.  Perhaps tonight we will.

Sorry, we will not have any drone shots or videos as Tobermory is a no-drone zone.

It is possible to grow a garden on a boat.  YouTube and Pinterest have many ideas on how to, but I simply planted herbs in medium-sized plastic buckets.  My friend Maryse gave me some mint and cilantro from her garden and I have planted basil, tarragon, green onions, and different types of lettuces.

Nights are still very cold and we are thankful for a heated boat.  It has been mostly sunny during the day, but still cold.  We are looking forward to hiking the Bruce trails once it gets a bit warmer.  We continue doing boat improvements and have installed strip lights, fan and Siri's satellite.  Brian also got the Wifi booster working and we now have active boat network and strong internet.