Friday, June 30, 2023 Kincardine

We did have a little rain last night but no storms. It was partly sunny when I got us up at 6:30, much nicer than expected. I was surprised to see no activity on Voyager as I thought Marianna had wanted to leave early. They decided to sleep in. It was a nice morning for that. 

Voyager was ready to leave before Annie today. We helped them shove off. The trip to Kincardine was 39.7 miles. It took 4 hours and 45 minutes at an average speed of 8.1 knots. I motored at 1400 RPMs. Peter had Voyager really moving today so we never caught up with them. He does not like watching the instrument that shows the amount of fuel he is using - remember he is use to a gallon an hour sailboat. So, he is thinking about accepting my idea of putting a piece of tape over it - problem gone!

It was a delightful trip. Tiny little seas and very little wind. I got to sit outside in front of the pilot house today, the first time on this trip that the seas, weather, and the bugs cooperated to make it possible. I love to sit outside when conditions permit. It's a beautiful setting and fun to watch and listen to Annie slice through the water.  Long time blog readers know that I have this devise I wear on a lanyard, called "Crew Watcher" that sends an alarm to Kerry should I fall off while she is sleeping and misses the splash.

Speaking of bugs, my new bug zappers are really great. They have about 3000 volts, and when they hit a bug the huge crack it makes is really satisfying. Peter saw a flash when I hit a fly yesterday.

We paid for just two nights, but could stay longer. We like to keep our options open to travel if we get good weather. The trip to Tobermory across Lake Huron is about 70 miles, and one of the longest of the trip, so we like a real quiet day weather wise. 

Once we were settled in, we went up on Annie's top deck for a beer and Diet Pepsi. Kerry counted my beers and I have 32, one for lunch every day we are in Canada. Perfect. We have a great location for Canada Day fireworks watching with an unobstructed view down the channel where they shoot them off. We are right next to the lighthouse where the Piper plays too. So, we like where we are docked, but if big waves were rolling down the channel I doubt we would like it as much!

Peter called and suggested we ride to Home Hardware where we could get our fishing licenses. It's a little less than 3 miles from here, and mostly uphill as it turns out. We do this every trip, that is, we each spend $103 Canadian for a license. Then we realize how few fish we catch and how much fish we could buy with that money. But we do it for the sport and comradery, eh? We do actually. It's fun.

I stopped at the No Frills grocery on our return. I needed to get some whipped cream and butterscotch syrup for Peter's cappuccinos. He got spoiled with the fancy drinks at the Raven so Kerry and I realized that we need to step up our game!

We walked to town for dinner. We always like to go to the Hog's Breath Pub. But we did not think of making reservations on Canada Day Eve, and we were not able to get served. We found a very nice restaurant with outdoor patio seating under a big tree. called the Bar Down. We had excellent dinners there. The downtown streets are all torn up now so shoppers are restricted to narrow sidewalks and cannot walk back and forth the main drag.

After dinner we returned to Annie for after dinner drinks on our top deck and to watch the sunset. Kerry and Marianna enjoyed a Rum Chata and Fireball mixture, while I sipped Sambuca. The sun was an orange color as you can see under Annie's bimini. We wondered if the wildfire smoke in the air was influencing the color. 

Kerry felt a lot better today. Hopefully she will be full speed tomorrow. She plans to be active and hopes to bike ride. Since tomorrow is Canada Day there should be lots of activities taking place. Rain and storms have been around but have missed us. I hope our luck continues tomorrow. Peter and Marianna are going to breakfast early. We plan to get together for a chicken (from our freezers) dinner. I'll warm it in our air fryer. We'll watch fireworks from Annie. Tomorrow also is the day we plan to try the ice maker Jimbo gave us to see if it will be practical to use while we are at anchor.