Summer and Fall Happenings

Summer Happenings for the Sailors

We often say to full time cruisers that we quite enjoy our other life....the six months that we spend home in Ontario. We live in a condominium in Bayfield, Ontario and cottage 10 kms (6 miles) north of there. We spend very little time at our condo even though we are close to a beach but instead are happiest living in a rustic cabin right on the beach. I leave the luxury of a big bathtub and come to the beach to shower under a tree. You would think I would have had enough solar bag showers living on Celebrian!?
This summer Rob is getting close to putting siding on our shed building while we wait for the excitement of putting concrete piers under the main cottage. Our other big news is the installation of an incline railway trolley. We used to think it was something we wouldn't need until we were unable to climb the hill (approx. 100 cedar stairs) but the fact is that we need it now as a freight car as we work away at renovating and maintaining these old cottage buildings. My family began camping here over 100 years ago and then in the 1920s and 30s began to build little cabins....we are still in those cabins even though they have had replacement windows, doors, siding, steel roofs etc. My 88 year old mother spent 3 weeks here this summer and climbed the 100 steps when she left to return to her nursing home....clearly it doesn't make sense to wait until you can't climb to install a lift.
Highlights of the summer so far have been ....

...our annual beach bash. This year's theme was Caliente Caliente Caliente (Hot Hot Hot) and even though we didn't have the best of weather days everyone had a good time.
...Rob's hard work on the shed ...fixing all of the windows and painting and installing them ...installing new siding...a re-birth for this old building
...mom's visit at the ripe age of 88 for three weeks in July
...great summer theatre in Grand Bend..Camelot, Evita, Oliver and more
...installation of our trolley which has been kept busy steadily hauling bricks and mortar up hill and tools and supplies down
...a few good windsurfing and dinghy sailing days
...lots of planning work for renovations...windows, doors, and design options
...mid September raising of the main cottage...up 4 feet while we put 17 bigfoot cement piers under it
...new Jotul free standing gas stove to be instauled on Oct. 6th....looks just like a wood stove
...installation of a propane tank at the top of the hill with a line feeding the cottage for the new Jotul and my mother's vintage Moffat stove
...home inspection audit for energy grants
...hydro lift of our two hydro poles...
...new septic system and the list goes on
...work, work and more work

We keep ourselves busy but we enjoy what we do.

The Anniversary Cake

Debbie, Rob's nephew Scott's significant other and the maker of our incredible wedding day cakes had told us that we could freeze the cake and it would be good for a year or so. We had enough cake left over to save for our first and second anniversaries. We are here to tell you that it was just as good as the day we got married....just like us!?!

Second Wedding Anniversary

The honeymoon continues....2 years married and we are still smiling. We celebrated our 2nd anniversary by going out for lunch in Bayfied in our wedding finery. This year we chose Ristorante de Martha and had a very nice lunch on the patio. The weather was spectacular much like our day 2 years ago. After walking back to the condo, having attracted a salute from a motorcyclist, horn toots and smiles from various cars, and a round of applause from the hydro crew working on the bridge, we changed into our beach clothes and returned to the cottage to continue our celebration with a bottle of champagne and wedding cake.

More Underwater Pictures

We saw the Nurse sharks in Warderick Wells, the Bahamas Land and Sea Park. They were in about 20 feet of water so you can see that they were a good size. I thought that this picture looked like a Mr. and Mrs. Nurse Shark snuggling under water. The other picture is of me snorkelling on the surface taken by Rob underwater showing some pretty soft corals in the foreground.

Snorkelling Highlights

Here are a few of our snorkelling pictures. Highlights were seeing the loggerhead turtle and the nurse sharks but we did see some wonderful fish and coral. The Bahamas is truly a diving paradise with beautiful clear water. I will post some more pictures in the blog at a later date.

Underwater Photos Developed

I couldn't resist putting this picture in the blog. We have just finished developing several underwater films and there are some good ones that I will share on the blog. This is the loggerhead turtle that we swam with at Warderick Wells, Exumas. The fish on its back is a kind of Remora called a Sharkfish. They attach themselves with a suction cup on their head to sharks, turtles and in our case, Celebrian's keel. They are hoping that their host is a messy eater and some of the food scraps are theirs for the taking. This turtle was one of my snorkelling highlights.

Rain Rain Go Away

Whoever thought that we would be saying this? Usually sailors are praying for fresh water and so were we....up until a point. Now we need to get our sails dry and put away and the rain just keeps on coming. We still hope to get into Abaco Yacht Services on Sunday morning and get our sails dried and put away. We will keep our fingers crossed. What a way to end the 2009 cruising season?!

The Captain and the Admiral

As this our second year of cruising comes to an end it is hard to believe that we have spent over 14 months living on board Celebrian. It is no wonder that we feel at home. Rob and I feel blessed to have this lifestyle and hope that we can enjoy many more years of honeymoon sailing.

A New Look

It is time that our sailing adventure had a blog. For those of you who wish to follow our exploits you can go to www.celebriansailing.blogspot.com and those of you who want to be on the automatic email alert list (10 only) you can email us at chris.53@hotmail.com and we will put the first ten respondents on the list.