Saturday August 17, 2013 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

I woke up about 5:30 and could see the sky starting to lighten. The boat had been so still during the night that I had to remember we were on a boat. Again I took a couple of pictures of the early morning, always hoping to capture the perfect picture.

I went back to bed for awhile. A zillion little bugs, mosquitoes I think, surrounded the boat. I could hear them buzzing around trying to figure out how to get to the tasty crew inside. After a short time they were gone. Kerry got up early, about 6:15. I had her tea ready. She already had us mostly packed up but dealt with the final packing and cleaning details. In fact she had the boat so clean that Neil said the house cleaning girls would be really happy with this boat. She even mopped the decks on the trip back. Once it was filled with gas and the head pumped, it would be ready to go out again. Breakfast consisted of breakfast bars and milk.

We motored up the Canadian Middle Channel at about 4 knots. We had 6 miles to cover. I figured it would take us 1 ½ hours so we pulled anchor at 7:00. It was a most pleasant final voyage. We passed Gananoque whose marina was mostly full. We passed Lindsay Island and Beaurivage Island. We had thought about anchoring at one of these spots on our last night. I was so glad we did not. They were literally chock full of sailboats and even expanding outside the main anchorage into some of the entrance channels. It was so crowded. We both agreed that we dodged a bullet by bypassing them.

Don charts our course on the big chart

The Navionics Android App guides us to our destination

As we were ready to leave the main Bateau channel and pull into the little Chenal Channel where the marina was located, Kerry got sick. I decided to wait until her episode was over and just sat in the channel waiting. One of the marina hands went by and joked that I was waiting until 9:00 when the boat had to be returned, which was in about 10 minutes.

Kerry steering when she was feeling better

We were done and gone from the marina by 9:15 – a really quick check out and fueling process.  We were charged for 9 gallons of fuel, which means we used 19 gallons over the week. The boat has a two cycle 60 hp motor. We stopped at Canadian Tire and I returned the machete I bought as it turned out to be not needed for the houseboat. There was a big backup at US Customs so it took us almost ½ hour to clear. We zipped through once we got to the Customs booth. Note to self - there is a Nexus land on the left.


The trip home was very uneventful. It was a pretty day to drive. I asked Kerry if she would rather be taking 3 weeks to get home in Excalibur or 8 hours in the car. Surprisingly, she chose the car. We got home about 5:45 so the trip was just about 8 ½ hours again, the same as when we went. Our neighbors Mimi and Dave were having a big family reunion party. They had invited us to join them if we were home early enough, so we did. They have a very nice family, and it was a perfect way to end the week. Well, it continued to end well when Rosemary brought over my July Pie of the Month Sunday afternoon.

My July peach pie, a little late, but delicious!