July 13, 2007 – Friday
It’s Friday the 13th – what might go wrong this day.
Departure from Brewers Mills was delayed by a surprise thunder shower but finally about 09:30 we got moving. The plan was loose, but to run for about 4 hours or so, and then stop for the day. We had heard that a place called Seeley’s Bay was a convenient stop for groceries, post office etc. so we decided to take care of the short list we had accumulated (RCB was out of coffee creamer). We found the nice town docks and got tied up and headed off to the store. We bought everything on the list, plus some bottled water and owner hauled us and our things 4 blocks back to the dock. He had owned a store near Toronto and Wal-Mart, Target etc came to town so he and his wife moved to Seeley’s Bay and bought the little store which had been there for nearly a hundred years. Good business strategy, I think – Seeley’s Bay won’t be on Wal-Mart’s radar anytime soon.
Remember “DJ” from Brewers Mills? After we loaded our supplies onto FLIGHT we decided to go back to the post office and as we reached the shore end of the dock, a man was walking toward us and I thought he looked very familiar. We don’t know too many Canadians, but I knew this one, it was “DJ”! Now pay attention – Mrs. “DJ” who we now know as Cindy, had an appointment with the chiropractor that morning, in Seeley’s Bay, and when she got home mentioned to DJ that there was a large trawler coming into the dock when she drove by. He had told her about meeting us the day before, so they began to speculate if her trawler could be the same one that was at Brewers. Luckily, DJ’s schedule wasn’t too full that morning so he decided to drive over and have a look. He was hoping to get the tour he didn’t take time for at Brewers. As we walked with him toward the boat he had a better idea – how about we go to his house to meet Cindy, have lunch and she could come back to see the boat as well. Our plan for the day was altered. Off we went crossing the wooden swing bridge at Brass Point that had opened for us to pass through an hour before, and on to the Battle’s water front home on Cranberry Lake (we also had boated through). He told us he lived at the end of the road and he does. We left the paved main road and onto the county maintained gravel road which led to the private un-paved road that serves a series of lake cottage homes. Eventually we came to a stone wall at the end of the road, and the Battle residence.
What a Shangri-La they have. Trees, water, wildlife and boats to sail, row or motor about in. DJ is interesting and has many interests – former British merchant mariner, boat builder, wood worker, stained glass artist to name a few. Oh yes, he has taken some flying lessons recently, too and is an avid computer aviator. Cindy matches him in spades. She is a gardener (fresh herbs to season the egg salad lunch), photographer (wild life pics as good as any in National Geographic, taken from her kitchen windows), plays the trumpet in an orchestra, and intarsia artist. She also edits DJ’s discussions for correctness, and she is prettier. We finally made it back to our boat about 3:00 PM for the tour and Polly and DJ exchanged gifts – we received a stained glass Buffle Head done by DJ and Polly gave the Battles one of her carved and painted ducks. Both items created by the respective artists in the same year. We plan to stay in contact with this wonderful couple and meeting them may possibly be the crown jewel of our Rideau cruise.
We decided to stay at Seeley’s Bay for the night. Total time underway for the day – 1.25 hours. Distance traveled by FLIGHT – 5 SM. So much for plans.
P.S. regarding the Battles:
As former live-aboard cruisers who traveled down & up the ICW, DJ and Cindy have asked us to let any of our cruising friends know that they would be most happy to hear from them and help them in any way when they come to the Rideau region. They want to repay all of the kindness they received from others when they were cruising. Their email address is yorvik@auracom.com