Saturday, July 1, 2003 Kincardine - Happy Canada Day!

I was up early today. The fishing charter boat near us loaded up and departed at 6:00 AM which left me wide awake. Shortly after that I walked to the shower. Back on Annie, I made coffee and posted today's blog. I watched a thick fog roll in about 8:30. Fog is frequent in this harbor. I'm listening to the wail of the fog horn now, a sound I like. Remember the Piper's Story:

When I make an international charge, Visa sends a security alert to me to tell me that an international charge was made and how much it was. I was pleased to see that the exchange rate provides a 24% discount, so our $31.12 dinner only cost $23.57 American. That will make buying diesel a lot nicer!

I took a little walk at 10:00 and nothing at all was happening. In the past, before the street was torn up, there was a nice little parade. There was a fun Canada Day celebration at the local park at 2;00. The mayor was there, along with the the Kincardine Scotties, the Pipers, and Blinkie, the lighthouse. We were fortunate to get a moment with Blinkie. Google's Magic Eraser makes it look like we had the park to ourselves. The Pipers did not march today, but here is a link to a performance that I videoed previously. The Kincardine Pipers I also included a photo of me in my Canada Day finest!

There was a dedication of a new plaque for the lighthouse. The speeches before the unveiling outlasted our will to be there when it was finally unveiled. But Kerry did take this neat picture of the lighthouse through  our porthole screen. 

Peter and I rode to the Canadian Tire store, one of my favorite stores, and to the nice grocery, Sobeys. We continue to be able to find things to enhance the cruising comfort of our yachts - all for the mates of course!

Our experiment with the ice maker proved to be a huge success. Thanks Jimbo! The first batch was ready in 7 minutes, and it kept coming quickly. I am ready for my second drink in 7 minutes, so the timing is perfect. We put the ice in a ziplock in the freezer. At first we were afraid it would melt quickly in our drinks, but it did not. We'll have to carry some additional drinking water to make the ice when we plan to use it. After several hours we ended up with a whole ziplock bag full of ice. It only seems to draw about 8 amps of power. 

Dinner was on Voyager. It was bring your own dinner and drinks. Guess what Peter and I brought? Chicken! I cooked mine in our air fryer along with some big french fries. Kerry took bean salad and had a piece of my chicken. Marianna had a salad. We agreed we would leave tomorrow at 6:00 AM. Marianna will get up at 3:00 to review the new forecast to be sure there are no significant changes. 

We came back to Annie to get ready to sail. What a job! Bikes to put away. Ice maker and air fryer to stow. Water tanks to fill. Drinking water containers to fill. Plants and accessories to stow. Dishes to wash. We worked like crazy for over an hour. 

Fireworks were at dusk tonight. The Orros came to Annie to watch because of our prime location. It was hard to stay up that late, but well worth it. We agreed that these were the best fireworks we had ever seen. There were many new and unusual ones. Some really dramatic. I really can't describe them. At one point they were shooting them off in the channel, and on both sides of the channel from the beach. I took a couple of photos, but I could not truly capture the experience.