August 23, 2013

It is a special day for us ....

Back in the summer of 1988 my uncle Heinz (Heinz - Joachim) came to visit us in Canada.  This was before the wall between Eastern and Western Germany came down.  It was still the time of the Cold War.

But he got permission to go to Canada to visit his nephew - me (H)!  But without his wife - Ursel!

But by shear determination and organization, he and his son (living in the West at that time) also managed to coordinate their arrival and stay with us.

We picked them up at the Mirabel airport and stayed in the airport hotel - which had a swimming pool set in a botanical garden.  We all had a swim at midnight!  A good way to start our celebration of coming together again after so many years.  He remembered that!

And then we went to Kingston.  Although we (M&H) had a very difficult time due to health issues, we took them around Kingston, Toronto and environs.

Whenever I talk to him, 2 events stayed with him until his last days.  He had been a teacher, and talking to an historian at the school across the river, this conversation stayed with him all his life.

The other one, was him of getting "lost" in the 1000 Islands at Endymion Island - just 50 yards away from the US border.  Different times then and now ....  But he made it back, worried, safely, but very exhausted.   But this memory never left him and propped up at every conversation we had over the phone since.

Here he arrives completely beat, and worried that he may have strayed in US waters.

Heinz, and if you would have!!! ... but he remembered this adventure all through his life.

He had his funeral on August 23, 2013.  Since we were not able to attend, we decided to move our boat on that date to the same place where this "incident" took place.  And in memory of him, we took our (new) dinghy around the island, the same way he had done and thought about our times together, and our past.

And upon our return to our ship we had a glass of red wine to his life.

Heinz, we will remember you as long as we live.  It was a pleasure being with you at that time, and your son, Jochen.

A few years later, my mother came to visit and we took her along the same route.

She did not row around the island as her brother did, but went into the water like a fish and could not be stopped.

And may I mentioned, I never got my hat back!!!!  I would need it now!  I have less hair!

Marleyne and I went back to see them both and Ursel a short while later when we were taking a break from our trip in the Caribbean.  We all had a nice afternoon.

Memories, by which we live by ...

H&M

Summer cruise 2013

Ha ha...ok, this picture has nothing to do with cruising....however, the heat was amazing during that 2nd week of July!  Well over 30C.  Instead of digging trenches in our backyard, the captain was dreaming of sailing on the lake and cooling off with a jump into the water!

Well ... We departed for our annual summer cruise around Lake Ontario one week later and then, the temperature changed...it felt like end of September! A stubborn and persistent high pressure system brought wonderful blue skies ... but cool weather!!!! To make a long story short, this 3 weeks cruise was the coolest ever since we have been sailing on the lake...the water temperatures dropped to 15C at times!!! In July!  We were supposed to have a full blown summer

On our to our beloved Waupoos; the wind was gorgeous, and it was a very harmonious trip...here is a picture of a Seaward 25 with a very nice American couple on board to whom Heiner strongly recommended to visit Waupoos and area. We could not resist taking this shot...

And they took ours ... we all had a slow but lovely sail.

We spent a couple of days in Waupoos, actually riding our bike for a 30 km stretch from the Waupoos marina to the South Bay Marine museum and back to the Cider estate ttp://www.countycider.com/waupoos.html ...it took a couple of hours to rest from that stint!!!!  It is a hilly country side! Luckily, it was rather cool that day and it made the trip a little more comfortable. We also had the pleasure of a visit of our friends Karen and Lindsay on board: it brought back good memories of their time on board when we were in the Caribbean!

We decided to go the inside route to Toronto and we enjoyed the trip to the Murray Canal. It was no problem to find a space at the wall for La Buena Vida ....Once again, we took our bikes and biked around the Presqu'ile Bay park and area. We had the luck of finding a road merchant selling fruits and veggies: we bought the biggest radishes ever from that place! With a cold beer, they were a delicious treat!

LA BUENA VIDA AT PRESQU'ILE 

The trip from Cobourg to Toronto, however, was a different story: we had a fast and really chilly sail with a strong north west wind...15 knots at first with gusts up to 25 and by the time we got close to Toronto, it was steady 30 with much higher gusts! Wow, we had not sailed with a triple reefed main plus reefed jib since the Caribbean! The trip of 56 miles took us just short of 11 hours!!!

We anchored on the outside of Ward's island ...it was Sunday August 5th and a long holiday weekend! The beaches were packed...and the water temperatures a tropical 17.6C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Monday, we made our way into the islands and enjoyed its natural peacefulness, despite many more boots moored there for the night...on Monday, they all left as they had to return to work!!! We stayed!

For Marleyne's birthday, her sister was to come from "far away" Montreal to spend a couple of days with us and celebrate Marleyne's birthday. We had fun, walked a lot, drank many gin and tonics and rum, and enjoyed Toronto and the islands.

One of the attractions in Toronto, apart from visiting museums and eating very well, was to go to the Greek Danforth festival.  The streets were packed with people, and food vendors lined the sidewalks. Unfortunately, there was only a bit of Greek music to entertain us, we had expected more.

In total, we had a fun visit.  However, after a stay of 7 days in the islands we prepared the boat and the day after Liette left back for Montreal, La Buena Vida made its way back east towards Kingston. This time, unfortunately, we had absolutely no wind and had to motor the 56 miles to Cobourg, our fist stop.  We had the same condition the next day going to Presqu'ile Bay; only after we had passed the Murray Canal the wind picked up and we could sail, via some nice stops, the rest of the way back to Kingston.  And finally, the temperatures (air and water) started to warm up and as I am writing this, it looks like it is going to be very hot soon ... we will have to go back sailing and trying to recapture our summer!!!!  100 Islands her we come!

At home, we had a delayed birthday party for Marleyne with Karen and Lindsay and a great time with them on their deck.