From the Helm of Adamant 1- Blog 21 – Summer at Home
Loving life on the Beach
It has been a long, hot summer here on Georgian Bay and we miss Adamant 1 terribly. We did manage to sail with friends occasionally and we borrowed our daughter’s boat a couple times to get in some sailing time. We visited with distant relatives, spent a few days touring in Ottawa and visited our grandson at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He was there for six weeks in the Intermediate Sail program with the Sea Cadets. He got the Top Cadet award….way to go Carson!
One of the things I accomplished at home was sorting out pictures from this past winter and we have a lot! From catching our first mahi mahi to touring an abandoned resort, complete with beautiful bridges that lead to nowhere, every day was an adventure. Well, maybe not every day! We walked tons of beaches and found some unique caves that allowed for great photo ops. We found a hurricane shelter on Man-O-War that was built into the mangroves and appears to have been there for a very long time.
Atlantic Ocean from inside a cave
One of our “duties” was helping sailors get off the constantly shifting sandbars in our anchorage. No less than three catamarans found the shallows, but the crews just sit there and have a drink while they wait for high tide. Monohulls were not so lucky. One fellow set an anchor and headed into the bar in town to wait for high tide. Another 45’ sailboat wasn’t so lucky. He went on the wrong side of a marker, and despite our best efforts to heel him over so he could be towed off, he was firmly fixed. It was 10 pm and windy by the time he floated off and getting him on a mooring ball in the dark required the help of three dinghies. That one was a challenge. Twice we scraped bottom with Adamant coming into our mooring ball at low tide, but we never hung up. And….to my credit….I never missed picking up the mooring ball pennant. Pat had made me a pole with a “U” shaped hook on the end so the pennant could not slip off once captured. But I still take the credit!! He gets the credit for threading between the already moored boats and the big dock we were ten feet from. That being said, we have reserved the same ball for this winter because we like the location and the view.
Check this St Paddy’s!
Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.jpg
One special event we attended in Marsh Harbour was “The Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade”. It is a total of 500 steps. Yes, steps! About 80 sailors gathered in a parking lot in town. They were festooned with strings of green beads and given a beer. Once assembled, we headed off, following a car that had music blasting from speakers on the roof. At about the 200 step mark, we stopped and were given another beer. Two hundred steps later, we were given a Jello and vodka shooter. One hundred feet and across the road was the bar Snappas, where we were given a rum punch. This was all free and we entertained the locals and land-based tourists with the dancing and carrying on. All the participants were sailors which leads me to believe that sailors all seem to have a definite connection to free booze!
Grandsons soaking up the sun!
The highlight of last winter was having our daughter and her family down for eight days. It was a glorious week showing them around our winter home. Our plan this year is to leave on January 2nd and fly back to Adamant 1. We need a couple of days to paint the bottom with antifouling and do some stocking up. Then we will launch and leave. It takes five days to get to Lake Worth where we will wait for a window to cross to the Abacos. This winter we have two different couples coming down to visit so we are looking forward to that. Pat is looking forward to getting back to work on the William H. Albury, an old 63’ schooner that is being restored in our harbour. But more on that later.
William H. Albury under repair
Until next time……….
Longtime CY staffer Lynn Lortie and her husband Pat left Midland the summer of 2016 to make their way into the Great Loop and head out on a three year sailing odyssey. Follow their progress right here in CYOB.
