Oh, Canada

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This is a first for the blog. Up until this point, I have held onto my written kingdom with an iron fist, refusing to give up my posting throne or editing crown. That is about to change. (No, we did not take the boat to Winterfell. Calm down.)

Because I did the responsible grown-up thing and got a day job, Justin has done a lot of the work needed to get Dumbledore ready to go without me. And so, for the first time in this blog’s history, I hand the wheel over to him. Take it away, Justin. (And make sure you use your commas correctly.)

</DISCLAIMER>

This post will be a very special treat since it’s me, Justin, writing, not Casey. So I guess I should prepare you guys for my writing style (it’s a little bit different than Casey’s)

Casey might say something like this:

“It was a crisp autumn day as we cut through the water on our way across Albemarle Sound. We left Elizabeth City before sunrise and caught a fantastic wind to sail us through the outer banks. If all goes well we’ll reach Belhaven before dark to find some fresh fried shrimp.”

And then there’s me:

“We drove a boat from one town to another. The names of the towns are unimportant.”

I know, mine’s just so much more efficient! Why waste time say lot words when few do trick?

So, a station wagon, a trailer, two boats, and a pressure washer show up at the Canadian border. Nope, it’s not a joke; it’s really the beginning of our story. A few weeks have passed since Dumbledore officially became ours, and it’s time to get ready for the journey home to Buffalo. The real trip starts in a few more weeks when Casey can afford the time off to be a boat bum again, but first our new ride needs a little work. After all, we can live at sea for weeks at a time living on nothing but corn flakes, but we do have some standards. For one, I refuse to go without a hot shower, and that’s something the boat wasn’t quite capable of at first..  

So, back to the Canadian border. I left Buffalo a little later in the day than I had hoped after loading up the car and trailer with everything we’d need aboard for our trip and everything I’d need to get the boat ready to go. As I rolled into the border checkpoint pretty close to midnight with quite the load of stuff, the Canadian border agent took it all in and summed it up quite nicely with his greeting:

“So, what’s goin’ on?”

I did my best to help him understand my plans for the weeks to come.. With a long list of car trips back and forth, an explanation of what a canal was,  several reasons why on earth you would want to sleep on a boat, and a whole lot of pointing in the general directions of Quebec City and Buffalo (I hope), I managed to get him to grasp the situation. I think. Either that or he was just tired of listening when he said “Go ahead” and waved me into the great white North. Of course, that meant I still had six hours of driving to get to the boat. Well, this got boring fast….

Let’s skip ahead to the part with the boat. That’s what everybody’s here for, right?

SHHHH! He's sleeping.

The largest Christmas present ever known: now for the unwrapping! You all know that Casey and I had seen the boat already at this point, but there’s a big difference once you can stand up all the way without the shrinkwrap overhead. After a few minutes spent exploring the spots aboard we hadn’t been able to access while the boat was stored, I started in on the real reason I had come. To get Dumbledore ready for sea, there were three projects: fix the shower, set up the dinghy on the dinghy davits, and CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.

Ta-da!

Why would we buy a boat without a working shower? We want to live on a boat; how smart do you really think we are? The previous owner of this boat, François, had taken on the project of replumbing the water system on board (you don’t even want to know what the inside of 40 year old boat’s plumbing looks like) He did a great job, but unfortunately never finished bringing the new water lines all the way to the shower in the main cabin. I think for François and his wife, the shower was a low priority since they didn’t spend long periods of time on board.

Somthing's missing...

Luckily, François had chosen a simple system of plastic tubing to replumb the boat and even left behind his supply of pipe, fittings, and tools. Before long, I had the bathroom back together and went to bed dreaming of a long hot shower the next morning. Just need to turn on the water heater…..

Quick safety tip: that switch does not turn the fridge on, it lowers the anchor. Make a note of that.

I’ve heard that being thrown into it is the best way to learn a foreign language, and that may be so, but I think the knowledge of French I gain here might turn out a little too boat specific. Do you know the French word for anchor windlass? Because I do now.

Next up, the dinghy. (Yes, I know, I said a shower was next but you don’t get pictures of that. It’s not that kind of blog.) When Casey and I sat down to make our wish list for boat #2, a better way to manage the dinghy was near the top of the list. Our sailboat wasn’t able to store the dinghy put together, which left us either towing it behind or pulling the motor off to store the dinghy on deck. 

Don't be fooled. That outboard is planning to jump for it.

I’ve got a riddle for you; What weighs about 80 pounds, has no good place to use as a handle, and if dropped in the water will be an absolute disaster? If you guessed an outboard motor, congratulations! If you guessed a beach ball full of antacid tablets, we should talk; you sound like you’d be fun at a party. Lugging that motor out of the dinghy, up a ladder, and over the stern railing to its stand on deck still gives me nightmares. Every time I was 100% sure it was going to drop to the bottom of the sea and take me with it.

So, what’s a davit? It’s a fancy boat word for a crane off the back of your boat to hold the dinghy. Why the fancy word? Who knows. All that really matters is that Dumbledore has a pair! All I had to do was inflate the dinghy, put the motor on one last time, and rig it up to the davits, and up up up and away it goes.

A perfect fit.

It was about this time that I saw something a little...odd pass by the boat. A train of about half a dozen small sailing dinghies passed by, each crewed by a pair of six year olds. At the front of the train, like a mother goose, was a slightly larger boat with a few instructors towing the gaggle. Turns out the Quebec Yacht Club gets kids hooked on sailing as early as possible. According to the marina manager, most of the kids don’t even really know how to swim yet. They tow them out to a quiet spot in the river, cut them loose, and let them figure out the basics of sailing. All I can say is I do not want to be in charge of gathering the fleet back up afterward!

They go where they're told towed. 

All that’s left to get the boat ready for the trip is a little cleaning. And by a little cleaning I mean washing away the years of dirt and grime that form on a boat left in storage for years on end. This was exactly why I brought the pressure washer along.

Almost time to set…engine...for Buffalo. Now I just need a crew.