Chapter 71: Port Severn

Log 71
Port Severn

6:00 AM
Saturday, July 29, 2000
Driftwood Cove Marina
Port Severn, Ontario

Day 90

If you look at a map of the US, (or if you’re watching the weather channel) and you look at the body of water in the chain of Great Lakes that is the farthest to the north, and east, (above the NE corner of Lake Huron) that is the Georgian Bay, and if you look at the far east tip of that Bay, that’s where we are. (It looks kind of like the spike at the far east side) That is the point where the Trent-Severn meets the Georgian Bay. (At Port Severn) If you look a little closer and head west on the Bay you will see a point where the land comes so close it almost touches. That point is called Killarney, and that’s where we hope to be tonight.

Well the chapter of our repairs is over. The boat runs great again, but it was definately an interesting, and very expensive experience. Expense wise we had to pay for the lifting and replacing the prop. (8.90 Canadian $ per foot to lift it, and 8.90 per foot to put it back in the water) Having the Detroit guy come out to tell us that the shutdown had tripped. (Not covered by warranty) And then the cost to fix the prop. (I think I could have bought a new one in the US for less) But Deb says, “we’ll worry about that stuff when the trip is over”, and Terry says, “Hey you had to figure something like that would happen on a trip like this, and it did”. Jeanie…she just smiles and says. “That’s a lot of money isn’t it?” All that said the people at the marina were absolutely fantastic. If we ever could have chosen a place to break down, that would be the place. We will talk about them for some time to come.

Getting here yesterday was a real neat trip. We knew that we had to wait for our prop to be delivered before we could leave (they promised us it would be there by noon) so in the morning Terry and I went fishing again for an hour or so. No luck. I never even got a hit, and I think Terry only had one. (And I question whether that was a hit, or he got caught in the weeds for a second…Donnie, and Les…you know what I mean don’t you?) After fishing we spent some time cleaning the boat. Jeanie and Deb cleaned and vacuumed the inside while Terry and I handled the outside. It still doesn’t look as good as Steve Larry and Darrell kept it, but we’re getting there. (Terry is a huge help around the boat, but his real strength is reading the charts) While we waited, we also topped off the water and fuel, and got a pump out. By noon we were on our way.

I have definitely got a different appreciation for the Trent-Severn the last couple of days. If you ever want to visit this area by boat, or land I recommend the most western part. The waters we were in yesterday we just awesome. I told Deb that, as many pictures as she was taking people still wouldn’t have the feeling of the beauty. It is a very neat boating experience. Why? If you have ever seen “On Golden Pond” you have a sense of it, but the real neat part, from a boating standpoint, is winding your way around these islands, and narrow channels (some are only a little wider than our boat, with huge rocks on both sides of the channel) that connect these small lakes. There are hundreds of very small islands, most of them with a house on them, and you know that people come here to spend their summers. On one hand it is very isolated, on the other you can get to anywhere on your boat (there are lots of classic wooden ones sitting in the boat houses) in just a few minutes. We saw a teenage girl go by us with a couple of smaller kids in a 15 foot aluminum boat with a 15 hp motor on it, and Jeanie said, “it’s probably a babysitter taking the kids back home”. This is a really neat place.

Before I close this I need to answer a couple of e-mails;
· Allan..Happy Birthday a few days ago. I remembered it, but I forgot to say anything.
· Mando..thanks for the note a few days ago. Yes we are looking forward to get back too, and enjoying a day at Blue Lagoon.
· Randy, and Dennis. I’m not sure why you didn’t get log #66, but it is strange that when this happens it always happens to the two of you. (Or maybe you are always the only ones who say anything) Whatever..I hope you got it when I resent it.
· Skip..Thanks for the notes. I’m glad to see you’re doing well. Yes Freidhelm is an interesting guy. You’ll come to like him.
· Barb..Thanks for the message, I’ll do my best to describe the areas as we go. By the way Deb wants to know who was voted off the island last Wednesday. (Hey she can’t lose touch with the real world)
· Hokie…How was the reunion on Saturday? Deb is wondering how I planned a week to be gone so we had to miss that.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK