Author Archives: JH

I am writing this from the shores of Georgian Bay as the captain left on “our” trip almost a week ago with a different crew. Nick and Glen (see the photos) were up for an adventure and as I still had to work, it seemed like a good idea.

Glen - what more needs to be said?

The "heir" to the SplitCrow (and the marina fees!)

The Split Crow set sail last Sunday and anchored at Regatta Bay. They wanted to get an early start in the morning so that they could go to Wingfield Basin. They then went to Killarney for fish and chips, and then (because of my miscommunication), they retraced their steps to arrive at Club Island where they met up with Jim and Sharon. Conditions to Club Island were less than favourable – high winds and very cold temperatures. I watched them on the Spot since I felt very responsible for this mixup. They arrived safely though and hunkered down for the night although Dennis said that it was windy all night and Club Island is not the best refuge during high winds.

The next day, they sailed back to Wingfield Basin and Nick sailed the whole way and did a good job – according the captain.

Today, they dropped Nick off at Killbear Marina – he had go back to work and then Dennis and Glen moved on to Killbear Park where they met up with Sharon and Jim again. At 3:30 (that’s when I officially finished work), I drove to the park and saw both boats anchored. So, with Jodi in tow (the trusty beagle), we paced up and down the beach, waving, shouting, and trying to get their attention. I could see everyone lounging on the boat, could hear them laughing and generally having a great time, and could not believe that they could not see me. Everyone else saw me – I even had some helpers – whistling and waving, but no, the Split Crow crew did not see me. Finally, a guy in his dinghy came over and I asked him to go and knock on the boat for me. He did so and after a five minute conversation, I finally got a reaction. Dennis slowly rowed over – with the garbage! He staggered off the boat and looked exhausted! He even said he was exhausted (and for him to admit that, he must have been!). Then he showed me his hand! Pain!! His fingers were all rope burnt. I didn’t get a chance to ask any details but his hand looks terrible!

Anyway, they will be coming in to Parry Sound tomorrow and the crew will change. Obviously, somebody needs to take charge!

Speaking of taking charge, I think I may have finally, finally resolved the Nexus wind instrument problem – the fact that ours broke under warranty three years ago and now we have nothing. I emailed Nexus in Sweden and they have been most helpful speeding up this process. So, I am now having regular correspondence with them and also with Fogh Marine. I am hopeful that we will have a working wind instrument on the boat within the next two weeks. Stay tuned – this is probably not over yet!

We are anchored in Regatta Bay – it is a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. I have been on the lookout for the giant black bear that is supposed to be lurking in the bushes, according to the other boat that is anchored alongside of us! We haven’t seen it, but I’m glad I had my binoculars with me, as I spotted what I thought was a log floating by. It turned out to be the biggest snapping turtle I’ve ever seen. He just nonchalantly swam around the bay for a good twenty minutes. Of course my good camera is at home but I did take a photo with my phone and I will try to enlarge it when I get home.
In the meantime, Dennis bought a fishing boat seat for the captain – behind the wheel – and is in the process of installing it. It actually looks good and will be much more comfortable than hunched over the wheel.
We are just out overnight and have to go back home tomorrow.

The snapping turtle swam by the boat last night and managed to get some blue bottom paint on his back. I suggested to Dennis that he might want to give him a little scrub. He was also covered in algae (the turtle – not Dennis :)). He swam around for about twenty minutes and was very curious about us. I haven’t seen him this morning though. I was hoping to spot him on the rocks getting some sun but no such luck.

So, of course every year, we run into some bad luck and this year, Dennis discovered that the batteries aren’t working properly. He thinks that we need a new battery charger and is working on that now. He’s got the instruction manual out and was busy trying to call the dealer in California about this but it is Sunday and they aren’t open. I was surprised that he knew how to work my iphone. Hmm… so when his computer needs some repair, I might have to wait and see if he can do it himself first!

I have resurrected (that’s a good Sunday word!) the outback oven and it cooks beautifully! We bought this oven 14 years ago on our trip down to Mobile, Alabama and used it extensively for baking and for making pizza and bread. I have not mastered the real oven on the boat, so I might just turn that into some storage space and use the outback oven because it works so well! So far, I’ve made a chocolate cake and some cornbread. Both were perfect and delicious unlike my various disasters in the boat oven. Everything seems to cook unevenly – burnt in one area, undercooked in another, so I am very pleased with this.

We are anchored in Regatta Bay for a couple of more hours and then will head home. I am still on the lookout for the bear, but haven’t seen it yet!

Well, we finally got the Split Crow launched last week and on the weekend, we had our shakedown cruise. Saturday was beyond pathetic, as we only motored into Parry Sound. We had a few challenges though, one of them being the auto-pilot but after Dennis smashed a few things down in the engine room and made a bunch of noise, the auto-pilot learned the error of its ways and cooperated fully!

We stayed at Big Sound Marina for the night and docked successfully, even rather easily. Dennis backed in and I took a picture of this momentous occasion! Jim, of Somewhere, would have been proud because he backs in everywhere except Killarney!

Backing in at BIg Sound Marina

We headed uptown and went to the various banks and liquor store – Dennis was stocking up for Jim, who likes dark beer. We also found the bargain of the century and bought three rubber backed mats – they’re beautiful and perfect for the Split Crow – I am going to go back to the store tomorrow (by car – how mundane) and get a couple more for the aft cabin if I can find the right colour.

We went swimming and ordered a pizza for supper, and then took a walk to the town dock and got invited onto Still Watch – this is a 104 foot privately owned project boat. It was pretty cool and we enjoyed our tour. I guess our summer of boat touring has officially begun!

Touring Still Watch at the Parry Sound Town dock

We actually went into Parry Sound so that we could fill our water tanks with good water. While we did so, we also took advantage of having almost nobody in the marina as you can see by us “hogging” the dock with the dinghy!

Dinghy on the dock at Big Sound Marina

The next morning, we moved over to the Town Dock, partially to get away from the hungover boaters who were coughing and hacking (obviously shouldn’t smoke) but also to plug in the electrical. We had to do some cleanup and it is much easier to run the electricity than it is to run the generator, plus I needed some practice docking the boat (it went ok – nothing like Dennis’ spectacular docking the previous day though).

Split Crow at the Town Dock

We spent a couple of hours at the town dock and then headed over to Killbear for lunch. We actually sailed most of the way. You can see our track on this link.

In all, we had a lot of fun! The weather was good, the water was cold, but we had lots of laughs!