Day 17. Wednesday, July 9, 2025

We woke at 7am c it was 66° outside and 71° inside

Inside weather: temperature low 70.9°, high 76.1°, current 72.7 at 8:10 AM

Humidity low 72% high 91% current 79% another wet day

Weather app: 69°, dewpoint 64° humidity 84% wind SW4, sunset 8:56 PM partly cloudy today.

Both of us had showers today and we eat a breakfast at 10:30 of scrambled eggs with potatoes and onions and toast. I have a unique toaster on the boat that we’ve been using for a long time. It folds flat it has a screen on the bottom and it has a frame That you unfold and it’s probably about inch and a quarter between the bottom screen and where you place the bread. You place this over the flames on the stove. It does toast the bread but it tends to get a little on the scorch side. Phil doesn’t mind And so we just deal with what we have

Late morning about 11 to 1130 Phil and I left to ride bikes to Port Colburn promenade which is alongside well in Canal. The closest lock is lock number eight and to get lock number eight and the promenade we were riding along any shops and restaurants another what not along the canal. We met this man at one of the stops on sitting on the sidewalk by the door with this little Shih Tzu dog which looked a lot smaller and his hair was cropped more than my sister‘s dog Falcour. The gentleman on the sidewalk recommended continuing to go north on the walking path along the canal first crossing the bridge going up to the next bridge crossing back and continuing north till we got to a race area, which would be a good lookout for looking at the boat. By the time we got to a third bridge in order to cross the street, we had to go to the next intersection with a stoplight and right on that intersection was the bike shop called Pedal Bicycles.

Here are pictures of Lock 8.

Phil has been having trouble with his wheel intermittently rubbing on the brakes and I said let’s go inside there and see if somebody if he’s available to fix your bike so we did when you met AJ and he said yes he could fix his bike today but he would we would have to drop it off and we made arrangements for him to bring the bike to the marina about 615pm. The shop closed at 6 PM. We decided that Phil would ride the bike and I would walk so we walked to the bridge and we stood on the side north of the lock and in the distance a big ship was coming to go through the lock. It took a little bit of time 1520 minutes or so from the time we saw the ship in the distance to get close by. When it was about eight minutes away, the bridge went up and waited for the ship to go through and into the lock. We stayed until the bridge came down again, and then I started walking towards the walk and on the way home And Phil wrote the bike down so he could see the ship go into the lock. They must have some powerful pumps pumping in the water because it wasn’t too long that the ship was on its way. So I caught up to Phil walking and looked at the restaurants in the area because by this time we were getting hungry and it was I don’t know sometime after 1 o’clock . So we decided we were going to meet at the Steele and Clover Public House (an Irish Pub). I transferred the directions to Phil on his iPhone so he would ride ahead of me and meet me there and I would walk there. It felt like a long walk to me. I had used the outdoor walk app on my Apple Watch to track how much distance I was walking (1.98 miles to the Pub). I was getting close to the restaurant intersection and Uncle Dale called. I spoke to him after glancing at the map thinking that it was at the corner of the next street and had a few minutes to chat. It turns out that the corner I thought was at the next block was actually at the corner I was when I took his call. Then I walked past the Port Colburn high school building and I realized I had gone too far. We hung up, got my bearings and I walked back to the restaurant in the strip on the previous corner. By this time I was hot and sweaty, and my feet were hurting because I wasn’t wearing tennis shoes, but my new sandals. Hey, I didn’t think I would be walking this much. Phil had his own problems finding the Steele and Clover Public House, thinking that was in the strip of shops/restaurants by the canal, but he finally found his way and we met there. Eventually, I cooled off and we ordered a pastrami Reuben sandwich to split recommended by your waitress Olivia. He got onion rings and I got a salad and that was the right way to go.

250pm We got a call from AJ’s dad saying that he had voided the credit card transaction and needed the information over the phone. We had a stroke of luck!!! As we gave him the info, I mentioned where we were eating. The bike was fixed, he was going in that direction for his wife and he would be happy to drop off the fixed bike at the pub. I was so happy that I didn’t have to walk the mile or so back to the bike shop so that you know I could ride the bike back to the boat. The father arrived at 3:20 with the bike. We, we had finished eating and it was OK for us to hang out there until he arrived and the air conditioning in the pub did its job and we both were cool and comfortable. 

We rode our boat bikes to the marina about a mile away. I stayed at the marina inside to take advantage of the Wi-Fi and I did two blog posts in three hours. Then I started riding back to the boat and as I was doing that I met Craig Who’s on the big beautiful blue boat on the other side of the dark so we stopped to chat and we chatted for almost 30 minutes. Turns out he knits hats and scarves and donates them. So that started a discussion on knitting. He and his wife like going on cruise ships and have had spent 1000 days over time on cruise ships. They like Hollander America Cruise Ships and long passages. He takes shorter trips with their boat on Lake Erie. He recommended the Smokin’ Buddha for Indian food that you can request spicy hit levels from 1-5 and the Breakwall Brewing Company. On my back to the boat, a woman on a sailboat yelled to invite us to dinner at the red roof building. Craig explained it to me and after I talked to Phil, we decided to do that. Craig told me about the Hinckley sailboat that John Lennon had written out to the Bermuda, staring at much of the way as I guess the crew got seasick. Silver brought our bikes over to the marina boat yard to go take a look at the boat. It’s nice, Phil says it’s old, and it’s about 41 to 43 foot long currently named Jubilee, but was named Maryann, I believe, when John Lennon was on the boat. There is this beetle memory memorabilia band who owns the boat and is trying to get $250,000 for it when Craig bought his current boat Benneteau Oceanis 46. Obviously there’s a difference of opinion about the worth of the boat. Then, after seeing the boats on the hard, rode back to the building that the Port Colburn city is renovating for them as Sugarloaf marina is the city marina. We met many people had good food prepared by melody of barbecued pork sandwiches, coleslaw chips and cookies for dessert.

We had an enjoyable evening and then went back to the boat, but our adventures for the day weren’t finished. At 938pm, a Saber 50ft + Power boat arrived to dock on the other side of the dock. The husband did an excellent job at docking and his wife declined my assistance. Then the 52 foot Searay power boat arrived 15 to 20 minutes later and docked behind the Saber. It seemed they were buddy boating and had just come out of the Welland Canal starting at St Catherine’s on Lake Ontario that morning. After most people were settled, an 3rd even larger power boat arrived to dock behind our boat. They were having problems docking, and accepted my offer for assistance. I grabbed the stern line, and they were able to walk their boat back so the bow wasn’t sticking out. They also everybody boating with the other two boats and come through the Wellen canal, but his water pump for the engine broke which delayed them.